Airshow attrition

[bar shaker]

Unfortunately Southend saw a few aircraft casualties on Sunday.

The Spitfire returned for an emergency landing, having no oil pressure. This was caused by having no oil Pilot was quoted as praising Southend ATC for spotting the smoke (seafront observer) and calling him in. He considered that he may well not have made it back had he continued to display.

The Lancaster had to have an engine change last night and may not fly today. The Hurricane blew a rad and is waiting for a replacement.

A Lynx came in on Saturday with a full engine failure emergency, closing the airport for 45 minutes. It was test run yesterday after repairs, but will be leaving by road.

The MH53 suffered a starter motor failure. That must be a BIG starter motor

Worst of all is the Hunter G-PSST. The Hunter was late yesterday and missed its slot, so did a few runs for the crowds at the airport, rather than its intended seafront display. On coming in to land, it came down wincingly heavily. So heavily in fact that it lost a substantial amount of metal from the back end. On further inspection, it is beyond economic repair and will never fly again

[Man-on-the-fence]

Thats the second time that Flapjack has scraped his tail down the runway (the first was at Belfast I think).

Whats the difference this time that makes it a W/O (a very quick decision BTW) surely one would ba able to do as last time and bolt another one on (if you can get one that is).

Bad luck for the others, hope its not too serious.

[TonyR]

Last time the Hunter hit its tail was Enniskillen (2001, I think) and it seemed quite bad, they flew home then though. It hit the tail before the wheels even touched, thats how high the nose was.

The scrape was in the runway for a long while after.

Tony

[bar shaker]

When we saw the Hunter land, my mate said how it was unbelievable that an aircraft could take such a pounding. It was later that we found out it couldn't. Such a shame.

The Spitfire, Hurricane and MH53 didn't fly today, but a Mustang came along to help and the single running Lynx put on a stunning display.

Accepting that very little comes close to watching fast jets with re-heat on, ripping up the zone, I came away with the SU26 as my favourite.

Some of the time it was flying, some of the time it was just cartwheeling through the air. Some of the time it was horizontal but dropping with no real forward movement and some of the time it was going from forward to vertical, without gaining much height and then sitting there, hanging on the prop. Not a word I like to use, but nothing else describes it... Awesome

[Man-on-the-fence]

Still wondering how you can describe an aircraft as written off when the damage appears to be confined to a replaceable part of the airframe and its hasnt even been stripped down and inspected yet.

The tail is a write off (he appears to be collecting these) not sure about the rest of the airframe.

[Zlin526]

Ah yes M-O-T-F, but do you know what other damage lies beneath? A new jet pipe would cost quite a bit, and who knows whether the fuselage is distorted? Only Captain Flapjack can tell (or rather his insurance & maintenence companies)

[NinjaBill]

The BBMF DC3 flew past Topcliffe airfield at about 1000ft, just outside the matz at 2pm ish, and flew back in the other direction about 3 hours later, maybe it was collecting spitfire bits!!

[Man-on-the-fence]

Precisely my dear Zlin

However it is being called written off before the aircraft has been inspected. it may be a write off but equally it may not be.

I would not wat our dear Bar Shaker on a Jury at my (ficticious I may add) trial.

Time will tell.

[bar shaker]

MOTF

Twas what my contacts at Southend told me, which was what the pilot had told them.

I just thought it was a heavy landing, nothing more and still hope that it can fly again.

[Man-on-the-fence]

still hope that it can fly again

Ditto