derekliston

Just an , I hope interesting aside. Back when I was a 16yr old apprentice (1963) I had the opportunity to explore two RAF transports at Edinburgh Turnhouse airport. One was an Armstrong-Whitworth Argosy, the other was one of the first RAF C130s. I will not forget noticing that every single hydraulic fitting on the Argosy was lockwired and electrically bonded. The C130 by comparison didn’t have a lockwire or a bonding strip to be seen. All of the unions were, I found out later, Parker flareless couplings, which, I am glad to say was also the norm on B707 and B747 at BOAC when I joined in 1968.

As we always say we should not prejudge but I sincerely hope this is not another instance of failure to select take-off flap. Description of accident has a lot of similarity to a couple which have featured on Air-crash Investigations. ( Please don’t shoot me for speculating!)

Pretty sure I am right although it was a long time ago! I also remember BOAC management refusing additional training for us engineers when the 747 arrived. We were told it was just like a bigger 707 which of course it wasn’t!

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that on the B707 the only powered controls were the rudder and the stabiliser trim jack. I seem to recall (bloody long time since I worked on them so I could be wrong!) that the controls, aileron and elevator operated with servo tabs?

I think I am correct in saying that the first airliner with fully hydraulic controls and no manual reversion was the Vickers VC10. It actually had (I think!) eleven self-contained hydraulic actuators, two on each aileron, four on the elevators and three on the rudder. Each one had it’s own hydraulic system so there was a lot of redundancy built in. Because it was fully hydraulic with no manual reversion there was no natural feel in the controls and so it had a device called a feel simulator which also had dual self-contained hydraulic systems. For the era in which it was built it really was a technological marvel even if it was not a commercial success. I was lucky enough to fly down from London to Nairobi on an East African Airways Super VC10 in 1973. Due to the tail mounted engines it had a remarkably quiet cabin.

It will be a long time before I consent to fly on a Max8. I always avoided airlines that operated DC10/MD11s I will do the same with these even if it means driving rather than flying! (Might have to buy an amphibious car!!!)

Just watching the programme about ‘Boeing’s killer aeroplane’ and it occurs to me that their comment about turning off the electrics to the trim jack could have saved the plane is a bit erroneous in as much as, if the trim has already moved full nose down, switching it off will not return the trim jack to neutral so the cockpit crew would be faced with struggling to pull back the yoke with enough force to get the nose up and wind the manual trim at the same time. I am pretty sure that I would not have succeeded.

I can only add that when the fuel bowser at Warwick was out of service I queried with the council why there was no NOTAM and they said it was not required, so technically you could be stuck with insufficient fuel to leave the airfield!

I like this forum a lot and check it every day for anything informative. I seem to have noticed a decline in the numbers of new threads. I myself haven’t had anything new to comment due to being grounded partly through hassles with CASA over my medical, now sorted and partly through taking what I thought would be the easiest option of ordering a new aileron for my CH701 from Zenith because I didn’t want to buy full sheets of aluminium and the aileron skin and spars are both longer than 4ft which would be a half sheet and the minimum order. Anyway, it has taken literally months and was definitely a mistake. I don’t know what I can tell you, I will keep looking in but it costs you a lot of money so I am not about to tell you what you should do!

Just another gripe about CASA you May well say, but I need to express my annoyance somewhere and trying to tell CASA about it is a waste of breath. Story goes, 5+ yrs ago I had a heart attack and as a result CASA decided that I needed to have an annual class 2 medical + stress echo-cardiogram! Ok I thought, at least they are letting me fly, so every year since then I have complied with their requirements including a ridiculous oral glucose tolerance test and I have been recertified without a problem. This year, I don’t know what is different, I have done exactly the same things as the previous 4yrs but for some reason it has not satisfied them, they keep asking for more information, which I give them, but apparently every time I send more info, my application goes to the back of the queue. My medical was in August, so by the time they finally clear me to fly, I will have lost 3 months of my year since they will only give me 12 months from the date of my medical. I cannot tell you how much this shits me, my DAME and my cardiologist would both happily sign me off but it seems that CASA’s doctor, who has never met me, knows better than all of them! Yes, I know I could transfer to RAAus, but I shouldn’t have to. The whole of CASA need to be sacked and the whole department rejigged. I have only commented on the pilot side of things, I could write twice as much about the hassles of being a LAME dealing with that organisation. Sorry, rant over, does no good but makes me feel better!

I worked on PA38 Tomahawks for nine years and unless my memory is failing (a possibility!) they don’t, or didn’t have oil coolers.

I haven’t personally but Warwick Flying Club and the local newspaper tried without success. They were just told it was commercial in confidence.

Possibly true, but we are talking about politicians!

Council are calling tenders for a $310,000 hangar!!!!! to lease back to a $20,000 company???

Council are building the hangar using state government money to theoretically lease to the flying school!

Our governments are really beyond belief, both local and state. Running out of water because no State water grid although they have talked about it for years, but we do have a flash new footbridge that we didn’t need and new footpaths through the CBD that again we didn’t need, all paid for by the state government!!!

I know that mate, I have plenty of 0.016 for the skin, I don’t have enough 0.025 for the spar and I don’t know anywhere that I can buy just the amount that I need. No one will sell less than half a sheet and I am pretty sure the spar is more than 4ft long at 1840mm.

Mate, are you still the distributor for Zenith? If so, what are the chances and timescale to obtain a CH701 aileron spar? If I go with an order I will also order a new fuel quantity sender.

If you book a cabin on Flametree holiday park you can just walk through the footpath to the airfield. Only around 100 metres. We always book site number 1 with our camper trailer which is right beside the airfield fence, put the chairs out, feet up and watch the action.

That is what bothers me. Our council are totally ignorant of anything aviation related. It will just cost Warwick ratepayers and Qld taxpayers a lot of money for no return.

That clip was from the Jumpers and Jazz fly-in.

I am a bit concerned about council competence in terms of due diligence in this instance. As far as I can establish this is an Indian company RMP Aviation. If you google them you will find a private company worth 1 lakh of Indian rupees and a paid up capital of 1000% ie. 11lakhs in total. That is 1,100,000 rupees which at currency conversion rates current two days ago was the equivalent of $23,000 and for this the council are allowing them to use the terminal building as an office and are building them a $310,000 hangar. I would love to find out that I am wrong but the council says “commercial in confidence” and won’t release details. It would be a boon for Warwick if it was a proper company but I suspect this is a very shonky deal!

Believe it or not, I don’t have any photos of them even though I maintained them for almost ten years! Good luck finding them.

Not just the Mosquito. A pilot I knew and flew with used to start the take-off roll in a Dragon Rapide at the extreme left of the runway so that it was still on the runway by the time the rudder became effective.

Checked such photographs as I could find and you are correct. They must have been in the minority!