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Plane Sailing's Duxford, UK-based G-PBYA took a major step towards the 2013 display season on Friday when its lovely refurbished props were hung back on their engines. We use the original A-frame boom attached to the front of the engine and the wing to support the hoist. At 500 lbs each prop assembly you do it carefully but engineer Garry Short has done it many times and knows what he's doing! Mr Legg just did as he was told!!


The nice shiny starboard unit on its trolley ready to be hoisted.


A close-up showing the hoist boom


Yours truly lending support

Morning David,

It's always great to see maintenance work processes and to have updates on 'YA.

Regards

Reggie

Those sure are purty ...... so nice & shiny new.
Don't ya just love hanging props, such a nice easy clean job ..... uh, not !
Well Done Mr. Legg, Well Done.

Bill

The things I worked on had slightly more blades and were a little bit heavier... (JT3's and 9's)

G-PBYA flew for the first time this season at 15:00 hrs this afternoon. The rest of this week will see intensive flying from DX as pilots get refresher training, Type Rating and Display Authorisation renewals. I shall report back at the end of the week....

Take a camera with you!

Just after the last posting, G-PBYA suffered a cracked cylinder head in one of its engines which curtailed the flying programme for the rest of that week. Flying resumed today in perfect weather and up to the point where I had to leave, some nine flights were flown including four practice displays. Another four or five flights were flown after I left. We now look forward to a good display season with the first booking being our likely participation in the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic flypast over London on the evening of Thursday May 9th. More on that when I have confirmation....

Hi David,

let's have another great year with the Big Cat.

Regards

Reggie

For those of you in and around London on Thursday evening (May 9th), there is a planned fly past to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. The flypast will be headed by a FAAM Swordfish followed by a selection of RN helos and Catalina G-PBYA will be behind them. The current plan is that we will fly into Biggin Hill from Duxford at around 16:45 and join up with the RN contingent. We will take off from Biggin before 19:00 and around that time hold in the Eltham area before following the helos out over Greenwich then up the Thames. We will then turn south upon reaching Westminster Bridge and head back to Duxford.

Plans subject to change and weather of course.

There are some days when I just live the wrong side of London... Mind you, being a mobile engineer, I never know where I'll end up... last year I ended up round the Duxford area and there she was, merrily making circuits... the van diverted, completely out of my control of course, and I was forced to watch for a while...

Whatever happens, have a great time all involved, and hopefully there'll be some good reporting...