BTW, The only time a Griffon sounds good is a high-RPM / high speed pass by the Rolls-Royce SpitfirePete

I’d have to disagree – I’d say 4 Griffons going flat out on a Shackleton sounds much better…. pity it’s also a far rarer occurence now….

One man’s floor is another man’s ceiling and all that! :diablo:

Regards
Scotty

As I have said on the Flambards Gannet thread, Errol airfield is up for housing development, although I am not sure when this is starting, or if it will affect the gannet directly. However I would think that this will start accelerate the airframe’s demise.

XG882 is a composite airframe, and IIRC used to be on RAF Lossiemouth gate, and includes parts from XA463 and XG889. I wonder how complete the inside is? I wouldn’t imagine there is much under the canopies other than bucketloads of water and corrosion thanks to Scotland’s damp climate…

Regards,
Scotty

Now for the next one –

http://www.demobbed.org.uk/images/xg882.jpg

Jon

Won’t be surprised if that sees a scrappy soon….. XG882 is a composite of at least 2 Gannets, and has been in that state for some time. I’d imagine the cockpit areas will be a disaster. I doubt it has seen any love since it left Lossiemouth for Errol

Incidently, part of Errol airfield is getting redeveloped as housing (no surprise) although I don’t know if this affects the airframe, but it isn’t going to do it any good.

Although I don’t like seeing any aircraft going to the scrappy, I would say this one’s time could soon be up….

The RAT deployment crossed my mind too, where roughly on the 777 does it deploy from, is it the same size as any other RAT or are they proportionate to the size of aircraft ?

There was some low quality footage on the BBC news earlier ‘allegedly’ showing the 777 crossing the Myrtle Avenue area, I was looking for the RAT but couldn’t spot it. The aircraft did appear to have a somewhat ‘nose up’ approach mind you…

Being a former avionics tech, but by no means an expert….

The RAT isn’t meant to power all the avionics systems, but to power the basic flight controls and basic avionic kit. I am under the impression the RAT on some aircraft deploys automatically, but not instantly. If the aircraft suffered a dual power failure, the power will stay on for a wee while as the turbines spool down, providing power to the generators. Further more (this is a guess!!) I’d imagine for crucial flight control systems there would be some sort of uninterruptable powersupply (UPS) as computer based avionics require a clean power supply, and in some cases take up to 2 minutes to initialise, so a sudden drop out in power isn’t helpful!

If the pilot did lose avionics, it is likely only the displays went out temporarily as the power source switched. Unless the RAT deployed automatically would there be enough time?

As I said, I’m not an expert – I used to repair HF/VHF comms and nav, and not power, but theres my wee tuppenceworth. I guess the best idea is to wait until the final report comes out. Top marks to the crew for getting everybody off safely though!

Kind Regards,
Scotty

to avoid instances like XL319s demise which once again shows its sometimes better to allow an aircraft to be disposed of quickly by scrapping than to allow it to suffer a lingering and undignified death in the name of preservation and without thinking through just what such a commitment involves .

Perhaps a little off the mark, but if we scrapped rapidly, we would be left with nothing whatsoever to preserve, and those we did save may not have the same amount of resources from derelict donor aircraft. Think of how many parts have been used off of high ground wrecks to preserve airframes.

Although I can get an idea where you might have been heading with that thought, the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ approach to scrapping just because somebody may not preserve it would lead to innappropriate culling of airframes. By the end XL391 was a mess, but I doubt it would have been that far back before she was scrapped that things were salvagable from her, like the cockpit, or components to complete other airframes/cockpits.

Unfortunately for XL391, interest ran out, and then the clock ran out for her, and it was too late to do anything – research the forum of the debacle of her scrapping and the subsquent attempted sale of the cockpit by the scrappy.

Regards,
Scotty

I’ve a Shack con-rod out of one of their Griffons, but more relevant is probably the 3 spitfires and one handley page hampden I have which were made during WWII for a wedding present. They are rumoured to be made out of either Whitley or Spitfire scrap, and were made at RAF Dyce, near Aberdeen. There was at one time also a Shorts Sunderland, but unfortunately I did not receive that.

The Spitfires and Hampden were given to me by an old family friend who unfortunately died some years back, and who lived around RAF Dyce all her life. Her husband had been in the RAF, but I am not sure if he was based there. I received them, as she did not want them to go the same way as the Sunderland, who she gave to her son in law, and was never seen again….

The models all appear to be crudely electroplated, and I have no way of telling what the metal is underneath. The Spits are without stands, and the Hampden has a crude shaped threaded bar stand which goes into a circular piece of wood.

Sizewise, the spits have a wingspan of about 20cm, and are about 15cm in length, the Hampden has a wingspan of about 35cm, and is about 30cm long. These are all guesses, as they are in storage at the moment until I can fabricate a new stand for them.

I will post photos later if anybody is interested, but I will be offshore for sometime starting tomorrow, so it will be mid to late Jan before this can happen.

Regards,
Scotty