The year that saw everything change…
TBAG started 2020 in February with a nightshoot event which was held with TimeLine Events at Bruntingthorpe. In March, the COVID-19 lockdowns began making it increasingly difficult to check up on the aircraft. March also saw Bruntingthorpe being leased to Cox Automotive for car storage who wanted all airframes moved off site. TBAGs volunteers had several meetings over Zoom, Teams & Skype, discussing what the future holds for The Buccaneer Aviation Group. It was soon shown that the group was eager to keep XX894 and XW544 in taxiing condition, so the challenge began of finding a new home and preparing a Crowdfunder…
After several weeks, on the evening of the 3rd June 2020, TBAG volunteers voted towards Cotswold Airport being our new base. This was publicly announced soon after, and that the group would also be taking care of the airport’s Gnat XP502, Hunter XE665, and Canberra’s XH134 & XH135.
With a massive thank you to all our supporters, the group managed to raise the funds for the road move to Cotswold Airport in just 30 days!
After 16 years, the Bruntingthorpe chapter came to a close with XW544 followed by XX894 leaving the gate on August 20th, 2020 around mid-day.
The aircraft stopped overnight in Worcestershire before arriving at Cotswold Airport on August 21st, 2020.
Two months since the road move, after a lot of effort and work from the team, XW544 and XX894 made their first anti-deterioration runs at their new home on the 24th of October 2020.
Winter maintenance then began to prepare the airframes for their first event in 2021!
Photos by Ray Ball
