I don't know the details of the Basset accident at Valley, other than being told by the then station commander, Gp Capt later AVM Brian Huxley CB CBE who as a passenger was badly injured, that the aircraft had been refuelled with avtur (or avtag). He survived to become a RAFVR(T) flight lieutenant staff pilot with 6 AEF at Abingdon and Benson. When I saw him last year he was fit and enjoying retirement.

T* u/s at BHX, tech team arriving from BZZ today, problems with flaps I believe so it may be there a day or so !!. no doubt this will impact on the Herrick Airbridge :bored:

No, not really. Airbridge aircraft and spare available at BZZ as usual.

Bit of the flap fell off according to the cleaner!

Spare a/c at Brize, thats servicable, well i hope so

MM

Aircraft sometimes go u/s shock!:bored:
No doubt the Tri* crew just wanted a night out in Brum shock!:}
Maybe if the army stopped half/quarter filling the herrick airbridge flights the whole thing could be done more efficiently shock!:rolleyes:
Airbridge runs like it always does, never more than 24 hours delayed. If you can't take a joke you shouldn't have signed up to Bob's Moustachioed Party Fun Bus.

So - it was you then SRENNAPS:D

Not me mate. I work on satellite systems these days.
But I stand by my words.
Carry on!

Still sat on ground at BHX apparently awaiting a part to be built and delivered from Canada :confused:

Yep, thats where Marshalls source all their parts for the Timmy now. Seems a bit silly, especially with AOG's.

No Tristars parked out getting their paint faded by the destert sun?

Understand there are still a few at Billy Bob's Tri-Us-First Vintage Jets Inc in deepest Arizona.

I am a little confused (which is nothing new) but the three C2 RAF TriStars operated over 900 flights and 3200 flight hours (combined) in the first six months of this year. That is over five flights a day for the three aircraft. That is a nearing commercial utlization numbers numbers, so they can't be AOG very often, or for very long.

The C2s did less than 800 flights in the whole of 2008, so your figure is probably for all nine aircraft.

I guess with most of the Tristars sitting in the States, getting the spares from Canada is probably not as silly as it seems. From what I recall, a lot of the RAF spares are held in Germany.

Your last paragraph is a bit confusing Sook, can you expand?

As someone said above, Marshalls get their spares from somewhere in Canada. The RAF already have spares (control surfaces, etc), but they're not all held at Brize, they can be all over the place. Germany was somewhere that was mentioned, but I believe there was talk of moving them somewhere sandy so they're closer to the Depth Maintenance Organisation (ADAT).

It finally departed this afternoon after a long wait. I hope the crew enjoyed Brum.

I rather suspect the crew were put on a bus for the whole hour's journey back to Brize. ;)

funny thing, was talking to an army bod that was on one of the last charter jets out of Iraq! think he said they were 57hrs late!
spooky it was not a TriStar
Nobody seemed to notice that one or could not be bothered to mention it as it was not a Trimotor
Think it was 3rd company in the charter chain that eventualy got out there!!!!

You are correct, there was an error in my source. The numbers should have been for the previous 12 months. From July 1, 2008 to June 31, 2009 the C2 combined fleet flew 926 flights and 3248 hours.