Thanks for your continued interest in my favourite aircraft!!
The situation is that the CWJ routine maintenance and fault clearance is continuing under a plan to get it ready again for the 30 Aug Open Day. The Aircraft Illustrated article appeared without anyone talking to me .... the Flypast article in the July/Aug issue tells it like it was.
The CAA saw the draft article without comment, but asked for a caveat to be added "At the time of going to press the CAA were investigating the occurrence .. etc etc". Quite a few lessons came out of the "hop", all of which will serve to make sure we do better next time - no - that does not mean formation with the Vulcan!!!
As a matter of interest, when David Walton bought 715, he also got tons of spares. Just what the weight was, perhaps David could tell you, but there were convoys of low loaders and containers unloading at Bruntingthorpe for weeks. At one time we started unpacking them - a mamoth task, and we barely scratched the surface of the 100s and 100s of boxes and crates when hangar usage at Bruntingthorpe was reviewed and we had to stop. There are still tons and tons of Victor spares in containers and a hangar at Bruntingthorpe, we have a spare APU and PFCUs, and even brand new tyres and brake parachutes! Unfortunately, some parts common to the Vulcan were sniped early on in the Vulcan re-build. I do not think any spare Conways are tucked away. Blowing an engine or starter motor are my major concerns. I notice from another thread that RR have done an assessment of the Vulcan engine pool - I would feel happier if they could do a review of the state of the Conways too. Some parts of the airframe are as good as new, but there is some corrosion appearing - a respray is quite urgent.
Still a lot of life left in Tina yet!! I hope!
Bob