ZRX613. George Clooney is very nice in person. Jealousy will get you nowhere!]
It has nothing to do with jealousy, it’s his political activism concerning only the parts of the US Constitution that he likes should apply to everyone… & campaigns to take away the rights of people who don’t think the way he does.
ZRX61The C-47 N24320 “Miss Montana” (#12 for the crossing) made it into Prestwick today.
At present, the C-47 N150D “101st Airborne Tribute” (#13) is flying direct from Goose Bay, Canada to Reykjavik, Iceland.
Looks to be a 10hr flight.
ZRX61N47E, N47SJ, N103NA, N45366, N62CC, N74589 and N47TB landed DX today
So nine at Dx now?
ZRX61All Thanks for the info so far, so looking into the FAA certification type for BT-13 I have found the FAA doc 8130.2J chapter 8 Table 8.1 usefully details the Special Airworthiness Limited Type Certificate category aircraft which is mainly all the familiar ww2 types however the BT-13 is not on there…however from what I’ve read online there are BT-13 on a standard type certificate? , so is there a FAA doc/ list somewhere to confirm this?
on a broader question the table 8.1 misses off warbird types e.g the Bell P39 – so does this mean that any flying are on now on experimental category or could they be standard as well (Im hypothesising that light lower performance warbirds are mostly standard cat and high performance heavy complex types are either “special limited “or “experimental”)
ZRX61Looks to be 4 at Dx & 3 more enroute?
ZRX61OK, so clarity sake taking a familiar example Supermarine Spitfire in UK operation is it a CAA CofA or CAA PtF aircraft ? what formal qualifications does each of the following require:
Volunteer (unpayed) rookie (is this legally allowed if an approved maintenance org is stipulated for type/ are there work arounds ?)
Employed mechanic
Employed inspector
Chief Tech
Volunteer just needs to be mechanically apt, but there’s a whole list of stuff they’re not allowed to do (inspections, sign stuff off etc)
Chief Tech would be the Pete Rushens & John Romains of the world. Pete was RAF & BBMF, I think John did some kind of apprenticeship?.. However, I’m not familiar with what pieces of wallpaper or licenses they have.
ZRX61The Hap Arnold C-41A N341A (#15 for the crossing) is starting its journey from California this morning. The plan is to get as far as Gary, Indiana today, with a fuel stop at Denver, Colorado.
It left Oakland at 1.25pm today & is due to land in Rock Springs, Wyoming around 7pm. Currently cracking along at 182mph @ 13,200ft
ZRX61I see the BBC is now using a formation photo clearly marked “file”.
The photo editors probably don’t realize that the markings and serials represent a specific aircraft.I have some sympathy for the Piper pilot, when I was flying a helicopter over a river (where I was supposed to be), I was very closely overtaken on the right by a larger and much faster police helicopter. Aside from not passing on the left, he didn’t make his intentions known over the radio and was a bit startling.
Broadly similar to when a noisey, speeding motor bike comes out of nowhere and nearly takes your side mirror off while passing.
When you’re on a bike the widest point is (usually) where your hands are on the handlebars. It’s quite easy to judge gaps that are 5-6in wider than the bars, even when traveling at warp factor stupid. By the time most car drivers notice the bike, the rider is already passing the next car in front of them. I’ve got GoPro videos taken from my bike on LA freeways that look more than a bit scary, but actually weren’t at all.
ZRX61Considering viability of future ownership of bottom tier american warbirds in particular stinson l5 sentinel all way up to something like a vultee valiant – both types I believe are orphaned ?
Having done some analysis and surfing up on cost of operation of equivalents types for the Valiant (chippy and yaks) I’m estimating uk operation ROM costs averaged over 10years at 30 to 50flhrs per year of £30K per annum (all costs inc budget hangarage) assuming aircraft to start with is good restored condition and I’m excluding the unknown costs associated with transfer onto CAA for moment..
Controlling cost of operation at the vultee valiant end of the scale would be key concern but so is the hassle v benefit factor and the need to avoid costly mistakes and dead ends – so I have 3 scenarios:
1 buy in america and keep it there under FAA ruling and get scheduled flights to america to operate it periodically (90 day visa)
2 buy and import and operate uk under FAA ruling
3 Buy and import and transafer to CAAOption 1 appears to have least initial logistics cost hassle solution, hangarage is plentiful and cheap and I’d imagine easier access to maintainers and overhaulers engine shops familiar on type, also when it comes to selling it on again it is still located in the biggest market . And finally exploring america and it’s aviation history/flyins is a very good excuse for an aircraft
option 2 I’m not sure about – is there people in uk doing this on FAA orphaned warbird types – (2) are there UK based FAA maintainers that could work on these orphaned types?
option 3 have read scare stories of importing FAA GA classic aircraft and transferring to CAA only to find total rebuilds necessary and years of paperwork delay plus future retransfer back to FAA not possible? Would the vultee valiant and stinson sentinel both be CAA permit to fly types?
Im also after a feel for what level of inspection strip down the CAA would insist and what sort of things they are looking to verify e.g FAA maintenance v actual airframe condition? e.g. The valiant has a wet wing so how do you inspect that without drilling the rivets out so would CAA accept FAA maintenance paperwork that it has had wet wing rebuilt recently in short how can you fully in spec without fully disassembling whole airframe? Is it spot checks at key risk locations ? Any guidance here would be appreciated
sorry long post and possibly not best forum for all questions but any anybody got any viewpoint on the merits and viabilities of some of the above?
thanks
1) As mentioned: US based trust/501c3.
2) There’s quite a few, I know TFC had one or two before I emigrated, I assume they still do.
FAA database lists a little over 19,000 foreign based A&P’s with 395 IA’s. Not sure how many of them are in the UK:
https://registry.faa.gov/activeairmen/M70_Active_NonPilots_Detail_Foreign.pdf
There’s also this:
https://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/vintage_experimental/
This bit lists who ya need to sign you off. You might recognize a few names:
ZRX61Legend Airways DC3 N25641 Is now at Dx.
ZRX61Best way is to have experience of working on anything and apply to see how far you can get. Experience in types is getting harder and harder to find. Ideally wood and fabric or metal working skills preferred over license requirements.
Last time I had to come up with a list covering *experience* I ended up with 70 different types from 12 different countries.. which was WAY more than I was thinking before I sat down to come up with the list. There was some rare stuff (N3N, Sipa 200, Reno Unlimiteds etc).
ZRX61It very much depends on whether the aircraft in question still has the technical support of the original manufacturer. i.e. Cessna or a subsequent company that’s holds the design authority, i.e. Textron, these are operated with a CAA or EASA Certificate of Airworthiness, or in the case of some warbird types a CAA Permit to Fly, and have to be worked on by an approved organisation with suitably qualified engineers. For older aircraft this can still be the case. However, where there’s no continuation then the aircraft are considered orphans and as such most are operated on a Permit to Fly, the administration of which is delegated by the CAA to the Light Aircraft Association. For these types, certain aspects of the aircraft’s maintenance schedule, or repairs, can be performed by the owner, or a suitably experienced individual, under the supervision of an engineering inspector. However, there are weight and powerplant limitations to this arrangement, and I would expect most of the lighter types at Old Warden would be on an LAA Permit to Fly, the more powerful or complex types such as the Comet, Provost, Spitfire, Lysander, etc. would be operated on a CAA Permit to Fly.
What about the license for the mechanic? I saw something about BCAR(?) but it was a bit vague.
ZRX61270+ views & no one has a clue? Are there no UK aircraft restorers/mechanics on here?
ZRX61The difference between an ‘airfield’ (or ‘aerodrome’) and an ‘airport’ in UK used to be defined as the latter having Customs facilities, so if Goodwood has Customs facilities then technically it would be defined as an airport. Presence or absence of hard runways, landing aids, busy passenger or freight flight schedules, and fancy passenger terminals with swish boarding jetties etc was a secondary consideration.
So, assuming that definition still applies, and Goodwood has a customs facility available then it can technically be described as an airport.
(Removes pedant hat…)
The operative word is *port*
Although with that said, I refer to them all as *the airfield* or just *the field*… including LAX.
ZRX61U2 on climb out while I was outside waiting for the dog to poop… (he’s suffering stage fright owing to a pair of rather territorial swallows)
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