Description
” You’ll never run a Buccaneer out of the boot of a car”
TBAG produced this self-published bookazine to record the tale of 20 years of dogged determination, teamwork, innovation, spirit, and self-reliance to celebrate 10 years as The Buccaneer Aviation Group on June 11th, 2021.
In 2020, when under the restrictions of the Coronavirus pandemic, TBAG was informed that all aircraft running operations at Bruntingthorpe, their home of 16 years, was to stop and their live Buccaneers would face an uncertain future.
This uncertainty created the need for TBAG to document its history and the scope for the bookazine, taking the reader from the volunteer’s early days at Parrys Yard Shawbury and Bruntingthorpe through the move to Cotswold Airport and overcoming the challenges of COVID-19 to carry their first high-speed runs down the famous Kemble runway at one time used by the Red Arrows.
The bookazine’s first chapter “From Scrapyard to Serviceability”, perhaps sums up the narrative of the whole book. Anecdotes from the volunteers add colour and personal insight into what TBAG means to them, it is their story of how they succeeded in “Running a Buccaneer out of the boot of a car”. With a foreword from Group Captain Tom Eeles who accumulated over 2000 hours in the Buccaneer, and Ken Ellis/FlyPast magazine, this A4-sized professionally drafted bookazine is produced in high-quality paper with 140 full-colour pages filled with many never seen publicly before images of TBAG at work from 2004 onwards. The images are complemented by some stunning night shoot images from TBAG photographer friends.
Since first published in February 2022, Sales have reached 410 at the time of writing and have been posted out to addresses in Canada, a number of States coast to coast in the United States, Ireland, France, Netherlands, Germany, Israel, and Dubai. It is rumoured that at least one book made its way to New Zealand.
These sales have realised some £6640 to keep the jets on show to the public.
All your payment, less printing costs go, as always, to keeping these magnificent aircraft running and displaying to the public. No TBAG volunteers took any payment for the production or editing of bookazine or for the distribution of the printed copies.
*TBAG is a voluntary group, so please allow 1-2 weeks for the delivery of products.*
