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Okay then I might as well join in (seems like everyone else is!). My intention is to build the new Airfix 1/48 Hurricane in the markings of the aircraft flown by Flight Sergeant Tony Pickering of 501 Sqn when he was shot down on September 11th 1940. The aircraft he was flying was P5200 and was coded "SD W". I have chosen to model Tony's aircraft for a couple of reasons. As the topic heading says he was born quite close to where I live and completed his initial flying training at Ansty at No.9 Elementary And Reserve Flying Training School, I have spent the past 28 years working at Ansty for Rolls-Royce so that's another connection. But the most important connection for me is the fact that I have met him and had a very good chat about his service life. I was introduced to Tony by a good friend of mine from work (thanks Roger) who is ex RAF and knows Tony throught the Rugby branch of the RAFA of which they are both members. Roger introduced me to Tony to help my son who was doing his A-Levels at the time and researching the Battle Of Britain for his history A-level and what better way to learn than by talking to an actual veteran. Tony was very generous with his time and gave my son all the time and help he needed to complete his project and we could not thank him enough. Throughout all of our conversation the humility of this man shone through, he always said that he was no different from anyone else and certainly no braver, on that point I beg to differ with him. Tony and his fellow pilots were very brave, to take to the skies day after day against seemingly impossible odds takes a special kind of bravery, I wonder how many of us with our comfortable lives could do what they did? I am very happy to say that Tony is one of the very few who are still with us, which in my mind makes modelling his aircraft even more important. As of yet I do not have the kit (it's in the post somewhere) so no photos as of yet, sorry. Airfix very kindly provide a 501 Sqn option in the kit markings so that takes care of the Sqn code letters, so all I will need to find is a suitable letter W and some codes for the serial number. Wish me luck, and thanks for looking. Craig.
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