XX549 'Old Faithful'
I had the fortune to be allocated XX549 for my entire tour at MASUAS from Sep1976 - Apr1980 and proud to have my name painted on her engine cowling. 549 was said to be not as fast as 614,615,616 & 617 and as Rod Newman has said, was used extensively as the photo ship for the four consecutively numbered machines during some excellent formation shots of the Lakes. Each machine had its own quirks, on 549 you could never close the canopy in the air, unless the speed was reduced considerably below the 120Kt limit, nearer to 110 kts from memory, Just grateful to hear that she is still going strong and maybe pay a visit to W-W. She never missed a beat, hence my reference to old faithful
Thank you for looking after this grand old lady.