Classic British Flight Sim

Just to report to you guys that Mr. McHenry, the last airworthy Shackleton taildragger has been put to bed for the final time as of Sunday afternoon. After a week of checks and minor maintenance, he had his engines run on Saturday and flew off into the morning Midland sun on Sunday morning. The crew made one low pass over Midland before heading to Tuscon and then made a high pass there before landing at Davis-Monthan AFB and being towed over to the Pima Air & Space Museum, his new home. He will be run one last time tomorrow for 45 minutes to 1 hour and will probably never be run again. They will do a restoration on him and restore his paint to its former glory, but that will probably be it.

Some pictures and more information can be found here. It's sad that AACF decided to listen to Mr. Markgraf and send the aircraft to Pima as they had several opportunities over the last 5 years to keep it from happening, but there sadly was never much more than silence received when those who wanted to see McHenry on the airshow circuit contacted them with ideas and proposals (serious ones, not just "I don't know how to do it, but you could do this" stuff).

Thanks for that update Chris, the irony is, that EVERY British airshow would have loved to have seen him appear! It's just the dreaded CAA that was not happy. Perhaps with a year of safe Vulcan ops, they might change their minds, but by then it be too late.

Great to see her in the air again.. albeit for the final time. So that's it then.. the last flying example destined for a museum :-(

Tks for the info Chris ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Thanks for that Chris

Amazing they stretched it out for so long

Garry

How sad. Let's hope maybe the other one at Coventry may one day take to the sky.

Chris558 wrote:How sad. Let's hope maybe the other one at Coventry may one day take to the sky.

The fact Mr. McHenry went to Pima means that the one at Coventry will never fly. Mr. McHenry was (and is) in airworthy condition but the CAA guaranteed it would be grounded the minute it arrived on British soil. They will never let another fly in UK airspace, no matter where it's registered.

Chris Trott wrote:

Chris558 wrote:How sad. Let's hope maybe the other one at Coventry may one day take to the sky.

The fact Mr. McHenry went to Pima means that the one at Coventry will never fly. Mr. McHenry was (and is) in airworthy condition but the CAA guaranteed it would be grounded the minute it arrived on British soil. They will never let another fly in UK airspace, no matter where it's registered.

Don'y know if we have been down this road before - if we have I have missed it & I'm sorry.

Why would the CAA ground it. The technology that is behind the Shack is the same as that (he says valiantly) in the BBMF Lanc. Why will the CAA now allow another Avro product that is all electric with no maual reversion in case of power failure to return to the show circuit, where as a product that is just the opposite is 'guarunteed' to be grounded if it returns to the UK.

The same I think (I am on dodgy ground as I am not to hot on Lightnings) with the EE Lightning. Is that not also a manual aircraft, so again why the big NO. What is the difference between a fully maintained (& CAA certified) DC3 & a Shack.

What is the difference between an airworthy (UK) Lightning & an airworthy (UK) Hunter, apart from the obvious?

OK minor rant over...Merry Christmas...but you get my drift. :think:

Bob

The BBMF Lanc is operated by the RAF and has nothing to do with the CAA

I suppose if it did it would be grounded.

Garry

The issue (as it has been explained to me at least) is different for the Lightning and Shack. The Shack will not be allowed to fly because Avro put a "life limit" on the spar, which the aircraft reached quite some time ago, which was why it was originally grounded. In the US, under it's Experimental certificate, the aircraft underwent repeated and extremely thorough X-rays of the wing spars (all of them) and as long as they came back with no cracks, the FAA allowed the aircraft to remain airworthy. Had any cracks appeared, the aircraft would have required the spars to be replaced and/or repaired before being allowed to continue flying. The other issue with the Shack is that none of the UK "Design Authorities" would agree to support the Shack. As such, without the DA, the Shack cannot receive a civilian airworthiness certificate. As the BBMF is performed under the guise of the Royal Air Force, its aircraft are operated on their original military airworthiness certificates with the RAF as the Design Authority. Even if they had civilian certificates, the RAF is certified as a Design Authority, so that item would be satisfactorally met as well. This is why 'Just Jane' is only ground run as well. They cannot get a DA to support the aircraft, so they have to stay earthbound. With the EE Lighting, the CAA considers it to be a "complex" aircraft and thus will not grant authority for it to fly in the UK, nor will they probably issue certificates for aircraft like the Buccaneer, Jag, Tornado, or any other ex-military jets built from the 1970s on. This is why the only remaining Bucc flying in the UK is with a company that flies the aircraft under the MoD and MoD certificate instead of a civilian certificate.

Chris,

Thanks for that. A pity for all UK aviation enthusiasts just the same.

Bob