Duxford Diary 2012

[The Freshest]

Presumably Pete Kynsey will be taking Snafu for its first test flight, we can only hope it will be soon!

[ZRX61]

I notice from the TFC video that Pete Kinsey has been green tagged.... that's a good sign

[Pen Pusher]

Spitfire Tr.9 G-CCCA/QV-I flying around Wyton at the moment and on second approach. Very nice

Brian

[Moggy C]

As an aside - and only a little thread drift, we visited the newly refurbed Red Lion at Whittlesford last week.

They have done great things with it. The old patio is now an enclosed atrium, all polished light wood and airy, then the bar is largely unchanged, except that new kitchens have appeared opposite to where they were.

Finally the old part, near the fireplaces is completely unaltered, retaining all its WW2/1950s character.

And I did notice there is still a Road-kill Platter hidden on the revised menu. Whether it comes on the steel hubcap as in the past I did not find out.

Moggy

[David Burke]

Moggy -is the beer any good!

[Easyrider5258]

Hi,

A question for DCW (David Whitworth)

I always enjoy your updates from Duxford and while looking at a few of your older ones on your flickr photostream, I noticed that you sometimes use a Plustec 7500 scanner, I,m looking to get one these and wondered how you get on with it, I,ll be using Win7 and have read of glitches with the software, (Silverfast) would you recommend this scanner?

Posted rather than pm so others may benefit.

Regards, Mark

[DCW]

Weather reports, restaurant reviews, and now product analysis ! Next week we will have fashion tips (what to wear at Legends), and an in-depth photo review of the women's beach volleyball season....

I'm probably the last person to give technical advice on anything, but here goes. I have had the Plustek 7500i for 3 years, and am still failing to get consistent results. If I start with the best quality slide or neg, I can get a decent result after several tries and a lot of image manipulation. Anything other than a perfect slide is always going to give disappointment. My intention to digitise my entire slide collection has long been abandoned. The Silverfast software seems OK, but I have no experience of Photoshop to make any comparison. I would advise you to find someone who has more experience with scanners than me. You may have noticed my avatar is Wile E. Coyote, we are both constantly let down by technology.

However, here are some recent scans of Duxford warbirds, about the best I can achieve. All were scanned at high resolution and lack contrast and fine detail, but they are worth keeping:

Sea Fury T.20 WG655 at North Weald 30-6-84 (Destroyed 14-7-90 and rebuilt as NX20MD):



F8F-2P Bearcat N700H at Mildenhall 29-5-82 (Later NX700HL and now G-RUMM):



P-47D N47DD at Mildenhall 24-5-86 (Later G-THUN and now N147PF):



CAC-18 Mustang 22 G-HAEC at Lakenheath 27-8-88 in 'Empire Of The Sun' marks (To D-FBBD and W/O Duxford 10-7-11):

[Robbo]

David, if you're not happy with Silverfast, you can try the trial version of Vuescan http://www.hamrick.com/, it has a good reputation.

[Easyrider5258]

Hello David

Thanks for the examples, they are not bad at all, Slides I assume? Are you using Windows 7 or XP or Vista?
I have used a Nikon Coolscan V and the quality appears similar, but of course the Nikon is very expensive even 2nd hand

Thanks again for your response

Mark

[Moggy C]

Moggy -is the beer any good!

The Broadside was excellent. Not perfect, but certainly not badly kept.

They have some Lagers for the ladies too.

Moggy

[Howard500]

http://www.iwm.org.uk/events/the-jubilee-air-show

New acts added to the line up

[DCW]

Duxford Wednesday March 28th:

Hurricane I G-HUPW/R4118 departed to Coningsby this morning after some static film work:





Only other activity this morning was a sortie from Harvard G-BGPB/1747:



Snafu got her wheels off the ground today:



Some work underway on Nimrod II G-BURZ/K3661:



Otherwise I got a close look at the Zero 3685 which is back in Hangar 5 for cleaning and assessment. Shot down, bombed, abandoned in the jungle and vandalised, it is obviously too far gone for a rebuild, but may be stabilised for display eventually:

[8674planes]

Nice to see Snafu geting it's wheels of the ground hopefully not for the only time this year. Wonder why the Hurri was going to Coningsby? meeting up with BBMF maby? It's nice to see some attention to the Zero.

[ozplane]

I never did understand why the Zero ended up at Duxford. It didn't seem to be a natural "fit" for Duxford. Was it bound for Lambeth at some stage perhaps?

[Dobbins]

I never did understand why the Zero ended up at Duxford. It didn't seem to be a natural "fit" for Duxford. Was it bound for Lambeth at some stage perhaps?

Lambeth has its own Zero cockpit section doesn't it?

Maybe they should hang it in the AAM 'chasing' the Avenger...

[Howard500]

We had PV202 at Sywell today when she departed her wheel was not up properly can anyone tell if she landed back at Duxford safely?

[The Blue Max]

Spoke with Cliff on the radio as he departed to report the stuck Port gear, he replied that it did that now and again and that it had now gone fully up! He didnt seem unduly worried

[Howard500]

Ok cheer Blue Max thanks for the info

[Bruce]

It's a common Spitfire issue. Reselecting gear up will usually sort it.

[Howard500]

Well I have mostly learned somthing today

[DCW]

Duxford Friday March 30th:

Nothing much to report from this morning, although a taxy test from the HAC Hurricane G-HURI/Z5140 suggests she will be back on line soon. Looks like she picked up some bullet holes recently:



Buchon 'Yellow 10' is lacking a significant part at the moment:



Only visitor of note, Chipmunk G-BCGC/WP903 from Henlow:



Edit: Now the poster has been revealed by TFC, here's one I sneaked earlier:

[jimbob1194]

Was a very quiet day indeed. The visiting Chippy did some spirited circuit bashing though.

James

[taylorman]

Interesting colour on that chipmunk, but it looks quite good

[ozplane]

Doesn't it represent the one Prince Philip (or Charles) learnt on?

[David Burke]

It is the Chipmunk he learnt to fly on !

[ozplane]

Philip or Charles?

[DCW]

Prince Charles: First solo WP903 Bassingbourn 14-1-69

[ozplane]

Thanks for that. It's not gone far from home as I think it now flies out of Henlow.

[D.B.]

Yes it is the one that Charles learnt to fly on. There is some really nice newsreel on the internet of him having a lesson in it. I'm not sure if i am allowed to say the name but they used to make cinema news and had a big chicken at the start of the feature. My understanding was that Charles was flying her sometime well before 1969, but i stand to be corrected.
I flew in from Henlow to get re-current on the Rapide, and took the opportunity to practice my hard runway landings. I prefer to keep them nice and tight if traffic allows but i hope they weren't thought of as being too "spirited"?! If you see me getting out of her please feel free to introduce yourself and if i'm not in a mad dash, and you're interested i will be happy to show you around the old girl!

[Wyvernfan]

I was driving home in Duxford D.B, and it was the striking livery of your aircraft and manner of your circuits that made me take note of 'another Chippie'. Its a very distinctive colour scheme, and i like it.!