Gypsy Major question

Steve

A friend of mine has a Chipmunk on Public Transport Cat and offers tailwheel conversions in the East Midlands area if you are interested.

There is also a zero timed Chipmunk for sale in the hangar where I keep my Auster, the guy who owns it also has a kit of parts for sale to.

Although the Chipmunk is a lovely lovely aeroplane it is very maintenance intense (being ex-mil does not help).

I know the maintenance / flying hour ratio on my friends aircraft is pretty horrific. He mentioned to me that he knew a syndicate whose aircraft had just come out of the hangar with a £17 grand bill after a C of A renewal:eek: 😮 😮

Originally posted by SteveYoung
Out of interest though, does anyone know of any Chipmunk groups that may be operating in East Anglia / East Midlands?

There used to be a Chippie at Felthorpe, which was destroyed in the arson attack on the hangar there. I’m not sure whether it belonged to a syndicate or was part of the Flying Group there, but I believe that it was going to be replaced, if it hasn’t been already.

I applied to join a Chippie syndicate once.

This was when they were being retired from the RAF.

Got into the group, but the problems put us off and we went for the Yak 52 instead.

Steve, I have a friend in a Chippie group. I’ll PM you his e-mail address.

Moggy

There’s a Chipmunk for sale at Elstree. I guess you could always get a gang of mates together to buy that one. Easier said than done though.

Hi Joe, it was mainly just a general enquiry as to the potential costs of owning (or part owning) something like a Chipmunk. Unfortunately, G-CHPY’s appeared a bit too early for me as I’ve got the small matters of a Skills Test and a tailwheel rating to get out of the way before I can seriously consider it. Out of interest though, does anyone know of any Chipmunk groups that may be operating in East Anglia / East Midlands?

Hi Steve

Are you looking at putting a bid on G-CHPY by any chance?

And the subject of Gipsy’s anybody know of a 10-1-3 going cheap?

I respect your view Mike…if we all wanted the same thing then life would be very dull indeed!

Originally posted by wysiwyg
…but you can’t see it when you’re in it enjoying the performance enhancements. I guess it depends whether you fly the aircraft for what you get out of it or how you need to be seen by others!

You have a point there but I still would prefer the deH engine from the point of originality

Thanks for that info David, I did not know there was lot of Portugeese engines on the market.

Steve- it’s fairly rare to get cracks in 10-2 cases. Certainly the Gipsy 1’s do it fairly frequently ! There are a number of repair schemes depending on the position and size of the crack. If however it’s beyond repair you can either buy a half life or ex Portuguese engine in the region of £5-8 k depending on hours remaining or have it overhauled with a ‘new’ case but that would be £20k.

Please pm me if you require further information.

Originally posted by mike currill
But spoils the lines of a beautiful little aircraft

…but you can’t see it when you’re in it enjoying the performance enhancements. I guess it depends whether you fly the aircraft for what you get out of it or how you need to be seen by others!

Vintec (01767 651794), at Little Gransden, completely rebuilt my Gipsy Major. I think it cost around £20K, but what a fantastic job they did. Highly, highly recommended.

Warning: de Havilland folk can get very sensitive about the correct spelling of Gipsy. Galdri got it right. 😀

But spoils the lines of a beautiful little aircraft

I know this will upset the purists but…I have flown conventional Gypsy engined Chipmunks and 180 Lycoming ones. The latter engine option is well worth looking at!

Oops, sorry, that should have been a crack in the crankshaft CASING.

But thanks for the info Galdri. Much appreciated.

Have I found a Chippie in need of some rework? Well, yeah, you could say that. And it’s one I’ve flown before, too. 😉 But I reckon it might be a bit too soon for me to invest in one just yet, but as my old platoon commander used to say, time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted. 😉

Steve

Hi Steve,

I do not know the cost of an overhauled crankshaft. My estimate, however, would be around 4000 pounds.

For a Gipsy 10 overhauled by some reputable shop, say VinTech, the prize would be around 17000-20000 pounds. Not very cheap:o

So you have found a Chippie somewhere in need of a new crank??;) 😉 😀 😀