Rowland White
@RowlandWhite
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Author of Vulcan 607, Phoenix Squadron, Storm Front, The Big Book of Flight, Into the Black, Harrier 809 and MOSQUITO …
Joined November 2011
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I will never not love this incredible photograph of an 81 Squadron Mosquito pissing about …
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When Arthur C. Clarke & J.R.R. Tolkien went to the pub & got pissed. From Francis Spufford's brilliant Backroom Boys
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At Red Flag in 1977, aggressor F-5s, F-15s and F-14s specially drafted in from Top Gun Miramar struggled to find and claim kills on the 208 Sqn Buccs. But a Bucc sneaked into an F-5’s six at 20k feet and came home with the gun camera footage to prove it. Although no guns, obvs …
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This incredible photo of an RN Lynx bothering a Soviet Kara Class cruiser remains one of my favourite aviation pics ever. Top 5 for sure! No idea who took it, but hats off to them ...
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I wish I could tell you a bit more about the provenance of this wonderful photo of a pair of Mosquitos over the coast somewhere. All I know is that it’s from a photo album belonging to a pilot who flew with 140 Wing’s 21 Squadron in the last months of the war. Good, though, eh?
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Fascinating conversation yesterday with a 208 Sqn Bucc pilot who went to Red Flag in 1977. They decided to fly at 70’ instead of 50’ to avoid being found because the dust and tumbleweed they were kicking up in their wakes might have given away their position to fighters …
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So, Baron Jean de Selys Longchamps. On 20/1/43 he sent his wingman home then flew his Typhoon to Brussels to launch a rogue solo attack on the Gestapo HQ to avenge his father’s death before dropping mini Belgian flags on the city. Demoted on his return, he was then given the DFC!
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Another photo of a Victor low over Malaysia. A ridiculously fine looking machine …
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This is a GREAT picture of one of the Tornado prototypes. But it gets even better when you discover it was taken on a cheap camera by the pilot of the single-seat Lightning flying chase ...
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A Victor B1A flying low over the Malaysian jungle in the mid-sixties. You’re welcome.
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Something bothering me about this Netflix Lancaster doc, but I just can’t quite put my finger on what’s wrong …
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One of my absolute favourite photos of the Victor - and it’s an aeroplane that I think always looks good! Taken on Ascension Island and shared with me by Bob Tux. There’s really nothing like looking down on a low flying jet from above. Especially when it’s a Victor ...
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OTD forty years ago, Vulcan 607 was still high over the South Atlantic, on her way back to Ascension after successfully bombing the runway at Stanley airfield. Here’s what that magnificent machine looked like in the hangar at RAF Waddington last night …
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41 years on from the Falklands War, former 809 NAS boss Tim Gedge passed the baton to the new CO, Cdr Nick Smith, as the Phoenix Squadron stood up as an F-35B unit at RAF Marham this morning. An absolute pleasure and privilege to have been there to see it. BZ to all involved.
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If you’d wondered where I was, this is the answer. Out in September, it tells the story of the RAF Mosquito raid on the Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen. You’ll get spies, saboteurs and, of course, a whole lot of de Havilland’s legendary wooden wonder …
(with apologies to QT)
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Just in case you were wondering, this was the accommodation offered to BOAC passengers aboard their Mosquito service between Leuchars and Stockholm. Upgrades not available …
#MosquitoBook
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A fabulously dramatic low-level shot of the Mossie from an old issue of
@pilot_mag
I’m hoping that I’ll see a sight like this with my own eyes one day …
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Operation MASTERSTROKE. When 617 Sqn took their new Tornados to Toronto. And thought it would be nice to fly with Concorde. They were right.
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OTD in 1944 a large force of 140 Wing Mosquitos crossed the North Sea to Denmark on a mission to attack the local Gestapo HQ. They destroyed it completely. Amazingly, this photo was taken on the actual as they streaked in low across Jutland. Just awesome.
#MosquitoBook
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And here’s a RCAF Mosquito flying under the Eiffel Tower. Robert Doisneau, eat your heart out. Happy 80th birthday Mossie!
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This photo of Reggie Reynolds and Ted Sismore was taken 80 years ago today. Before they led a force of 14 Mosquitos to Jena in eastern Germany to attack the Zeiss and Schott glassworks at low level thru barrage balloons and heavy flak. Both deservedly won the DSO.
#MosquitoBook
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Enjoy Masters of the Air folks. Always thought the Fortress looked pretty dashing sporting Coastal Command duds too ...
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The most famous passenger carried in a BOAC Mosquito bomb bay was nuclear physicist Niels Bohr (played by Kenneth Branagh in Christopher Nolan in OPPENHEIMER) After he passed out at altitude, the crew were worried that they might have killed him …
#MosquitoBook
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This is quite something. Two pretty quick jets and one scorchingly fast one ...
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A 16 Squadron Canberra B(I)8 at RAF Laarbruch. On the basis of this photo I’be come to the conclusion that every Canberra should have had a shark’s mouth as standard …
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All the
@HMSQnlz
‘no planes’ nonsense got me thinking:
ARK ROYAL (RO9)
Sea trials - 6/54
1st fixed wing landing - 6/55
INVINCIBLE (RO5)
Sea trials - 5/79
1st fixed wing landing - 5/80👇
QUEEN ELIZABETH (RO8)
Sea trials - 10/17
1st fixed wing landing - 9/18
Very satisfying...
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OTD in 1944 a single recce Mosquito from 544 Squadron left RAF Benson for Denmark to take photos of the Gestapo HQ in Aarhus in preparation for a pinpoint raid being planned by Basil Embry’s 2 Group - a response to a desperate request from the Danish resistance …
#MosquitoBook
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With the best will in the world you’d even struggle to squeeze a Buccaneer in underneath this one …
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Sure looks like a bombed up RAF F-4D Phantom over Vietnam. What’s going on? The answer in my next post …
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A 489 Squadron RNZAF Beaufighter on its way to Norway (with serious intent by the looks of things …) escorted by a 315 Squadron (Polish) Mustang III. One more treat from the
@AFMuseumNZ
archives …
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Still blows my mind that this is a real photograph taken during a real low level Mosquito raid against the Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen. What a picture ...
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I met the photographer who was credited in a magazine with taking this but he said it wasn’t him! But whoever *did* take it captured a pretty dramatic Lightning moment. And too good not to share…
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This might not be the best Lynx picture ever taken, but it’s definitely the best I’ve seen today! So much drama in it. Fabulous.
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Things I learned writing
#Harrier809
Part 7 - When the Indian Navy asked about acquiring Yak-38 Forgers, Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Sergey Gorshkov (who had some medals...) said ‘if I were you I’d buy the Sea Harrier!’ Sound advice
Pre-order:
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A Buccaneer with Tornado radar and avionics. Just saying ...
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Best guess is that this photo of an RAF C-130 was taken around lunchtime ...
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RAF Wittering was extended west by Basil Embry in 3 wks after he gave the tenant farmer a bottle of whisky & bought all his potatoes, used steam engines to remove 1500 trees & grade the surface, + £300 of grass seed & 3 miles of cable.Fighter Command HQ said it would take 9 mths!
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OTD in 1944, 140 Wing Mosquitos hit the Gestapo HQ in Aarhus, Denmark. 2 Group AOC Air Vice Marshal Basil Embry flew on the raid as ‘Wg Cdr Smith’. 315 (Polish)P-51s escorted them. This incredible photo -framed by a Mosquito tailwheel - was taken during the attack
#MosquitoBook
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Some Lysanders over Madagascar. I’ve developed a slightly unhelpful interest in Operation IRONCLAD …
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Last week, the 80th anniversary of the Dams raid. This week, 80 years since another task regarded as suicidally dangerous. After a first sortie on 12/5, 540 Sqn Mosquitos from RAF Benson continued to crisscross the Baltic looking for evidence of a rumoured German rocket: the V2
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Very excited to be sharing the jacket design for my new book, MOSQUITO, published this autumn. If you like the look of it, I’m happy to report it’s up for pre-order on Amazon:
More soon. But first I need to crack on with my edits from
@TransworldBooks
…
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This … I mean, not much else to say is there?!
Oh, except they’re so fabulous I couldn’t resist writing a book all about them …
#MosquitoBook
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Had a clear up at weekend and rediscovered this fab photo of a 767 NAS Phantom over Yeovilton. I was given the print by former FAA F-4 operator Jerry Granger-Holcombe while I was researching PHOENIX SQUADRON
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While trawling thru photos for the ten day challenge from
@HurricaneR4118
I found a LOAD of other cool stuff I hadn’t looked for ages. Like this awesome Omani Jaguar. Just love that wake!
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Last night, 80 years ago, this Swedish DC3 was shot down by Luftwaffe nightfighters between Scotland and Stockholm. Knowing their own Dakotas were equally vulnerable, BOAC acquired a fleet of Mosquitos to fly the route, carrying cargo and/or a single passenger in the bomb bay …
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And then I wondered if anyone had made a Lego Vulcan. But of course they have!
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A BOAC Mosquito lines up for take off at RAF Leuchars for another dash to Bromma airfield in Stockholm. The civilian Mossies would sometimes fly to Sweden and back twice in a night carrying passengers, intelligence, diplomatic bags & ball bearings needed to make aero engines etc
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There are many pictures of DC-3s but there can't be many better ones than this. Taken at Gibraltar during WWII.
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Just researching images of Blenheims for a book I'm publishing next spring and stumbled on this rather fabulous photo. Wow.
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On the day HMS Hermes reaches her final destination, enjoy this magnificent and unusual picture of happier times during the heyday of her service with India as INS Viraat. SHARs all present and correct.
#Thankyou
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The bird is back. A few photos from the 809 Naval Air Squadron recommissioning this morning.
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Honestly, there aren’t many finer sights than a clean Victor banking at low altitude ...
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So this is what a Buccaneer looks like through the periscope of a submarine. In case you were wondering.
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We’re lucky to have this colour photo of the 2nd Mustang ever built, which was also the first to arrive in the UK. Amazingly, this very Mustang I was still in action with 168 Sqn during Op OVERLORD in 1944 and flew close air support missions on D-Day. Stunning.
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Unsurprisingly enough there aren’t that many really good colour shots of Mosquitos in action during WWII but this one over Malta is a beauty …
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During the Berlin Airlift an RAF Dakota was mistakenly loaded with the cargo meant for a York. A York could carry over twice the payload of the Dak. But no one told the Dak that. Although after taxiing in at Gatow the pilot mentioned that ‘She was a little heavy on landing …’
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A USAF F-4D over Vietnam in 1972 shot by his wingman, an RAAF pilot on exchange with the 480th Tactical Fighter Sqn at Phù Cát air base. The RAF roundel on the side is a nod to the Phantom WSO’s next posting - an exchange tour in the UK with the RAF
(From the
@AWMemorial
archive)
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Lovely detail in this colour photo from the Danish Freedom museum of a Short Stirling’s rear turret, taken at Copenhagen’s Kastrup airfield after the war. But wait till I show you the front …
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This VC10 low over South Georgia really is a spectacular sight to behold. Sorry to say I can no longer remember its provenance, but too good not to share …
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Having fun pulling together the photo insets for my MOSQUITO book. Hard not to get distracted by some of the amazing images I can’t use. Like this brilliant 1947 shot, taken from a Mitchell, of 1 Squadron, RAAF Mossies from the Australian War Memorial archive. Nice, eh?!
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From the cover of the great Bill Gunston’s book Faster Than Sound, I think this is my favourite ever photograph of the Tornado. Unless you can show me a better one ...
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Time to crack this open I think. I’ll be raising a glass to Geoff Wellum - 92 Squadron Spitfire pilot and author of the wonderful FIRST LIGHT.
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The magnificegt Handley Page Victor at
@IWMDuxford
tonight looking almost as if it’s sitting centre stage on a James Bond set …
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Come for the Mosquitos, stay for the spies, SAS, saboteurs, Hitler assassination plot, Typhoon attack on Brussels, Hurricane into pre-liberation Paris, Niels Bohr, Mustang Rhubarbs, West African cruise ship theft, the ‘most interesting man in the world’ & anal diamond smuggling!
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Came across this fascinating photo in the National Archives of the Tirpitz taken from the cockpit of an 832 NAS Fairey Albacore during their torpedo attack on the German battleship in March 1942. Pretty cool, I thought!
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Attacked by a Ju 88 over Denmark on an SOE mission, pilot ‘Fearless’ George Abbecassis saved his crew by belly landing at night.A winning racing driver in the 30s he picked up again after the war. Bollocked after a shunt he replied ‘When I crashed a Stirling they gave me the DFC’
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Here’s an unusual one from 1983. Concorde on short finals into Toronto flanked by a pair of Dambusters Tornados. No slower than 150 knots promised the Concorde Captain. The then
@OC617Sqn
reckons they were down to 144 knots. A little wobbly apparently ...
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My, oh, my … 139 Sqn pose for the camera. Sister unit to Hughie Edwards VC’s 105 Sqn, they helped pioneer the tactics that addressed an initially high loss rate & silenced the Mossie’s critics: ingress at low level, strike at dusk, escape under cover of darkness
#MosquitoBook
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The first flights of these three magnificent British bomber designs all fell within a single eleven period. The gap between the Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds and their previous album of new material was five years longer …
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Sadly, I’m not actually in the market for Fairey Firefly, but if I were, photos like this one from the broker might have sealed the deal. Here’s a link to the listing. I love how they clarify that its condition is ‘used’!
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809 in its previous incarnation as a Buccaneer squadron. This photo is just peak Buccaneer. None more Buccaneer! Love it.
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Giving it some Saturn 5. Is this the coolest picture of an F-111 you’ve ever seen? Honestly, I think it might be ...
(From )
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There really is a lot to love in this rare colour photo of an Avro York on the ground in Egypt just after the end of the war.
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I commissioned the prodigiously talented
@Burns_Keith
to paint the guns kill of an Argentine Navy A-4 by 809 Sqn’s John Leeming. I’ve included the right hand side in
#Harrier809
picture inset. But look the whole thing. Just. Wow.
Pre-order the book here:
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Here’s that mixed formation of a Bristol Freighter and F-111 that you didn’t know you needed. Courtesy of the
@AFMuseumNZ
treasure trove again …
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Spotted this particularly striking photo of a brace of Meteors on a memorable visit to
@RollsRoyceUK
with
@James1940
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I absolutely bloody love the Mirage 4000.
Think I might devote some time over lockdown to staring into space just aimlessly pondering my current top ten favourite aircraft ...
#TimeWellSpent
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The incomparable
@Burns_Keith
painted this after reading the account in
#Harrier809
- based on an interview with Clive ‘Spag’ Morrell, a war diary written by the late John Leeming & testimony of the surviving Argentine pilots. Read I for yourself:
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Whoop! Whoop! I’ve just got my hands on the first finished copy of MOSQUITO and I’m absolutely thrilled to bits with it
@TransworldBooks
have outdone themselves. Just love that cream wibalin!🙏 🙏 Here’s a vid. And a link tree should you want a signed one:
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Looking for images of a 1960s Boeing fighter design earlier and stumbled on these pics of the 908-909 mock up - Boeing’s entry for the Lightweight Fighter competition - ultimately won by the YF-16 over the YF-17 of course.
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Still blows my mind to think that this is the very first Mosquito prototype. And that it survived. And that you can go and see it whenever you want at
@deHavMuseum
The first Mosquito *ever* built. Wow!
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I’ve been slightly transfixed by this amazing shot of a Saab Viggen all morning. Captured by an official Saab photographer back in the day Probably best to share it so I can get on and get stuff done!
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You’ve never experienced the Youngman Frill? Really?! You need to get out more …
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That time in 1996 when RAF F-16s joined an international coalition …
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Also found this lovely photo of the fourth HMS Ark Royal’s rarest bird, the all black Carrier On-board Delivery - COD - Fairey Gannet. Not always embarked, but a fine sight as it launches from the waist catapult …
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Hello there. Long time no see, but I’ve been heads down working on a new book. All the same, though, I thought I should pop back in to mention that the paperback of HARRIER 809 is published today!
🍾 🍾 🍾
Here’s a link:
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You can see something a bit Mosquito-ish in de Havilland’s beautifully elegant 1937 Albatross airliner - also made of wood! - photographed here after being pressed into military service with 271 Sqn RAF in 1940. This one was lost in an accident in Reykjavik in 1942
#MosquitoBook
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You don’t often see a picture of a Vulcan bomber at Entebbe airport, but here’s one. From this rather wonderful collections of photos of lots of Comets and other cool stuff on the ground in Uganda:
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Just PR.1 sleep to go until MOSQUITO is published!
Huge thanks to everyone who’s already ordered it. I so hope you enjoy it. And of you do, please do tell all your
#avgeek
friends about it. In the end, word of mouth is the best advert of all 🙏 🙏 Thank you
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