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I had a very enjoyable visit to my old stamping ground earlier this month. Mike Collett and the team at AIRBASE invited Jets Monthly to learn more about his plans for the new Classic Aircraft Trust (CAT) so it was with much excitement that I returned to Coventry Airport. Some of you may know that I worked at the Air Atlantique Classic Flight and AIRBASE on and off for a few years and was involved in both the establishment of the AIRBASE centre and the purchase of Nimrod XV232 among other things. Perhaps fewer of you will know that my association with the organisation goes back even further, to the days I spent at university in Coventry in the early 1990s. As an avid aviation enthusiast I was keen to be a part of what was then known as the Air Atlantique Historic Flight and I soon became involved in the restoration of the organisation’s Percival Prentice and volunteered as a tour guide during the semi-regular open days. Over the ensuing decades I’ve watched with excitement as the collection has grown to include ever larger numbers of aircraft and I take my hat off to all those who have passed through the doors and played their part in keeping the machines in the sky – be they volunteers or employees. Trust I was therefore delighted to hear that Mike had created a new charitable trust to look after the long term survival of this fleet. During my involvement there I was privy to some of the logistics and expenses involved in maintaining and flying these diverse aircraft so I know how vital it is that the aircraft find alternative sources of funding. I wish the team the best of luck and shall be watching very closely over the coming months and year. As we were including CAT in this issue it seemed like an obvious opportunity to feature AIRBASE as our ‘Museum of the Month’ [see page 40]. However, because of my past involvement at the museum, I asked one of our contributors to write the review on my behalf.