Thanks for the URL - I'd mislaid it. It's a pity the site isn't particularly fresh...
OK, I invited gossip and comment re: Thorp groups - here's some I've collected. (This is hearsay and anecdote - advance apologies if I've got summat wrong, I'm simply passing on what I've heard and if I hear different I'll happily pass that on too).
The aircraft I'm hoping to get involved with is the one that was at White Waltham. The group at WW has collapsed in acrimony I believe, because the a/c suffered a shock loaded engine and damaged prop tips - and the responsible individual cannot be identified ?!?!?!
I find this so hard to understand.
Apparently it's one of 2 possible members and neither will admit it (the £750 insurance excess may be the root of this).
How there can be no documentary trail defeats me - or is somebody claiming that they missed damaged prop tips before flying it?
The T211 has a very fragile nose-wheel. Apparently, so fragile that the Liverpool group now never land with any flap - this is to ensure a nose-up attitude on final, and to ensure that the elevator has enough effect to get the nose skywards during the flare.
Visibility during final ain't a problem - the Liverpool member who showed me the plane took particular trouble to get me acquainted with the cowling picture during the climb because you can still see so many fields with climb attitude set (there was a strong tendency for this Cessna jockey to set more nose up and then watch the speed decay rapidly).
Steve R