Andy

Who will be the jockey for the evening?, will there be any other notable guests.

Regards,

John.

John,

We are talking to Dennis,but he has not confirmed yet, so at the moment its gonna be me or my counter part Jim doing the runs, its only like an antidet run but with a crowd 😉

Cheers

For give me if this question is totally inrelevand. But how come you don’t run both engines on reheat the same time?

Herman

Hi, yes there’s several reasons:

1. We dont have any spigoted chocks (big steel curved ramps that the main wheels are placed into with two large diamater steel pins on the underside that locate in holes in the concrete that you can just see in the photo above) we couldnt possibly drill four large holes in Dave Waltons runway to hold them in place.
If we were to run both burners the aircraft would either push our standard rubber chocks forward or simply jump them even with brakes on, Ive seen it happen on one engine at full power, when chocks let go they dont always go together and the aircraft tends to spin though 90 degree’s in about a quarter of a second, well before the jockey has time to pull the throttle back.

2. The book and experts say that reheat on both engines at the same time should be done with at an ‘amount’ of forward airspeed on the clock, basicly at full power there’s not enough air going down the front for both engines without the aid forward movement. It can be done but is not advised, remember our four Avons arent in their first flush of youth.

3. The chap in the seat has one hell of a job managing both engines at the same time staticly, as No1 tends to stave No2 of air, JPT’s (most important), RPM’s, nozzle indications,fire warnings,engine oil warnings and fuel consumption (7 gallons per second) have to be watched very very closely.

4. Noise, both in reheat staticly for 9 -10 seconds will really really really upset the locals late on a Saturday afternoon (we have planning restrictions on the noise we make) and any breech could spell the end of future events of any kind.Its a real ballancing act let me assure you.

5. The nose leg will be over stressed with both in reheat staticly for any length of time. We dont have any spares.

5. Lastly and most importantly, safety, both engines running at full tilt is a double risk for us and all around us and makes our insurers very very nervous.

Cheers