RAF is run just like an airline these days, generaly the fuel goes back to supplier for reprocessing. No such thing as free fuel any more .

I work for an airline and we are not allowed to have the fuel back from our maintenace organisation.

Ball park we loose 100,000 litres a year during maintenance plus whatever gets dumped from aircraft in storage (which have to have full tanks). That is 9 tonne per aircraft, and we have had 25 different aircraft in storage over the past few years!

There is no practical change in the maintenance when on a Permit. It is still carried out to the Light Aircraft Maintenance Schedule. There are operational restrictions, no hire or reward, night flying and if you want to go abroad it requires a bit of pre-planning.

The biggest change for me is a different address to send the cheque too, and there are more of them and bigger than what there used to be. :rolleyes:

The archive is definitely still held by Meggitt at the Holbrook site.

I was there this week and asked about it. I was told they have everything, right back to part number ‘AH 1’.

As an aside there was a pair of Vulcan brake units in for overhaul.

We can make them up at Tollerton.

They are very tricky and time consuming to do though, which makes them not exactly cheap. 😮

Off topic, but I heard XP226’s previous owner name mentioned on Terry Wogan’s show this morning, bidding for the ride with the Vulcan.

Not sure if he won it, but it went for £25,500:eek::eek:

A bit of an update now showing on NAM’s website!

No mention of sweeping! 🙁

Having worked on the Comet, back in the day, I would go for the runway sweeping option everytime.

Any idea what wings they are exactly?

Cheers, André

Hi Andre

No, not even 100% sure they were Auster wings, only noticed them in passing. The other set, as I mentioned, are off an Aiglet and are short span so no good for you (thet are damaged anyway). You could try giving the maintenance company at Leicester a call, they look after a few Austers.
Swiftair +44 116 2593629.

You could also try posting on the Auster club forum.

well, in a dry sump engine (like the Gipsy Major) usually the oil tank itself works as a cooler, as the temperatures reached are not as high as in the wet sump system. This kind of modification would probably be suitable for operation in warmer countries, where oil could get a bit hotter than usual.

All the J5/F’s I have ever seen have oil coolers, mine certainly left Rearsby with one. I would have thought any Auster, built originally for export to Australia, would also have had one fitted.