Threat to the Shuttleworth Collection
 

I am sorry to report that the Shuttleworth Collection has received two anonymous letters demanding that model flying is stopped and threatening harm to the Collection aircraft.

Aviation Trustee Tony Haig-Thomas has taken the decision to publicise this threat and to ask everybody to be vigilant. A letter has been sent to all SVAS members and the text is reproduced below.

If anybody sees or hears anything unusual then please report it to the Collection management.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...tter_Aug09.jpg

Kevin Panter
SVAS Secretary

If not an inside job than it is clearly from someone who lives within earshot - ie a very close distance from Old Warden Airfield. There can scarcely be more than a couple of dozen candidates.

Surely they must have expressed their opinions via more conventional means in the past, probably several times. This is hardly likely to be their first contact with Shuttleworth.

Even by adding "insiders" it would seem a fairly small range of potential suspects, surely not too taxing even for Bedfordshire's "finest" (fnaar, fnaar) to deal with?

Wasn't me!

I was appalled to receive THT's letter today - what sick idiot could have made such threats?

Interestingly, the idiot uses phrases such as 'the flying of model aeroplanes', 'the aerodrome' and 'model fliers'. This indicates a level of 'expertise' one would not normally expect from someone averse to aeromodellers' activities; I would have expected the use of denigrating words such as 'toy plane' from someone who dislikes aeromodellers in the way this idiot appears to. Also, the standard of English is surprisingly good.

To me this indicates that the writer of these letters is a calculating, dangerously unbalanced individual. He needs to be tracked down and prosecuted with the utmost urgency.

The SVAS website indicates that there's a 'Festival of Flight Aermodel Weekend' coming up in a couple of weeks time (12/13 September), so let's all go and show our full support for the aeromodellers and our utter contempt for the activities of this twisted idiot.

I too read Tony Haigh-Thomas's letter with disbelief, after I opened it this afternoon. How anyone with even the most basic interest in aviation history could even contemplate damaging any of the priceless aeroplanes at Old Warden is beyond belief, and to cite the use of the airfield by model fliers as a justification is just crass. Undoubtedly the writer of these letters is in need of help and perhaps rather more than a severe slapping, but just how to make contact given the apparently anonymous nature of the letters. Let us hope that it proves to be the work of a crackpot and his threats remain just that.

Not the ideal surprise to find coming through the letterbox in the morning. Worrying also in that any threatened damage may be applied in quite a subtle fashion.

Fingers crossed it gets no further than the two letters received by THT.

Well, fingers crossed that it's merely some pathetic individual who delights in causing panic by writing nasty letters.

Can't be there for the aero modellers event, but hope to be two weeks later for the evening display. Will keep my eyes open if the matter hasn't been resolved by then.

What a worrying incident.

Clearly SVAS take this seriously. Does it count as a clear t*rr*rist threat? So can it/should it be escalated to higher specialist authorities? Or is that overdoing it a bit?

Yes, I know it isn't Terry himself, but the weight of the anti-t*rr*r squad bearing down on whoever it is should quieten things down a bit surely?

This story has troubled me ever since I read it in the Bedford newspaper a couple of weeks ago.

I have been a regular visitor to the Shuttleworth Collection, on non-flying days, flying proms, flying days and evenings, and every model flying day myself and my son can get to, as the hobby of model flying is one we share and enjoy very much. I have gone to the model flying days since I was just a lad myself and travelled from Yorkshire where I lived at the time.

My son and I were there just today, and as always, had a fantastic day, and returned home with every model either broken or lost - always the mark of a good day's model flying!

I really cannot see that it is a local resident making these threats in response to the noise. The nearest dwelling is in Old Warden village, some distance away and well out of earshot of the relatively quiet models. The impact with respect to noise and motor traffic through the village is minimal compared to the real aircraft flying days/evenings, not to mention the flying proms. There were tractors in the fields next to the airfield making more noise than we were. This makes me agree with the thought that it is somebody closer associated with SVAS with a particular grievance. He (or she) needs to be found, for their own good if nothing else, as they clearly need some attention from a psychiatrist.

But one thing I did find quite disturbing today, was a chap going around asking people to show their BMFA insurance. For those who could not, he was stopping them flying. Some were going home rather upset. I've never been asked for this before, was not asked at the gate when I paid my entrance fee and have not seen this as a requirement in any flying day literature. Is this really a requirement? If it is shouldn't the organisers advise all those who turn up with a car load of models before they pay their entrance fee?

As a retired professional pilot and long time model flyer, I greatly enjoy Shuttleworth's model days. Long may they continue.
However, any modeller knows that in the wrong hands, a model aircraft can do a lot of damage, particularly at a crowded site such as Old Warden. I have no doubt that the attendants that Dopellganger complains of would have been checking not only British Model Flying Association membership (which brings with it £10,000,000 of third party insurance), but also possession of a "B" Certificate, which is the BMFA's requirement for flying at a public venue.
It would be utterly irresponsible of the Shuttleworth if they did not ensure that all flyers were competent and insured. No one wants to see the Trust sued for negligence after an accident because they had failed to vet those taking part.
Doppelganger seems to think that a good days model flying involves losing or crashing all his models, and that being asked to show proof of Insurance is unreasonable.
It is a small minority of flyers like him who get model flying a bad name. If model flying gets banned at Old Warden it will down to such stupidity.
Either grow up or give up, doppelganger - neither modelling nor Old Warden need people like you.

Phrasing
 

Using expressions like "the flying of model aeroplanes" or "aerodrome" seem to indicate someone rather elderly with a somewhat archaic mental reference bank concerning aviation, model or full-scale. Perhaps the local Miss Marple could bring some light to bear ... and, posting letters at Gatwick perhaps provides another clue ???
All set for an instalment of Midsomer Murders (NOT !!!).
I just hope that these threats are the result of someone's dyspepsia before flying off to warmer climes for the winter ..
And my fingers are crossed for the future safety of The Collection and model flyers too.

Planning a short visit to the collection tomorrow. I hope there's still something there to see.

Dave

What a bizarre assumption!

- Or merely someone who speaks gramatically good English and knows the correct terminology...
(young/old, archaic/modern, there is no possible way to tell)

:ugh:

@ Agaricus ...
 

Put my "odd" lucubrations down to an excess of Miss Marple (Margaret Rutherford in glorious black & white, a sheer delight even when (excellently) dubbed) and other transmuted Agatha Christie and Midsomer evenings on our local telly down here in sight of the mountains. :8
Choice of vocabulary is, though, a potential indicator of this odd person's identity - "aerodrome" for example does have a whiff of the '20s about it, while "airfield" would, I'd have thought, be more usual, but then, those are just part of my personal preferences. And Prune participants also know that (s)he writes gramatically, which would exclude not a few possibles ...
I just hope, like most "raight-mainded" people, that nothing else happens and that Shuttleworth will continue undisturbed.

Just read this thread and I am appalled at the thought of some idiot wanting to harm what is arguably the finest airworthy selection of vintage aircraft.
I grew up just down the road from Old Warden and like Oxenos I have now retired from a full lifetime of Military/civil flying as well as flying models since 1950s.
Why would anyone be offended if asked to produce their insurance when flying models and what sort of person deems it to have been a good day when all their models are either in bin bags or lost.
Sorry Doppleganger but Oxenos is absolutely right. You should either change your attitude or improve your building/flying skills or stay away.
Lets hope whoever is responsible for these anonymous notes is bought to book and Shuttleworth remains as it is now.

Just a comment on Doppleganger's post. If he is a power modeller (Free-Flight or R/C) then I agree with his critics but if he is one of very many rubber/glider/electric free flight modellers on a typical OW day then I take his side. Such models are pretty harmless and tend to come off worse when they hit my leg or the back of my neck.

'Aerodrome' is certainly the correct term. Which would indicate someone with some aeronautical knowledge - the genpub would probably use words such as 'airfield' or 'airport'. Also 'the Collection' (with a capital 'C') indicates to me that someone 'in the know' wrote the letters.

This whole thing has a very unusual ring to it. Why did T H-T send letters to every SVAS member including police advice as to the likely source? Has there been some 'falling out' at Old Warden - and have we been told everything?

Whatever, I hope that this idiot is caught soon.

Correct or "ordinary" speech ?
 

Without wishing to prolong any "pick-nittery", and while ANOs do, as quoted, call a place from which flying is committed an "aerodrome" - did you, BEagle (or any of us who have done so) actually talk about "the aerodrome" or prefer "the airfield" to refer to the not-built-up area of an RAF station when we were operating Her Majesty's magnificent Flying Machines.
Not just "genpub" (or so I thought I was in my light blue days* ...).





* Not now either, at heart, even though I've been a spectator for a few decades now.:E

BEagle I too thought the letter was very odd, particularly including the (alleged) police hunch/theory.
There was a 'falling out' fairly recently.
I hope the intention wasn't to generate suspicion about anyone in particular.

FL