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Old 26th Oct 2019, 14:16
  #110 (permalink)  
possel
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: London
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Good old ZF135 - "T1", the first of 130!

It hardly seems like 30 years ago that the Tucano entered service but, apart from the BBMF's Chipmunk(s?), that's the last aircraft out of service that I ever had my hands on. It does still amuse me that, as an engineer, I wrote a good chunk of the CA Release. It also still annoys me that the first aircraft lost was due to runaway trim at high speed, and a certain Wg Cdr had previously refused my suggestion to put a note in the Aircrew Manual (Topic 15?) recommending to reduce speed at once if that occurred, on the grounds that "every pilot knows that"!

One lovely argument with Shorts was about sealing the airframe against water ingress. They originally used some blue compound (PX24, IIRC) which was a permanent one-time use sealant. After dowsing the aircraft with water they removed all the panels (breaking the seal) to check that no water had got in. Satisfied, they then replaced all the panels and couldn't understand why it leaked the next time it was left in the rain...
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