Three volunteers in Shobdon finished a five-year rebuild of a small wartime plane

Three members of the Shobdon Historical Aircraft Group have finished a five-year restoration of an Auster they believe flew as an artillery spotter over Gold Beach on D-Day. The BBC reported on November 11, 2026, that the plane arrived in pieces in 2021, after a decade with an owner who could no longer fly it. Peter Poole, 86, said it was in a sorry state and that the group had guessed the work would take two or three years. It was stripped, cleaned, painted, and put back together in a hangar at Hereford Gliding Club.

Jonathan Roberts, 65, who worked on Spitfires in his twenties, said the project helped him enormously after a stroke 10 years ago, because he could use his hands and feel information coming back. Alec Elliot, 70, a former chief engineer on a Polaris submarine, said the plane's next job, once it is cleared, is to tow gliders. The group hopes it will fly in spring 2027. Roberts said he would like to be aboard. The link to Gold Beach rests on research the group cites from Air Pictorial magazine, not on a record the BBC confirmed on its own. The news is the finished restoration and the hope of a flight next spring. It is not yet an airplane back in the air.