I am pretty sure that USAF have used the system since the days of World War 2 where a Crew Chief has total responsibility for one aircraft and that is why his name appears on the side for the aircraft.

The USAF has always enjoyed a better manpower to aircraft ratio than the RAF so consequently on a Sqn of say 12 aircraft each would have its own individual Crew Chief and he/she would then have a full team of specialists under his/her command.

The RAF have always embraced the concept of a centralised manpower core responsible for all of the aircraft on the Sqn. This would be led by an Engineer Officer or two and a WO Eng. There would be a Flt Sgt per shift and before the introduction of the Chief Technician rank, they were always called Chiefy.(The most famous one of course being Chiefy Powell of 617 Sqn fame).

The Flt Sgt (and later the Chief Tech) would corral his troops and prioritise which aircraft would be worked on and in which order.

Interestingly RAF Regiment Flt Sgts are still referred to as ‘The Chiefy’ which causes some people confusion, because instead of finding somebody wearing 3 stripes and a propellor, the hapless individual is confronted by 3 stripes and a crown.

Has it lit yet?

We often used to see ‘Canberras’ with really big engines and very long wings on survey duties in Afghanistan operated by NASA.

The thing Tony is talking about is better known as a Hernia Kit. I seem to recall it was invented by a bloke in the RAF who got a fiver for his trouble and everybody now uses them. The inventor must be sick as a parrot when he sees that the likes of AE Tools are selling them for £350!

Ther used to be a drawing which Stn Workshops used to make these kits so it may be worth having a trawl around and see if you can get one or maybe even somebody has a kit they could loan you. The drawback of course is you have to be able to get at least one fastener out to use it.

Dzus fasteners are a pain if corroded in, belting them with an impact driver as such is not much use as the way the cam mechanism works means the fastener will go into the panel against the spring pressure and not provide the impact driver with anything to purchase against and turn.

Fortunately you have time on your side so get all the paint off then let the magic fluid penetrate and do its stuff. When it was a race to get a jet serviceable, out came the drill and off with their heads!

Having scanned through his piece in this month’s Flypast where he talks about the impending retirement of VC10, Nimrod and the likelyhood of a TriStar, I would ask him to look into the preservation of at least one example of the one aircraft which has been involved in every aspect of British military action since it was introduced in 1967.

As far as I am aware there are no plans to preserve even a solitary C130K in this country after their retirement. We missed a trick by not putting a single buy back aircraft in a museum somewhere, the delay in receiving the J model should have been used as a bargaining chip to save one from the shredder.

There is not now, or ever has been since 1945, a single aircraft type in the inventory that has been in harms way more than Albert. I may be biased but one should be saved and a suitable AV presentation built around it detailing the unparalleled service this aircraft type has given.

It’s me again!

Does anyone have a picture of the specific panel highlighted in red on this pic of XL190s cockpit by Dr Strangelove?

It is a Victor K2 Co pilots side panel

Thanks in advance!