B.A.S Twin Otter
Yesterday (July 12th) whilst observing the comings and goings at STN I noticed a British Antarctic Survey Twin Otter taking off from RAF Cranwell and seemingly landing at Duxford. Rather a LONG way from home, anyone have any info so as to quell my curiosity ?
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They have been coming up here for "winter" maintenance since at least '78, think Fairlight at Biggin Hill used to do it as often used to see them there. These days they usually seem to be at Duxford.
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VP-FAZ was at Blackbushe a couple of weeks ago..
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Long time ago they used to go to Fairoaks, think there was a damaged one in the back of a hangar. Mr angry never seemed to appreciate the principle of aviation photography!
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Originally Posted by treadigraph
(Post 10195985)
They have been coming up here for "winter" maintenance since at least '78, think Fairlight at Biggin Hill used to do it as often used to see them there. These days they usually seem to be at Duxford.
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BAS headquarters are in Cambridge, so Duxford is convenient for fitting/testing new science equipment when any of the four Twin Otters are in UK. Doesn't happen very often now though - the Northern summer maintenance has been done in Canada for almost 20 years now, and the aircraft only come over to Europe for specific projects. When I started flying with BAS in the mid 90s, the aircraft maintenance was done by Alan Mann at Fairoaks. Over the following decade the Twin Otters and Dash 7 were at times maintained by Anglo-Normandy in Guernsey, CSE at Oxford, and then Field Aviation in Calgary (and Toronto occasionally for the Dash 7). At the moment the Twin Otters are looked after by Rocky Mountain Aircraft in Springbank, just west of Calgary, and I think the Dash 7 is maintained by Voyageur in North Bay, Ontario. A few weeks ago we had a get-together at Duxford to celebrate 50 years of Twin Otter operations by British Antarctic Survey, with two of the aircraft there. |
One lives and learns as ever! Cheers Ant! Going to Duxford today, expect there will be one there, now I can look really knowledgeable! :)
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Thanks for all the info chaps!
Doesn't happen very often now though - the Northern summer maintenance has been done in Canada for almost 20 years now, and the aircraft only come over to Europe for specific projects. |
Both VP-FAZ and VP-FBL have been operating out of Cranfield for the last few weeks.
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There was one at Duxford today, dunno which one though.
Ant, have any of you BAS pilots ever written up Antarctic flying for Flying or Pilot? Would be of great interest, I'm sure... |
have any of you BAS pilots ever written up Antarctic flying for Flying or Pilot? |
When I worked at Kidlington (1971ish) one of the flying instructors was John Ayres who had spent time in Antarctica. I seem to recall that he had written about it but it's too long ago to recall much..
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I usually read Pilot and Flyer, don't recall anything in either of those...
John Ayres had trouble with a broken ski mount on a Porter out on the ice somewhere which ended up wrecked after an attempt to take off sans skis circa 1968; I believe as a result he was stuck in Antarctica with the scientists throughout the winter. I think it was also he who ferried a rather bent Islander back from Rwanda so BN could repair it. |
They seem to have been visitors to Cranfield for work with Avalon over the last few summers.
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Thanks treadigraph for the info on JA. He really was very decent chap.
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