By: Sibs - 14th March 2003 at 13:09
Not forgetting the Bucc at Elvington (XN974?) Taxi’s along opening and closing it’s wings. Not that flapping the wings is really enough to get it airbourne…
By: Glen - 13th March 2003 at 21:03
Spot on David and no the CAA have not yet accepted the type for a “permit to fly”. We obtained a “permit to test” last year for the flights in the UK before export to SA.
By: David Burke - 13th March 2003 at 20:58
The CAA i understand would have allowed the SA Buccaneer to fly on the premis of a permit to test to get her airworthy and abroad.
I don’t know if they have accepted the type for a permit to fly.
The Buccaneer uses cables,control tubes and the like but the point is that the pilot has an input through these to the pfcu.
Essentially by moving a hydraulic valve of the unit the control surface moves. This is fine except when a hydraulic fault occurs
and then with a loss of pressure you also loose the input.
Obviously there are backup’s like a ram air turbine in the case of the Harrier GR.3/T series and Sea Vixen but when they pop out you are in big trouble anyway!
The concern with machine’s like Buccaneers and Lightnings
is the mass of the machine and the possibility of a bird strike etc bringing one down.
I have supplied the team at Scampton with spares for her
but it’s worth pointing out that her wheels won’t ever leave tarmac unless the CAA are entirely happy and I am sure that HHA wouldn’t want it any other way. The saga of the Lightning in the U.K and attempts to fly them on the British register has more to it than just the CAA being the’ baddy’ !
By: Glen - 13th March 2003 at 20:30
Bucc’s have no manual reversion for the flying controls, they are all hydraulically / electrically powered. i.e there are no rods, pulleys or cables to enable the aircraft to be flown without the aid of the aircrafts systems.
By: AlexisLambert - 13th March 2003 at 19:10
What backup control systems do Spitfires and other warbirds have?
As far as i can tell they’re all the same when plummeting out of control.
By: Tom_W - 13th March 2003 at 18:01
I spoke to our CAA rep recently and it transpires that the reason why they cannot permit a Bucc, Lightning or anything else like this is that they have no backup in the case of in flight failure of the control system which is understandable in built up areas like we get in this country. They do try their best (sometimes) and have made ****-ups in the past which is why they are so pernickety about things now.
Tom
By: DOUGHNUT - 13th March 2003 at 16:19
Don’t hold your breath. It will take money, money, paper work and more money, whilst money can be earn’t and spent the CAA paper mountain will surely kill this project as it did the Lightning. A better solution would be a bit of TLC and the opportunity see and hear the aircraft perform fast taxi-ing, as per Bruntingthorpe’s Lightnings.
What happened to the Buccaneer’s that used to be at Bruningthorpe for that very reason?
DOUGHNUT
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March 13, 2003 at 3:59 pm