Warbird Information Exchange

Have a great trip Michel and be warned - watch out for cyclists in Central London and also beware the prices of drinks in pubs thereabouts - got fleeced £15 for a single G&T and a pint on High Holborn on Tuesday. I almost needed reviving... (I regularly buy a round of 8 pints in a South London Wetherspoons pub and pay less than £20)

Thank you Holigan!

From my limited experience in the UK. The most dangerous thing is looking in the ''other" direction when crossing the street Almost got killed once!!!!!

Michel, when you cross the street in England, be sure to listen to Batman's advice!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_awciO_uFdc

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

That was funny Chris

Michel,

When will we see some pictures?

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Kevin McCartney

I don't have too much to add to things that have already been suggested, but something that could be relatively easily squeezed in amongst the general London sightseeing are some of the aviation themed memorials. Green Park has the impressive Bomber Command Memorial, and the Victoria Embankment at Westminster has the Battle of Britain Memorial near the Westminster pier (where the tourists take sightseeing boat trips from), and just a little further on there is the Air Forces Memorial (a tall column with gold eagle on top). In the gardens the opposite side, there are some statues of military personalities, including Sir Charles Portal. All of these are a few minutes walk for Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey etc, so even if those with you want to do Central London, there are still some aviation things to see.

Edited to add: if you're on the Embankment side near the above mentioned things, you also get the advantage of a good view of the London Eye on the opposite bank, and it's possible to walk alongside the river for a mile or two and see things like the Millennium Bridge, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London etc, or you can do the same route via the boat from the aforementioned Westminster Pier.

Back

I had a ball!

Only did Hendon.....spent more time with my kids instead......that was overdue.

But WHAT a visit and quite a few surprises. Landed there at 10AM when it opened and stayed until 4PM.

Some of the highlights:
- The WW1 hanger at hangar 2
- Quite a few newly moved AC from Cosford like the Ki-100
- An amazing pieces of wreckage. Took me a minute to figure it out. Find it and name it
- The staff!!!! Wow
- The Stranraer

There was a lot of shuffling going around but I cannot say how impressed I was with seeing all these AC (I think over 100+ airframes total)

Plus London.....wow....Did the Uber boat on the Thames and loved the fact that it was off season. Saw the 2 memorials; the one in Green park is really impressive. Must have walked over 50Km in 3 day!

So here is the question. I have over 550 pictures of Hendon. How would you like me to share them? Single shot? Simple link to the album? Any specific AC request?

Cheers and thank you again for the reccomendation. Next trip will be for dad alone with a LOT more to see.

BTW. Small local pubs are a blast for a great evening.

Ooops, looks like I'm on my second pint already! Glad you had a great time Michel!

Will post some pics today in separate threads!

Best to upload them all to Flickr and then share some here in the thread.

Here you go!

The full album has over 550 pictures!

https://ibb.co/album/YBPDcn

Thanks for the marvelous pictures. They have done a great job with their collection.

Before I went I had no idea that I would be able to walk through the Sutherland. Fantastic.

That's what I meant by Thames Clippers but I didn't know who their current sponsors were.

When we went, 11 years ago almost to the day, KPMG were the sponsors.

I gather that no other country's got anything quite like a British pub.

Can you identify the several aircraft that are obviously wreckoveries?

Also, can you ID the the early pre-WWI monoplane?

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Kevin McCartney