Excellent stuff, thanks for posting! I’m glad your friend enjoyed his visit.

I’ve passed the message on in an e-mail, and hopefully his feedback will make some more people very happy.

Kind regards,

Rich

True.

WR963 landed at Coventry on 9 July 1991 with 15483.45 hours. She also had several faults listed on arrival, including an intershaft bearing oil leak on No 4 engine.

WL790 landed at Coventry on 10 July 1991 with 14720.20 hours. She had no faults.

Considering the life of the spar booms given in the Shackleton AP gives 6,300 hours on the lower items, it doesn’t take much reasoning to understand BAe’s letters.

Rich

(or similar) are the Design Authority, and therefore have final say as to whether a component is life-expired and needs replacing, why are BAe reputedly blocking attempts to fly? They have no authority or interest….

I have yet to get a satisfactory answer on this.

I don’t think BAe are actively blocking it, (they wouldn’t have sold the archive, drawings, and rights otherwise.) but the letters wrote 1991 – 1993 fixed the CAA’s approach to the whole thing. There lies the problem.

There are some letters on file regarding Design Authority, so we’ll see what turns up.

In late May 1991, British Aerospace were made aware that the Avro Shackletons of 8 Sqn RAF were to be disposed of by auction. They wrote two letters regarding the state of the aircraft – one to the MOD, and one to the CAA. It outlined their company position over the continued operation of the aircraft in private ownership.

These letters form the beginning of why a Shackleton has yet to fly in preservation in the UK.

Here is the letter British Aerospace wrote to the CAA.

Rich

21 April

Today was a good day. The 206 Sqn Association had a reunion/meeting at Coventry, and had requested WR963 be made a available for inspection, and to run later in the day. They had also requested the cafe serve “Honkers Stew”, done to a traditional RAF recipe! (It went down a treat, despite the mars bar, coffee, peaches and lord knows what else went in it … 😮 )

Things kicked off early for us, with coolant replenishment needed on No 4. It blew off just as we shut down last week, so needed topping up again. We also had the ritual of preoiling to do, which involves pulling the Griffons through a few revolutions by hand with the oil pumps running.

At 10am the gates of Airbase opened, and 206 Sqn members of all generations flooded in, making a beeline for the Shackleton. I don’t think any one of them failed to get over the mainspars which was great – at one point I looked out of the co-pilots window to see an abandoned wheelchair and a couple of walking sticks!!

Inside the aircraft the stories started coming thick and fast. Tales of Gibraltar, Ballykelly, Singapore, the Beira patrols… and with such humour. Several old crews were reunited, and it was great to see it and be part of it.

At 1.30pm, we had every seat on the aircraft full, and we started the engines. 1, 3 and 4 were all fairly well behaved. No 2 is still awaiting its turn to join in. No 4 started to run a little bit hotter than the others, so rather than give it the chance to blow off, it was throttled right back to idle and the temperature settled back. Its coolant level will be checked again, and the engine watched closely given the radiator issues brought up here recently.

We ran WR963 for just over half an hour, and had to open the rear door twice to let some people off and others in. All that wanted to had a taste of being on board what is currently the only live Shackleton. For some it was the first time since the 1960’s.

It was brilliant to be able to give the 206 Sqn guys a great day. They are intending to come back, and were very complimentary of our work so far. We even recieved a rare and valuable gift from one gent – WR963 now has an astrocompass.

Other news…

As you’ve probably guessed the mainwheel change has been pushed back slightly. Other aircraft needed the hangar space urgently, and we weren’t going to cause a fuss over it.

We are hoping to get some copies of logbook entries from the people we have met and spoke to who have flown WR963! We’ve been looking at her movement cards and figure now is a good a time as any to start collating her story. If anybody on here has come across her in service and can supply any movements or details please get in touch.

I’ve also been wading through the archive again. I have started to try and get the definitive record of the various attempts to fly the Shackleton in preservation (Atlantique, SPT, ACSET, Heli-med of Cyprus), and I’ll be posting some of the correspondence found shortly. There’s far to much myth and ‘maybe’ out there…. I think its time to put things straight.

The next ground run is going to be in May.

Kind regards

Rich