The Aviation Historian — January 2018

AIR CORRESPONDENCE Letters to the Editor

8 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 22

car in those early days, staying over for two

nights (no other way to handle the schedule in

those pre-Ryanair and pre-Easyjet days) was

another matter, but it was very well worth it.

Still today, looking to the left from my office

desk, I can still see my framed certificate

recording this tour pinned to the wall, with a

very much cherished signature of Charles Blair.

I just wanted you to know that, and to know

how much I enjoy receiving and reading TA H.

Keep it going!

Hubert Strasser Wallisellen, Zürich, Switzerland

“The Crash Comic” reborn

SIR — As a subscriber to The Aviation Historian, I

thought you might be interested in the material

contained in the now well and truly defunct

Australian Aviation Safety Digest. This digest was

published for many years by the variously-titled

Australian civil aviation authorities. We have a

perchance of changing Federal Government

Department titles with each change of

Commonwealth Government.

The digest was colloquially known as “The

Crash Comic” and the civil aviation authority at

the time ceased publication many years ago.

However, thanks to efforts by readers of the

online PPRuNe forum, the editions of the ASD

have been digitised. The following link will

provide access to the documents. I understand

that “dropbox” material downloads have a daily

limit — so “first in best dressed”:

http://www.pprune.org/pacific-general-

aviation-questions/600463-aviation-safety-

digests-now-available-digital.html

I hope this information is useful. I thoroughly

enjoy the articles in TA HTA HTA H, and I am amazed with , and I am amazed with

the amount of research that you conduct for each

and every topic.

Adrian CrombieSunbury, Victoria, Australia

TAH

SPITFIRE STUNNER! A modelling masterpiece

REGULAR READERS of TAHTAHTAH will know that we love it will know that we love it

when people make use of the journal in research and

other projects — and here is a humdinger of a scale

modelling venture.

Master modeller Peter Castle of East Sussex-based

Airscale has recently completed a^1 / 18 th-scale model

of Supermarine Spitfire FR.XIVe TZ138 in its racing

guise as CF-GMZ/“80” at the 1949 Cleveland Air

Races. The 25in-span litho-plate-panelled model took

18 months to build, and a previously unpublished

photograph in Juanita Franzi’s article in TAH

helped to clarify details. The result speaks for itself

— and in November the model won Best in Show at

the Scale Modelworld 2017 exhibition at Telford.

will know that we love it

Master modeller Peter Castle of East Sussex-based

Races. The 25in-span litho-plate-panelled model took

PETER CASTLE x 2