First job was pulling what was needed out of the hangar, before getting fuel for what needed it. Patrice arrived in something that the Wildcat would probably want a word with, and Brian Smith had a quick blast in the Mustang just in case the Wildcat didn’t have a firm enough word with the Zero.
This months desktop is Nick Grey preparing to lead the Mustangs at last years Legends. A reminder it will soon be Legends 2016 – don’t forgot it is advance ticket only, click HERE to purchase your tickets from the Flying Legends website.
Our colonial engineer Lawrence was up in Miss Velma recently with his old super 8 cine camera. We put the results on our Facebook page but if you don’t do Facebook here is the video:
First engine run of 2016 after enqine maintenance . Fighter Collections TF-51 Miss Velma caught in a rare glimpse of sunny weather between showers at Duxford.
With all our efforts for the last few months focused on a certain weekend in July (Flying Legends) the morning after is somewhat of an anticlimax and leaves one thinking what on earth do we do now …..?
Well the first thing to do is to thank everybody for their time and contribution (our volunteers not only give up their free time to help us with producing Flying Legends but also the myriad of tasks that all contribute to keeping the aircraft collection in fine ‘fettle’).
Also to the engineers who alongside the volunteers have worked long hours making sure each of the aeroplanes has completed the various calendar, hours based and out of phase checks and inspections;
The second thing is to reflect on our successes and tease out the bits that for us didn’t go quite as planned ! Despite the best efforts of our display pilots the fleet remained servicable to the end with the only the P-40C falling foul of the electric propeller ‘rain demons’ and as some of you may have seen taxied back to the flight line at the start of the Sunday balbo sequence with a propeller that according to pilot Steve Hinton flatly refused to play ball in automatic mode.
Of the visiting display aircraft both Sea Furys developed tech issues one of which necessitated an early landing off the balbo; the second Fury had an electrical snag which we were able to help diagnose and resolve with the operators engineers but the aircraft wasn’t able to complete the scheduled demonstration due to the onset of rain which brought the show to a temporary halt for 25 minutes or so though It flew later on Sunday afternoon in the balbo.
Personal highlights, well, the four Curtiss aircraft Hawk 75, P-36C, P-40C and the P-40F;
loved the Nimrod’s and Fury, (the patina on the Nimrod’s new exhaust pipes looks just right now following the display on Saturday) regrettably the crosswind put paid to a repeat performance on Sunday; and finally of course the Gladiator in the joker slot between balbo passes.
Remember to put Flying Legends 2016 in your diary (dates to be released) and we hope to see our ‘friends’ again very soon…
‘Hot off the press’ – CAA Surveyor has issued the full Permit to Fly for G-CIIO which now makes it officially the one and only certified P-40C in Europe…..
Grateful thanks to Mike and Neil (and all at GA Unit), not forgetting Dave and John at ACRO Aeronautical Services for making this possible.
Oh and we flew a few aircraft with the Corsair up a couple of times – Keith Skilling at the helm, the P36C made it’s first UK flight and the Mustang was also up. The Harvard was busy with crew currency flights in between.
Our chief engineer has found a gap in his schedule to update everyone on where we are with aeroplanes.
“With the ‘Tea’ things washed up (giving away my northern roots here) it was time for a strong coffee and think about a hangar update……!
This weekend has seen us busy completing the shakedown flights and test flying of the Curtiss P-40C which has gone remarkably well with nothing but a couple of minor snags (or squarks for our US cousins) to deal with.
As I write this update our surveyor has emailed to say the (CAA) Design team are happy with the submitted flight test report and he is calling by tomorrow (Tuesday) to issue the full Permit to Fly.
We also got the opportunity between rain showers to complete the grounds runs on the Nimrod which has now been refitted with its long tail pipes as it was originally configured. These new pipes were hand-crafted for us by Chris Baglin at Merlin Engineers and are a beautiful piece of fabrication being hand rolled and welded from sheet stainless steel. We opted to fabricate from stainless steel as the original pipes were made from mild steel and rotted out all too quickly as Nick (Grey) will attest having nearly set fire to the aeroplane when one of the pipes had corroded out under its mounting clamp. (video in last diary report)
P-51 Miss Velma has completed her annual inspection and was flown on check flight last week to verify some adjustments we have made to the engine valve timing and maximum take-off boost.
Corsair FG-1D is the last fleet aeroplane to undergo its annual inspection and with that now complete will undergo a short check flight this week at the hands of a certain travelling kiwi warbird pilot, Keith Skilling, to ensure all systems are operational and function as required.
Flying Legends is just around the corner (had anyone noticed) and this week will see more aerial activity as TFC and Guest pilots alike get familiar with their chosen mounts; Watch out for the first flight in the UK of the Curtiss P-36. We are indebted to our group of volunteers who are hard at work helping prepare the aeroplanes for the weekend, there’s still a handful of aeroplanes to ‘spruce up’ before the weekend; the days are likely to be long, but spirits are high and we look forward to welcoming friends new and old to Flying Legends 2015.
No less than three flights from the P-40C (Sunshine and Silver aeroplanes, yes), then one from Miss Velma. The American team have arrived and wisely stayed in the hangar (and shade) while they put the P-36 together
Martyn decided he wanted to go to Holland at the end of May. As luck would have it our Mustang and Corsair were going that way.
This would usually be part of the Online Fighter Log update available to Friends of TFC- it answers a lot of “which aircraft was where and when this week end” type questions so here you go:
A busy weekend in May…. The Hawk75 and Gladiator made our first European outing of the 2015 season with Stephen and Patrice at the controls for the trip to La Ferte Alais. The transit necessitated a brief stop-over at Abbeville for fuel before flying on to LFA were TFC engineers Roy and Paul were waiting for their arrival having departed Duxford at 5am Thursday morning via Folkestone. With some quite complicated logistics Nick who was due to fly the Gladiator in the show made the transit to LFA from Geneva on Thursday evening. Operating away from base is always a challenge particularly when your tools and spares provision needs to fit into a modern family saloon!
The VE Anniversary show at Duxford was combined with the departure of three TFC aircraft Spitfire V, P-51D, Corsair) to the Oostwold Airshow , Groningen, Holland. EP120 was able to make the dash across the channel on Friday (beating the weather) at the hands of Alan Wade as it was not required for the Duxford show; regrettably the MkXIV wasn’t able to depart for the show due to an as yet undiagnosed over-fuelling issue with the carburettor. With the weather closing in on us the P-51D and Corsair weren’t able to make their planned slot to leave Duxford on the afternoon of the Sunday show and finally left at 08:20 local time Monday morning (another lay-in missed !).
All aircraft made the recovery back to Duxford on Monday, with the Hawk75 and Gladiator first to arrive in the late afternoon and our Dutch contingent finally returning 18:45 local time. All in all a very successful weekend both here at Duxford and across our European commitments. Many thanks to those of you who visited us in the Friends area and had a close up look at the Bearcat.
And finally…. ‘A little knowledge is dangerous’…..on occasion we have to respond to inaccurate information placed on public forums and disseminated as factual. We were recently made aware of a thread running on one such forum suggesting the Sea Fury FB11 needs a new centre section! You might imagine that as Chief Engineer these are things I would normally know a little about, particularly if one were actually needed (which it isn’t).
To be absolutely clear; the Sea Fury hasn’t fallen off jacks; it isn’t on jacks simply because it doesn’t need to be on jacks. However, there is a small area of damage to the lower spar boom port side were a bolt was incorrectly orientated in the landing gear retraction mechanism and which on retraction test (some years ago) caught the underside of the boom flange. The damage is repairable and a scheme has already been identified in accordance with the aircraft repair manual and our resident design organisation, therefore no one need worry that the aircraft is not being currently progressed for the absence of a replacement centre section. Our priorities are set by the Principals and Chief Engineer dependent upon our developing workloads, Inspection Programs and ultimate goals; suffice to say we have not forgotten about G-BUCM and its time will come….shortly…..