Tony joined the meeting on friday to answer questions from the visitors. He is the most quiet and grounded person you could imagine. He talked about the way he got a pair of Merlin 76's and then later swapped them for 25's like it was something you do every day.
It would be so funny trying to explain to the young google/ebay/fuzzbook/sochul media bandits of today how he managed to track down items as esoteric as a Mosquito pedal assembly 25 years ago and watch their faces!
There was a film crew there on the day as well. Apparently they were filming for Plane Resurrection series as it will star in an episode. Believe it or not the camera person was using an iPhone on a tripod for pretty much everything. Quite amazing compared to what I used to watch for filming many years back with the BBC OBU teams and the huge lorries they had.
I think he deserves nomination for an OBE or some other gong for a life spent building something like this without any external funding or resource. 40 years and all his own funding with the exception of a crowdfund for the transport from Leeds to EK two years ago. Looking at the PM's honour list on her departure recently there are a few who might be been less deserving IMHO.
