Something unexpected I found on a Vincent!

[BigEd]

I removed the magneto cover on my Rapide the other day to do a bit of maintenance and found something unexpected lying on top of the Magneto. I don't know how long it had been there but it would have been well-cooked as the day before I had done a 120 mile round trip from home in Hinckley to Wellesbourne Airfield cafe for breakfast and then onto Broadway in the Cotswolds. It had a wingspan of around 3 inches so I don't know how it managed to get onto the top of the magneto. Maybe it would not have been so surprising if I had found it on a Douglas.
Anyone else found something unusual nestled in an unexpected corner of their Vincent?

 

[vibrac]

Ron Kemp told me that when he was in the RAF he went on to one cylinder going to camp along six mile bottom he looked down ( as you do) and saw a pair of legs sticking out of his front carb! He shut the throttle and chopped the birds head off!
He was late back on duty

 

[stu spalding]

Hi Ed, your dragonfly looks like a Migrant Hawker, which is a common species but it's always worth checking. One chap found a dragonfly stuck under his windscreen wiper and showed to a friend who knew them, he identified it as a Vagrant Emperor which is a major rarity in this country, probably blown in from Africa. Cheers, Stu.

 

[Peter Holmes]

Ron Kemp told me that when he was in the RAF he went on to one cylinder going to camp along six mile bottom he looked down ( as you do) and saw a pair of legs sticking out of his front carb! He shut the throttle and chopped the birds head off!
He was late back on duty

Must have had a pretty strong slide return spring, bet it didn’t half make your right wrist ache on a long journey!

 

[Trickymicky]

Last week, i stripped the dual seat from a series B i am restoring, to find some newspapers between the foam and the base, all dated July, 1955. The copy of Reveille, coincidentally highlighting the joy of Vincent ownership.

 

[BigEd]

Hi Ed, your dragonfly looks like a Migrant Hawker, which is a common species but it's always worth checking. One chap found a dragonfly stuck under his windscreen wiper and showed to a friend who knew them, he identified it as a Vagrant Emperor which is a major rarity in this country, probably blown in from Africa. Cheers, Stu.

I had a look on the Internet for your suggestion, Migrant Hawker and found some pictures. I think you are right. I'd left the remains of the dragonfly in the garage sitting on the lathe so I've taken a side view showing yellow marking the same as the ones on the Internet pictures. Who says you don't get variety in out thread topics? Add Entomology to the list.

 

[John Appleton]

I had a look on the Internet for your suggestion, Migrant Hawker and found some pictures. I think you are right. I'd left the remains of the dragonfly in the garage sitting on the lathe so I've taken a side view showing yellow marking the same as the ones on the Internet pictures. Who says you don't get variety in out thread topics? Add Entomology to the list.
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Not Vincent related (although I do own a couple), but while working on Duxford airfield I was asked to find out why the petrol bowser, used for filling the flying exhibits, emitted showers of sparks from the exhaust when running the pump, Found the culprit to be a decomposing rabbit inside the air filter UPSTREAM of the paper element, and no, I have no idea how it got in there.

 

[vibrac]

When her brothers cattle trough went low on water Angela went to look and the ball cock was held up with... cobwebs!

 

[stu spalding]

I had a look on the Internet for your suggestion, Migrant Hawker and found some pictures. I think you are right. I'd left the remains of the dragonfly in the garage sitting on the lathe so I've taken a side view showing yellow marking the same as the ones on the Internet pictures. Who says you don't get variety in out thread topics? Add Entomology to the list.

The thing to go by is wing venation, not as certain as a fingerprint but close. Cheers, Stu.

 

[John Appleton]

The thing to go by is wing venation, not as certain as a fingerprint but close. Cheers, Stu.

Finger prints on a dragonfly? Pull the other one Stu.