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SILLY SIGNS. . . . .LET'S START A THREAD ?


Phil Perry

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There are plenty of planespotters around. Most viewing areas, and nearby roadsides have plenty of people, even on weekdays. Some viewing spots even have donut/icecream vans. There are a number of spotting websites featuring Melbourne, with maps, sample photos, best times, etc. https://www.planespotters.net/Aviation_Photos/search.php?airport=Melbourne+-+Tullamarine+(MEL_YMML) even has a very large photo gallery, with pages and pages of photos. Just Google Melbourne planespotters.

Ah yes,. . .the commercial RPT spotters,. . . the ones to whom I refer are a different breed altogether.

 

I allowed one of them into my hangar whilst I was doing some maintenance work on the trike unit, he was very polite, a member of various organisation inlcuding the LAA, BMAA, and some sort of rego spotters society. The bloke took one look at my Reg and said that he was sure he had already got that one, . . he went back to his car and came back with a load of notebooks. He found it after searching for a few minutes whilst I got on with my work. He told me he'd seen the plane at Lands End airfield, in 1988, times, dates etc.

 

I bought it in 1991. He had a file on the aircraft, engine and wing serial numbers, also owner's details at that time, and topped of by three photographs. His information concurred with what I remembered.

 

I asked him if he had the number of the aluminium billet which Bombardier Rotax division had used to make the engine casing and cylinderheads (!) this was meant as a joke but he said he didn't know how to get that info . . ! ! ! He also had a very expensive radio scanner and several books on frequencies.

 

These people research to an almost molecular level . . . possibly a a little more than dad and Son standing at the airport fence. . . I was sort of impressed and nonplussed at the same time, that anyone would want to obtain as much detail as that. So Frank mate, on the off chance that you look at forums, Thank you for the history lesson about my aircraft.

 

Reggie spotting is obviously not an international thing, as a few years ago, a bunch of them were arrested and jailed as spies when they were caught near a Greek Civil / Military shared airfield. At their trial, the judge refused to accept that such a hobby existed and they were banged up for a few months ! !! It took a represtentation from the UK government to get them freed.

 

 

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