Miles away from being airworthy……

If its any consolation, its tailwheel assembly is still flying, on my Tipsy Trainer, G-AISA!

G-APOD suffered some heavy damage in a landing accident in Yorkshire (I think) in 1985/1986 and it seems many of its parts were sold to other Tipsy owners.

The majority of the airframe was last heard of in the Dundee area. Not too sure whether it is under restoration or whether it has been used as a spares source for the restoration of G-AISC.

G-APIE, owned by David Beale and based near Cambridge, is the sole flying Belfair and a regular visitor to vintage fly-ins around Europe.

One of the problems with EH listing status is that it does not actually protect the buildings, it merely guides planning authorities in approving or preventing development.

There is barely any legal pressure on the owners of Listed Buildings to maintain them in servicable condition and sometimes they are merely left to deteriorate until demolition is the only option.

One typical case is the former RAF Bicester. The technical area, managed by Defence Estates, is listed by English Heritage as being one of the most original, complete sets of buildings making up an early WW11 ‘expansion era’ aerodrome. It is authentic still down to having its 1940 air raid shelters and AA emplacements.

It has however received the bare minimum of ‘care and maintenance’ over the past 20 or so years. It seems D.E. won’t allow anyone access to survey the current state of the buildings, but that fact that there is allegedly a tree growing through the roof of one of the early 1930s hangars, perhaps says it all!

The good news is that the rest of the airfield is being kept in good order by Windrushers Gliding Club. Hopefully someone will come along who can help save the rest!

As the post above, the prime reason for the glass nose on airliners was to aid visual navigation as electronic navaids were pretty nearly non-existent in Russia in the 1960s and 1970s.

In most Russian airliners of the period such as the Tu-104, the navigator sat at a desk in the nose, just ahead of the pilots.

While I am sure that when the aircraft were overseas, reconnaissance was done, it should be remembered that the vast majority of Aeroflot flights were internal flights within Russia.

It should also be remembered that the navigators on flights in Russia were effectively in command of the aircraft. it was they who directed the pilots course, and no doubt were they the first to become salt miners if the flight was late or lost!

Could make an interesting “aircrew” article James? 😉

Following on from Schneiderman’s thread…..

Airshow crowd problems at Blackpool too……

In a similar vein, without the powerful engine bit……

Also heading overseas…. well, the Solent!