So Ya Don't Wanna Blow Stuff Up.

[Tinkicker]

In 2020, a new flight sim was released by microsoft, imaginatively called "Microsoft Flight simulator 2020".  It was designed for PC and Xbox consoles.

Naturally, I had a look and was somewhat disappointed.  All the content showed huge blue "lollipops" scattered around the scenery with " Tallahachie Municipal airport 22 miles" displayed on them, presumably to guide the Xbox gaming crowd around.  All the controls lit up blue with tooltip captions displayed above them when you put a cursor over them.  No good at all when you want to fly a GA aircraft with map and compass. 

I assumed it was an Xbox arcade game, nothing more and avoided it like the plague.

 

Then came some vids on youtube for the upcoming MSFS 2024 version, featuring the more dedicated flight sim content providers that were invited to the pre release event.  Wow.  Was I ever wrong.  Of course, the Xbox casual gamer is far more prolific than a dedicated simmer and the youtube content reflected this in the past.  I realised all these immersion jarring "helpers" could be turned off and looked deeper.

You are not stuck with default, low quality aircraft suitable for flying with an Xbox controller, you can buy add on DCS quality aircraft if you so wish.

You are not stuck with low LOD terrain objects, suitable for keeping Xbox frame rates presentable, you can buy add on. highly detailed scenery.

The biggest advantage is the overall scenery package.  DCS has spectacular scenery, but it can never be called real world.  All the terrain features are accurate, but the towns cities and villages have to be hand crafted and are often either inaccurate or missing altogether.  

MSFS 2024 (not 2020) has scenery made from satellite images and LIDAR data, so everything is present.  If I were to fly over my house and had a tree in my back garden, that tree would be present in MSFS 2024.  We filled in the garden pond last spring, so I am waiting to see if the pond is present or not....

 

I preordered MSFS 2024 about a month ago, it is due to drop on the 19th of November.

 

My first choice of add on stuff, all first day purchases are to be:

A2A Piper Comanche.

Orbx England Central scenery pack.

And of course Inibuilds Leeds Bradford Airport.  I learned to fly from Leeds Bradford back in 96 and have jumped aboard many the Jet2 aircraft for many greek holidays.  So that is a no brainer.  In the Comanche, it is only a 20 minute flight to my house, if that.

 

My beloved Reims Cessna C172 GBEUX in Multiflight livery.  When I flew her (30 hours sat in her cockpit, learning to fly), Multiflight had only just bought out Knightair and she was still in her original red and white livery.  The prevously mentioned motorcycle accident and 18 months on crutches put paid to my budding aviation aspirations.

 

So to the Leeds Bradford Scenery pack.  Quite breathtaking inside and out.  When he shows Multiflight, the factory he refers to is actually AE Turbines, they make turbine and fan blades for jet engines.

As for the airport, it is absolutely true to life.  I have had many the 5am bacon roll with hash brown, sat in that burger king and queued up in the Jet2 check in area.  I recognise every area shown in the vid.

So why all the internal stuff when you are sat in a cockpit?

MSFS 2024 has a new feature.  You can walk around.  If you so wish, you can enter the airport, walk through, find your aircraft and strap in.  Again, something DCS lacks.  The only way to walk around in DCS is to eject from the aircraft, shrug off your parachute and run away from the enemy.

I am really looking forward to the end of November.

 

Leeds Bradford add on airport.  Astonishing.

 

Edited October 26, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

And introducing my new steed.  I will not bother with the default aircraft.  They are mainly intended for the casual gamer and do not have the accurate flight and systems models that good payware add on aircraft have.

You get what you pay for.  If you want absolute realism, you have to dip into your pockets, just like DCS.  Every DCS p!ane and scenery except two basic aircraft and two scenery areas are paid for add ons, so I am well used to buying good quality stuff.

 

The Commanche actually ages and wears out as you fly it and much more so if you abuse it.  When I was learning to fly the 172, much, much emphasis was given to careful engine management to prevent avoidable wear and tear.

 

A2A Piper Comanche.  A complex piston single aircraft that is right up my street.

 

 

[Tinkicker]

Release day today.  It has not gone well.  In fact it is a complete fiasco.  

 

Pitchfork manufacturers have turned their machines up to 100% worldwide and yet there are none left to be found anywhere.

 

I imagine microsoft global headquarters will have been burned to the ground by tomorrow morning.

[Simon Davey]

Are you talking hard copy, or download? 

No excuses for lack of downloads. 

[Tinkicker]

Downloads, then streaming.  Servers crashing, users not able to access the game after several hours waiting for it to load, people with 900Mbs connections getting insufficient bandwidth messages, missions load without aircraft or airports.  The list goes on.

 

I am not going near till the weekend.

[Simon Davey]

Flippin' 'eck, serious MS failure 

[Tinkicker]

I think failure is a bit mild.  It is a fkup of epic proportions.

[Tinkicker]

And a few days later.  It is clear that it was not release ready, but the very few flights I actually managed to conduct after much trying were pretty much impressive, albeit full of bugs and annoyances. Obviously the devs had a timeline to release that they fell behind on.  

 

 

i did get to fly over my house and note the fishpond present that was filled in over 12 months ago...

 

Leeds Bradford airport is impressive though, even if it gives a really crap framerate.  Best observed when stationary.

 

Edited November 24, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

Still full of bugs but steadily improving.  Piper Comanche 250 paid for addon is a far better aircraft than the stock ones as I can attest.

 

I have around 8 hours in it so far and it certainly keeps you on your toes.  You can have three versions of the aircraft.  New, used or auction.  Of course I picked the auction one, which is supposed to be a bit of a mixed bag.  I had an "interesting flight" in it.

Scenario.

So one saturday evening, I was idly smooshing through ebay after several pints of heineken.  I came across a sorry looking 1969 piper comanche for sale.  It looked a bit careworn, but hey all the logbooks were up to date.  I put in a cheeky bid and found I had "won" it two days later.  Of course, I had completely forgot about my beer hazed shopping spree and was somewhat surprised to find myself as a new aircraft owner.

 

Buyers regrets are legion, but hey, a deal is a deal.  I found myself on a bus, headed for Lydd Aerodrome at the tip of Dungeness in Kent to pick up my new aquisition.

On arrival, I went through the paperwork with the seller.  It had just had a fresh annual inspection and a cylinder compression check by Lydd Aero Services and although was very tired looking, it had obviously been looked after well.

It had the tip tank delete and various go faster mods fitted in the late 1990s and was supposed to be a bit of a hot rod.

 

A quick preflight, kick the tyres and get her started.  She sounded fine, so a cheery wave to the ex owner who was inexplicably running for the airfield car park and away I went.  Took off to the south and turned north westish for Leeds Bradford.  My what a fine aircraft.  Levelled off at 3000ft, leaned the mixture, set the manifold pressure at 20" and prop at 2000rpm.  My word, she was hitting 160mph in the cruise,  while sipping 10 gallons per hour.  Great.

 

Buzzed across Royal Tunbridge Wells and could see Croydon and the city of London ahead.  Great, time for a little sightseeing.  Because I was using real time weather, it was a bit of a choppy, murky day and I needed to stay low for my sightseeing bonanza. 

15 minutes since I set out on course for home, so time for the standard checks.  Fuel pressure ok, quantity ok, oil pressure ok, oil temp ok, direction and altitude ok.  A quick burst of carb heat and time to realign the gyro card with the compass.  So while waiting for the compass to settle on a reliable reading, peering at it intently, I saw something red flash on out of the corner of my eye.

 

It was the engine monitor and it was flashing three red letters..OIL.  What the devil.  A look back down at the oil gauges said it all.  Oil pressure below the green and oil temp above it.  I was losing oil.  What to do, I could see a large airport in the distance, probably heathrow, but there was no way I was chancing my luck across a large built up area with a failing engine.

 

No choice to put it down in a wheat field, gear down.  I sat there carreeening across the field, sounds of distressed metal banging and jangling and various scary things going on.  We came to rest, engine still idling away nicely.  Was it an instrumentation fault? Could I have chanced it?  I dunno.

Anyway it was down without damage, the devs who wrote the code for the comanche were kind to me.  In real life, I reckon I would have torn the nosewheel strut out of the firewall, destroyed the prop and shock loaded the engine...

But I would have walked away from it.

 

What did I learn about flying from this sorry tale?

 

Mainly, do not buy an aircraft off ebay while pissed as a newt.

 

Edited December 13, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Simon Davey]

That's a very realistic sounding flight.

You should write books, your descriptions are so easy to visualise.

 

[Tinkicker]

Yes I make all my flights as realistic as possible, using real time weather and all with a specific goal in mind.

 

Todays flight was Leeds Bradford to Liverpool, took in the Liver building and both cathedrals, set course for Anglesey, a touch and go on the runway at RAF Valley, set course north for the isle of man, crossed the coast at Castletown, right by the Ronaldsway airport, turned right over Glen Helen, headed back over the irish sea at Douglas and made landfall at Barrow in Furness and Morecambe.

A quick murky and bumpy jaunt in the clouds over the pennines and back to leeds bradford.

 

I fly the aircraft exactly as I was taught, way back in 1995.  Only difference is that was a cessna C172, 110mph flat out and fixed landing gear.  I would have needed an extra rating on my licence to fly the comanche, it being a " complex" piston single because it had retractable gear.

Edited December 13, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

This morning, leeds bradford to Le Touquet via duxford, detling, dover, calais and did the thing that all newly minted PPLs do.  Stop for a coffee and bagette at Le Touquet, then visit the hypermarket and fill the baggage compartment with booze..

 

Set off from LBA in clear skies, the weather once south of the Thames is crap and got worse the further south I went.  Proper dark and dismal over Dover.

 

Time for a spot of dinner, then i will bring the aircraft back to LBA.

[Simon Davey]

Do you have airspace issues? I'm assuming you're following commercial flightpaths?

[Tinkicker]

No I am flying VFR below 2000ft (visual flight rules).  As along as I avoid getting within 4 miles of a large airport I am golden.  Besides ATC is glitched, I turned the bloody annoying thing off.  Climb to 3000ft, descend to 2000ft, climb to 3000ft ad infinitum.  Controlled airspace around an airport is like an upturned wedding cake.  The TMA is from ground up four miles around the centre of the airport.  The next layer is above 2000ft, the one after that if it has one is IIRC 6000ft.

 

Long time since I put the books away..

 

 

Still have the full set of books somewhere, I never threw them out.  It might pay to dig them out...

 

Edited December 14, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

Todays flight was a bit of a failure.  Was looking to bump up my hours in the comanche so a max endurance flight was on the cards.

 

Manually inputted all the waypoints into the nav system.  Leeds Bradford to Prestwick, Prestwick to Fort William, Fort William to Aberdeen and Aberdeen back to Leeds Bradford.

 

A pretty dangerous, bumpy flight over the Pennines and the Lake District skudding under the cloudbase at 3000ft.  Crossing the Solway Firth, the cloudbase lowered drastically and I was down to 1500ft and still having trouble seeing the ground.  So 1500ft, 1/4 mile visibility at best and mountainous terrain ahead...

 

No sirree bob.  So I turned around and headed East instead. Came to the east coast at Sunderland, only knew it was Sunderland because I could see the Nissan plant below - aviation maps are not like road atlases, they only depict radio beacons and airfield letters, so you have no idea what town you just flew over, unless you have a map.  VR headset in place, you  cannot look at a map, so just have to eyeball it from zooming the nav chart right out and approximate your location based on where you are; looking at the outline of the UK.

Headed down the coast past Whitby, Scarborough, Filey and Bridlington before heading west for Leeds Bradford.  Quite horrible weather with sea frets around Filey and Bridlington, then again around the Driffield area, all dark and gloomy mist. I eventually popped out of it with Drax power station right on the nose.  A bit better weather, but very turbulent.

 

On the way around, I worked out how to tune the nav radio and slave the HSI to it to enable me to shoot an ILS approach to Leeds runway 32.

 

Far too turbulent. Very gusty wind. The little comanche gets affected badly by turbulence that the beefy A10C would shrug off.  It was going ok till a couple of miles from the runway, and as the beams tightened ever more with the approaching runway, I could no longer keep the needles centred and had to land visually.  An " exciting" landing nevertheless.  Crosswind was way above the crosswind limit of the aircraft and the approach was crabbing a full 30 degrees into the wind.  

Pretty landing it was not, but I got down.  What I should have done was divert to another airfield with a runway facing more into wind.

 

Total flight time today 2 hrs 51mins.  Total Flight time in the comanche 30 hours 47 mins.  Total miles flown 4355.  Which gives a rough average groundspeed of 140mph

 

Edited December 15, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

Yesterdays flight was a workup towards another madcap idea I have had.  Currently reading Kerry McCauleys Ferry Pilot yet again, a stonking good read.  A big time ferry pilot, delivering small single / twin engined planes all around the world.

So an idea was formed.  I will conduct a flight in a well used piston single from leeds bradford to florida, flying to Iceland, greenland, newfoundland and working my way down the east coast of the US to see if I make it and live.

Three ferry pilots a year die crossing the northern atlantic route.  I could go across via morroco to the azores, thence the US, but the little comanche does not have the range, even with the original tip tanks fitted.  Just about do the northern route though.  I could simulate having ferry tanks fitted and do the azores, but i do not fancy 14 hour flights sat at a PC with a VR headset glued to my face, looking at nothing but the ocean.

 

So yesterdays flight was leeds bradford to Wick John O Groats airport, stopping off place for all the ferry pilots flying the northern route.

Weather was a bit grim ( always fly in real time weather - the sim takes the latest hourly weather reports from various airports on route and processes them into real time conditions if you so wish.  Most do not, they like to fly in sunny weather.  I prefer realism).

Weather over England was grim up to Newcastle, then it cleared a bit until I hit the Firth of Forth with sea frets and cloud bases at 2500 ft.  It cleared again past Aberdeen, but got very turbulent, and got really bad again crossing the Moray Firth, with low cloud and mist obscuring Wick.  I was headed towards it via GPS alone.  Luckily my HSI started receiving glide slope information, so I flew the pipper down to the runway.  Broke out of the murk about two miles from the runway.  Was very glad to see the glideslope pipper responding because I was somewhere over the fogged in Moray West Offshore wind farm.

Another Interesting landing in a gusty 20kt crosswind but I made it down in one piece.  

 

 

There I was.  Wick.  Hallowed ground indeed.  Only runways 13 and 31 are in a useable condition.  The other four had large crosses marked on them yesterday.

 

Wick

 

Today I will aquire a suitably beat up ebay comanche with tip tanks, look through its systems repairing badly worn, non flightworthy items, but leave those that are still operating, although not in the first flush of youth, just like the ferry companies do before setting out.

Be interesting dealing with failed alternators ect en route.

The flight should keep me busy over Xmas and keep my mind off the truly appalling flu I have picked up.

 

Kerry McCauley..

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Simon Davey]

These are great pots!!

 

Weather was a bit grim ( always fly in real time weather - the sim takes the latest hourly weather reports from various airports on route and processes them into real time conditions if you so wish.  Most do not, they like to fly in sunny weather.  I prefer realism).  Love this, but with winter probably being when you have the most time to fly, I'd want sunny weather occasionally.

 

Kerry McCauley tells a great story, you gotta have some balls to do that, surely now, you'd be shot down? 

I didn't realise you could switch off a transponder, useful in such circumstances.

 

Good luck with the flu, hope it's short lived.

 

Cheers 

Edited December 21, 2024 by Simon Davey

[Tinkicker]

Yup.  That is why my ferry flight ends up in florida.  I loved watching the Richy Vida US tour on you tube, setting off from cold, wet Canada and heading south into better weather on VFRs. I always fancied doing that trip.

 

Same with this ferry flight.  Starts in grim weather that gets worse and extremely dangerous, then starts to get better again.

 

Being a long time flight sim pilot with 1000s of hours of military aircraft flying under my belt, I am doing things ( simulated) that I could never have done back in the day in real life.  I could not have even flown the comanche, because it was regarded as a "complex" aircraft due to retractable undercarriage and a variable pitch prop.  After 1000hrs flying the A10C warthog and many hundreds of hours flying everything from a spitfire mk9, to a F15 jet fighter, and everything in between, of course I find the comanche ridiculously simple. 

Same as the new skills I picked up along the way, very few general aviation pilots in real life actually bother with instrument ratings and cannot fly in cloud for more than a minute or so before killing themselves.

Since instrument flying is a big part of military flying in all weathers, it is something I picked up along the way.

 

Not that I in any way, try to pull the wool over anyones eyes that I could pass a CAA instrument rating skill test, I most certainly could not.  But I can fly in zero visibility to my hearts content, not that I enjoy it.  It is very hard work.

 

It seems very strange thinking that putting my 1995 real life pilot self today, in the cockpit of the comanche in VR, would have left me completely out of my depth when the weather turned bad.  God forbid what I would have made of the hog.  I recall, back in 2011 when it first came out, it took me a full two weeks to learn just how to start the thing and get it ready for flight.

When I got the comanche, just sat in it, looked around the cockpit, started it up and away I went...  No manual required.  Partly through my real life flight training back in the day,  and mostly through years of experience since.

 

Things have certainly come a long way since Flight Simulator 1998.  I used to deride flight simmers in those days that had the temerity to call themselves "pilots".  These days,  realism settings cranked up to max and all gamey "aids" switched off,   esp in VR, the realism is such that I can no longer do that.  These days, it is more a case of attitude.  There are those playing a game with pretty scenery with everything set to easy, where the sim basically flies the plane for you, and those with the attitude that they really are flying a plane, it just does not hurt when you get it wrong..

 

I got a blue 1964 Piper Comanche 250 to deliver...

 

 

Edited December 21, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Simon Davey]

Brilliant.. 

 

Bon voyage 

[Tinkicker]

You say i should write a book.  I will do exactly that for you during this simulated ferry flight....  The misadventures of a bloke who had a bad idea....

Edited December 21, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

So I just got a phone call.  Someone needs to deliver an old dinosaur of a plane across the Atlantic Ocean.  It was made before I was born, and has not had a cossetted life.  I am summoned to leeds to survey this refugee from the  JF kennedy era and see if it is doable.

 

I think not, but....God loves a risk taker.

 

I stand there in a far out of the way corner of Sherburn aerodrome, surrounded by several large shapes lashed into tarpaulins.  It is a depressing place, a place where repossessed aircraft come to rest. 

Some may fly again, most will not; they will be towed across the airfield to a large hanger and dismantled, the parts carefully inspected, refurbished, catalogued and put into storage as serviceable replacement parts ready for fitment into other aging, long out of production aircraft where new parts are getting increasingly hard to find.

 

I am stood with my boss in front of a blue, 1964 Piper Comanche 250 looking a bit rough around the edges, it is clearly well used.

Pete asks " well what do you think...Is it doable"?..

 

I take the keys from him and climb into the cockpit.  It is worn, but has been upgraded in the last 20 years or so.  The original King radio stack has been replaced by a Garmin 530 GPS/ Comms unit and a Narco mode C transponder. I look at the hobbs meters for engine hours and total airframe hours. 2936 hours on the engine and 3400 total airframe hours.  That cannot be right, the hobbs total time meter must have gone around the drum, so in actual fact it must have 13400 hours on it.

No spring chicken then and the engine is overdue a overhaul.  

Out I climb and do a quick preflight.

Flap linkages have a fair bit of wear.

Ailerons OK.

The tip tanks look OK and no water in the fuel.  The wing skins have no obvious serious corrosion issues and are not rippled.

The landing gear oleos are still charged with nitrogen, the tyres are inflated and the creep marks still aligned.  Treads are good.

Right brake pads need replacing soon.

Looking down the fuselage reveals no rippling, missing rivets and no serious corrosion.  Crouching down to peer under the belly and everything appears good, no buckling or scrapes due to a wheels up landing.

There are no signs of blue crustiness under the wings indicating long term fuel leaks. 

The stabilator feels good and the servo trim tab is doing its thing. 

 

So far so good for the airframe, it is very tired but still managing to hold itself together.  It appears to be flyable.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

Moving around to the pointy end, we have a very recent McCauley three bladed, variable pitch prop and a very shiney spinner.  Nice.

The dipstick reveals a sump full of brand new oil.  OK.

 

Back in the cockpit again.  Check all circuit breakers.  All in.

Fuel valves set to inboard tanks.

Battery on.

Fuel boost pump on.

Fuel pressure and quantity good.

Mags on both.

Mixture set to rich.

Prop set to fine.

Give her five good pumps on the primer.

Hit the starter.  Whirr clunk. Damn, flat battery.

 

One of the techs at the salvage firm wanders out with a charge pack and plugs it in.

Try again.  

Fuel on, battery on, three strokes of the primer and hit the starter...

I count about 15 blades before it has a sniff of an inclination to fire, my word she is tired, then she lights off.

I juggle the throttle desperately trying to keep her running and finally get her to sit around a thousand rpm.

 

What a horrible engine, she is coughing and spluttering with at least one cylinder with a hard misfire and the other five not showing a great deal of interest.

Oil pressure ok.

Fuel pressure ok.

Fuel flow steady.

Oil temp rising.

Cylinder head temp rising.

Manifold pressure all over the place.

RPMs all over the place.

Ammeter shows she is charging.

Mag switch from both to left mag.  Instant cut.

 

Try again...

 

Mag switch to both and hit the starter.  The choir of unhappy parts resumes.  

Mag switch to right mag, no change, so the left magneto is bad.

 

Pete looks at me through the windshield with a raised eyebrow asking if i am prepared to fly it the 15 minutes it takes to get to leeds bradford and a team of licenced technicians able to make the neccessary repairs.

 

I shake my head, hell no.

 

I very much doubt it is capable of dragging itself into the air before the end of the 7000ft runways looms and there is no way am I going to fly it across the large built up area called Leeds.  No way am I going to file for an exemption flight permission to ferry it to the LBA FBO.

Far too dangerous.

 

It is going to have to be put in a hanger here and enough work carried out on her to make it even viable to take to a runway.

 

The new owners in Florida are not going to be happy...

Edited December 22, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

 

 

Note that all the faults and problems I have described are exactly what I encountered in the sim.  The comanche fully replicates every single fault and failure possible on the aircraft. It actually wears itself out as you fly it.  My red comanche that I have been flying thus far has had a brand new, zero time engine put into it.  Well actually that engine has 16 hrs on it now.  It was well tired when I got it.

 

I am not telling a tale, I am simply recounting the facts and adding characters and background situations to the bare bones to make it into a story.  The aircraft I chose for this flight was in auction condition with the highest hours I could find.  It is suitably knackered.

 

The comanche has three condition modes to select.

1.  Brand new and factory fresh.

2.  Used.  Buy from a dealer.  Fully checked over and serviced, ready for flight.

3.  Auction.  A mixed bag bought sight unseen..  You could get a bargain or a nightmare.

 

Ferry pilots often have to contend with option 3 type aircraft, so that is what I have gone with.

Edited December 22, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Simon Davey]

And this is all from a sim'! 

Fantastic detail and had me wanting more. 

 

Edited December 22, 2024 by Simon Davey

[Tinkicker]

Three weeks later..

 

The technicians have signed the aircraft off for a temporary exemption certificate for a 15 minute flight to Leeds.

 

Repairs conducted so far:

 

Full compression check on all six cylinders.

One cylinder was found to be badly cracked and not able to fire at all.

Three cylinders were just at the lower limit of the service spec.

Two cylinders were mid range serviceable.

 

Replace 4 cylinders.

 

Replace the left hand magneto and replace badly pitted points in the right mag.

 

Replace 12 spark plugs.

 

Replace complete ignition harness.

 

Replace hardened and brittle fuel hoses.

 

Replace broken engine baffling.

 

Replace fuel gascolator filter.

 

Replace oil filter and oil.

 

Replace battery and battery cables.

 

Looking through the logbooks it becomes clear why the aircraft ended up getting snatched back by the mortgage company. 

Seems that a couple of years ago, the aircraft was owned by a company in Knottingham that specialised in aerial photography and powerline inspection using thermal cameras.

It was suddenly parked up for around six months, then submitted for its annual inspection.  Seems the faults detailed, plus others became known at that time and the repair bill was going to exceed the value of the aircraft.  Guess this is when the oil got changed.

 

The aircraft left the maintenance facility in Knottingham and apparently teleported itself to Sherburn.  No paperwork record of the flight whatsoever.

 

The bank had been informed of the location of the aircraft and attempted seizure of the logbooks from the Knottingham FBO.  During this time,  the aerial photo business had gone into liquidation. 

Meanwhile, the Knottingham FBO still had not been paid for the work they started and refused to hand over the logs, essentially rendering the aircraft scrap value only.

 

Discussions between the aircraft salvage company began regarding purchase of the airframe and an agreement was reached.  The salvage was purchased from the bank for a nominal sum and the salvage company, already on good business terms with the Knottingham aircraft repair shop, agreed to pay their bill in exchange for the logbooks.

A win win. Major parts like the prop, sold as inspected and serviceable require their original log book.

 

The aircraft was slated to be broken down for parts, until a completely unexpected offer to buy it came from the US, via an intermediary broker in the UK.  

 

A deal was struck.  Pete was brought into the deal as the delivery and predelivery maintenance service, leaving me stood looking at a forlorn looking piece of 1950s technology and wondering if I will still be alive at Xmas....

 

Aircraft flew to leeds bradford airport sucessfully and is getting a full checkover by the techs in the Multiflight hanger.

 

Meanwhile, the intermediary broker paid the repair bill for the engine repair work already carried out at Sherburn without question, the delivery is progressing steadily.  Someone in the US has some very deep pockets.

 

I am starting to wonder if I am about to meet a Miami drug runner in the near future.

 

Textron Lycoming Cylinders..

 

 

Edited December 22, 2024 by Tinkicker