Duxford March Bimbles ~ *UPDATE 7~31Mar16*

[Pen Pusher]

A quiet day at Duxford apart from the vans and cars arriving outside AirSpace as the Quilt Show hits town, Friday to Mothering Sunday, and a constant stream of cement mixer wagons heading down to ARCo as they were laying the floor to the Lancaster Hangar. The Red Bull Matadors flew in first thing and then late morning took off and returned a short while later for a bit of aerobatics over the airfield. Among the GA arrivals was the Boultbee Chipmunk and I believe the crew may have been going flying later in the ARCo two seater Spitfire.













Brian

[ForkTailedDevil]

Interesting set as always!

Do you know if anything "special" will be happening this Friday 11th as I was thinking of driving up to visit?

[capercaillie]

Is the Lynx for the museum?

[Pen Pusher]

The Lynx has been at Duxford since 2013

http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and ... /art433212

Brian

[Pen Pusher]

Do you know if anything "special" will be happening this Friday 11th as I was thinking of driving up to visit?

Not that I know of. Hit and miss as to anything flying.

Brian

[capercaillie]

The Lynx has been at Duxford since 2013

http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and ... /art433212

Brian

Excellent, as you can tell I haven't

[Pen Pusher]

Another very wind chill cold day at Duxford although it did seem to warm up a bit when the clouds rolled in. Outside the American Air Museum, near where the German Würzburg radar dish used to sit, a bronze sculpture of an American Air Force Honor Guard is being installed and is a copy of the USAF Honor Guard Memorial at Arlington, Virginia. Should look nice in the summer against the green leaves of the trees behind. A few war birds did venture out into the sunshine but mainly due to hangar moves and the Classic Wings Harvard/Wacky Wabbit was doing circuits when I left.













Brian

[Pen Pusher]

The Visitors Centre/Shop is open again after its refurbishment and it may be an optical illusion but it's the same size as before but had a few walls added and seems bigger inside. On site there was a Smash & Grab team dismantling an Apache helicopter/ZJ230 outside the Classic Wings office. Apparently it didn't want to fly home and was being trucked back to Wattisham. It was still there when I left and had a rope crowd barrier around it so could still be there tomorrow. Duxford based Chipmunk/WK522 was out doing circuits as was Harvard/'Wacky Wabbit'. Highlight of the day was the first engine run of the French Sea Fury. It was tied down on the ORP at the 06 end of the runway and had a couple of low rev engine runs.













Brian

[Pen Pusher]

The morning mist sort of lifted by the afternoon but hung around making it far from ideal for photography. Didn't stop a couple of war birds coming out to play. Harvard/'Wacky Wabbit' was flying around doing figure of eights over the air field pulling up with wing overs at each end and making lots of noise which kept the Saturday visitors enthralled. The French Sea Fury went for another tie down run this time with a bit of power applied. Should be flying tomorrow (Sunday) and if all's well heading back to France. I wont be there to see it though.













Brian

[helired3]

French Sea Fury did fly this afternoon several circuits of the field followed by a pass down the runway with a wing wave landed then towed away to the hanger.

[Airwolfhound]

Certainly did, and I have some nice shots that will go up shortly on a different thread

[Pen Pusher]

When I got to Duxford this morning, there were a few visitors snapping away with their camera phones at an articulated lorry in the car park. Strange thought I. Even more strange when when I saw that Homer Simpson had been the inspiration for the cab design. Love the rotating wind screen wipers. The Sea Fury was already flying and was up for about 50 minutes doing low and high powered circuits above the airfield. After it had refueled, it left after its extended stay at Duxford in company with its support aircraft. Harvard 'Taz' was doing circuits along with Duxford based Chipmunk/WK522 and outside the Land Warfare Museum, contractors were installing supports to support a section of World War II D-Day Mulberry harbour roadway that was recovered from Gold beach in the late 50's.













Brian

[Pen Pusher]

Preparations were well under way for the opening of the American Air Museum. A crowd barrier has been erected across the top half of the site as the AAM and Land Warfare Hall are not open to the public until the weekend. It stopped me from getting to the Tank Bank as The Fighter Collection Hawk 75 was doing engine runs on the tie down. The western parking area has been cleared of the GA aircraft that were parked there, moved to the Jet Pan, and a pair of Harvard's were parked on the grass opposite the AAM presumably for the Press Day. Official VIP opening is tomorrow Thursday and open to the public on Saturday. Good news for the Victor as starting next month it's to be dismantled in AirSpace and moved to hangar 5 for a 3 to 5 years restoration. Harvard 'Taz' was doing circuits and Chipmunk WB569 was flying around as well.













Brian

[Pen Pusher]

With the public opening of the refurbished American Air Museum, it was probably not the best time to visit as the place was crowded. First impression, I was quite impressed. The emphasis has moved away from the large objects (aircraft) to a more human orientated exhibition with lots of extra displays about the Americans who fought in the various conflicts over the years with the aircraft tying in to the exhibits. Photography wise there were to many visitors about to get any decent shots of the ground exhibits and the hanging large objects were a bit of a challenge as there was natural light coming in from the front wall and artificial light all the way around the inside. When the initial interest dies down, I'll be back to have a good wander around. Photos in the order they were taken.

























Sony Alpha A6000 Compact Systems Camera + Tamron 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 Di-III VC Lens ~ Manual Settings

Brian

[MRTT]

Nice shots as always Brian, AAM looks good!

[Daz]

No F-100 in the AAM? Has she gone back to the stateside already?

[Pen Pusher]

Not been to Duxford for well over a week, struck down with man flu well a cough and a sore throat that turned rather nasty, but along with the T.33, the F-100 is/was in hangar 5 awaiting to be containerised.



Brian

[Pen Pusher]

Nice to get out and about in the sunshine again the only down side being was that when anything interesting was flying, the clouds rolled in. A busy day with visitors and aircraft. A surprise visitor was the arrival of P-51D/'Miss HELEN' which parked up on the grass down at ARCo. TFC had Spitfire Mk.Ia/P7308 out on the airfield for a couple of low rev engine runs. Duxford heliport was open again when a Schweizer 269 C-1 dropped in for an hour or so and a Qatar registered Eurocopter EC155B1 was doing circuits before the crew stopped off for a tea break. Outside the Land Warfare Museum, the Mulberry Harbour Roadway had been lowered onto its supports.













Brian

[MRTT]

Nice set of shots as ever Brian, great to see Miss Helen back up again!

[Dan Gleebitz]

Would have been nice to see the roof of the American Museum painted light blue with fluffy clouds ... just sayin'