Originally Posted by
Bigpants
Thought there was one flying from Cranfield in the 1980s?
A wild and woolly scotsman called Sandy Topin kept a shed - well, a big canvas hangar - full of Venoms, Vampires and bits thereof plus many more scattered around the surrounding grass. There were few flyers they all disappeared in time. Cranfield management saw them as an eyesore. It wasn't a very edifying sight. There were literally containers and tons and tons of parts, components and DH junk lying around everywhere. One vampire certainly flew at airshows from time to time about then, flown by a wonderful character who was an instructor at a prestigious nearby flying training establishment and had told Topin he was ex RAF and had time on them (he was nowhere near old enough and had never been anywhere near the military). Apparently for someone who'd not flown anything more powerful than a light piston twin he did a pretty good job of it - all from reading the pilot's notes!
Bless him, he knew how to find the blue note on his Sax too.