Who's been flying today?

Do you think, if I ask nicely, he’ll let me borrow his Provost?

Dunno, I have been known to borrow it (just the once). There’ll be an article on the whys and wherefores on that soon. There’ll also be a GREAT pic of me in the article. Alan is a dead good chap. You have reminded me I need to go play Provosts again.

So what did you fly in this week?

G-BAKV, the Thruxton Supercub. Hadn’t flown for six months so Barry Dyke, the CFI, made me do a circuit and then got out (I must have scared him). Just pottered around the circuit a few times to keep legal. Flapless landings in preparation for the Dearwings (Flaps? New-fangled nonsense!).

I need to do some more soon as I hate just doing the minimum but I have a prop and cowlings to pay for. A chap called Russell Williams is over from the US at the moment and he has a collection of Warner-powered aeroplanes. He also put ip the Warner manual on the web so has saved me a lot of effort. He has said he’d like to have a whiz around so we may do the local aviation sites tour. Steve mentioned he’d like to do some Cubbing when he was over last time.

I may just go out looking for corn circles. That is always fun.

Melv

Also sent back the old ones so I can sell them at the next Aerojumble as the lift wires from the hoomebuilt that Douglas Bader flew to Liverpool in 1829.

Brilliant!

What you DON’T pay for is people standing around picking their noses and scratching their bums.

Of course not. That comes at a premium.

Alan House. For being Alan House and very generous.

Do you think, if I ask nicely, he’ll let me borrow his Provost?

Thanks Melvin. It’s always very useful to get recommendations. The names have been mentally registered and may be used in future.

So what did you fly in this week?

BTW I actually went flying this week.

In case you were wondering, it wasn’t in the Rearwin . . . .

Not just yet.

MH

Having posted the other day about the lack of applied planning that is often the case in aviation (and often justified by the phrase “well, that’s aviation”) I thought I would counter this by naming some names of people that are seriously good.

Bruntons. Made the wires for the tail on the Rearwin. delivered on the day they said they would deliver them and exactly to the spec and price. Also sent back the old ones so I can sell them at the next Aerojumble as the lift wires from the hoomebuilt that Douglas Bader flew to Liverpool in 1829.

Vintec. Often accused of being overpriced but you get what you pay for. What you DON’T pay for is people standing around picking their noses and scratching their bums. Very industrious and I have no complaints at all.

Radial Exhaust Systems of West Virginia. Despite apparently going out of business, their boss called me at 10:30am UK time to let me know that he was still going and would totally support my exhaust. This would have been 4:30 in the morning in West Virginia at that time. Dead good chap.

Savage Magnetos of Oakland California. Built my harness and made a very good job of it. Totally shielded and nicely done. I have also had lots of advice and tips. PLUS he made by Magneto P leads on the cheap as he felt bad about the length of time he took to deliver he harness (that hadn’t actually been a problem).

John Tempest at the PFA. Sensible and helpful. We even got some work done when we met by chance at the Shuttleworth evening show when Steve P was over.

Paintshop Products at Aldermaston. After the problems with Randolph and the cmpany I then used in Andover they sorted me out very quickly with exactly what I needed and gave me discount. They also offered discount to everyone in the local PFA Strut.

Alan House. For being Alan House and very generous.

Steve Moon, Aviation panels. Does what he says, when and does it jolly well.

Microair, the Oz radio company. Who told me how to set up my radio over the phone. Excellent product and service.

The company whose name I forget that gave me bungees for the tailwheel steering as a sample.

Avionics Mobile at St Albans. These guys bought out Airline Instruments from Elstree who used to do lots of old instrument building. They also bought Ron the man who did that and he made a great job of all my instruments. To price and delivered on the date they said.

These are just a few off the top of my head, there are others, but i don’t want to make it look like I am blaming everyone. However, I have had the “well it takes time” answer AGAIN this week when it is all bull!

That, however, is another story.

BTW I actually went flying this week.

MH

Now the only things that stand in my way to getting my PPL is the oral exam, written exam, and final checkride. I hope I can pass them all when I get the chance to take them.

It is all common sense or something you can get from a book. Prepare well and relax. Good luck, you are almost there.

Melvyn Hiscock

As it happens I flew a couple of days ago, but it wasn’t a typcial flight.

I did my last cross country flight for my PPL. It was the long one that’s required. It must be three legs (i.e. at least three landings total counting the one that gets you on the ground for the final time), and one leg of the trip must be at least 100 nautical miles.

My total flight time was around 3 hours so I was in the air for quite some time, but I must say the weather was perfect, and I had a very nice ride.

Now the only things that stand in my way to getting my PPL is the oral exam, written exam, and final checkride. I hope I can pass them all when I get the chance to take them.

David, I was not generally referring to M3 organisations and I know there are good and bad customers just as there are good and bad workers. I know exactly what you mean about priorities too, I have got that over the years when working on guitars. People are quite happy to pay £75 call out and £55 an hour to get their washing machine fixed but expect me to spend hours working on their guitar for twenty quid. I wonder why I don’t do that anymore?

This is not what I was talking about. I have been constantly amazed by the companies and individuals who just don’t deliver. This starts with Randolph who took my order for Butyrate dope in October 2002 and delivered in June 2003, the company that quoted six weeks for the new prop but it turned into about ten, a company here who overhauled my old prop and who told me, when I asked where it was, that “they didn’t think I was in a hurry”. I had to point out that I may not have been in a hurry when I delivered it to them but that had been ten months before. Add to this a lot of smaller suppliers who have told me “Everything takes time in aviation” when it is clear that they have not even thought about what I needed.

The average time I have waited for one type of work (I won’t specify as I don’t want to hint at the person responsible as that is not fair on a public forum), that I have needed a lot of, has been five months. In some cases jobs have taken over a year to do and this is for no discernable reason. I have often had to wait while other people got done in front of me as my aeroplane is only a hobby (that has cost me way more than it should have) and other people are being kept on the ground (and I’m not?) but, as I said, there just seems to be this air of “It Takes Time”. Planning ahead seems to be a black art for some people.

Part of this may be due to a lot of smaller companies being undercapitalised and possibly even down to companies having pulled out the stops in the past only to have people go off and play golf instead, but it is an attitude I have come across on more than the odd occasion.

Please don’t think I am being “Mr Anti-M3 organisation” as I am not since my aeroplane is PFA and is being done by me, but I am only mentioning things that have been said to me and that I have not found in other places that I have worked.

I used to work for a company where I was responsible for getting $10m worth of kit to customers on time and exactly to spec. This was not actually that difficult as with planning and attention to detail it was straightforward. Having been able to do that in one industry to find that I can’t even get a specialist paint company to supply specialist paint in less than eight months is a joke – and not a very funny one as it cost me a lot of money.

I won’t even get started on the company that tried to pinch bits off me, the people that have messed me about and those that still owe me money!

I agree with you that not everyone is to blame, but I seem to have found more than my fair share over the last three and a half years!

Melvyn

Melvyn – having worked for an M3 it’s interesting to hear of your thoughts!
It’s also worth noting the number of pilots who love to have an all singing /dancing GPS moving map but consider replacement parts which prolong the life of the aircraft a waste.
I have seen it all – people in a hurry for you to get an aircraft ready for the weekend and then they decide to play golf instead ! Another one is th number of people who expect you to do it for the love of it!
The secret of good maintainance is having a good working relationship with your M3 and working out some kind of maitainance schedule that will allow for the aircraft to be out of the air at a time when it’s not in demand.

I am not saying this is what has happened to you oh Mogster,
Melv

There was a horrible inevitability about it.

We weren’t happy with our existing maintenance operation and took the decision to switch to the new M3 facility at Old Buck. But being new it took some time to get up and running, so the “Early May, allows a month for the STAR” became “mid-May and not enough time” 🙁

So, it’s Normandy by Citroen. But at least I’ll be able to bring back a shed-load of cheap booze.

Moggy

PS

Havn’t been flying at all since 17/12/03. Been a bit busy sticking dynamite up people’s bottoms.

Melv

With only a couple of days left of this week and a holiday on Monday you can see that the best we could hope for, even with a miraculous appearance of the silencer, might be delivery late Tuesday.
Moggy

One of the things I have come to hate while I have been rebuilding the Rearwin is the attitude that “everything in aviation takes time” while nothing gets planned and nothing gets anticipated. I am not saying this is what has happened to you oh Mogster, but I have had a lot of it. There seems to be an all-pervading culture of “Why can’t we do this?” instead of “what can we do to get the job done?”.

There are people that can do it, but they are not as thick on the ground as they could be.

Melv

Sorry to hear of your problems Moggy, I can’t even offer you a lift as G-DEMH goes on star annual on Tuesday, so I too will be grounded for a little while, however I guess I can work a little harder and push it along a little but alas my trip to Sandown is no longer going to happen.

That’s unfortunate. Any chance of ARNE being done in time?

Not a chance in hell. That’s why I went down the menders to see if I could chivy them, but there were holes in the silencer box and that has to be replaced, but there are no units in the UK so it means it is en-route somewhere from the US but there seems to be no tracking system. Then the remaining two non-sealed struts have to be replaced. We knew about this, so already have them, but apparently that is no 20 minute job.

With only a couple of days left of this week and a holiday on Monday you can see that the best we could hope for, even with a miraculous appearance of the silencer, might be delivery late Tuesday.

Hands up all those who would take a forty five year-old aircraft straight out of deep maintenance across the Channel 😮

Moggy

😀 Belgium was bright warm and sunny today.

It’s not for the day.

Unfortunately, nobody likes to rent out an aircraft for five days and then get it back with just three or four hours on the tacho. 🙁

Moggy

Today I stood in the hangar at Old Buck looking at the depressingly dismantled state of the Colt that was supposed to take me to Normandy next Wednesday.

No chance 🙁

Moggy

Grafly: Would that have been in the red Chipunk?

Unfortunately not this time it was already booked out, I think the Chip(m)unk will be used as the business deals get closer!! That royal connection may just do the trick !! 😀

Grafly: Would that have been in the red Chipmunk?

Well it’s today where I am….

Local trip from Henlow this morning with a new business associate, usual stuff, photograph the house…what does this do…what happens if……can I have a go…..All went very well and she even bought lunch !! 🙂

Better late than never …

Yak-52TD (but you knew that)
Bellanca Scout

Maybe a half-day trip to Belgium tomorrow … more when it is confirmed.

Anyone going to the Breighton At Home Day this weekend? They’ve got a Radial Engine Fly-in too.