Hi Tony
When the Don "gives" aircraft out, it tends to impose conditions that effectively make it not worth a potential owner's while to expend money on keeping said aircraft in good order.You are right about the poor condition that the Castlemoate storage created but I venture that there was a lot more behind the scenes with regard to funding and control that kept those aircraft in such poor order.Personally,I believe that if the RAF and many other AFs can sell or give away old aircraft and allow their new owners to restore them, without restriction, then it's immature of the Don to attempt to impose conditions,( even to the extent of cutting spars on Chipmunks) on what, in a lot of cases, is junk.The old Provost,177, is a case in point. It could not have been restored to flight in this country because the bureaucrats would have stymied it at every turn.I would be very surprised if the Museum ever gets permission to fly even such flight-ready aircraft as the Marchetti.Incidentally, 220 was out of flight hours because it had fallen due for an overhaul.It's airframe life is, in effect, still good and there's very little stopping it being restored to flight condition.
regards
GttC
