How exciting, this is the very first aeroplane I ever went up in. My late uncle Les, an ex-FAA Hellcat pilot, took me and my dad up from Ipswich in, I think, 1973 when I was seven. Sorry I cannot help with the parts.
FB and JV look pretty completely stripped. They are both parked near the hanger alongside the road to the DC6 Diner.
As far as I know, Atlantic already has two 737 Classics, a highly polished blue and white one which we see at Coventry a lot and a dull white one with green stripes which we see only occasionally (it was there yesterday). They do of course have various ATPs in various colours.
The Twin Pioneer recently moved from the flight hanger to the restoration hanger.
The blue Canberra has moved from outside to the flight hanger.
Amongst the aircraft still visible at Coventry (off the top of my head and work is taking me elsewhere most days at the moment so this list is incomplete):
Meteor T model
Meteor NF model
Heron
Two Dakotas (G-AMPY and G-ANAF)
Pembroke
Rapide
Dove (Devon)
Dave, Atlantic still has one flying and two hulks, see here:
All about the Atlantic Electras here:
It’s just left and was filmed by a professional looking camera. As I then passed a distinguished veteran canadian pilot and TV regular in the corridor, there might be a reason for that!
On the apron with APU and fuel trucks in attendance. Runway 05 in use. (Don’t blame me if it doesn’t go anywhere!)
There is talk of Just Jane, the Coventry Shackleton (WR963) and the Coventry DC6 (G-APSA) returning to flight but the money involved is eye watering.
Just been running its engines. No suggestion that it is going to fly. Apart form the weather being awful, they will need to pump-up the nose tyre first!
LOFE is parked outside the maintenance hanger this morning. Both Electra hulks are also now there so with a bit of imagination and a wide angle lens a keen photopgrapher might get all three in one shot. It is damp, freezing and there’s a horrible wind so you’d have to be keen!
Pretty much wot Moggy said. I would add one other thought about doing a PPL quickly abroad if your goal is to be a UK based leisure pilot. When I did my PPL five years ago, I did have the funds to go abroad and do it quickly. Then my thought process went something like: learn to fly quickly in perfect weather with no controlled airspace (the two things usuallly in the ad’s for the American / Spanish / South African schools) then come come back to fly in the south of England with its unpredictable weather and controlled airspace then kill myself (assuming that someone would rent me an aeroplane at all). So I spent eighteen months learning here which I thoroughly enjoyed and made me a suitable pilot for the task in hand. If you want to go commercial the arguments are very different.
The theory side of the PPL is not very difficult (I did mine only five years ago) so my first advice is stop worrying.
There are two sets of standard text books, look at both and decide which you think suits you best. I preferred the large AFE ones but other people prefer the other set.
Make sure you buy a new and most recent edition of the Air Law one as laws made by humans change all the time. The other subjects are essentially science so were set by the Big Bang and haven’t changed since!
The learning technique is pretty obvious, read the books over and over in digestible chunks. Highlight key bits, do the questions at the end of the chapters (more than once if you struggle first time) and try to use a flight school that has theory sessions when it’s dark or the weather is too bad to fly.
I would advise to buy the question books such as “Exam Secrets” only for Law. Those books essentially teach you to pass the exam not learn the subject properly. Much of the knowledge could easily save your life so skimping on it is foolish.
You are worried about a few pounds for learning materials. If so, do you have either the money or the motivation to fly? Seriously, flying even as a hobby PPL is horribly expensive in time and money.
Good luck and enjoy it. Except for Law, it’s all interesting stuff.
PS try looking at these places:
Anson is looking complete and out on the airfield doing power runs.
Runway 23 in use and it’s a beautiful day.
When I left Coventry on Friday evening, the Anson was still in the hangar (which is now very sparsely populated). No trace of G-AMRA so I guess it did make the trip to Newquay on one of the days I was off site.
No sign of either flying Electra outside here at Coventry this morning.
The south side stuff on Wednesday wasn’t that thrilling. It was only worthy of comment because I rarely see more than one aircraft parked over there. The four were: a couple of light twins; a Dornier; and a large biz jet, one of the older Canadair / Bombardier types I think. It’s still here. I think it’s a regular visitor.