QSY
For the funny, the weird, the wonderful and the just plane strange…
The wise owl
Sleap launches Jet Provost project
S
hropshire Aero Club, based at Sleap Airfield, has launched a project to restore a Jet Provost trainer. The ‘Spirit of Shropshire’ Jet Provost Renovation Project will not be a flying aircraft but will offer fast taxi rides and other experiences. A skilled team of volunteers have started renovating the Jet Provost T3A, number XN582. “Shropshire has a long
Above The Shropshire Aero Club team, hard at work on their Jet Provost
history of RAF flight training so it is fitting that a working example of the RAF’s basic trainer from the 1960s to the 1980s now has a home within the county and is being renovated to provide an exciting visitor attraction,” said Dr David Somerville, a member of Shropshire Aero Club and
owner of the aircraft. “The aircraft has been named Spirit of Shropshire to reflect the fact that Shropshire once had a total of 12 RAF bases, mainly focused on pilot and aircrew training. This type of aircraft was based at RAF Shawbury and also visited Sleap Airfield.” The group has set up a crowdfunding page to help suuport the project, click here to help them on the way with restoration.
Heroes & Villains HERO Spare a thought for the test pilots of this world and in particular, Tom Carr, Chief Test Pilot at Garmin. Tom was the pilot who had to go ‘hands off’ and be the first to let Garmin’s Autoland system get on with landing the aircraft. We bet Tom’s hands were hovering less than a millimetre from the controls during the simulated emergency landing, but now the system is approved by both the FAA and EASA. Tom has received the Society of Experimental Test Pilots’ 2020 Iven C Kincheloe Award.
VILLAIN €13.5m is being spent by the EU to divert the valuable and limited time and expertise of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) to develop solar power to cook sustainable pasta. No, not joking. Nothing to do with aerospace, just pasta. Details: http://bit.ly/DLRpasta HEROES Winners of the annual awards from the Honourable Company of Air Pilots (HCAP) include Greg MacDougall of Harbour Air in Vancouver who is converting his fleet of
floatplanes to electric power. Other winners: Master Aircrew Tudor Haines with 5,000 hours in Chinooks, test pilot Ben Lewis, 32 (The Royal) Squadron, Air Marshal (retd) Cliff Spinks who’s also a leading warbird pilot, and Tim Robinson, editor of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s magazine.
An owl looking for refuge from raging wildfires in California found a spot to rest… in the cockpit of a helicopter performing water drops. “It’s odd to have an owl enter an aircraft,” said pilot Dan Alpiner on Facebook. “It’s unheard of to have it enter while the helo is inflight. It’s an unexplainable and magical miracle for it to stay with you for several water drops, then leave just as it arrived – safe and unannounced.” Dan was flying for Wyoming-based Sky Aviation helping to fight the fires near Fresno. He was initially worried that the owl would begin fluttering about inside the cockpit. But it was a model passenger, briefly hanging out before wisely flying away without incident.
AWB is back
The humanitarian charity Aviation Without Borders has resumed air cargo shipments following six months of ‘enforced inactivity’. “The easing of lockdown has improved our position slightly, we have just recently resumed our humanitarian air cargo shipments,” said Stanley Stewart, AWB Chair. Among the humanitarian flights flown in has been 350kg of water purifying kits from Lifewater to Entebbe in Uganda.
Aviators Ball 2020
Disabled flying charity Aerobility is staging its popular annual Aviators Ball online this year. Click here for full details
Send your QSY submissions to QSY, PO Box 4261, Melksham, SN12 9BN or to qsy@seager.aero 78 | FLYER | December 2020
