Hi Short Finals, the Vampire you speak of, "198", was a pile of bits in the Apprentice side of Hangar 2 (The other side was where the Fougas were kept) back in the mid '70s. The bits were still in RAF colours back then. 6 of us apprentices from the 40th appt class re-assembled, paint stripped and re-painted the aircraft in Air Corps colours under the supervision of Sgt Jerry (The Rasher) McCann back in 1978. Then we towed it down past the Riverside huts to the front of the Apprentice Hostel. Later it got towed to the front of the Officers mess. I don't think it was ever actually used as an instructional airframe, perhaps because we had the Frence Air Force Fouga, after it's wheels up landing.
The lads from the 39th apprentice class gave me some invaluable experience in how to drill out rounded off phillips screws when we had the opportunity of taking that Fouga to bits!
I remember the Belgian Air Force taking away some of the IAC Vampire Airframes and at least one unboxed Goblin engine in a couple of Transalls That must have been back in '77-78. I've got a faded photo of the two Transalls on the ramp with a civvy Cessna 172 between them, dunno what he was doing. Any ideas Tony?
