A GREAT DAY (...ISH)

Lovely to see so many people at Newquay yesterday when we ran our mini air show to round off a great season. Jon Corley put on a series of magnificent displays and the planes seemed to have a great time - the Meteor and Vampire were certainly whistling happily!

I'd have enjoyed the day even more if I hadn't managed to trip over the apron gate rails and faceplant the tarmac. It all seemed to go depressingly smoothly though while I was being glued back together (literally) at Newquay MIU.

(Superb photo by Kyle Greet)

Back in the Hot Seat

It was a powerful moment on Wednesday when Meteor veteran Hal Taylor was reunited with the very aircraft in which he trained student pilots sixty years ago.

The occasion was somewhat special: Hal headed up the Meteor Flight, the dedicated group who rescued our Meteor T7 from extinction. They persisted against massively mounting expenses and even somehow found the spirit to continue when their founder, Colin Rhodes, was tragically killed while working on the aircraft. When it seemed impossible to complete the project, Mike Collett stepped up with funding and resources from Air Atlantique.

The result is one of the most stunning full restorations of recent years. At time of writing this  ...More >

Two gold members enjoy flight of a lifetime

Two gold members - Rob Rennie and Doug Johns enjoyed the flight of a lifetime, at the weekend. They both flew into Newquay from Farnborough in our Meteor T7 and Vampire jets.

Doug had previously  served in 208 squadron - where he first piloted the Meteor fifty seven years ago. After landing - having had the usual celebrity photo shoot with Jon Corley and Dan Griffiths, Doug described the flight quite elegantly as “superb – it’s flying as it should be”

Our other gold member was Rob Rennie. This was Robs first flight in this type of jet. “A fantastic experience” was how Rob described the event. After some great photos Rob and Doug  ...More >

Meteor vs Tempest

A friend just sent me this link and I felt it should be shared with my fellow anoraksics. Be prepared to waste an awful lot of time reading it. It's a CFE report from 1946, comparing the relative fighter performance of the Meteor with the Tempest V. Most definitely not a clear-cut conclusion, and in a low speed-low altitude encounter, my money would be on the one with a propeller. Suddenly Hoagy Carmichael downing a MiG 15 from his Hawker Fury makes a lot more sense.

You're going to love  ...More >

Fantastic memories and stories of a true legend

Every now and then, we get to meet some pretty special people here at Classic Air Force. Today was one of those days.

We had the absolute pleasure of meeting Lt Cdr Peter Sheppard AFC and some of his family, Eric and Karl. What an interesting conversation and what inspirational people I have just met.

To write down what Peter has done throughout his aviation career would take a couple of best sellers. BUT

He has piloted our very own Hunter - the very aircraft -(photo attached)
...piloted half of our museum, and...

• Suffered  ...More >