HairyplaneCleaning the Shuttleworth machines
Well done all.
Such enthusiastic volunteers are the lifeblood of The Collection. As a charitable trust it is impossible to justify paying employees to do this.
I use a Halfords crawling board to scoot about under my machines in the hangar.
So many people come up to the fence and ask me for a flight. Conversely, how many have actually come up to me at the fence just to volunteer to help me get the oil and bugs off? Er..less than one……
The good news is that the Maggie cowlings have just been ‘luvved up’ so will hopefully look good for 05 without hours of elbow grease/ Solvol.
Seriously, any regular, reliable help given to me after each show will be rewarded in the best way possible. I can’t poach you guys – we need more!!
HP
HairyplaneUpper Heyford
I fly over it regularly – a car park that I am sure is visible from space. I think they are Rovers? As I never fly below 500ft………
I understand that the bomb-proof F111 aircraft shelters will be there forever, the cost of demolishing them renders it non-viable.
UH was a US town in effect c/w bowling alley, cinema, American ‘black and white’ cop cars, Hershey bars etc. (The Americans might be good at many things but making chocolate ain’t one of them.Yuk! Must go…theres a couple of big blokes in suits and dark glasses at the door…
HP
HairyplaneNo problem
The CAA Website G-INFO will give you address details of all G Regd aircraft.
Here’s the link
http://www.caa.co.uk/srg/aircraft_register/ginfo/search.asp
HP
HairyplanePlane bits….
An interesting topic.
In WW2 my great uncle on Sheppey tippytoed out to a beached B17 at low tide off Bartons Point Sheerness – it was badly shot up and force-landed on the sand at low tide without further injuries to the crew – and liberated some control cables/ turnbuckles from it just before the salvage crew came for it.
He used them as stays for a flagpole in his garden in Alma Street. I wonder if it is still there?
HP
HairyplaneMuseum visit
A wonderful idea and a very kind offer. Despite having some interest in Miles aircraft (!) I have never been.
I have collected some interesting material on my aircraft so could take that with me.
I have a 6 seat MPV and will gladly offer seats to those who want to leave from Banbury.
In anticipation of my visit I am reconfiguring a pair of trousers to accept a Maggie leg in each. Shhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
HP
HairyplaneMaintenance……..
Hi guys,
This ‘Winter maintenance’ thread seems to have plummeted off topic into ‘what to play with when the planes are in bits’ and ‘whose b@lls can we bust today’.
Thats whats so special about this forum!
A bit distracted of late due to a biz thats gone ballistic etc. but here’s an update on the winter programme on my planes –
Falcon – Annual inspection, prop overhaul, nose bowl repair, ‘original’ fuel filler flaps to replace the current non-standard wind-down jobs (ugh! – Miles got it right in ’36), some rectification on the current ‘out of trim in pitch and yaw (bits of cord doped on the controls!), cosmetics.
Magister – Annual inspection, Compasses on overhaul, feasibility study into getting U/C restored to original ‘Airdraulic’ spec’, cracks to wing skins at leg attachments (known problem – WW2 repair scheme in progress!) cowlings away for repairs/ polish, cosmetics. Reg. change from V1075 – N3788?? Wait and see if I do it………
If anybody with a camera is passing OW, both are in the front of the workshop in loads of bits and would make a really good picture.
Ryan – Annual inspection, both ASI’s off for calibration/ investigation into sig. variation in readings between the two ( we’ll probably need to explore a position error too), cosmetics.
All 3 will come out of the workshop looking fabulous for next season!
Robin Regent – Annual inspection (looking at placing an order for a new Regent for delivery mid 05…., talking to my bean counters this am)
Toybox? – Aston DB5 finally back after a 2 year overhaul – wonderful! Aston Zagato Volante ready for collection after rad and rack replacements, service.
Mind you, I don’t tend to play with the cars over the winter either…
9.00am… Better go and do some work!
HP
HairyplaneTest flying the Fury replica
Hi David,
More interesting stuff.
I struggle to follow the logic of, ‘it didn’t crash so the decisions must have been the right ones.’
The OW rules on test flying involve a full risk assessment for approval by the OW Chief Pilot, who then makes the decision whether or not to allow it based on his assessment of the risks.
Privately owned aircraft are based there on the proviso that the rules – and there are always rules – will be complied with. Those rules extend to test-flying. OW has an excellent safety record. This is not achieved through sheer good fortune. Can you imagine what the outcry would have been if the thing had ended up in a smoking hole? Can you imagine the criticism that would have been levelled at OW for ‘allowing it to happen’? – which of course they didn’t….
It was therefore not Skysports call at all. It was their place only to satisfy themselves that it was fit for flight and thereafter discuss and agree a programme with the CP.
The ‘programme’ raised many issues at the time, not least because the safety issues that did arise could only be debated afterwards by those who should have been involved before.
So…wrong decisions were made, OW rules were not complied with, safety was compromised as a result.
Suffice it to say, this will never happen again.
HP
HairyplaneStruggling to follow this…….
I’m not sure what point you are making here.
Test pilots – It is easy to dig up incidents involving test pilots. Their work, by its very nature carries with it a higher degree of risk. Accidents will happen to them.
I’m simply suggesting that one takes a balanced view ie not based on an illogical ‘he was a test pilot and he screwed up – so much for test pilots’ argument.
To base an argument for non- TP’s to test-fly when a TP, current on type and able to do more than just ‘fly it’ is available..well.. it wouldn’t happen with any of my aircraft.
In fact, if a TP flew one of my machines on its first/ first post-restoration flight and stuffed it I think it would reinforce the ‘TP decision’ I made in the first place.
I don’t think you can have spoken to many TP’s for you will have learned of many alarming incidents occurring on first-flights if so. They are trained to deal with them. The risk to the airframe has to be lower, even if it does unfortunately – as was the case with the Pup – ends in catastrophe.
Display seminar – you will be a DA-holder then. The lectures were very useful. I learned a great deal. It is a fact that air display accidents often involve highly experienced pilots. I’m not sure how this fits the ‘TP or not TP’ argument??
Happy to continue with this if you wish and hope that a TP or two will join it.
VBR
HP
HairyplaneRisk management
Hi David,
Great stuff. I didn’t know too much about the aircraft so this thread has been enlightening.
Test pilots – I think you are missing the point. As far as the Blenheim is concerned, I quite agree that the test flight would have been a first for the pilot. As far as the Fury replica is concerned, trained test pilots current on type and engine (large biplane/ Kestrel) and also, in at least one case current on that particular aircraft were not consulted to conduct the 03 tests. Regardless of Dennis’s experience and types ( and who can blame him for leaping at the chance?!), he hadn’t flown it before and isn’t a trained test pilot. A different scenario of course if a proper test pilot had conducted a proper test flight, ‘signed it off’ and then imparted his knowledge of the type ( like wot pilots normaly do) to Dennis for subsequent flights where no further testing was required. Did he even seek a brief from any pilot current on type/ engine? I don’t know that one.
Given the opportunity I would, as a humble hobby pilot, have also leapt at the chance to fly the thing after a proper brief and yes, I’m sure it isn’t that difficult. However, it is all about risk management. Thats the point I make.
This isn’t about busting the b@lls of an experienced pilot, Dennis is a well-known and respected pilot who can fly my precious aircraft if he wants to (I’ll give him a good brief first!)
I remember being present in 02 of the first flight of a historic aircraft, rebuilt at huge expense over many years. The chosen pilot – a non test pilot and with zero hours on type – walked past me, said ‘hello’, climbed in and flew the thing.
Anything wrong with that?
I had 30 hours on type including displays – all known to the pilot.
How many questions did he ask me about the aircraft -one that is somewhat challenging to fly and with various ‘gotcha’s including a propensity to swap ends?
Er…Less than one…..
Test flying is for test pilots. Its what they do. If an owner is prepared to entrust his bird to somebody different he accepts a greater risk of it getting busted.
I reiterate that this isn’t intended to sl@g off well respected pilots, it is about fact, logic and risk assessment.
I don’t even do my post-permit renewal test flights. I want it done by a proper test pilot who can give me meaningful data. I don’t just want it flown, I want it tested.
HP
HairyplaneDifferences…
A couple of points –
Whilst the aircraft is constructed in a completely different way to the original, its external appearance has a few compromises in it too – the wheels for example are completely different I believe(?)
My understanding is that the original type wheels, and very likely the tyres, are not available. The wheels, at least, will need to be made from scratch – a taller order than at might first be considered in view of their alloy construction. Very expensive! I think the Skysport Demon faces this hurdle?
Have I got that right? What did they do in the case of the Nimrod?
‘Pilots approved by the owner and Skysport ‘- My guess is that the owner delegated this responsibility and trusted the custodians of his aircraft to make the right decisions regarding the pilots.
Speaking generally, and I stress the word generally, if the thing was mine and needed test-flying I would entrust it only to a professional test pilot, ideally with experience on both aircraft and engine type.
Test pilots are trained to test so, however good a pilot is, if they ain’t a test pilot the thing is extremely unlikely to be properly tested.
Such pilots exist but were not asked.
These are people willing to impart their knowledge and apply their skills – most likely for nothing, and write the all important reports and recommendations. Its what test pilots do.
Its all about risk management.
I defy anybody to convince me that the decision to entrust a valuable aircraft to somebody with zero experience on type was the right one.
Anyway – this is probably the subject of a separate thread ie ‘why don’t owners use TP’s more often’?
Golden ‘nuggets’ I have learned –
1. ‘Never confuse a good bloke with a good pilot’.
2. ‘Do you want it flown or do you want it tested ? ‘
Fingers crossed that we see it fly again. If not, can Shuttleworth have the engine as a spare for the Hind….??!!
HP
HairyplaneI was there
The aircraft was in the custody of Skysport Engineering but hangared at Old Warden over the Winter of 02/03.
It appears that the engine wasn’t properly inhibited (?) and thus required the expert attention of Vintec to get it sorted.
It proved troublesome for a while and seemed to consume many hours of labour and repeated engine runs before well- known Chipmunk/ Tiger (etc.) pilot Dennis Neville flew it on, I believe three occasions. Great to watch the engine runs! Great big puffs of smoke and belching flame following furious winding of the starter handles. Pure nostalgia! I witnessed his first flight in it/ his first flight behind a Kestrel. I saw either the second or the third too.
With qualified test pilots – current on large biplanes and Kestrel (Hind) – to hand and certainly willing to do the test flying if asked, the ‘test programme’, required for both CofA renewal and engine- proving did ruffle a few feathers.
In the immortal words of Chief Pilot Andy Sephton – I have heard them often – ‘Do you want it flown or do you want it tested?’.
This is said not in deference to the skills of Dennis but purely in respect of protocols that exist at Old Warden, especially with regard to the operation of privately-owned aircraft based there.
A good aircraft? Hmmmm…….
Since that machine was built, the quality of replica aircraft has improved massively. The construction of this particular machine does not follow the original at all and its appearance is ‘wrong’ in many ways.
Mind you, it was the only one of its kind flying at the time and certainly blew a few frocks up! A bold project that, unlike many, actually got finished.
We now have the Hind and the Nimrod and soon (hopefully) to be joined by the exquisite Skysport Demon waiting I understand (ironically?) for a Kestrel of the quality of the unit in the replica. These have certainly eclipsed the Fury replica big time.
I’m not sure of the current state of play of the Demon but guess the progress is constrained only by the rate that the owner is drip-feeding the dosh.
Anybody got any further news on the Demon?
HP
HairyplaneYour hat is safe…
Moggy, check out later postings of Flood and Andy in Beds.
Theres about as much chance of Concorde flying again/ me sending a red cent donation than I have of flying under Tower Bridge inverted in my yellow cabrio whilst playing the bagpipes at the same time.
A pity Ashtonwotsisface has run away or maybe just spotted a slight flicker on the sarcasm-ometer dial as Flood did.
Relax teach, I’m on your side.
If it does fly again I’m going to eat my favourite ‘trademark’ Ozzie Koola titfer as publicly as possible and hope that there’s sufficient Bolly left over for me to wash it down (coz it ain’t all that pretty these days and certainly won’t be by the time hell freezes over….)
HP
HairyplaneMine’s the caviar and Bolly..
Inaugural flght over the Bay of Biscay? Large portion – yes!
I’m sitting next to Ashtonvillageuk congratulating him on his achievements against all adversary and grateful to him for pointing my donation in the right direction.
I’m just waiting for him to PM me with all the details. Better still, maybe he will post here and let others know where to send their donations. These causes consume cash.
Any comparison with previous Vulcan scams is surely not the case here. OK OK, prison food has improved but there are some nasty old lags eating it alongside the new boys on the block, keen to make friends….
A cynic as well as an English teacher – Moggy Moggy, a little tolerance, patience and understanding please…
Let me understand a bit more about the fund and I’ll tell you whether I’ll take your bet or ask you to eat your favourite hat instead…
HP
HairyplaneI want to donate.
Well Ashtonvillageuk deserves a bit of support, you load of Doubting Thomas’s.
Without people like him rushing around and getting signatures, it definately won’t happen.
I’ve got a few bob to donate to this worthy cause. Please PM me AVUK and give me the details of where to send my cheque, who to make it out to etc.
I want to be remembered as one of the founder members of the Society who defied all and……well lets just see???!!!!
Looking forward to your PM with all the pars.
HP
HairyplaneWho owns ehat…..
I’ll let you into a little secret. 😉
Shhhh……
Its all a money laundering exercise.
What better way to launder large sums of drug money than to buy a big toy box, set up a kosher-looking business operating old planes and then, for the benefit of the Revenue, ‘inflate’ the operating costs out of all proportion.
Also, where did all the Brinks Mat gold go? Its all flying around the air at Duxford of course! Nudge nudge wink wink say namore…. 😉 😉 😉
Must go, theres some strange looking blokes in suits banging on the door….
HP
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