More Thoughts on the Camden Vengeance.
(May be of particular interest to inter alia: mmich, Chugalug, Kookabat, dogle and Three Wire. Greetings !)
Our faithful readership will recall (perhaps with some exasperation) the way in which this museum piece hogged almost all the page 132 of this thread, and now are well content that no more need be said about it. However, Chugalug (in #2641 p.133) incautiously said "we await Danny's verdict" - so that lets me in again! Danny has been giving it some thought, and now concludes as follows:
During the discussion with savimosh01 over the strange case of Reg Duncan's mistakenly reported death, I dug out my old copy of Peter Smith's "Vengeance" to find Red McInnis's account of it. But before putting it away, I recalled that, at the very end, the book has a drawing of a VV cockpit. Years ago, when I first looked at this, it was so different from any VV cockpit I knew, that I immediately thought "must be a Mk. IV", and lost interest in it.
Now I recognise it at once - it is an exact drawing of the Camden cockpit -down to the second "ball" in the D.I. (why?), the weird off-centre jury-rigged gunsight ring and the clearly original-fit projector for a reflector sight, which shines up through a hole in the bottom of the panel.
Came the dawn! If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Why needed I to invent a tortuous explanation (my #2638 p.132) to account for a Mk. IV canopy c/w .50 gun on a Mk. 1 ? The thing is a Mk. IV.
My reading of the story is this: they had the history and paperwork for Mk. I EZ999. That poor old thing (after years of being knocked about as an instructional specimen at technical schools and the like) was past repair. But they found this decent Mk. IV. Somewhere along the line, its D.I. had got nicked - the one they found to fit the space had a ball in, which is why there are two of them now. (Chugalug, remember the Daniels "Stearman panel"?) Our aircraft was (and is) an early Mk. IV with a four-gun wing; all VVs look alike, spray it up, paint on EZ999 - et voilą ! - a Mk. 1.
I do not for one moment censure the Museum Directors. I congratulate them. I am only too glad that one (of whatever ilk) still exists, I can look at it, and it takes me back in a way no photo can. This lives , their detailed photos are wondeful. Who cares if it's not a Mk. 1? Nobody now.
Kookabat, if you're ever up that way again, ask if the engine number matches the paperwork. If it does, I'd be very surprised. Don't try to run it, tell 'em - every so often, just take plugs out, spray teaspoonful of penetrating oil in each pot, and "walk" prop. It's built to last for ever !
Goodnight, all,
Danny42C
Last edited by Danny42C; 20th Jul 2015 at 18:10.
Reason: Fix spacing and tidy up.