Engineering issues
Engineering issues are an interesting problem, and worth mentioning.
Let's take a hypothetical case, and say that next week the RAF will decide to retire the entire Hawk fleet within 6 months.
So, straightaway it'll probably do two things, firstly it'll cancel all spares contracts that take it past May, secondly it'll cancel all maintenance actions which don't become critical past May. This is only sensible, after all why should it pay to retire aircraft in condition to be used after it's last flight.
So, these Hawks get put up for disposal at auction, and I go along and buy myself one for whatever the going rate turns out to be. Presumably the RAF will have already removed the weapons systems so I don't need to worry about that.
I'm going to disregard the legalities for the moment, and just think in terms of pure technical problems. (That way, the whole thing looks just difficult rather than almost impossible).
- Firstly although inevitably some spares will be available (they never run out at the same rate) there are bound to be some parts I can't get. Let's say the RAF used it's last set of mainwheel brake-sets the day before retiring the fleet. So where do I get them, well I can go to BAe or their subcontractors but they are probably now busy tooling up to make bit for Eurofighter, Hawk replacement, etc.
- So, I then need to find somebody sufficiently competent to make these bits, get hold of the data out of BAe, get them authorised by the CAA to manufacture spares - and that should solve that problem. (Alternatively I can buy two, and keep robbing one to keep the other going - easier but probably no cheaper and a strategy with a fixed life.)
- Next problem, the maintenance practices and schedules are all written around people holding military qualifications, with no direct equivalence in civil licenses. So, I need to re-write all of that aspect of who-may-do-what, to show who is qualified to do each maintenance task on the aircraft.
- Oh yes, and almost certainly some bits life expired the day I bought the aircraft, so having dealt with who may do what, I can get some of these folks on bringing the aircraft into currency.
- Now another problem, the maintenance schedule for the Hawk was probably written around the assumption of each airframe flying about 400 hours per year; nothing wrong with this, since the RAF expects to get the maximum use out of it's expensive assets. However, the odds are that I'll only be able to fly the aircraft for about 40 hours a year tops. Is this a problem - yep. Lets say there's a series of hydraulic seals in the undercarriage which BAe decided should be replaced every 100 hours or 6 months. Now, they knew the aircraft would fly 400 hours per year, so they only listed the 100 hours interval - but at 40 hrs per year that's 2½ years, and they'll probably fail long before that. So, I've got to go through the entire set of maintenance schedules, re-writing the lot in terms of the utilisation rates that I'm expecting to get out of the aircraft.
- Now I need to ensure that I've a complete set of the specialist tools needed to maintain the aircraft.
- Armed with this lot, I can start to get my groundcrew doing the numerous jobs deferred by the RAF, so that I've then got some hours on the airframe.
So, now armed with procedures for obtaining acceptable spares, a complete set of tools, alternative qualifications for my ground crew (oh yes, and trained them on type) and re-written all of the maintenance manuals, plus put some hours back into the airframe I'm in a position to go to the CAA and start talking about actually letting somebody fly it.
It's a credit to those involved that these machines fly it at-all. I've no doubt that the aircrew are fully aware of this, but perhaps a shame that the general airshow-going public isn't even faintly aware of the huge efforts that are behind allowing them to watch somebody display a Hunter on a Sunday in August !
G