I hope I am not raining on someone's parade, but according to several local correspondents "Guppy" has NOT moved under her own power since 2003...
Several engine tests were performed last autumn prior to the closure of BASCO, but it seems no work at all was done on her after Friday the 22nd of December 2006, the day BASCO went out of business...

After this date she was parked outside in full view of any passer-by. A mechanic working on her would surely be noticed...

My information is that the aircraft performed a lengthy ground run & taxi check in December & was found to be mechanically fit.
The very best of luck to all concerned.

CL44 Guppy Departure BOH Monday 15th.
 

Still no-one comes with a source that the Guppy is denied to leave BOH on Monday.
I hope they will, nothing's better than to hear a CL44 Take-off.
And after Monay the weather will go really bad Snow Freezing etc..
Good luck Guys, go to where the summer is !

CL44 Guppy Departure BOH Monday 15th.
 

Is there any news or movement in the plans for the departure of RP-C-8023 ?
Please advice if you hear see know anything...
Peter van Leeuwen [email protected] Mobile +31 62121 3856
Many Thanks !

In a phone call this evening to two of my friends from FRA at Bournemouth, they both confirmed that they have seen the old girl very recently doing EGR's and high speed taxi runs, read into that what you will.

:)

CL44 Guppy Departure BOH Monday 15th Refused?
 

Really surprised to hear these sightings, they must have performed that in the dark since in daylight, the machine has not moved under its own power, since its storage in 2003.
Engines ran separately few times at the BASCO apron at low speed and once for 20 minutes full speed at the northern runway bay.
All "taxi" movements were done by a towing vehicle.

Wish she had...

Peter

Also interesting is that the original post from the Flying Tiger website has disappeared. It was a good job that you copied most of it in your post!

CL44 Guppy Departure BOH Monday 15th Refused?
 

Yes indeed, I think one of the CL44 insiders mentioned in the article made a mistake by telling the FTL guy these plans, I was never to be meant to appear.
He has now brought the whole operation in trouble maybe.
And why ?
If the new owners would have been more open, no-one would have posted this many rumors...

P.

If the New and previous owners had got there heads together perhaps we would have heard the sound of tynes over Hampshire. I am sure there is some polotics involved somewhere!
Nineiron. You can give us the gen? What is the latest?
I can't kepp the beer cold in the sanpit for too long!

Hey GuppyEng, do I know you ? I'm ex Brussels, and if you're who I think you are, so are you.

Hotel Orion, Blonde breakfasts, drove me to Calais when I left ???

Another prop available
 

....no its not off the Guppy, it last flew on a J model. Another complete propeller has become available. If anybody would like to own one of these magnificent props ( 16 feet accross) check for details on the Swingtail Forum on www.cl44.org A wind turbine perhaps?

Not been to the airport since Christmas is the Guppy still there or did she finally manage to get airbourne?

M.

After BASCO went out of business on the 21st of December not a lot has happened. It seems that all (repair) work on Guppy has stopped. It's been almost a month now since the last time a mechanic was spotted near her...

Local correspondents still keep an eye on her, but unfortunately there is no action to report...

As noted on several forums the Guppy has moved away from the BASCO hangar, this photographer on Airliners.Net,http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1178909/L/ states that the aircraft has been grounded by the airport authority & the CAA. Does anyone know whether or not this is actually the case?

RE: Guppy No-Flight
 

She has been grounded, however there is a rumour floating around that she is awaiting a CAA Check prior to becoming airborn.
With all rumours, don't believe everything you hear! And dont shoot the messenger!

CL44 Guppy
 

There is a persistant rumor the Guppy will be scrapped at BOH soon..
Do not forget that all people working on the Guppy are 'under a info-ban' issued by the new owner.
If you see the enormous work undertaken in the last months, this is the replacement of all skin under the engine and gear cowlings and the purchase of no less then 8 spare Tyne 515 engines and refitting some of those...
It would be a real waste of money and time for the new owner.
Or all must have been a set-up to acquire the Guppy for nothing form its former owner - ALG - and now let it be scrapped as an result of CAA policy.
We'll see..I will be over in mid March if she's still around.
Please let all rumors and FACTS out on this page.

ALG free supply of CL44 Guppy
 

Fahard Azema ain't gonna let anyone have it for free or cheap

2+2=5
 

Recent postings ('Swingtail') bear no resemblance to anything approaching the real situation at Bournemouth and such offerings only tend to annoy those who will recognise that the process of such an undertaking is complex and involved.
Members of the CL44 Association will be getting the latest update by mail in due course but nothing will be posted on the website.
Membership is open to anyone of course - but it should be noted that 'Swingtail' is not a member.
This is of course a rumour network, not a news forum. What folk don't know they tend to make up.

2+2 now=6
 

mm....your (now edited) posting proved my point. Sorry, its not my CL44 Group, I just spent many hours with a CL44 strapped to my back and appreciate an organisation that keeps me in touch with the old days.
As for free speech, another assumption "Do not forget that all people working on the Guppy are 'under a info-ban' issued by the new owner." Where did that come from? The owner is quite entitled to do what he likes with his own aeroplane. The Guppy was in very great danger of being lost, he bought it, you didn't.

Well said Nineiron.
Please keep us to date with the facts and not all this fiction.

Hello all,

If you click at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9HeqsQS93E you will see a clip of a marvellous toy: a Flying Tiger CL-44 model with turning propellers doing a run around someones kitchen!
The wingspan is at least two feet, if not more...
And yes, the tail can be swung open and shut by remote control!
Unfortunately no footage of "real" CL-44s or derivatives are currently available at Youtube...

HeavyLift Cargo
 

'HeavyLift Cargo changed the registration of its Short Belfast from 9L-LDQ to RP-C8020 at Cairns on January 19. On January 22 the Belfast, which was operating as ‘Heavylift 201', departed for Johor Bahru where it picked up a load destined for Port Moresby and Mount Hagen. On January 28 the Belfast returned to its Cairns base from Lae.
727-51C RP-C8017 was test flown at Cairns on January 17 before the same day ferrying to Brisbane using the callsign ‘Romeo Papa Charlie'. On January 18 it departed Brisbane for Honiara, but instead of using a HeavyLift flight number it used the TransGlobal Airways flight number TCU925 and the callsign ‘Transglobal 925'.
(RP-C8017 was based in the Philippines at the former Clark AFB from June 17 to December 17 and while there it operated on lease to TransGlobal Airways.)
After over-nighting in Honiara the 727 continued to Auckland with the aircraft again using the callsign ‘RPC'. The final leg of the charter was operated from Auckland to Brisbane on January 20 and this time the 727 operated as flight TCU504 and used the callsign ‘Transglobal 504'.
727-51C 9L-LEK, which had been operating out of Brisbane, was ferried to Cairns as flight HVY100 on December 30. By the time this is read it is expected that the 727 will have changed its registration to RP-C8018.
HeavyLift Cargo was planning to take delivery of 727-227F RP-C8019 in Brisbane during March with the aircraft ferrying in from Roswell, New Mexico, where it had been in storage.'
http://www.ausaviation.com.au/Online...ic/traffic.htm

Thanks for the info Ada; do any of you know what serial number the latest 727 will have? And will that too be on charters?



discus :ok:

With the registering on the Philippines register, does this mean that the EU ban on Heavylift will be lifted?

Another sign of life on 14 march 2007 ?
 

The text below consists of two messages by two different reporters...

Apparently CL-44-0 Guppy RP-C-8023 had another test today. Not sure whether she was towed from her present spot or not for these checks. Anyone got more details/updates?

"I can provide a positive up-date on the Guppy here at Bournemouth this
morning.
Currently, having just left the airport she is rigged up to a GPU, all doors
are open. Engineers are testing all nav lights as well as all wing control
surfaces and wing flaps being extended to full downwards position. Much
cleaning and attention is being paid to the undercarriage.
Another Ruomour is that she is bound for a museum in the States."

And

"Just been out to the airport and there is alot of work going on around the
Guppy. They were testing the navagation lights and alot of checks around the wheels. Also had all the doors open."

Belfast G-BEPS
 

On the subject of Heavylift, does anyone know how the overhaul of long-time Southend resident, Shorts Belfast G-BEPS, is progressing? A lot of work appears to have been carried out if you compare this photo from April 06; http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=1044434 ...with this photo from December 06; http://www.flugzeugbilder.de/show.php?id=569028

Porrohman.

There seems to have been no work on the a/c since last year and they have been awaiting the forth prop since last summer. Rumour was that in the strong winds of last October it was damaged when it swung around on its stands. I am at SEN tomorrow I will enquire.

Well one would assume the ban would be lifted now that the majority of the aircraft are on the RC-P [Phillipine] register, maybe this is a sign of bigger & better things for Heavylift.

I appreciate you enquiring about G-BEPS, hopefully she will be airborne fairly soon.


Discus

As this thread has become rather quiet over the past few weeks...

On the 14th of March a ground power unit was put beside her. Several checks were done around the wheels. Also the flaps and navigation lights were tested. It may have been the "monthly clean up" but at least there was some activity. I have no further updates.
Haven't found any recent news about the Belfast at Southend. Anyone?

Three wheels on my wagon
 

Regarding the Belfast at Southend, I found this photo on Airliners.net, dated 15th March '07; http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=1192370

Porrohman

Question to contributors
 

I've been asking myself this question for a while...

Would you prefer this thread in Freight Dogs or in the Nostalgia forum?

Let me know. A CL44 is not exactly a current freighter, but nevertheless a freighter. Up to you. We'll see in a week.

:ok:

Both subjects are freighters and hopefully will remain so, so fingers crossed for good news and air under the wheels! Keep the posts here!:D

To classify this forum as 'nostalgia' would be to finally state that the Guppy is dead. Of course there is plenty of nostalgia, over 40 years of a type of flight operation rarely seen today inevitably produces a lot of war stories. The Guppy status is commercially operational.
Credit must be given to the guys with their faces pressed up against the chainlink perimeter fence. The perseverance of the Bournemouth Guppy Watchers have done their bit through PPRuNe, however small, in preventing the loss of this aircraft. Every movement is reported and understandably there is a lot of guesswork. It is being maintained in an airworthy condition so routine engineering activity will be seen from time to time.
I understand that a crew is on standby, but as anybody who knows about flight dynamics will appreciate, the weight of the airframe has to be equalled by the weight of the paperwork before it is capable of flight.
No Flight Plan filed for Australia it would seem.

Please don't sentence the old girl to nostalgia just yet. She still has a chance of more gainful employment. "Reports of her demise are greatly exagerated"
Be lucky
David

Keep it in this forum!
I am sure when there is a proper report about the status it will be posted here.
Then you would have to move the thread back to Freightdogs.:ok:

ok ok, it stays here then...:)

Thank you kind sir,
Be lucky
David:ok: :D

Thanks CR2!

Only just checked again, so far no updates on the local lists about either "Guppy" at Bournemouth or the Belfast at Southend unfortunately...
Anyone?

Not much action around the CL-44 at Bournemouth I manged to get a photo of her the other day http://abpic.co.uk/photo/1049572/


Graham

There has been no activity around the Belfast so far this year according to the SEN spotters who can be relied on. There is a problem obtaining a fourth propeller, however, it has been minus the fourth for a least a year. I am sure these things do not take that long.