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DUXFORD
GALLERY
News Items
ARCo/HFL Warbirds on Display - 24th April 2010
With the Spitfire Society holding their AGM at Duxford, John Romain had invited the Society members to a visit to the Aircraft Restoration Company/Historic Flying Limited engineering facility before and after their meeting. Parked on the grass outside were Spitfire Ltd’s MkLFIXe PL344/TL-B and MkXVI TD248/CR-S, which did not fly during the day. Historic Aircraft Collection’s Spitfire Mk Vb BM597/JH-C and Hurricane XIIa Z5140/HA-C and ARCo/HFLs Spitfire TrIX and recently repainted Hispano HA-1112 MIL (Buchon) along with their Boeing Stearman and Harvard lV/1747/’Taz’. Just before lunchtime JR took off in the LFIXe for a solo aerobatics display.
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During the afternoon there were some excellent flying displays with Cliff Spink in the LFIXe being the first up. Rod Dean in the TrIX and then Dave Harvey in the HAC Hurricane followed. During this period, Maurice Hammond arrived in his T-6D Harvard 'Fools Rush In', and after a short visit, departed. Then with John Romain in the Buchon, the TrIX and LFIXe went up for some formation flying that developed into a tail-chase. After the Society had finished their meeting, they were back in the compound and the TrIX was airborne again with a Spitfire veteran on board. It rendezvous and flew around with G-BMFD, a twin engined Piper PA-23 that had arrived at lunch time, which was being used as a camera ship.
The HAC Spitfire and Hurricane then departed and joined up with G-BMFD as they headed south for North Weald and the ‘Gathering of Veterans’ meeting that was taking place on the Sunday. Just before 17.00, the Buchon, TrIX and LFIXe fired up their Merlin's again which was followed by a scramble type take off and a low, fast, three ship beat-up of the airfield before they all turned south for North Weald.
The only down side to a very enjoyable Saturday at Duxford was the high cloud that diffused the sunlight and the haze didn’t make for good lighting conditions, photography wise.
Duxford Bonus Day - 17th April 2010
Despite UK airspace being closed to heavy aircraft due to volcanic ash drifting in from Iceland, over 120 GA and assorted light aircraft converged on Cambridgeshire for a Safety Bonus Day hosted by the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. Landing and entrance fees to the airfield and museum were waived for the visiting pilots. The Safety Day was a mixture of presentations like Collision Avoidance and Avoiding Controlled Airspace Infringements and table-top sessions where visiting aircrew could ask questions or obtain information or just have an informal chat with representatives from the CAA, NATS and the AOPA to name just a few.
By early afternoon the 100 figure had been passed for aircraft arriving and they were still flying in. Wall to wall sunshine, minimal wind, and lack of competition for airspace from airliners probably making the flying more enjoyable. Aircraft were parked 3 deep on the eastern hard standing down by the M11 and all along the grass by the taxiway virtually from one end of the runway to the other. The DAS volunteers doing an excellent job of slotting aircraft in and out of, which at times, was a very busy environment.
In amongst the arrivals and departures, a Duxford resident in the shape of Plane Sailing’s Catalina took off in the morning for a shake down flight following its winter maintenance. It arrived back about an hour later for some display flying and rollers both on the hard and grass runways. It went up again later in the afternoon for a bit more flying.
Buchon Breaks Cover - 9th April 2010
Following an extensive restoration to flying condition by the Real Aeroplane Company at Breighton, Hispano HA-1112-M1L 'Buchon' (G-BWUE) made its first post restoration flight in the very capable hands of Nigel Lamb of the Old flying Machine Company on the afternoon of the 19th May 2006. The camouflage and markings were those of 'Red 1' a Bf 109G-2/trop as flown by Hauptmann Werner Schroer based on the Greek island of Rhodes in early 1943. With its return to Duxford, it was originally operated by the OFMC and based at Duxford from 1996 to 1998, it continued to fly in those colours for its new operators, Spitfire Ltd. In November 2009, the Buchon changed hands again with ownership passing to Historic Flying Ltd at Duxford.
With the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain taking place in 2010, the new owner took the bold decision of having the Buchon repainted in the colour scheme it wore in 1968 during the making of the film 'The Battle of Britain'. In November 2009, the transformation started in 3 hangar with the Buchon having its panels removed and then transported to the ARCo/HFL compound for stripping down and repainting in its new colour scheme
supervised by Colin Pope, who did all the research for the new scheme, and the ARCo/HFL team of engineers and restorers.
Although tantalising glimpses of G-BWUE had been seen outside in the later part of May, it wasn't until the afternoon of the 9th April 2010, that 'Yellow 10/C.4K-102' emerged into the hazy sunshine of a late Friday afternoon as it was transferred from the ARCo/HFL compound to their storage area in Hangar 2.
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