As of early 2019, he has around 500 hours on high-performance piston warbirds, including the Sea Fury, Mustang, Buchón, Spitfire and Hurricane. In subsequent years Richard set up the burgeoning Air Leasing facility at Sywell, restoring, maintaining and operating a raft of vintage aeroplanes for third party owners. P-47 Thunderbolt G-THUN, a former flagship of The Fighter Collection, departed the UK for a new life in the USA in 2007, its sale heavily felt by those who flew it and those who enjoyed seeing it fly alike. That first flight definitely gave me a genuine feeling of elation – airborne in it finally after all these years.” Some of the Fighter Collection chaps thought it would be funny to have me pull the chocks on the Thunderbolt as it was sat there whomping away before a display – that’ll clear your head, for sure! Once I got into flying myself, I had no expectation that I would ever fly an aircraft like the P-47 and even once I got onto the bigger warbirds, I always thought it would be an aeroplane that would elude me as Thunderbolts are so rare. “I remember knocking around at a Duxford airshow the day after a big birthday ‘do’ in Cambridge, suffering from my very first hangover and not doing particularly much. I always loved it – it’s just cool, isn’t it?”, he continues. “I grew up around the aircraft when it was with The Fighter Collection as No Guts, No Glory and watched it do some wonderful displays. His enthusiasm for the ‘Jug’ is palpable, almost infectious, born out of a childhood spent amongst the airshow fraternity at Duxford whilst his mother, Carolyn, displayed the family Spitfire. I was only up for ten minutes for some general handling, but had such a good time and felt so at home immediately – it’s like a warbird in slow motion!” “It was a glorious day back then early May 2018, the aircraft’s second flight since returning to the UK, wall-to-wall blue, pre-7am start and no one around. We’re sat in Air Leasing Ltd’s blister hangar at Sywell, Northants, on an icily cold late winter afternoon, and Richard is animatedly recounting that first sortie in Fighter Aviation Engineering Ltd’s Republic P-47D Thunderbolt. “My first flight in Nellie B was such an amazing experience, I found myself near as damnit laughing as I was climbing away from the aerodrome”, says Richard Grace.
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