Just to add my congrats to the team….bringing an aircraft to airworthy status is such a team event with many links in the chain. From the finder, the owner/financier to the restorer and makers of sub assemblies and then the ‘driver’ and even the CAA….all are necessary.
Wish I had seen/heard it (only live 2 miles from the threshold and work at BD)…but spent all friday in A&E, oh well!!
Steve (mackeral), I have always said that when I win the lottery I will pay you to build me a beautiful Fuz like the many you have produced….would save me so much time and we could actually fly it lol!! In the mean time I will keep chuntering away on my static stuff….anyhoo, finally completed Frames 6 & 7 (minus the top flanges) yesterday.

it is from the radiator mounting system, A76954 is a tubing part, the G589 decrees it was made by Gloster

oh my goodness!! That is stupidly low…I could have paid that!

If what you want to do with your life is get hands on with aircraft then a uni course is pretty much useless, get an apprenticeship instead. If you want to sit behind a desk and pontificate about how great you are and how you’d maintain aircraft without actually having touched one then a uni degree is fantastic for making you look good. .

And lo, with several clicks of his mighty PC keyboard he generalised and wrote off a vast arm of the aviation industry!

This type of post is depressing…..don’t YOU realise that we need both type of ‘engineers’?! Paper and hands on. Do you really think that all degree holders pontificate about how great they are and do nothing?
I worked hard for my degree at a College that does not have the kudos of Imperial an Southampton (QMC in Mile End, part of ULU) to become a flight test engineer I required it (the degree). Here I am 21 years down the line and some guy says I wasted my time!
Like it or lump it many engineers with degrees will have worked hard on designing and building that aircraft or system that you are now having to maintain….don’t knock em all with you tar filled brush!

S529 looks US jet to me with that stencilling

The trick is to closely control people sitting in aircraft….even so there is wear and tear…..I took my Hunter to a show and had approx 200 sitting in it (not all at the same time!!!:)) about 4 hours remedial work including replacement of a couple of kicked off switches…

The best idea is to set aside a reasonably readily available cockpit for unsupervised sit ins….say a JP like RAFM use and then have ladder access only to others….when my Spit hits the road it (like the Hurri) is not possible to have people routinely sitting in it due to cost of replacement of parts/rareity/ease of damage…..one airworthy spitfire had its seat broken by sit ins…..ouch!