Branch Secretary : Alan V. J. Eley
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- Reg. Type c/n p.i.
- The state of aviation in India
- Indigo , Spice Jet and Go Air
- Report on a visit to Bristol Airport/ Lulsgate on Sat. afternoon 14th April
- Reports on two visits to Manchester Airport
- What can you do in half an hour
- More on the ETPS Lightnings
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Leaving the scene : As last year, I am listing all the GB-reg. airliners that have been sold abroad or withdrawn in the last year (2011) for whatever reason. I have included some of the winter leasing deals that take some of our airliner fleet across to Canada every year. This year Air Canada Jazz and Sunwing have replaced Skyservice as operators of several 757s of Thomas Cook Airlines and 737s of Thomson Airways that are not needed in Europe in the quieter winter months.
The state of aviation in India As Kingfisher Airlines stands poised on the brink of collapse, observers are wondering what happened to the Indian economic miracle that has seen air travel in the sub-continent increasing by 10% or more each year. When Kingfisher began operations in 2005 its owner Vijay Mallya took a motto from his alcoholic drinks business, promising his passengers “a good time in the skies”. Now the fizz seems to have gone out of the full-service carrier. Its long-haul services to Europe have stopped, with A330s parked at Toulouse and Dublin until a recovery comes about. Its short-haul fleet has been cut-back, its pilots are deserting the airline for rival carriers. Mallya has pumped in millions and is desperately trying to find fresh investors after the Indian Income Tax department froze Kingfishers bank accounts. With banks chasing the airline for loan repayments, VJ was forced to ground 38 of its 66 aircraft in February and cancel a quarter of its internal flights. Many of Kingfisher’s problems are being laid at the door of the Indian Government which imposes a high tax on fuel, accounting for 45% of an Indian airline’s operating costs against an aviation industry average of 32%. India’s main airports are being overhauled and rebuilt, but charges to use them are crippling to airlines that are under pressure from fuel costs. Another issue is over-capacity, as more and more new airlines are set up to take advantage of the growing market : Indigo, Spice Jet and Go Air have all set up in the last six or seven years and are still taking delivery of new aircraft despite falling load-factors. Competition from Jet Airways and Air India has kept the fare levels unrealistically low and Air India’s support from the Government has enabled it to thrive while the other companies are struggling to survive. Eventually it is felt that the airport infra-structure will improve, fares will rise sufficiently to cover costs and passenger numbers will increase to a point where planes are 90% full rather than half empty. At that time Kingfisher and its low-cost rivals will hopefully still be around to benefit. Report on a visit to Bristol Airport/ Lulsgate on Sat. afternoon 14th April
An unidentified Eastern Saab 2000 parked next to Jetstream G-MAJK CS-DXH Citation, M-YAIR Premier, G-TGRE R-22, G-CEWM Twin Otter of Skybus, OE-LVE Fokker of Austrian Arrows, G-RJXO EMB-145 of BMI Regional Ryanair 737s EI-DCF/ENX/DPW/DYY/EVD, Thomson AW 757s : G-CPEV/OOBH Easyjets : G-EZIX/EZTY/EZFD/EZDO/EZDA/EZIO/EZFS/EZIT/EZAM Flybe DHC-8 G-JECG aborted its take off and returned to it parking spot beside MAJK (opposite side to Saab), only other one noted was G-ECOE.
box to identify aircraft passing over the top each time. In November their long-haul sightings included Qatar ASW A330s A7-ACI and-AEF, Emirates A330 A6-EYH and –EYI, plus A380 A6-EDP, Singapore 777 9V-SWN, Cathay Pacific Cargo 747 B-LID, American Airlines 757 N199AN, US Airways A330 N273AY, while the flights from nearer home were Turkish 737 TC-JGB, SAS 737-600 LN-RRR and MD-87 SE-DMK, Finnair E-190 OH-LKH, KLM E-190 PH-EZA and 737-800s -BXI and –BXK. TAP A319 CS-TTB was followed by a Metro cargo plane EC-GEN of Topfly and ATR.42 G-DRFC of Blue Islands (a long way from its Channel Islands base). More familiar were the Lufthansa A319 D-AILL, A321 D-AISZ and CRJ.700 D-ACPC, plus Eurowings CRJ.900s D-ACNA and -NO and Air France A320 F-GFKR (a really early airframe that one with c/n 186) and A321 F-GTAR. Last two noted at the airport were a Norwegian Air Shuttle 737 LN-KKI and the A320 SX-BTP of Skywings that is often seen at Birmingham. To give an idea of what passes over the North of England en route for North America, these are some of the aircraft noted with the help of SBS that day: Lufthansa A330s and A340, Air Berlin A330, Air Canada 767s, Air Transat A330, Qatar 777s, Etihad A330, Emirates A380, Air France A330 and 777, Saudi 777, United 747 and 777, US Airways 767, KLM A330, 747 and 777, Icelandair 757s, an American Airlines 767 ; and 777s of Turkish AL and Egyptair, plus a couple of biz-jets and a USAF KC-135 tanker. Alan and Tony’s March visit brought them the sight of G-TAWC and -WG, two new Thomson Airways 737-800s fresh from Boeing’s production line, also two Swiss A320s HB-IJB and -IJE, a SAS CRJ.900 LN-RUL, a Condor 767-300 D-ABON, Air Transat A330 C-GTZR and two Flybe Nordic E-170s OH-LEI and -LEK and a Delta 767-400 N839MH and an Austrian 737-800 OE-LNJ as well as ‘the usual suspects’ from Air France, Lufthansa, TAP, KLM, SAS, American, Qatar AW, Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Etihad and Emirates. With the help of the SBS Alan and Tony noted the following flying at height : A KLM 777, 767 PH-OYJ of Arkefly (ex G-OBYJ), 5 Air France 777s, an Icelandair 757, Austrian Arrows F.100 OE-LVC, 747 freighter N745CK of Kalitta, Air Transat A330 C-GTSZ, City Jet RJ.85 EI-RJA, 3 Etihad A330s, Qatar AW 777, Air Canada 767 and A330, 747F VP-BIM of Air Bridge, Air New Zealand 777 ZK-OKN and Blue Air 737-400 YR-BAL. What can you do in half an hour ? There is an article about the Lightnings of ETPS at Boscombe Down in a fascinating new book by Kelsey Publishing Ltd in the Aeroplane magazine’s Icon series (at just £7-95, one of the best value books on the English Electric Lightning you are likely to find, profusely illustrated with a mass of information about the history of the Lightning from the prototype P.1 onward, all the squadrons that flew the aircraft, the Kuwait and Saudi Air Force machines, ETPS, the Lightning Training OCU and not least Mike Beachyhead’s operation in South Africa, now sadly no more). In the book F/L John Thorpe recalls his time at ETPS in 1981 as an instructor tasked with demonstrating supersonic handling and performance in the two-seat Lightning T.5 XS422 to a succession of foreign student test pilots. “My favourite exercise involved a reheat take-off and climb to 40,000 ft (the rate of climb was phenomenal, two minutes from brakes off to 40,000 ft - very quick) heading south-west from Boscombe, cruising at 0.9 Mach until out to sea over the English Channel, just west of the Isle of Wight and then a supersonic dash down the Channel up to about 1.4 Mach, carrying out some test pilot training stuff en route. Then a decelerating turn back towards Boscombe and a rapid descent and landing before the fuel ran out – during the max reheat acceleration to high speed you could actually see the fuel gauges unwinding ! The whole exercise only lasted half an hour, but it was a pretty exciting half an hour, I can tell you. Particularly if you’re flying it with a French test pilot student who doesn’t completely understand quite what he’s trying to do or how little fuel/time he has to do it in – happy days !” More on the ETPS Lightnings The Empire Test Pilots’ School at Boscombe Down took on its first Lightning in May 1966 : this was the second prototype T.4 XL629 which had accumulated 187 hours of development flying from the manufacturer’s airfield at Warton, Lancs. During the period of February-May 1970 it was loaned back to BAC for use as a chase plane for the Jaguar test programme, then it returned to ETPS duties, coded ‘23’. The aircraft was eventually withdrawn from service with a total flying time of 1384 hours in November 1975 and was chosen to be a gate-guardian at Boscombe Down, mounted on a pole near the main gate, where it can still be seen to this day. The replacement for XL629 was a well-used T.5 XS422 that had already amassed 1483 hours of flying time with 226 OCU, 111 Sqn, 29 Sqn, and 56 Sqn, as well as 60 MU at Leconfield and 103 MU at Akrotiri. Like its predecessor it was in natural metal finish, but with dazzling red spine and outer wing panels (none of the ETPS Lightnings was painted in the well-known ‘Raspberry Ripple’ colour-scheme adopted for the Boscombe Down test fleet). The last flight by XS422 was on 8th August 1987, by which time the total hours on the airframe were 2,200. The aircraft was then bought by Wensley Haydon-Baillie and put into store at Southampton, finding its way eventually (by sea) to the USA : it is now at Stennis Airport, Hancock County, Massachusetts undergoing a laborious restoration to flight condition. The third Lightning to serve with the ETPS was T.5 XS457 that clocked up only 74 hours with the school in a short period in late 1980 to early 1981, when XS422 was undergoing a lengthy Check 4 overhaul. It served with 5 and 11 squadrons and the LTF at Binbrook until September 1987, then being broken up for spares, with only the cockpit section surviving – this is now in the care of the Lightning Association at Binbrook, together with a complete F.6 airframe XR724 (our branch is very fortunate to have booked the Chairman of the Lightning Association Charles Ross to speak to us at our monthly meeting at Great Wyrley on 31st July). Wing Commander J.A. ‘Robby’ Robinson, who was to become the Commandant of the ETPS in 1976-77, tells a good tale about flying the Lightning in 1968, when he was a course tutor. “Its acceleration on take-off was exhilarating and one had to select the undercarriage up as soon as the wheels left the ground because the nosewheel was held down by the airflow if not retracted before 220 knots. It was a thirsty beast, especially in reheat. I was flying in the left hand seat as observer in XL629 for an Italian student as he carried out supersonic rate of roll tests (on this flight we were rolling under various amounts of G in a turn). As we were supersonic we had to keep clear of the land and were flying our orbits well south of Portland Bill. Rates of roll under G are rocky affairs and I had difficulty clutching the stop-watch and writing the data on the student’s test cards. After 20 minutes of this (25 minutes after take-off), I told the student that we were at minimum fuel and he should head for home. He must have taken this literally : I started to try to improve my writing on the cards, and after a few minutes, I looked up and was startled to see that we still had full reheat selected and were heading for France. I shouted that I had control, throttled back and turned towards England. As I did so, I zoomed to gain height and we reached something like 60,000 ft. I then started a glide at our best lift/drag speed.” “The fuel gauge needles were by this time almost on the empty mark. I put out an emergency PAN call in case we had to eject and aimed hopefully for Boscombe down. I soon discarded that as being too far away and set my sights on Bournemouth Airport. Again it became clear that we would not reach there so I scanned my map for any active airfield on the coast with a suitable runway : there were none ! The only possible refuge was Thorney Island, between Portsmouth and Chichester, but I knew that this airfield was officially closed and under Care and Maintenance. This meant there was no Air Traffic Control and maybe the runways were blocked.” “The one thing in our favour was that the weather was wonderful and you could see forever. I soon made out Selsey Bill and beyond it Chichester Harbour. By now the fuel gauges were showing empty and if the engines quit we would lose hydraulics and therefore the power controls, which would mean that we would have to eject. Both engines were still running, but I did not want to increase their power from idling as this might use up our remaining fuel. This is where my gliding experience came in. I spied the airfield and turned in between Hayling Island and West Wittering. At about two miles from the runway threshold I lowered my flaps and undercarriage and set up a steep approach. I risked a trickle of power to hold 160 kts and aimed for the very edge of the short runway, which I saw with relief was rough but clear of obstructions. Our wheels thumped the tarmac and I popped the tail-chute with a quiet “Thank God !” (the first words I had said to my student since “I have control !” I taxied off the runway to a nearby parking pan, where one engine stopped before I shut the high-pressure cocks. It had been a near thing.” “A small fire vehicle and crew drove out to us and I hitched a lift to the nearest telephone. I spoke to base and asked for a fuel bowser to be dispatched, as Thorney Island had no facilities. I also asked how to repack a tail-chute. I returned to the aircraft and my disconsolate student. I filled the waiting time by repacking the tail-chute as per instructions. This entailed lying on my back, and with my feet, shoving the packed chute into the compartment below the rear fuselage and then pushing shut the spring-loaded doors. We eventually took off and returned to Boscombe Down, where I am proud to say the tail-chute worked perfectly.” Directory: app -> download download -> Pupil bulletin week beginning monday 15th December 2014 download -> ‘Stronger Together’ download -> Mobile Computer Repair Price List (2014) download -> 2015 Commercial Space Industry Snapshot as seen through the eyes of the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ispcs) download -> - download -> Android-Lint Plugin download -> End2end ci/cd pipeline with Bamboo and Atlassian tools download -> Summer art workshops at City Lights Art Gallery Thanks to a Henderson Loves the Arts download -> 100 years of john wayne bryan, michael Download 409.4 Kb. Share with your friends:
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