Andy, youre most welcome for the pat on the back, its well deserved. In ’88 I was 14 and thought all Id see in the future would be static lifeless Lightnings or chopped up cockpits, teams like yours have proved that classic Ladies can be kept alive safely.

As for 1 outta 2 aint bad I was originally under the impression that a return to flight was the aim of the LPG, hence wings clipped and still stretch her legs just a bit of a brain f@rt on my part, sorry for that.

Thanks for explaing the Radar “Boot” and well Im amazed that such a system was used in such a super fast aircraft, as if the pilots didnt have enough to do keeping themselves alive, no wonder the Frightning Drivers were Top Notch Pilots.

Bex

Hi Bex, no worries, its just been my ‘hobby’ for 20 years, I was only 20 in 88 when the LPG was formed by a few die hard ‘crash gate 3er’s’ so Ive kind of grown up with it.

We have never been in the ‘game’ of a return to flight for either of our two aircraft, the aim was to preserve an airframe, the engine running and fast taxying came along the way, this will ultimately end one day soon and we will retire them both to the QRA hanger and stand back and say, ‘that was fun’ 😀
It was and is always going to be a Saturday aftenoon hobby for all of us.

Yes the Lightning pilots were always the cream of the crop.
The lightning cockpit has a very high work load, even when its stationary with one engine running 😀

Cheers

Wonder where the QRA Metro went… great photos and I have to say that you guys do a brilliant job…. well done so far. Here’s to the next 19 years!:cool:

Ive no doubt it went where all the others went 😀

Do you reckon it’ll be fixed for the 22nd July?

Quick answer to that is unforuntatley ‘no’ I think we another way ward FCU on the the No2 engine, and this is not a quick ‘fix’

Its a shame as we have slowly been working our way though the reheat and fuel system over the last few years to try and pin point the snag, we got it all back together, then we were faced with starter snags once we began to test her out, which we have now sorted and now the FCU on the engine seems to be giving us grief.

Tyres are for holding the tarps and covers down when they are put to bed at night, suspect they are stacked on the port wing for convenience.

Regards,

John.

Spot on John, they will be the first things to go when we get that roof on the Q shed, belive me 😉
We leave them on the wing as they are usually full of water and very heavy, theres no reason to stain our backs throwing them back on for antidet runs

Here they are in ‘action’