Lutterworth E28/39 replica/statue 'at risk'

Interesting this has come up, on the way back from Bruntingthorpes LPG shoot week before last it was noticeable how green the one side had become and that was in the dark around 19.30hrs so Id suggest something needs doing

just to add my 2d….. H&S is frequently used as a monolith to hide behind by those who decide for one reason or another that something is too expensive/difficult/popular/politically undesirable….. The H&S regs specifically point out it should NOT be used for this purpose, but as a tool to evaluate risk and enable informed decisions to be made about the best/safest way to approach a task….. but that doesn’t mean a task has to be abandoned if there is ANY risk, just that risk is best minimised and assessed.

No -Health and Safety has become a means of identifying where there is possible risk and finding means of eliminating or negating that risk. It cannot ‘feed’ itself as the implementation of new practices and equipment reduces the occurance of incidences.

Anyone who thinks its the young and inexperienced who get injured is dreaming -there are plenty of incidents of people who have operated machinery all their lives getting caught out sadly.

Ref post #17. I have been fully and actively involved in the restoration and operation business for the last sixty years. I do not subscribe to current “Elves wiv safe teef” and still have all my bits and pieces attached where my mother and a willing God have put them. It is called “situational awareness” these days I know but it is really keeping your mind on the job, and self protection. I do not need some jumped up johney telling me that I need a safety guard on that belt, I need 3 or 4 blokes, fall bags, safety nets and suspension harnesses when I go up a ladder in the hangar to change a light bulb. I also don’t need some tw*t to tell me that swinging a three bladed prop on a Gipsy Queen on a Devon is “Very very dangerous!!!”
End of current rant/hisssyfit.

Says it all for me. H&S has become an industry which feeds on itself.

I’ve emailed my former directors to see if they want to help, as they are all still in similar business but somewhat scattered now.

Ref post #17. I have been fully and actively involved in the restoration and operation business for the last sixty years. I do not subscribe to current “Elves wiv safe teef” and still have all my bits and pieces attached where my mother and a willing God have put them. It is called “situational awareness” these days I know but it is really keeping your mind on the job, and self protection. I do not need some jumped up johney telling me that I need a safety guard on that belt, I need 3 or 4 blokes, fall bags, safety nets and suspension harnesses when I go up a ladder in the hangar to change a light bulb. I also don’t need some tw*t to tell me that swinging a three bladed prop on a Gipsy Queen on a Devon is “Very very dangerous!!!”
End of current rant/hisssyfit.

Thanks Buccaneer66. Presumably the moulds were made from drawings. I wonder if the Science Museum cooperated?

I’m just thinking out loud here and wonder now if the three went from Torclad at Blaby to Ansty to have the extra steelwork installed to either fit on the stands or to take the undercarriage. And perhaps to make the wings of one of the three removable before going on to Jet Age as I think they used it as a travelling exhibit before the Museum was built.

Roger Smith.

PS I do like the first of Flanker_man’s pictures – it’s just a shame a “third generation” jet (Lightning?) wasn’t there between the Hunter and the Typhoon.

You have just quoted an isolated statistic that tells us nothing except that 651 died at work in 1974. Fear we may be drifting some way off the original topic.

You’re absolutely right. My apologies. I hit post without reading that through.

Anyway, the point is that before the 1974 legislation, hundreds of people lost their lives every year at work in the UK… Compare that with 2014-15 when 92 people died at work, and I think its clear to see that its not H&S gone mad. Its just about making sure that people get home to their loved ones at the end of a days work.

And I don’t think its thread drift. Its a major factor in the high cost of restoring this ‘aircraft’ (replica).

Thats easy to answer… In 1974, the year that the health and safety at work act came in to being, 651 people died whist at work trying to earn a living so that they could put bread and butter on their plate. Thats not propaganda…. thats fact.

You have just quoted an isolated statistic that tells us nothing except that 651 died at work in 1974. Fear we may be drifting some way off the original topic.

How on earth did we survive before H&S?? Just adds unnecessary costs to what should be a simple inexpensive job……..

Thats easy to answer… In 1974, the year that the health and safety at work act came in to being, 651 people died whist at work trying to earn a living so that they could put bread and butter on their plate. Thats not propaganda…. thats fact.

RPSmith

The company was called Torclad, we did the GRP mouldings in our factory in Blaby, but someone else did the steelwork supports, none of the 3 that we made were on wheels.,

I don’t believe the Farnborough Museum has one on display.

I didn’t see one when I visited FAST a few weeks ago :rolleyes:

Sadly many people did not. It was just hard luck if you were injured or killed. There are also plenty of people walking around today because of H&S rules. Boring, unexciting, but necessary. in my view it’s incorrect interpretation and application of those rules that gives it a bad reputation.

You have obviously succumbed to all the propaganda….. Very good if you happen to be in the “H&S industry” and making money out of it….

Which ‘abomination’ is that sadsack ??

Ken, I think there was a total of 3 made ie road island at Lutterworth, road island at Farnborough and the last on it’s wheels at Jet Age Museum. I don’t believe the Farnborough Museum has one on display.

Buccaneer66 “Where I used to work we made both of those memorials” what company was that and which two (of the three) did you work on? I believe volunteers at Rolls-Royce, Ansty (maybe members of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust) did work on at least one – probably the Jet Age museum one?

Roger Smith.

Funny how there is never a shortage of cash, for arty farty statues such as the “loop” at Hendon (called a memorial by the staf, bewildered I wasnt impressed) or that abomination in Coventry?

Can someone please clarify…….

One on a pole at Lutterworth
One ‘in a similar position’ at Farnborough
One with undercarriage and cockpit at the Jet Age Museum at Staverton

…. and now ‘a 3rd one’ in the museum at Farnborough!!

I photographed this one at RAF Kemble…..

…. and again at the Jet Age Museum…….

Are there 3 more – not just 3 in total ???

Ken

Hear hear….!!! How on earth did we survive before H&S??……..

Sadly many people did not. It was just hard luck if you were injured or killed. There are also plenty of people walking around today because of H&S rules. Boring, unexciting, but necessary. in my view it’s incorrect interpretation and application of those rules that gives it a bad reputation.

Where I used to work we made both of those memorials, they are GRP although we can unfortunately no longer help with maintenance as the company went down the pan 3 years ago due to cash flow.

There should be a 3rd one at Farnborough possibly in the museum, all 3 were made in Blaby not far from Lutterworth.

Must admit my first reaction was “… how much???…” But, after a little thought, I came to more or less the same conclusion as David Burke.

For those that haven’t been there it’s a traffic island on a busy road and, being near the Magna Park warehouse-cum-industrial estate (ex Bitteswell airfield), there are a lot of large lorries going by.

Roger Smith.

The Great Britain of my youth has gone mad. We must have the safest elfs imaginable!

Hear hear….!!! How on earth did we survive before H&S?? Just adds unnecessary costs to what should be a simple inexpensive job……..