A lot of chat here about Whirlwind XR453. I was at Odiham when it returned from Shawbury to become the gate guardian. It was still in Training Command colours of red, white and grey and in pristine condition. It still had some fuel in the tanks and fluid in the windcreen washer system (I tried it).
We reckoned if we could get a battery for it we could start it. TG, the Stn Cdr, specifically forbade us from doing so.
But it almost never got to Odiham and neither did I!
Ham E. and myself were flying XR453 on 27th April 1979 and we got involved with a search for a missing light aircraft in North Shropshire, after a pilot had made a Mayday call. We were about to RV with the SAR Wessex coming from Valley to take over from us and as the viz wasn't brilliant I switched on the searchlight to help him see us in the haze layer. As soon as I did that, a Jaguar appeared very close in front, head on and climbing right at us. He immediately rolled right and pulled and we avoided each other by a very small margin. Not only did we hear his engines, but we smelled his exhaust fumes as we couldn't avoid his downwash. The Jag pilot was using Shawbury/Ternhill (rotary wing only) LFA on an ad-hoc and unauthorised basis and I believe he got a rocket for doing so. We later got an apology from the Jag pilot who said that he hadn't seen us until I put the searchlight on.