AgCatI recognise the pilot – the infamous Flt Lt ‘Puddy’ Catt!
AgCatBasset Bits
Beagle Gent: You need to watch the Liquidity website for all the regular UK MOD aircraft spares tenders but you have to be a registered company to trade with them. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the web address! They trade as Liquibiz and are the UK arm of the US company Liquidity Services Inc – perhaps you can link to them through the US parent. I recall that some time last year a few oddments of Basset stuff came up but I think that most of the MOD stuff is at Boscombe Down supporting the ETPS bird. Even Boscombe Down has been buying up complete aircraft for spares so I suspect that stocks in the UK are getting pretty thin. Can only suggest that you scour the world and buy up any derelict aircraft you find.
AgCatStill at Stafford. Contact Air Historical Branch at Bentley Priory for details.
AgCatWEST RAYNHAM CONCRETE CRUNCHING
I’m not sure that the title of this thread still reflects what we are talking about – still, here goes!
In the latest issue of Airfield Review, journal of the Airfield Research Group, it is reported that a statement in the Defence Contract Bulletin advises that Raynham’s technical and domestic sites have been sold to an organisation called Hodge Homes for around £9m. The airfield area itself has gone back to its previous owners under the Crichel Down rules.
AgCatPUP DOWN UNDER
Hi there Mazda. Take the advice of OzPlane and contact de Havilland Support Ltd – use [email]info@dhsupport.com[/email]
If the aircraft has had the sort of accident you indicate you need to ensure that any repairs were carried out properly and that there is no hidden damage lurking to snare the unwary. As OzPlane says, if it has the 100 hp Continental 0-200 it will be no pocket rocket.
AgCatDavid: Just holding a load of drawings, even if the supporting design calculations, test reports and other data is also available, demonstrates no competency in aircraft design and conveys no authority to act as or assume the responsbilities of a Type Certificate (TC) holder. A TC holder has always had to show the CAA (and the ARB before that) that its design and airworthiness staff have the skill, knowledge and experience to discharge the responsibilities listed in British Civil Airworthiness Requirements (BCAR). Such people are not normally to be found in a local museum service, however capable that the Leicestershire Mueums Service has been in ensuring the supply of drawings; Peter Stoddart’s efforts have been sterling and he has helped me a number of times with my own aircraft.
In terms of the various Lycoming conversions which have appeared, I cannot say with any certainty what the design basis of each conversion has been – I have not studied in detail all of the AANs. Some converters may have modelled their work on Auster’s precedent whilst others may have adopted a clean sheet of paper approach. Whatever the approach used, the CAA will have ensured that all aspects of BCAR will have been complied with, some more easily than others. Ensuring that these powerful conversions have sufficient tail area is a problem that will have been confronted by them all, with the fin fillet perhaps being found the simplest and therefore cheapest solution. As they say in my part of the world, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
AgCatAIRWORK – AND THE TORNADO DEBACLE!
Yes, Airwork has held a lot of military contracts. Wasn’t one of them the Tornado F3 “25 FI” Programme down at St Athan? Airwork was contracted to embody the 25 FI structural reinforcement modifications on the first batch of approx 20 Tornado F3 aircraft. Their people were, shall we say, a little ‘agricultural’ in the way that rivets were removed and damage was caused to the centre fuselages of 15 or more aircraft. The whole thing went to court and the MOD received significant compensation, although it did not cover the cost of repairing the F3s by grafting in the centre fuselage sections from the first F2s.
I seem to recall that as a result of the Tornado debacle, Airwork’s owners (a Swedish holding company I believe) sold off the contract services division to Shorts, whilst retaining the Tornado liability. Airwork was by then also running the Tucano and station multi-activity contract at Linton-on-Ouse so the label on the blokes’ overalls was changed from Airwork to Shorts. Shorts by then was part of Bombardier, so the labels on the overalls were changed again, to Bombardier. At that point, Vosper-Thornycroft was looking to expand into the defence services business, with an eye to big upcoming contracts for the future strategic tanker/transport aircraft and military flying training, and they took over the Linton/Tucano contract; and the names on the overall was changed again. They also made the winning bid for the Bulldog replacement from Airwork’s old offices near Hurn and run the Grob 115 Tutors for the RAF elementary flying training task.
So, the ghost of Airwork lives on, but in a much different form. The root of its demise seems to have been the Tornado debacle (in the mid- to late-1990s).
AgCatFLIGHTS IN PERMIT AIRCRAFT – AND AUSTER CERTIFICATION!
I think it needs to be made clear that the CAA position re pleasure flights in Permit to Fly aircraft does not apply just to Air Atlantique. All owners of PtF ‘warbirds’ were sent the letter (dated 12th October) reminding them of the requirements of the ANO and that the CAA would investigate and prosecute if necessary. AACF have perhaps been more overt than most in widely advertising their flights.
For David: I doubt that Leicester Museums have ever held the ‘Type Certificate’ for Austers. Firstly, there isn’t a TC for the Auster and the UK basis of certification for the different models will be a so-called exemplar Airworthiness Approval Note (AAN). To hold a TC or to assume the responsbilities as a Type Design Organisation requires compliance with British Civil Airworthiness Requirements (BCAR) Section A – design staff, procedures etc and pay lots of money to the CAA. Austers have been ‘orphan aircraft’ for eons, and have been listed as such in Airworthiness Notice 26 for yonks.
As for Lycoming conversions of Austers, these have all been done legit, and are fully documented on AANs. You can view them (for G-AGVG for example, which by my reckoning is one of the best) on the CAA website.
My own take on the situation is that Austers should go on a PtF, which is what the MAJORITY of owners want. This will keep them going safely and legally for the longest period of time. Why should the minority, who undoubtedly do want to stay on a CofA, sway the situation in their favour at the expense of the majority? Rant over.
AgCatREFUELLING FIRES IN RAF GERMANY
On the day that 256 Sqn (I think that was its number) arrived at Bruggen from Wahn during 1956 the aircraft (Meteor NF11) were being refuelled by booms from a Faun or Bussing bowser. As the tanks reached full the refueller released the nozzle trigger and the pressure pulse bounced back to the bowser, which should have sensed the increase in pressure and shut down the pumps.
Unfortunately, the pulse of increased pressure ruptured the rubber hose at the top of the boom. As a result the pressure was not sensed by the bowser which did not shut off and continued to pump fuel (AVTAG) onto the apron. Being more volatile than AVTUR, vapours from the spilled fuel were sucked into the engine air antake and the engine revved up, pumping out the fuel even faster. As flames began to pour from the exhaust of the revving engine the inevitable happened and the whole lot went up in smoke.
A very brave driver jumped into the cab of the bowser and drove it away but a couple of aircraft were lost in the conflagration. The cause of this was not static electricity, but the effect was just as dramatic.
AgCatDUXFORD BOOK
Anyone have details of the title, author and ISBN of this new book on Duxford?
AgCatAh – so it was a Global Express. At least I did realise that it was not a VC 10! It was certainly an interesting formation. Someone did tell me that the biz jet’s owner has had the silhouette of a Spitfire in plan form painted across the underside of the jet – I was not close enough to see if that was the case.
AgCatGETTING CLOSE AND PERSONAL
PP – if you have not already been, go and have a look at AirSpace for yourself. I had the opportunity to visit AirSpace earlier this week. You can almost touch the RE8, Tiger Moth and Mossy. It seemed to me that by sticking to the relatively staid ‘flying’ poses the special attachments for hanging the aircraft have been made very unobtrusive. Those on the aircraft in the AAM, for example, look agricultural in comparison. Similarly, from what I have seen in photos posted on this Forum, the wires used to hang the aircraft at Cosford seem to be much more numerous and thicker in order to hold the aircraft in their dramatic ‘ballistic’ poses, as is also the case in the AAM. Whilst I have yet to see the Cosford display in the flesh, I know what floats my boat for now. Moreover, I suspect that the nature of the original structure of the AirSpace also imposed some limitations in how much imagination could be used in posing the suspended aircraft. That said, some of the danglers have the landing gear down and some have it retracted. To me, the Mossy, Canberra and Dove in particular seem to benefit from being displayed with the gear up. The Strikey also has the gear up and with its full set of SNEB pods looks very business-like.
AgCatRoger: The runway at Old Warden is anything but Moth friendly, even after the work that was done on it over the last couple of years.
AgCatPropstrike – I don’t think that the Moth Club is pitching its Woburn event to attract the family outing brigade or to give ‘value for money’ for the paying punters. It seems to me that the Club is trying to keep its Woburn tradition alive in the face of rabid exploitation by the Abbey’s business managers. It is they who are pitching for the family outing market, even to the extent this year of advertising heavily on TV, although they would say that your ticket gives access to the Abbey and other attractions as well as access to the Deer Park. Oh, I think you will find that it is FLOUR bombing rather than flower bombing.
Ewan HA – I think you can only access the Club enclosure as a member of the Moth Club or as the guest of a member.
AgCatSENIOR MANAGEMENT
I think Papa Lima and Moocher have detected the same sort of whiff I have. With the project seemingly in crisis and perhaps even in its death throes, why is senior management not being seen to be in firm day-to-day control of the developing situation? At no time more than now is a firm hand needed on the tiller and that reassurance does not seem to be there. From the posts made on this thread it is clear that the workers are putting everything into keeping the project afloat. Loyalty cuts both ways – is it now just a one-way street?
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