RAF to retire Tucano
DG,
The Hunter was not cleared for inverted spinning in the Release to Service. The Boscombe Down Hunter T7s had a specific clearance for inverted spinning (and erect spinning and stalling) based on having cockpit displays of AOA and lateral stick position plus an audio altitude alert system. In addition, for inverted spinning a safety pilot had to be present in the telemetry ground station. I could go on but that would be thread creep!
The Hunter was not cleared for inverted spinning in the Release to Service. The Boscombe Down Hunter T7s had a specific clearance for inverted spinning (and erect spinning and stalling) based on having cockpit displays of AOA and lateral stick position plus an audio altitude alert system. In addition, for inverted spinning a safety pilot had to be present in the telemetry ground station. I could go on but that would be thread creep!
I believe that the last day of Babcock International operations at Linton was the 31 March and the Tucano fleet will be handed over from their contract to the new owners/operators although I suspect that the present COVID-19 situation may have had an impact on that ? Regardless , it is a very sad day in the life of this Royal Air Force Station as it looks to complete its Drawdown with flying operations to cease towards the end of December once the Yorkshire UAS move to a new as yet unannounced home . The remainder of the Drawdown tasks will be completed during 2021 before handing the real-estate over to the Defence Infrastructure Organisation but as yet the long term future of the site is yet to be announced . Others will know more !
Nice momento photo for those involved. Hope they labelled up those wings to match to the right fuselages.... Sad days for any station going through the close-down process, it feels like taking a favourite pet to the vets for that final time.
For sale in the 'States ; https://www.controller.com/listings/...ullText=Tucano
