The pace quickens
 

Front page of www.cl44.org website:
FIRST OFFICER REQUIRED FOR CL44 OPERATION, MUST HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH LARGE TURBOPROP AIRCRAFT
contact [email protected]

As an ex TMAC F/O, I also firmly believe the Belfast Tyne was different from the CL44 Tyne.

I didn't fly the Belfast, but I believe it's starter motor was electrical, DC I'd imagine. The Edsel's was air powered and needed an air start cart to turn it's Tynes on start-up.

I also believe the Belfast had water-methanol injection which the Edsel did not

I do remember through the mist of the sands of time, that th Edsel had the RR 515 mk.12. Don't think the Belfast had as much power, and may have had one section less in the turbine department.

Props were the same though, as when TMAC acquired the Belfast spares holding, I believe it included a treasure trove of something like 40-odd ship sets of proppelers. I do now that suddenly we got new very shiny props all of a sudden!

Good luck to all involved in getting her airborne again. The old lady will be happy to leave her damp and dreary parking bay at BOH for the warmth and splendour of " the sunlit plains extended "

BSD.

Stratofreighter:

XR369 "Spartacus" was also purchased for engine recovery. After all engines had been removed the bulldozers moved in and the four airframes were reduced to produce at Hucknall.

Thanks for the info JW411!

Great Day at Brooklands on Saturday (14th Oct), Our Vanguard running all four Tynes, fantastic as always.. The Team sorted out airlocks in the fuel lines in two of the engines after the first attempt to run all four ended with just two running.
Sorry not to let anyone know about this but I only found out when I arrived there in the morning. They hope to run them once a month so if anyone is intersested I will post the date of the next run when I know it.

At Hurn (Bournemouth) tomorrow should will hopefully see the CL44 before it goes werever it is going.

Cheer's
M5DND

Stratofreighter:

Since you are obviously interested, it went like this:

The first 3 Belfasts to be sold by MOD were XR362 "Samson"/G-BEPE, XR368 "Theseus"/G-BEPS and XR369 "Spartacus"/G-BEPL. They were delivered by the RAF from Kemble to Manston for Eurolatin Aviation Ltd which originally intended to buy all 10 aircraft but then the money ran out.

XR364 "Pallas", XR366 "Atlas" and XR370 "Ajax" were flown to Hucknall for Rolls Royce and XR367 "Heracles" was supposed to follow but, by then, Heavylift had been formed and had taken over the first three aircraft. They realised that XR369/G-BEPL was not in good condition at Manston so she was swapped for XR367 which became G-BFYU. XR369/G-BEPL made just one ferry flight from Manston to Hucknall.

Heavylift also purchased XR363 "Goliath"/G-OHCA and XR365 "Hector"/G-HLFT and they were flown to Southend which, by then, was Heavylift's engineering base.

XR363 never flew again and was used for spares recovery. She sat beside the railway line for many years before being broken up. XR362/G-BEPE was the prototype and she was quite a bit heavier since she still had a lot of the test wiring etc in the airframe and was therefore less economic to operate than the rest. She was therefore replaced by XR365/G-HLFT and she joined XR363 alongside the railway line.

Interestingly, XR365 was about the most cantankerous of the fleet and was known as "Silly Old Hector" (after a well-known cartoon character on UK childrens' television). It is quite ironic that she is the one now flying in Australia as 9L-LDQ.

The 10th aircraft, XR371 "Enceladus" was flown from Kemble to Cosford for the RAF Museum and I believe she is now under cover (thank God) in the newly-opened Cold War hangar.

Many thanks to all who answered my queries and provided detailed background information!

Cheers from the other side of the North Sea,
Stratofreighter

Transporte Aereo Rioplatense
 

Dear Ramp Tramp:

Browsing on Internet I found this forum specially about CL 44 freight. Many Friends of mine was pilots who flew CL 44 at TAR registred in Argentina such as LV-JTN. ( I flew as F.E B-747 Aerolineas Argentinas )

They told me a lot of flights (adventure) in cattle transport !! remembering the real problem of cattle urinate !! ( and strong odors ).

The first operation was to protect all fuselage floor with a special nylon
to avoid dangerous corrosion. etc, etc.

Many pilots of TAR now are Jumbo 400 series Captains and Airbus 340 series Captains.

At this moments we are trying to do a special TV program in Argentina about CL 44 and CL 44 Yukon cargo history.

If you like I could send few photos of previous and laboruous cabin conditioning and cattle load on the great plane named " CL44 YUKON "

Best regards

mmelli :)

One of the Aer Entre Rios fleet was lost in very murky circumstances
http://aviation-safety.net/database/...0718-0&lang=en
Hope it helps
Be lucky
David

From the CL44 Association
 

To end the recent speculation regarding the Guppy at Bournemouth, the CL44 Association can now confirm that it has indeed relinquished its Lease on the aircraft in favour of an Australian Airline.
There are no immediate plans to utilise the Tynes for any other purpose than to power the aircraft to its return to service.
A crew has been recruited from members of the CL44 Association.
the Guppy's future can of course, be tracked in the Association's regular Newsletter 'Swingtail' which is mailed to members three or four times per year.
Membership costs £10.00 in the UK Euros15 within Europe and $25 in the USA and Canada
enquiries to [email protected]

Nineiron, thanks for the update! But I can't find it at http://www.cl44.org/
Was this taken from the "SPECIAL EDITION OF THE NEWSLETTER"?

I can confirm that the Guppy will go to the Australian aviation company (since when is it an Airline operating scheduled services??) which has been named several times before...

As of this Thursday afternoon no engine tests have been performed on her so far according to local correspondents...

Latest report I had today was that the old girl was about to be moved into the hangar.
Hopefully, it is not going to suffer the miseries of yet another BOH winter and will get a chance to dry out.

Good News
 

Lets hope it will be good news and going to fly again in the not to distant future. so many of these aircraft have fallen by the way side.

A lot of us are interested in this outcome.:ok: :ok:

According to local reports this morning Guppy has now indeed been towed into the BASCO hangar.

Another update on "Guppy".

According to local reports the Swingtail extender is (still) missing, and a small puncture just above the crew door has not been repaired. This was on Friday the 27th of October.

Somewhat more hopeful is the fact that on Friday the 3rd of November all engines were spooled-up!! People who have witnessed these tests say that the engines weren't fully "powered up". But all propblades have definitely turned!!
Afterwards the Canadair was pulled back into a hangar of BASCO.

It seems that the BASCO facilities will close on the 22nd of December, with staff around this time having "job-leaving interviews"...

CL44 and Belfast
 

Is it being made airworthy to go and join the Belfast down in Australia??

Yes she is! On Monday the 6th of November engine runs were performed, but they had to be broken off as problems occured.

If you cut and paste 4 14 58.01 s 15 14 57.92 e into the flyto box on Google Earth it should put you overhead 7Q-YMS at Brazzaville. Then zoom into eye level at approx 1,500ft.
Hope it helps
Be lucky
David
P.S. Does anyone know how to date google earth images

One thing is for sure, its not in the hangar just to keep it out of the rain.

Meanwhile, the website www.cl44.org has been updated. Many new pictures added to the Gallery today (which is now on Fotopic software), also the Links list is worth a look. Every link is described, you may find something of interest here. CL44 Photos, models, videos, simulation etc.

CL44 Destination still unknown
 

With Atlantic Airlines being very shory on capicity due a number of reasons they have five Fokker Friendships and two Airbus 300 leased in from MNG Cargo Turkey.

Could the CL44 be going up to Coventry to operate for Atlantic Airlines???:ok: :ok:

The market seems to be quite a wide of weights required at the moment and the CL44 might fit in to there line of work with the Electra Fleet numbers dwindleing and trying to source the size of aircraft takes time and contracts could be lost??

The Atlantic Airlines fleet from what i understand does over one hundered sectors per night during the week so the contracts must be out there could the be a long term contract for the CL44 with them???:ok: :ok: