RR Spey
A brief scan before I read it properly when i get back from a few days away seems to suggest that the naval version was a necessary mod, although not as successful as anticipated, and the RAF version was solely to get UK content so was effectively more expensive and a worse aeroplane.
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: All over the place
Posts: 115
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Succinctly put....and accurate as was the post that preceded yours.
A stand was as much a hindrance as a help to be frank. The Spey was designed by Rolls with the blissful illusion all maintenance would be carried out in a warm well lit bay in Derby. I know a few people who were involved with the development and testing of the heap of junk, one in particular with the above mentioned unit, and as he diplomatically concedes, RR couldn't be entirely to blame for supplier's design, ahem, "concept ".
A stand was as much a hindrance as a help to be frank. The Spey was designed by Rolls with the blissful illusion all maintenance would be carried out in a warm well lit bay in Derby. I know a few people who were involved with the development and testing of the heap of junk, one in particular with the above mentioned unit, and as he diplomatically concedes, RR couldn't be entirely to blame for supplier's design, ahem, "concept ".
on the RB199, the Dry FCU was a nightmare to change on an Engine installed in the Left Hand Slot. A pipe had to come off that was impossible to get to at the forward end , as the fire wall was in the way, so we just used to "bend it slightly" out of the way. Did that for about ten years on Tornado Sqns.
Fast Forward to my last tour in the the RAF at the RAF Marham Engine Bay: A team from RR arrived to have a look at some ongoing engine faults and one of the issues they were looking into was the fairly frequent cracking of the aforementioned pipe. They had a look on the Engine I was working on and made some comments about easy access (hardly surprising with it on the maintenance stand). So my diplomatic self asked them if they'd ever seen one of these installed in a Tonka and then see how "Easy" it was to access ??
Turns out none of them ever had ! so they were dispatched over the road to ASF to have a look.
My BAC1-11 story... as a young keen First Officer , I remember glancing around the cockpit passing 10,000 feet in the climb to notice the start levers (HP cocks) still in the start detent. After my initial horror, my next thought was to who had started the engines. Wasn’t me , thank goodness. Next was how to mention it to the ex Concorde skygod sat next to me .....��
Last edited by hunterboy; 11th Jun 2019 at 00:42.
