Wonwings Diary-a blog with a difference.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Lets get close in and see the structure.



The cockpit of Lindbergh's 'Spirit of St Louis' Ryan N-Y-P,note the sparse wickework seat with no seatbelts,plus the very functional fuel pipes and controls,literally a flying fuel tank,the crude plumbing is self evident,Lindbergh wanted everything to hand and kept as light as possible with no frills.

Just remember he flew this aircraft by astro navigation across the Atlantic single handed,it certainly looks mighty uncomfortable just looking at that seat alone,which would look more at home on the veranda ? what a man of iron he must have been to accomplish what he did,when you travel on your sleek jet airliner on holidays think of this man.



Ford Trimotor engine detail,the clatter of three radial engines in your ears as these island hoppers plied their trade,then the sleek Douglas sleeper transports (DC-3 Dakota later on ) came along to make these tin birds look antiquated,a few still fly in private hands still giving joy rides to lucky people at Oshkosh.



Avro Lancaster nose turret,imagine being young and stuck in the nose of a Lancaster,terrified and vulnerable as flak was all around you.

The sharp edges of the metal structure,and the lack of sound proofing was something easy to forget today.

BAC Strikemaster nose art.



Now here is a real challenge to get going with a paintbrush,the nose art on this privately owned Strikemaster took some 120 hours to execute carefully laying on one coat on top of the next to produce this stunning result.

[wonwinglo]

Remember Anand who wrote to me a little while back about a model aeroplane contest at his college ? well he sent me this today-

Hi Barry

My event was a grand sucess and all credits goes to you. I must thanks you and the wonderful folks at Scale-Model. I would definatly sent you the snaps. we had nearly 30 team and 30 diff Aero Model made out of Ivory Paper planes. It was great.

As a result of sucess of this magnitude we are planning to have our own Aero Modeling Club at our collge , a forum for all Aircraft lovers.

The name of the club is "AEROTREK" and club motto "Thrust Yourself"

i would be glad if u could tell me the basic requriement for an Aero Modeling clubs and other information and requriment and activites. For the time being our action points for the members of the club and students are

1. Basic concepts of Aero Modeling

2. Fundamentals of Aero Dynamics

3. Paper Modeling

4. Balsa Wood modeling.

I would be grateful to have any kind of help from you and scale model.

Looking foward for your reply.

Cheers...

Anand.

[Guest]

Remember Anand who wrote to me a little while back about a model aeroplane contest at his college ? well he sent me this today-Hi Barry

My event was a grand sucess and all credits goes to you. I must thanks you and the wonderful folks at Scale-Model. I would definatly sent you the snaps. we had nearly 30 team and 30 diff Aero Model made out of Ivory Paper planes. It was great.

As a result of sucess of this magnitude we are planning to have our own Aero Modeling Club at our collge , a forum for all Aircraft lovers.

The name of the club is "AEROTREK" and club motto "Thrust Yourself"

i would be glad if u could tell me the basic requriement for an Aero Modeling clubs and other information and requriment and activites. For the time being our action points for the members of the club and students are

1. Basic concepts of Aero Modeling

2. Fundamentals of Aero Dynamics

3. Paper Modeling

4. Balsa Wood modeling.

I would be grateful to have any kind of help from you and scale model.

Looking foward for your reply.

Cheers...

Anand.

Great news Barry. Always nice to know we could help someone with a modelling issue.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Postal scam rife at the moment.

Royal Mail Postal Scam

This scam has been confirmed by Royal Mail and is especially relevant as Christmas is fast approaching:

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a premium

rate number).

DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize.

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15 for the phone call.

If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 0207 2396655 or ICSTIS (the premium rate service regulator) at

www.icstis.org.uk, or your local trading standards office.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Chance photograph of the Hercules C-130C3P Conversion.

Yesterday I went over to BHX Birmingham International airport, to see the aircraft that had arrived for the G8 Conference,the spot that I use is well away from the terminal but with a good pair of binoculars you can see everything that is going on,I was just about to leave when someone that I was talking to said,look there is an ambulance one of the military flights must be coming in from Saudi Arabia ? the hospital at Selly Oak have a special military personnel ward,anyway after waiting a few minutes the Herky Bird appeared on the horizon,it was a C-130C3P stretched version,something that I had not seen before,by poking my camera through the fence I got this image which I am very pleased with-



XV197 Hercules C-130C3P arrives with a patient for the new Selly Oak hospital military ward in Birmingham.



N46WC HS.125,D-CFAI Learjet,Fed Ex EI-FXG ATR 72 and VT-JGS a Boeing 737 on delivery to Jet Airlines,India from Boeing field top right in a very awkward position for photography.BHX 26-10-2006

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-My Aventures with the Kintronic Avionics SBS-1 Virtual radar system.

The wonderful SBS-2.

Some 25 years ago the enthusiast was offered the first airband radios to appear on the market,I never go anywhere without mine and it has been a source of enjoyment for many years giving an involvement with aviation and felling part and parcel of what is happening,then I got wind of a virtual aircraft tracking system,saw what it was capable of and I just had to get my hands on one,now I can not only listen to those specks in the sky but track them on my virtual radar system,follow them and watch as the climb out and set course for warmer climes,this system has already taught me a lot about our air traffic control system and is evolving around a pioneering a system of collision avoidance and monitoring that is here to stay.

Well how does it work ? basically a Transponder unit is installed in the aircraft,at the moment every day more aircraft are being fitted with them,and the CAA want a unit fitted into every General Aviation ircraft by the year 2008,this includes microlights,balloons,gliders in fact anything that uses the sky to make it a much safer place.

The ideas of the use of transponders has been around for a very long time,comedian and TV personmality Michael Bentine who lost his son in a tragic Piper Cub accident whereby the aircraft fell into heavy undergrowth and was not found for weeks wanted two things,one for every pilot to file a flight plan,and two for aircraft to be equipped with transponder units so everyone knew where they were,if the aircraft had been so equipped then the crew would have been located very quickly and no doubt survived the accident,the massive increase in air traffic within the UK alone means that a system like this is essential for the future,the extra expense of purchasing units for say £1,000 far outweighs the benefits in safety,even compact portable units are available for use in microlights.

The aircraft sends out a code which is installed into the box,this is known as the HEX code,meaning eight figures,every aircraft on the British Civil register and throughout the world now has such a code allocated in readiness for the transponder revolution that is taking place,here are some screen grabs of my system taken at a very light period of activity in order to see the basic screen set up,the picture below this one shows the constantly upgraded and updated streaming aircraft data picked up by the antennae and fed into the box.



The runway orientation for both Coventry and Birmingham airports added today from second generation enthusiasts software.



Tracked aircraft showing the beacon at Honiley airfield,altitude,speed,real time positions,HEX 8 digit codes which can be de-coded,a useful physical check can be carried out by using Google Earth,the operators latitude/Lonitude is fed into the software,various display parameters can be set up.

At peak times there can be as many as 50-60 aircraft in the area shown above where I monitor from,the whole system has proved to be a fascinating insight into what is going on up there and proved to be totally absorbing.

I am curently experimenting with different antennae combinations/designs from a biscuit tin lid ground plane mounted 18 inches from a 20 foot pole with the antennae mounted into as much free sky as possible,to the supplied magnetic mount fitted to a domestic tea tray !

As transmissions are line of sight,it is important that the signals are shielded from buildings etc as little as possible,this can be very difficult in heavily built up areas but experiments can give amazing variables.

**Wonwing recommended** a high quality product with a very bright future both for the amateur radio fan and in the aviation industry for training air traffic controllers.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-The Percival Aircraft Company

Percival Aircraft.

The ever popular aircraft produced by this company still have quite a following,the streamlined designs were ideal for racing and long distance flights,if you get the chance then read 'The Flight of the Mew Gull' by Alex Henshaw which contains gripping stories of his early flying and most important the story of the famous Cape Dash,he was so exhausted that they had to lift him from the cramped cockpit and held him aloft as the hero.

From the Mew Gull stemmed a series of beautifully designed and built touring aeroplanes some of which are seen here.





G-AEKL Percival Mew Gull which Charles Gardner won the 1937 Kings Cup air race,colours are red with gold trim.



G-AEXF Mew Gull at the 1954 air races held at Baginton,the aircraft still exists albeit damatically rebuilt with very little left of the original airframe,the control column button in fact.



OO-ARJ Proctor IV,formerly G-ANWU.One of a few ex R.A.F aircraft demobbed and converted into training and general purpose aircraft.



Proctor V OO-ARM,formerly G-AHZY.



Vivian Bellamy test flying G-AIAE Proctor V converted into a lookalike Junkers 87 for the film 'Battle of Britain' although not used in this film, the aircraft languished at Elstree studios where one of the three aircraft built is believed to exist.

The extensive amount of conversion work is evident here,there appearing to be very little left of the original airframe with a cut down rear decking and what look like new gull wings.

Although Viv Belamy was noted for his replica aircraft this was not one of his best as it is said the aircraft only flew on one occasion !

The aircraft was dubbed the 'Proctuka'



Percival Prentice E-390 on display at a museum in Argentina.

Thanks to Captain Nigel Hitchman for the picture.



N1041P Prentice flys in the U.S.A painted as a warbird in camouflage,she was grounded for a while with engine problems.

Now understood to be up for sale.

The camouflage is authentic apart from the shade as early production prototypes were so finished.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-More Percival Aircraft photographs.



NP294 Proctor 4,the aircraft went to the Lincs Aviation Heritage centre at East Kirkby,the only Proctor in original R.A.F colours around.



G-AHBD Proctor 5,withdrawn from use March 1968,seen here at Staverton,as shown below this was the Sir W.G.Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft company hack.



The same aircraft at Baginton,this machine was one of the Sir W.G.Armstrong Whitworth aircraft hacks painted in medium blue fuselage with silver wings,she was sold to Henri Duccoman following a short spell with the A.W.A Flying group,pictured here outside the LAS hangar then onwards to private ownership at Staverton.



G-ANPP Proctor 3,ex HM354 was owned by Harry Fanshawe during the sixties,finished in a beautiful red/white scheme she made a long distance flight to South Africa and back.



G-AHGA Proctor 3,owned by Stewart Smith and Sons,seen here at Baginton in 1961,the aircraft was withdrawn from use in 1963.

Painted overall pale grey with blue trim.



G-AHMP Proctor 2,withdrawn from use April 1963,this aircraft was paintedred and silver starboard side and black and silver port side,used for communications by Bristol Siddeley at Filton.



Proctor 5 G-AHWR at Baginton circa 1954 during the National air races,the aircraft ran out of fuel on 18-06-54 and crashed into a potatoe field,the pilot 'Sailor Parker' saved the aircraft from turning over by digging in a wing,the aircraft just disintigrated leaving Parker sitting on his seat in the middle of the field of potatoes,but his quick reactions and skill saved his life.

[Guest]

I am unsure how far the transponder idea is being applied. I have been in conversation with perhaps 18 or twenty Hangglider, and micro and ultralight pilots. None have been in favour of being forced to fit transponders. Reasons vary fom cost of unit AND THE INSTALATION, and the weight of the unit, battery, aerial and fittings can at least in the case of many microlights put them over the legal weight definition of micro-light.

I have also spoken with perhaps a dozen glider pilots none of whom liked the idea either.

They all did think that for light aircraft and larger which are suitable for the equipment to be installed that the idea is sound.

[Guest]

We actually have a similar situation with transponders in the marine world.

People in small craft seem to think for some reason that they should be allowed to be immune from the regs and quote such similar things as cost etc. Then there are all sorts of cries when a small yacht gets in the way of a ship trying to navigate a tight channel while some clown tries to get a photo of it going past.

I have no time for anyone that seems to think they should be immune from sound safety driven regulations that are for everyones benefit and not just the selfish individual who wants to do thier own thing.

If weight is an issue then the craft should be designed from the start with that in mind and if that can't be done afterwards then it should be classed as unairworthy, period.

[wonwinglo]

Well I am all for transponders in anything that flies,having witnessed three very close near misses in the past five years I can say now that they really are needed in todays congested skies,we get aircraft even operating non radio around here plodding straight through a very busy air traffic area oblivious to what is ahead of them,five years ago we had a Jaguar strike a Cessna photographic aircraft,a microlight hit a light aircraft and just recently a microlight and a helicopter with a student pilot on board,the days of empty skies are long since gone,these days everyone wants to get airborne cheaply and why not ? but the case for transponders is a life saving issue which had to happen and is aided by todays technology in making things small.

Whilst I agree that some of the CAA's cases are over the top,this one will affect everyone that flies,there are some excellent lightweight units available today which would easily fit the bill,ok so they cost between £1,000 plus with annual piece of paperwork added on top,but what cost lives in a very busy sky ?

I do not think the weight is an issue,just the case for change,most aircraft should be perfectly capable of being fitted with these units including lightweight battery packs.

The date being set is 2008,already ModeS HEX codes have been issued to aircraft on the British civil register in readiness,and all new Cirrus and Diamond aircraft have been fitted with superb lightweight units,many aircraft oerators are following suit in the lead up.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Qantas increase their A380 Super Jumbo order,plus new wiring problems.

Qantas increases A380 order

Airbus yesterday won a substantial boost when Qantas, the Australian flag-carrier, ordered eight A380 superjumbos on top of the dozen it had already said it would buy, reported The Guardian.

It is the first A380 order this year. Qantas said it had negotiated an attractive package for the superjumbos which would cost $2.4bn (£1.2bn) at list price.

It also ordered four A330s to help fill the gap left by the two-year delay to the A380 delivery timetable.

EADS, the owner of Airbus, has warned that delays to the superjumbo, caused by problems with installing 500km of wiring in the world's biggest aircraft, will hit its earnings by 4.8bn between now and 2010 and its cash flow by 6.3bn, putting serious question marks over its ability to fund new aircraft.

Qantas was originally among the 16 airlines that had ordered 159 A380s but were considering cancellations.

But the airline's chief executive, Geoff Dixon, said the aircraft was the most suitable for its long-haul flights to the US, Europe and possibly the Middle East.

Our decision to increase our order has been made after an extensive review of the recent problems at Airbus and the delivery schedule delays of the A380.

We are convinced that these problems relate to industrialisation issues at Airbus and will be remedied and in no way relate to the technical capacity of the A380.

The Australians' decision suggests that Emirates, the Dubai-based airline which has placed the biggest order of 43 for the superjumbo, could also be won over when it sends a team of auditors to Airbus plants in Toulouse and Hamburg to check whether the technical problems are so acute the plane will suffer a fourth delay.

Last week Virgin Atlantic said it would defer taking delivery of the six A380s it had on order by four years until 2013 but Emirates said it had no plans to follow suit.

However, it has cancelled 10 orders for the A340 wide-body jet and said it might take Boeing's latest jumbo, the 747-800, to supplement its A380 order and meet its ambitious expansion plans.

Qantas, which has already been compensated for the delays, said it would take delivery of its fleet of 20 A380s between August 2008 and 2015.

The A380's first customer, Singapore Airlines, is due to start commercial flights late next year.

Airbus, now headed by EADS co-chief executive Louis Gallois, has initiated a ?2bn annual cost-savings plan to restore earnings and is likely to axe thousands of jobs and close or sell off plants to end costly duplication of work between its main French and German factories.

Airbus last week won up to 170 orders from China and said it would build an assembly plant near Beijing.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-The Gosport Tube.

Now I will tell you a little story about my name,and why I was christened 'Barry' you see there is more to it than meets the eye,during the last war and just afterwards the name was very popular,names just happen like that suddenly a pop star or personality makes the news and people christen them after that person,but in my own case it was for a very different reason that is very special to me,now let me start at the beginning-

Just after World War one it became obvious that more pilots were lost through accidents in aircraft than at first expected,the reason was that these youngsters were thrown into action with little or no real experience of flying,sometimes as little as 8 to 12 hours if you were lucky on frail slow aircraft that could have nasty characteristics,these fledgling pilots knew nothing about spinning and its consequences,they found out the hard way by experience that is if they lived ?

The Royal Naval Air Service as it was then called realised that something should be done to standardise flying and to bring with it quality instruction,to this end they appointed a chap called 'Smith Barry' to set up a flying school that would standardise on flying instruction,using the old Avro 504 biplane he did just that,and with his no nonsense approach not only taught people to fly safely,but wrote everything down to make the very first standard flying manuals that even in todays civil flying clubs owe a lot to the Smith Barry School of flying at Gosport.

So where does the gosport tube bit fit in ? well in those far flung days there was no sophisticated small intercom sets like today,instead a rubber tube with a mouth piece was rigged between pilot and instructor,to communicate you just literally yelled into the tube,sometimes a deafening experience especially if the instructor was angry,the system became well known as the 'Gosport tube' and was fitted into aircraft up until WW2 such as the Tiger Moth and Miles Magister.

So there you have it,my name belongs to the most famous person involved with standard pocedures in flying tuition,and I am very proud of that fact.

The pseudo Wonwinglo came a lit later,and was connected to a well known forum ? so perhaps in some way that too was a direct offshoot from when pilots flew 'One Wing Low' at the Smith Barry school of flying ?

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-More lovely Percival types.



The former Shuttleworth Trust Percival Gull G-ADPR in flight,the aircraft was sold and went on exhibition in New Zealand,Jean Batten made many famous long distance flights in her.



G-ANXR Proctor 4,preserved as RM221,shown here at a Waddington air show,the finish was silver with a red cowling.



G-ANZJ Proctor IV,seen here at Staverton in maroon and white trim.This aircraft was used as a crew ferry when Tipper air transport delivered Avro 19 Anson aircraft to Coventry airport in 1969.

She was broken up shortly afterwards.



Military Proctor 5 in camouflage with yellow trainer bands,these aircraft were used as wireless trainers in the R.A.F.



VH-BQA with an Oxford in the background.



ZK-ARP Proctor 5 preserved in New Zealand.

[wonwinglo]

Wonwings diary-Percival aircraft,yet more pictures.



How good it is to see a Proctor in flight again,the beautifully restored New Zealand example gets an airing.



G-AERD Vega Gull in Australia 2006.







Wings of G-AERD Vega Gull still crated in Australia,thanks to Captain Nigel Hitchman for these pictures.

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PERCIVAL Q6

Building a solid model of the Percival Q6 Petrel.