BUYER BEWARE
TDD - you could hardly expect the RAF to dispose of its Bulldog fleet with all of them freshly modified and ready for 50 years of effortless life in the hands of their new civilain owners, especially with the current Government holding the purse strings. Buy a Bulldog, either ex-RAF or ex any of the other military forces and you are buying military surplus kit - its the law of the jungle, buyer beware. Some of the RAF Bulldog disposals represented a really good buy, especially for the person who got the one aircraft which had Mod BH193 embodied. On the other hand, other Bulldogs were clapped out and in need of serious cash to be made fit for purpose. Most of these seemed to find their way to the States where they fly as Experimental and their owners ignore the fatigue lives - until the first one claps hands like the Beeches did, that is. The fatigue life issue was made quite clear at the time of the RAF disposals and to those who did their research it came as no sudden surprise that a big modification was in the offing. Indeed, when the first batch of aircraft was sold the ex-RAF Bulldog Series 120, Model 121 did not have any form of civil certification and it could not be flown on a CofA; that situation was sorted out quite quickly, but at great cost in time, effort and no doubt hassle for the people involved. In fact, British Aerospace went so far as publishing a letter which advised their forecast of costs to purchase and embody the fatigue modification. It seems to me that the bottom line is that if you want an aircraft which holds together with standard bolts, has a relatively long fatigue life and is cheap and easy to maintain then you have to buy what might be a rather bland US aircraft designed and built for the civil market - a characterful British aircraft designed to meet a military requirement, such as a Bulldog, or a Chippie or a Tiger for that matter, does not fit the bill.