(R)IAT? Yes, I have a story...
In the late 80s, as the proud owner of a shiny new ATPL(H), I had just started an instructional tour at Wallop. At that year's Open Day I met a very interesting TP/A2 QHI who'd just spent 4 years fixing up a Bell 205/UH1H that used to belong to the Argentines. He'd operated it around the FI for a short while after the Argentines capitulated - they'd abandoned it and all its paperwork on the racecourse at Stanley along with several others which were later merely vandalised. This fella had then, in the face of massive obstruction from his parent service, managed to have the Huey brought back to the UK. When his lords and masters found out what he'd done they immediately decided to ship it to one of the ranges as a target, but he persevered and set about restoring/maintaining it to display flying condition. The whole story is probably worthy of a book one day...
Anyway, part of the arrangement he put together for ensuring that the aircraft had a future was that the RAF agreed a transfer of ownership for a nominal sum (one pound, I think) to the Benevolent Fund. The subsidiary of the BF responsible for organising air shows - IAT - became the management agency.
For 3 years or so all was rosy. I was single with plenty of free weekends, had time on the 205, the pilot who'd done all the work was threatened with divorce or worse if he continued to spend all his spare time (and money?) on the beast so by sheer good fortune I became part of the display crew. Great fun at the airshows, even more fun at the steam fairs/ garden fetes/ open-air museums we flew to most summer weekends. The aircraft made an appearance in a James Bond film, and generally did tons to keep the RAF and IAT in the public eye.
So what happened next? Well, I don't know all the details, but it would appear that the management of IAT grew tired of the beastie. Balance sheets were drawn up which showed it to be a drain on resources. I'm partisan, so I can't be totally relied upon for a dispassionate view. However, I believed the bloke who'd done all the real work when he pointed out that it could still, with the available sponsorship, be used to bring in an income to the RAF BF.
One summer's day we took the aircraft to Farnborough - unusual tasking, as we weren't normally used for trade do's like SBAC. After putting the aircraft to bed the IAT management team approached the TP and asked to speak to him, alone, about the Huey. It turned out that the decision had been made, without consulting the bloke who'd effectively given all his spare time for 7 years to the project, to sell the aircraft. It was put up for auction; I don't know all the details, but I believe an offer was accepted which then fell through. When the TP tried to appeal to the hierarchy, he was interviewed without coffee and left in no doubt whatsoever that his efforts were unwelcome and in vain. He left the RAF.
I don't know where G-HUEY is now - she had an unceremonious part as a prop in a dreadful Wimminz anti-Vietnam (20 years after the war was over!) TV 'drama' and was later to be seen at, I believe, Thruxton mouldering sadly away. All the goodwill, all the free help from as far afield as Odiham, Jordan and Oman with free parts, all the good publicity with one of the few flying display aircraft with a real history - all thrown away on a management whim.
IAT? Wouldn't touch 'em. You won't see me at one of their rip-off displays. Not that I'd be missed any more than one of their more useful assets...
NB - All opinions expressed above are entirely Thud's; I've not consulted the TP or anyone else, and relied entirely on my own dodgy memory to put this tirade together. If anyone knows the facts better, please post them here.