December 2018 Update:

Jet Provost T5a XW404: Following a jacking exercise, the seal on the LH main gear decided it had had enough. We are going to change the legs before the summer, so its not a major issue. The aircraft has behaved itself, but is midway through our annual Maintenance Practices teardown and rebuild.

Jet Provost T5 XW309: A team of four students have diagnosed the Airbrake / UHF short circuit, and actually found a series of problems. They have all been corrected and the airbrakes now function as they should. We are operating on hand pump pressure only, so they do not deploy at the same time, and since the accumulators are missing their pressure gauges and a few other hydraulic components are absent, it is unlikely that we will ever run 309 at full system pressure. This aircraft is also in a state of teardown as our students complete the practical aspects of the course.

IAMT: No help whatsoever from the previous operators or system designers, so we have the computer away in the care of a specialist who should be able to hack it….

Gazelle: NELSAM graciously gifted us some spares which will be useful as we attempt to get the airframe complete. The unused or duplicate components will be re-gifted according to NELSAM’s wishes.

We are constantly on the lookout to replace our fleet with something less historic… anyone got a spare Cessna Citation or two?

Merry Christmas one and all

Thanks to Thunderbird167 and the guys/gals at NELSAM, we have taken delivery of an Integrated Avionics Maintenance Training rig – essentially a Tornado F3 systems simulator. These beasts were used to train Avionics Mechanics at RAF Cosford until reasonably recently. The question is…. do any of you remember a log in and password?…………

The summer holidays are finally here, which means I’ve put the aeroplanes to bed for a few weeks, so here’s an update:

Gazelle:
Some cut-down blades have been fitted, but we desperately need a set of lag dampers. The blocks of timber simply look horrible…. Here’s a couple of pictures showing the interior. I’d like to get the instrument panel built, but its not a necessity for the functionality of the airframe. It would be nice to find a seat though….
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The thing which must not be mentioned:
We have the Voltair 86… a locally-designed and built deregulated, electric motor – powered microlight.
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XW309
I’ve identified the airbrake snag on 309. When the switch is made, the main relay can be heard followed by a second relay making. It turns out that the second relay is actually part of the V/UHF radio system which means I have a short circuit – most likely in the throttle lever. That’ll have to be corrected in September.

XW404
The re-paint is complete – just a touch-up really and to preserve the structure of the aircraft for a few years. Some of the markings need to be applied, but I’m holding off on the black numbers and ‘1 FTS’ fin mark until the next set of school holidays. Next on the list is to re-inflate the nose oleo.
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We have contacts at Bruntingthorpe, but not amongst the JP owners. We are somewhat isolated at this end of the country. When it comes to spares, we’ll need to reach out, but conversely I’m sure we can offer tech help in return.

XW405
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XW404
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XW309
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Gazelle
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Cheetah
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