PAUL H
April 27th 13, 09:17 AM
from friday 26 april news letter
Wednesday morning saw XH558 taken outside into the crisp spring sunshine to
begin two days of testing of her engines and systems. This will have all
been to the standard procedure document issued for post winter maintenance.
It includes checking pressures and settings before carrying out a full
engine run at varying power to make adjustments to the throttle settings,
ensuring all four engines deliver equal performance through the full range
of the pilot's controls.
Chief Engineer, Taff Stone, reported this morning that all went well with no
major hitches. All the results are correlated and are now with our
engineering authority.
Other systems checked while the aircraft was out on the running pan included
the Ram Air Turbine, deployed in case of an electrical failure, the whole AC
power generation system, together with a full exercise of all the powered
flight controls, with slight adjustments to satisfy the range of movement
checks.
As we reach this point, may we thank everyone once again who has contributed
in any form, be that financial, or in valuable promotion and time. We are at
this important stage because of you!
All being well, the first check flight of 2013 is only a week or so away.
This all depends on the results of the testing, final sign-off and hand-over
of the aircraft from the engineers to the air crew. We will, of course, need
a suitable weather window. Because of all these factors, our easiest and
quickest form of communication is with our official Twitter feed. Do monitor
over the coming weeks for full details as the testing programme commences
and of course, keep reading these newsletters.
Regular readers will know XH558 requires a structural modification to key
areas of her wings if we are to be able to fly on past this season. With a
huge time and cost implication, together with other component availability
factors, we announced earlier this year we were starting initial design and
investigations with the appointment of Cranfield Aerospace.
We are pleased to report that as a result of their work, full technical
drawings are complete and have already been submitted to several companies
in order for them to look at a tooling and production cost. From this, we
can continue to evaluate the costs and viability of this complex
modification to assess any extension to XH558's flying life. We continue to
pursue this with great energy and will bring you more updates just as soon
as any developments arise.
Wednesday morning saw XH558 taken outside into the crisp spring sunshine to
begin two days of testing of her engines and systems. This will have all
been to the standard procedure document issued for post winter maintenance.
It includes checking pressures and settings before carrying out a full
engine run at varying power to make adjustments to the throttle settings,
ensuring all four engines deliver equal performance through the full range
of the pilot's controls.
Chief Engineer, Taff Stone, reported this morning that all went well with no
major hitches. All the results are correlated and are now with our
engineering authority.
Other systems checked while the aircraft was out on the running pan included
the Ram Air Turbine, deployed in case of an electrical failure, the whole AC
power generation system, together with a full exercise of all the powered
flight controls, with slight adjustments to satisfy the range of movement
checks.
As we reach this point, may we thank everyone once again who has contributed
in any form, be that financial, or in valuable promotion and time. We are at
this important stage because of you!
All being well, the first check flight of 2013 is only a week or so away.
This all depends on the results of the testing, final sign-off and hand-over
of the aircraft from the engineers to the air crew. We will, of course, need
a suitable weather window. Because of all these factors, our easiest and
quickest form of communication is with our official Twitter feed. Do monitor
over the coming weeks for full details as the testing programme commences
and of course, keep reading these newsletters.
Regular readers will know XH558 requires a structural modification to key
areas of her wings if we are to be able to fly on past this season. With a
huge time and cost implication, together with other component availability
factors, we announced earlier this year we were starting initial design and
investigations with the appointment of Cranfield Aerospace.
We are pleased to report that as a result of their work, full technical
drawings are complete and have already been submitted to several companies
in order for them to look at a tooling and production cost. From this, we
can continue to evaluate the costs and viability of this complex
modification to assess any extension to XH558's flying life. We continue to
pursue this with great energy and will bring you more updates just as soon
as any developments arise.