When we were both QFI-ing at RAF Abingdon, I helped Bradders to launch the beast a couple of times when it was based at Wroughton - magnificent! It is certainly the best maintained Fury there is and is a labour of love for John. It is actually an 'Iraqi Single Seat' Hawker Fury, not a 'Sea Fury'.
To keep The Law happy when it first arrived in the UK and we took it from Southmapton Docks to Eastleigh along the main road with the wings removed, I was asked to sit in the a/c as brakeman. I couldn't resist winding back the canopy as we went round one roundabout to ask a passer-by "Are we going the right way to the airport...?"
Some dimwitted gun-toting redneck had taken a pot shot at the Fury when it was in store in the USA before being shipped over to Britain as we were at war with Iraq and he took offence to the "Goddam Eye-Raqi airplane"; the .45 cal bullet hole was still there through the left wing when it arrived in England! Fortunately nothing serious had been hit and John soon repaired the damage.
My logbook of the time has a piccie of N36SF ('Harry' as Bradders calls him) with the following entry:
29 Sep 91, Fury ISS, N36SF, Self, S'oton Docks to Eastleigh 0545Z - 0710Z, road tow, average ground speed 3.9 Kts!
Last edited by BEagle; 3rd Apr 2005 at 09:53.