Yep, another one here, but how many had one of there flights end up like this. 😀
WZ873, last heard of in Florida IIRC

That must have been a bear to carry, the second worse thing that can happen to an underslung load (USL) is it to start ‘flying’ as it can then cause some unusual handling characteristics….the worse is when a load starts oscillating, as this can lead to loss of control.

In either case if it endangers the aircraft and crew you have to jettison the load….. 😮

I had a look on web (using Google) to see what I could find out about the fate of WK620 and WK624.

WK624 has been reregistered as G-BWHI and is flying out of Woodvale.

WK620 on the other hand didn’t show any results and so I presume was destroyed/stripped for spares when retired from RAF service.

I’ll have another look and see if I can find any photos of either aircraft for you….

WP840

:rolleyes:

Thanks WP!

SAAB Dealers can charge £98/hour +vat now…..

It is a real shame that this is going the way it is, it amazes me that these things always come down to project management at the end of the day. If they ran the project tightly, the issues appear earlier, and can be mitigated whilst still manageable.

I have been a Project Manager for many years, and am leaving my current company to start up my own, one of my offerings will be ‘Project Rescue’

The first thing that should be done is the stakeholders are put in a room (egos left outside) and a concensus is hammered out on exactly what needs to be done by when and by whom, and then some costing can be applied to that. From this the EXACT shortfall can be calculated and a plan put in place to eliminate it, at this point full and open communication can be made and the fund raising plan can then be executed.

I have over-simplified things here, but what grabs me is that there is still too many unknowns, they set about doing a restoration project with no thought of the end result. A bit like concentrating on being pregnant, forgetting that it usually ends up with a baby!(and then a teenager!)

I am happy to go up there and Facilitate a ‘Project Re-Definition Workshop’ if that will help.

Right, the soapbox is free, next!

Aaah, so where has the flying club and the other aircraft homed there gone now, to Finningley?
I flew from there in ’88 when I was stationed at Finn, on my check I ride broke the shimmy damper on landing trying to stop behind a Hornet Moth that had stopped on the runway. (Instructor upon my suggestion to go around: ‘continue landing, she’ll move before you touch down…’)

I have a fantastic book called ‘Zeppelin Adventures’ I think it was written in the early ’20s, and is a collection of accounts of Zeppelin missions, both bombing the UK and some of the height/distance record breaking flights. I can’t find it on my shelves so it must be in the loft, I will dig it out and see who the author is. You are left with huge admiration for the crews after reading it, the conditions that they operated in, and the things that they had to do were incredible.
I also remember reading a similarly aged book from the British side, but I can’t recall what that was called, I will have to ask around, but it was very interesting reading the Zep crew account of a mission, and then the RFC Pilot’s account of trying to shoot them down

Just checked my Log book, I flew WK624 and WK620 whilst on cadet camp at Binbrook in ’87, do they survive intact?
I was staff cadet (chief strapper-inner) so got 2 flights and spent the whole week alongside the runway watching Lightnings…

When asked what I wanted to do on the first flight, I explained that I was a PPL and would like to try some stalls and spins…there was a pause, then ‘OK, but watch the Altimeter, if we drop below 3000′ get out, I mean it, don’t wait for me to say Jump, Jump’! 😮

On the second flight we did some general handling….. 😮

You can only come if you behave yourself WB 😀

I am finding it harder and harder not to flout Health and Safety legislation…On a recent visit to Bressingham Steam museum I was told off for standing too close to a small steam engine that was about to move, and for putting my children onto the footplate of one in the shed, in the late ’70s I rode on the footplate of Oliver Cromwell there!

I will try very hard not to touch anything…honest 😉

Wasn’t there a theory put forward that it was actually the type of paint used on the Hindenburg spontaneously combusting when the guide ropes eathed, rather than the use of Hydrogen that caused the disaster. The paint was a new batch of a different chemical composition that had a much lower flashpoint than it should have done. They have done tests and have proved that it could have caught fire if sparked. There was a large build up of static electricity as it passed through the rain on the way to its mooring, all of the elements were in place for the disaster.
If you watch the film, the way the skin burns faster than the Hydrogen explodes supports this theory.