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Neighbour in the village went out for a tootle in one of his light aircraft...
He can walk across his grounds to his hanger, to his plane and use his runway. Seems strange but I'm sure that as long as it don't crash he is probably doing something less risky in a Covid-19 sense than if he was driving.
Just wish he hadn't sold his Hurricane as that sounded awesome, but I don't thing he personally flew it much in the last decade and I'm sure that for someone else driving to fly a WWII fighter probably doesn't count as exercise or essential travel..
Raises a point I'd thought about: don't pilots have to do X hours per year to keep their licence or have I made that up? If they do then unless the CAA have suspended that requirement things could be tricky if the lockdown continues well into the year.
I think they do but its not that many such that they can't take a few months off. Not seen any planes buzzing round from our local flying club since lockdown so seems the pilot community count flying as non-essential journeys.
There have been a few light a craft buzzing around here in the last few days after nothing for weeks. I assumed it was to keep their hours up.
Yes there are hours required for ppl holders. Also commercial pilots need alot more to stay current. Some jets flying around now are pilots getting hours in training and maintenance checks, according to an a t c who popped in to the shop. Also something about planes not being used need specific work to mothball and then re introduce to service, things lkke tyre damage due to sitting still for extended periods, thdy defuel to make the planes lighter he reckons, and it kinda made sense to me
Commercial pilots need to fly every 35 days to maintain recency (EASA minimum is 3 landings/90 days, but we are stricter) which has been extended to 45 days in this crisis.
I don't do any leisure flying, but I think you need to do 12 hours/year to maintain a PPL. Flying clubs may enforce stricter limits, but in your own aircraft you could legally fly once a year for 12 hours.
This wouldn't be near the Bear by chance, if so, sad to hear the Hurricane has moved on.
Singletrackmind - with current short delivery fuel prices, I reckon its worth filling up all the mothballed jets!!
My mates had his chopper out this week...
@alchiltern
It is indeed. Even worse: Patrick and Lucy left the Bear last March and the new folk are crap. Haven't been in there since last June.
The CAA are also allowing engine health flights, with many restrictions.
There are going to be a lot of very rusty private (and commercial!) pilots around soon.
The CAA have just sent out a release saying they are allowing essential maintenance flights for private pilots. I think a few are stretching the definitions a little.
@eddiebaby
Thats a shame. TBH not been there much since Tim left years ago, the heyday of the annual cricket and beer fest.
Lovely pub, hope its fortunes turn around. Till then, fingers cross the crown survives the lockdown.
Ahhh...
Don't know how long since you last visited but do you know the Crown closed and the owners tried to sell it as first and Indian restaurant, and then when that fell through as flats?
Luckily the village got together and bought it as a community owned venture.
It opened last year on Star Wars Day but during lockdown Charlotte the new landlady has told me she is leaving the Crown and so the committee will have to find someone new...
Worth a watch, gets permission to fly over a runway where they are storing 400 passenger planes. Must be some wondrous sights around the world of plane parking lots.
Jet engines will have certain routine tasks that need to be carried out to maintain preservation of the engines to maintain serviceability, but none of that requires the planes to actually fly. Routine maintenance activities and the odd high power ground run is all that is required from an engine perspective - assuming no actual repair and overhaul type of maintenance is carried out, like replacing parts or servicing of significant parts of the fuel system. As soon as you start doing this then you might trigger the need for test flights.
Not sure about airframes themselves but would be surprised if any of the routine preservation tasks in the Aircraft Maintenance Manual require the plane to actually fly, but again if any repair and overhaul work is being carried out while the aircraft are on the ground then that might require test flights - but I doubt airlines will be doing this as it will trigger significant charges which they can't afford at the moment.
Foreign private jets still flying in an out of Farnborough (low enough to read their registration numbers)- those plutocrats and oil sheiks gotta spend their money somehow and I expect there's no testing for arrivals either
Need to fit every 28d to maintain currency at our club. Otherwise you need a check out flight with an instructor. Son2 is not current, but he is sat upstairs studying his ATPL books.
Surely the airlines will be doing things like getting engines serviced whilst theyre grounded anyway? No point waiting till restrictions are lifted then grounding a plane for another few weeks while the engines are off to RR for their 3year turnarround?
Obviously that only covers a proportion of planes but surely theyd be thinking about doing any servicing work that was due in the next ~6months or so up front now? Suppose thats dependant on how quickly things rebound, maybe they wont need 100% capacity for a few years anyway.
Surely the airlines will be doing things like getting engines serviced whilst theyre grounded anyway?
I saw a video online from Emirates who were doing exactly that. Full deep cleaning, re-upholstering seats, they had the catering kit out for complete overhaul. Looked amazing and also massively complicated!
Kemble/Cotswold Airport currently has a couple of BA 747’s parked up, unusually, they’re not ones being dismantled, the usual fate of any large jet that lands there, these two will leave sooner or later.
there was someone up in his tiger moth this evening while i was out on a ride. I'm sure it was essential.
Ba747s are being decommissioned in September/October. Those won’t be going anywhere. My last flight was on one of them. It was 21yrs old I think.
We’ve all had near misses with those pillars in the car park. Oops
Whilst he may directly be doing no harm he is almost certainly committing an offence. The issue* is other people see him flying and so think, if he can fly I can surely ride my motorbike, or go scuba diving etc, and suddenly lots of people are in circulation and then more people jump on the bandwagon. Either we are all following the same rules or some are more entitled than others...
This is the sort of thing that MIGHT be allowed in a few weeks as an early relaxation because it shows progress and has minimal direct risk of spread. Until then he should be playing by the rules.
*theres another issue that using a plane requires fuel, requires staff at the aerodrome, requires ATC staff and potentially maintenance support. All that means more people moving around risking disease spread.
Hi Eddiebaby.....
You don't happen to live in the Didcot area do you?
*theres another issue that using a plane requires fuel, requires staff at the aerodrome, requires ATC staff and potentially maintenance support. All that means more people moving around risking disease spread.
I think you missed my first para:
"He can walk across his grounds to his hanger, to his plane and use his runway. "
Also:
The CAA are also allowing engine health flights, with many restrictions.
No Eddie.... I'm in Devon..... but few years back I stayed on a campsite at Didcot.....
We had only just driven in when this bloody big Hurricane came wailing over the trees! Bloody amazing!
You know the history of it?
If its the same guy (and I'm guessing there arent too many Hurricane owners in Didcot!)..... It was owned by a bloke called Peter Varaday or Vakary or Varkyfly... (Something beginning with V anyway.)
Him and a mate were on a trip to India, researching a book on the "Rolls Royces of the Maharajas" which he was writing (Later turned into a BBC documentary) and they were told about a Rolls Royce engine in a scrap yard.
When they went to view it, they discovered that the engine was connected to an entire fighter plane! About a year later, they returned to India and bought it, brought it home and restored it.
I'm sure its the same guy. You know anything?
That would be Peter Vacher who went and got Hawker Hurricane Mk I G-HUPW R4118 (UP-W) back from India. And then restored to be the best and most original one flying.
http://www.hurricaneheritage.com/about/
He also brings back and restores old Rollers.
My mate John runs the campsite you were on with The Bear pub just a short walk away.
AAAAhhhhh! That's the badger!
I thought it was a Spitfire when we first saw it.... but my wife said "Don't be so daft.... Thats a bloody Hurricane!
She sounds like a keeper.
As alluded to earlier in the post, the CAA have granted permission (not that it was ever strictly prevented) to fly for the sake of engine health.
This is restricted to a half hour flight unless the manufacturer advises otherwise (although most engine manufacturers who dictate regular running of engines say if must be a flight of one hour) once every 30 days and not further than 10Nm from the airfield.
The majority of light aircraft are fitted with engines designed in the 50’s and suffer badly from internal corrosion if not run regularly. Ground runs are not advised as it is not possible to get sufficient heat into the oil to drive off any moisture without overheating the rest of the engine.
Of course, for those who are lucky enough to live on their airfields or have valid reason to use their aircraft for work, this isn’t an issue!
The CAA seem to have been remarkably fast moving and helpful during Covid!
Father in law has a diamond at Oxford. Is allowed 1 engine health flight a month within a 10 mile radius of the aerodrome but TK wanted him to stay within the circuit. He told them that wouldn't do.
As for ATC. Many have been furloughed so CAA have changed our currency from 14hrs (good quality) a month to 24hrs over the next 3 months.
Its VERY quiet, as you would expect. I've been furloughed for 3 weeks but 2 weeks ago, when I was last in, there were more controllers in the room than there were planes in controlled airspace.....in the whole of the uk.
Fingers crossed we meet again professionally soon! I’m in the sim for recency at 0600 weds - not flown since 11 Mar and had 2 weeks off before that too!😳🙈
I hope so to Dan.
Every time I've transferred someone and they've said "hopefully speak soon" or "take care of yourself" its made me quite sad.
Finish furlough early March so gonna bandbox sectors to keep the concentration up.
Take care.
She sounds like a keeper.
It’s the massive gloves. It’s a dead giveaway.