Storch

Miles

Glad you liked my Miles machine. Its a honey.

Its a Falcon BTW, not a Witney Straight. The newly restored gem of a Witney Straight ( not sure about the modern paint finish, modern brakes and non-standard electric flaps etc…) at Turweston is nothing to do with me.

The Witney Straight is effectively the same machine as my Magister, but with a side by side 2-seater fuz and a Falcon tail fin/ rudder.

The Falcon is a 3 seater – again pretty much sharing the same wing and tail as the Falcon/ Maggie but with trousered undercarriage and simple sprung U/C as opposed to the spatted wheels/ Airdraulic oleos of the WS and Maggie.

The Falcon is a much prettier machine IMO – but then I could be accused of bias…!!

All the best

HP

Deal Peter,get in line the rest of you,I offered first! 😉

Drat, that puts my bottle of Bombardier into context, doesn’t it?

Adrian

Lets start with Adnams and Hooky.

2 or 3 of those and I’ll agree to anything.

HP

Deal Peter,get in line the rest of you,I offered first! 😉

Beautiful day at OW on Sunday!-nice to see one of your Miles’ (Whitney Straight?) out and about, HP!

Will a box of Hobgoblin do the trick?
😉

I’ll see your box of Hobgoblin and raise it to a crate of Old Peculiar :D:D:D

Roger Smith

Will a box of Hobgoblin do the trick?
😉

Beeeeer

Lets start with Adnams and Hooky.

2 or 3 of those and I’ll agree to anything.

HP

The thing is a 2 seater so some of you will get to sample its delights.

I drink beer……………..

Herr E Pleine.

Mmm,real ale,home brew or that Lager stuff…?!

Falcon

Hi Adrian. Hi RPS.

The Falcon spent the Winter 06/07 in Stockholm. I have no immediate plans to fly it back to Sweden again before its 75th birthday in 2011.

We are preparing to move the aircraft to Leicester – I’m at the top of the hangar list now ( its taken me a while…) and we will enjoy it there. I am a very keen member of Leicester Aero Club.

Lucky? I am a firm believer in the fact that, barring a lottery win, you make your own luck in this life. It wasnt many years ago that I was initially turned down for a £5k bank loan – they finally relented but only after they put a second charge on my house…..

I then endured five years of sleepless nights. During the working day in my new business we dreaded the phone ringing because it was more likely to be a creditor or a complaint rather than an order.

You get one shot at this life. I have taken many risks, some say bordering on the foolhardy. However, I eventually got something right….

If thats luck then I am indeed lucky. It depends on your interpretation of the word.

All the best

HP

It would certainly be nice if she was – she’s so redeolent of the period, and beautiful to boot. Oh to be in the situation where I could consider not playing with my Miles monoplane because I have lots of other wonderful aircraft.

You are a very lucky man, and I’m dead jealous!

Adrian

Peter – going slightly off-topic, been dying to ask about the Falcon.

I think you said last year you might ‘rest’ her for a while – perhaps flying her to Sweden for a rest period. I see she is still at OW is she likely to be flying this year?

Roger Smith.

Thanks for the update & comments!

A beer drinker. Hmmmm.
*starts scheming*

Adrian

Storch update

Hi all,

The precautionary engine tear-down is going well – we hope to have it back in the airframe by the middle of April.

Instruments – all have been overhauled/ calibrated. We did try to persuade the CAA to allow us to use a metric altimeter ( older shots of the cockpit show it) but they were quite emphatic so we changed it for an imperial item.

OK to use a metric ASI though. The static system gave us all sorts of trouble during the test flights so we are substituting the entire original vacuum system for a standard pressure ASI and pitot head – as fitted to later/ French machines.

The French improved the machine a lot even by….ahem… chucking the Argus way and putting a radial on the front. OK, the thing is even uglier but bomb-proof. The later door is more sensible as it clips up under the wing instead of the German car-type with the front hinge as we have now, etc. etc.

My machine is therefore a compromise using all the best bits, whilst using the fussy Argus. The result is a very authentic looking machine that hasnt cost the 3rd world debt in wooden wing etc. remanufacture and, Argus apart, as practical as possible from a maintenance and operation perspective.

Happy to answer all your questions as best I can, I’m as passionate about it as many of you appear to be.

The thing is a 2 seater so some of you will get to sample its delights.

I drink beer……………..

Herr E Pleine.

Is ther a problem with the engine? my father went to Old Warden on monday and said the engine was out of the Storch.

See Hairyplane’s reply in post 5.

Is ther a problem with the engine? my father went to Old Warden on monday and said the engine was out of the Storch.

Thank you for… well, I’m not quite sure what now, seeing as everyone seems to have started a thread about the Storch, but thank you for sharing your wonderful aeroplane with us!

I really must get to OW again this summer to see the Hairywaffe and, if I’ve got my darkroom sorted, I might even have a couple of period cameras handy too for the snaps. Sorry chaps, not Leicas (I wish!), but a Welta Perle and a Zeiss Ikon Box Tengor.

The last time I saw a Storch in the air was the hideously wet display at Duxford in 1982, when I was 10, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what she can (sensibly – no scaring us with YouTube-worthy factory demonstrator stuff, please!) do.

Looking forward to seeing it in the flesh.

Adrian

Amazing with how many types used those rudderpedals in the luftwaffe.

Hi Bruce,
thanks for that I have the umformer for it, would be great to see it going!

Unless you have the inverter for the ‘Wendehorizont’, it will do just that!

Most of the ones we have tested come back to life pretty well.

Bruce

Amazing work being done..anyone going to try recreate Mussolinis rescue?