Buccaneer overhead Cape Town
It was! Airbrakes open, BLC vortices, what a sight! Somebody told Bumble that it was a Hunter? Aircraft reccy is not what it was!!
Last edited by George Richardson; 5th Jan 2016 at 14:53. Reason: Incorrect capital letter.
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It was probably my mate from Thunder City. Flew with him in XW986 out of Cape Town in 2008 - almost exactly 25 years since my last operational sortie in a Bucc.
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Originally Posted by Fg Off Bloggs
It was probably my mate from Thunder City. Flew with him in XW986 out of Cape Town in 2008 - almost exactly 25 years since my last operational sortie in a Bucc
Admittedly a year old but the latest news that I know of: Hangar 51 company buys Thunder City collection of Ex-Military Jets and aims to use it for Adversary Air Services - The Aviation Geek Club
Admittedly a year old but the latest news that I know of: Hangar 51 company buys Thunder City collection of Ex-Military Jets and aims to use it for Adversary Air Services - The Aviation Geek Club
One amusing thing; when it was delivered the navs on Experimental Flying Squadron had to be trained on the up to date nav systems so it did a lot of flying on airways, the problem being that it cruised at 550 kt (T) which meant it overtook everything else in the airway including Tridents and VC10s ('normal' Douglas and Boeing types could only manage about 460-480) at whatever level it was flying which rather annoyed the airways controllers.
Last edited by chevvron; 17th Feb 2023 at 04:48.
Good point Chevvron. Medium to high time airframes will have an extensive inspection burden in the wing lower front spar (especially wing rib connection at stn 80 and 110 from vague memory) and the Fin attachment bolts amongst others. But isn't one of their airframes one of the fleet that wasn't a "yellow Peril" (XW986-8)? The SAAF must have been well versed in this (despite embargoes) as they had appropriate inspection holes on their aeroplanes I had a look at in Museums a while ago. However, the availability of spares, general condition of the airframe and systems plus servicing capability will be foremost. The accident report for the Lightning certainly puts a doubt on the latter.
Drain Bamaged
Good luck with that! This is well worth a read. https://aviation-safety.net/reports/...TNG_ZU-BEX.pdf
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Good point Chevvron. Medium to high time airframes will have an extensive inspection burden in the wing lower front spar (especially wing rib connection at stn 80 and 110 from vague memory) and the Fin attachment bolts amongst others. But isn't one of their airframes one of the fleet that wasn't a "yellow Peril" (XW986-8)? The SAAF must have been well versed in this (despite embargoes) as they had appropriate inspection holes on their aeroplanes I had a look at in Museums a while ago. However, the availability of spares, general condition of the airframe and systems plus servicing capability will be foremost. The accident report for the Lightning certainly puts a doubt on the latter.
When Ark Royal (?) paid off, we got 2 more Buccs, one being XV344 and the other one was written off by Terry when he was avoiding a German Police helicopter in Germany; pulled 9g and the tailplane came off!
Good point Chevvron. Medium to high time airframes will have an extensive inspection burden in the wing lower front spar (especially wing rib connection at stn 80 and 110 from vague memory) and the Fin attachment bolts amongst others. But isn't one of their airframes one of the fleet that wasn't a "yellow Peril" (XW986-8)? The SAAF must have been well versed in this (despite embargoes) as they had appropriate inspection holes on their aeroplanes I had a look at in Museums a while ago. However, the availability of spares, general condition of the airframe and systems plus servicing capability will be foremost. The accident report for the Lightning certainly puts a doubt on the latter.
I think there is zero chance of the 3 x Lightnings and the Hunter ever flying again though. I've heard the Hunter is now in quite a poor state, which is a shame, as it was an ex-Black Arrows airframe, and had been one of the few remaining airworthy F.6's.
