Coff,
Thanks for that update. Good to hear that this is one of the Chippys still flying. Like others, fond memories of the type from ATC days.
Regarding Blaireau's mystery "WL540". Air-Britain's book 'Fleet Air Arm Fixed-wing Aircraft Since 1946' has a listing/history of all the Chipmunks that were transferred to the FAA. There were 19 in all. As you pointed out earlier, WL540 was a Vampire FB9 serial. Further, the serial WK540 does not feature in that listing and there is no mention of a cowling number "540" being allocated to a Chipmunk.
In another Air-Britain publication, 'The Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm', there is a listing of code numbers allocated to aircraft of different FAA units from 1965 onwards. This listing shows that "540" would have been in a series (540 - 552) allocated to the Hiller HT2s of 705 NAS at Culdrose during the period 1965 - 1975.
I am still puzzling over where the serial WK540 came from. The serial block WK506 - WK643 was allocated to Chipmunk T10s. However, all the references that I have so far seen show a gap in serials between WK523 and WK547. I can find no record of WK540 being allocated.
Regards,
Laurie.
Last edited by lauriebe; 12th Jul 2012 at 02:20.