Classic British Flight Sim

A pic with a difference has turned up on auction of G-ARPI probably after she was repaired following the Ambassador crash.

http://www.airlinehobby.com/listings/de ... /index.cfm

Garry

Interesting picture Garry. Cheers for that. I think she looks rather beautiful even with no clothes on...

Very interesting find... have passed this on to "Trident Man" (Neil)!

Funny how the registration is properly applied.

If it were just for labelling purposes any scrawl would do

It's almost as if it may have made a test flight before painting.

I recently came across a pic of Viscount 701 G-AMOE taxiing completely devoid of paint apart from the reg........That was a new one on me but it does show these thing do happen.

Garry

I think it is reasonably common for an airtest to be done before painting after major repairs. The reason for this is that painting alters ( albeit only slightly if it's done properly ) the balance of controls such as elevators and ailerons , and thus to be sure the a/c is fit after repair, the airtest is done first. IIRC the tail was cut off in this accident and thus the repair was very major indeed

The damage was severe

It was said at the time that both were written off but BEA used the money from the two to rebuild the least damaged.

I don't know it that was true but RPI was badly damaged with the tail and engine area destroyed, a major part of such a design.

If it is true then G-ARPI has the dubious distinction of being written off twice.

As to the paint/test flight bit that does make a lot of sense.

So at least flown like this it would be a true a test as it could be.

Thanks for that expanation CS

Garry

cstorey wrote: The reason for this is that painting alters ( albeit only slightly if it's done properly ) the balance of controls such as elevators and ailerons , and thus to be sure the a/c is fit after repair, the airtest is done first.

This is an argument for doing the airtest after painting.

I think the naked aeroplane is easier to thoroughly check for cracking, weeping or pulling rivets etc. after the airtest...These things can be a bit disguised if it is painted first.

Looks like the rudder is painted :think:

Garry

vc10 : the test before painting is so that any problem such as flutter can be determined as attributable to the repair and not to painting problems - it is one less thing to eliminate, and as Peter says, any physical problems can also be seen from skin rippling etc