WIX Archives
My turn
Posted by Gregory on Sat Jan 17, 2004 01:50:21 PM
In reply top WIX er WARBIRD PARTICPIATION posted by JACK COOK on Fri Jan 16, 2004 06:31:15 PM
I have liked air/aeroplanes as long as I can remember.
My favourite grandfather was a naval enthusiast, so when I was five or so I told him I would be a naval aviator and fly off carriers. That never happened, of course.
Around Christmas 1971 someone gave me a big aeroplane book with many colourful drawings and tabulated data at the back. I still have it, full of jottings and notes. I eventually wore vit out and had it rebound.
I clearly remember seeing my first Spitfire in 1972 (the Mk XI gate guardian at Shuttleworth) and the old NASM in the Smithsonian's Castle in 1973.
Then things accelerated, and around 1979 I bought the first Italian wrecks and relics book. It opened a whole new world. In 1980-81 I lived in Connecticut, so I joined the Bradley Air Museum and actually got my hands dirty for the first time - "greasing" a B-29 engine.
At about that time I formed an enthusiast group with a friend. That got us in touch with Peter Arnold (whom we naturally confused with the secretive collector) and Paul Coggan. Then came Vintage Aircraft magazine, Flypast, AeroplaneMonthly ...
My then-girlfriend thought all this stupid, so I promised her that I would stop playing with aeroplanes once my two favourites were finished. The first one, Spitfire IX MK805, was completed in 1989; the second one, Fieseler Storch MM.12822, came home only in 1995.
By then, I was happily married to the daughter of a naval aviator and historian and had been working with aeroplanes for many years. What never ceases to amaze me is that I have been able to make a living and raise a daughter doing want I like best.
The rest is insignificant.
Gregory