CL44-O N447FT
 

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And the news is?

I could never quite understand what was so wonderful about N447T. It certainly did have a voluminous cargo bay but the arse-end was about 12 feet above the ramp.
I can remember parking alongside N447T (when she was with TMAC) in my Belfast. the TMAC captain and F/O came over and had coffee with us upstairs on the flight deck. They were trying to unload a large 6-wheeled oil industry seismic truck (which weighed a lot) and the last 12 feet down to the ramp was proving rather difficult and time consuming.
As far as I can remember, they had no less than 7 pieces of ground equipment involved in the unloading process. Two GPUs were attached to the nose jacking points to stop it from sitting on its arse whilst at the back, two large forklifts were supporting the HILO which wasn't strong enough to take the weight of the truck.
Whilst all this was going on we sat there drinking our coffees reflecting with the TMAC crew just how difficult life could be. Meanwhile, the rest of the world was driving up and down our ramp with no difficulty at all. (Our usual load into Tehran was an awful lot of Chieftain tank gearboxes. I was told that the locals couldn't get them out of 2nd gear so they didn't bother - with the inevitable results).
Of course, the other problem with the CL-44 was that it needed a start-cart whereas the belfast had electric start.

Happy Days.

Belfast
 

JW- Whats the state of the Belslow at Cairns?

I have absolutely no idea. I got mildly involved on the periphery of a possible Canadian deal last year and did suggest that they were looking at the wrong aircraft for what they needed it to do. I would imagine it came to nothing.

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Belfast
 

The Belfast is still parked near the fire station in Cairns. Seems to be in reasonable shape. Engines ran a few weeks ago. Not dead yet..!

Seems there is again some work done on N447FT..... Engines run again.

Any news of the Belfast?

Mole man

Belfast was also being worked on untill recently. Imcuding engine runs.

Belfast and CL44 engines RR Tyne do not have Type certificate a quick check on the internet/EASA/FAA websites nor Manufacturers support. The Belfast Type Certificate cancelled by EASA/British CAA big red writing over the type certificate CANCELLED ( in red ). Neither aircraft have any current crews and doubt you would find any type rated crew left let alone willing to have a fly. The aircraft must be a rich boys dream or a con job/fraud on investors ? Investors putting in money at the assurance of the engineers/mechanics saying they can get the two aircraft flying, just to take the investors money and skim off the top or maybe purely have someone else pay for their hobby ?......

4 Holer,
Giddy.

wasn't that Belfast part of your Fleet at one stage?

No Bear just a poor old cargo pilot from Miami... but know a British guy at Flybe who worked at old Heavylift UK ???

Always there are replies like this, type certificate withdrawn, no support for the engines etc.... But still there is work done on both frames so imo it seems that not all is that negative....

Tynes are still suppored btw. Alantique and Transall are still flying powered by them.

Not being negative just stating regulatory facts in this day and age compliance is the word and these aircraft cannot comply for commercial ops...... The RR Tyne is only supported for Military operations and no longer for the civilian type certificate. In any case Germany etc have removed the aircraft mentioned from Military service.

Not quite ... Germany and France still have a few Transalls flying.

Well, it's 40 years now since I last flew a Belfast but I seem to remember that the model of Tyne we had fitted was not compatible with any other Tyne.

the Andovers managed for a few years in africa with a Dart variant that was never civil certified i believe !

Because ours had water methanol injection, JW.

Was that it? Did we also have a hotter back end?

Seriously Dudes, my friend at European just emailed says the intense 80 year old guy back out in UK Summer working to get the CL44 flying to Africa. It is still USFAA registered N447FT per FAA website and the FAA have already advised EVERY FAA DAR ( of which we have a DAR in house at our company who has the FAA memo ) that a Ferry permit SFP is NOT to be issued. Unbelievable has to be some money grabbing venture of some sort ........ TCAS 7.1, current FAA crew, crew training for just a ferry, plus maintenance and structural/corrosion list goes on amazing stuff never ever ever ever ever going to happen with the FAA. The go fund me guy needs to save his money.

only when the stewardesses were on board....

Which would be pretty unusual in a freighter.

JW411
CL44 has RR Tyne 515 while the Belfast had the smaller Tynes.
Pity the Belfast wasn't fitted with the 515.
Regards.

Bump.

New story. FT Oversize cargo is the owner of N447FT together with the Belfast at Cairns and they have a C160 flying in Africa. Seems they still have plans for both the CL-44 and Belfast....

And yes, FT stands for Flying Tiger;-)

Maaaaate, it's April 23 not April 1.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....fdcb50782b.jpg
Hehe I know. Just passing it. C-160 should have reg EY-360.

Work on the Belsow is on hold due to covid.

Any news on the Cl44?

N447FT will be scrapped in the very near future

Might as well give it to the Bournemouth museum as there will be little of scrap value. As I have said from the start it should have stayed in the USA and been preserved in a museum.

Well the Transall is gone....

https://www.airlive.net/breaking-a-t...J1O44uxIPbZAbY

The CL44-0 was intact still at BOH yesterday.

Are the people who were attempting to resuscitate the CL-44 2-3 years ago still intending to do something with it, or is it either museum or scrapping as the only viable ends ?