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Aircraft I've Flown Part I - A Tribute to the Mighty 747-436


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Another cracking pic James!

 

I still find it strange seeing all the civvie stuff going into Saints now, rather than the Phantoms, Buccaneers, Harriers, Hunters et al that were there in my day. How I wish I'd had a digital camera then...!! 

 

Keith

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On 7/29/2020 at 6:54 PM, Back in the Saddle said:

There are a few pilots being kept current - sadly, not me. I think I've had my final flight on the 747, without realising at the time...😢

I can relate to that. There are two kinds of pilots; those who walk out knowing it's the last time and those who don't. 

 

I was the latter. Nothing  so glamorous as a 747. It was a skydive flight. Last drop of the day with the weather closing in. Decided to have a look and took off. Weather was closer than I thought so aborted and was on short final when the rain appeared and obscured the windscreen. Slightly tense landing. 

 

All well,  I taxied in, unloaded the disappointed meatbombs. Filled in the paperwork, tied the bird down. Said 'See you later' to the guys and went home never to return. My last PIC commercial flight, (for now?).

 

I to have just acquired a model for an aircraft 'I have flown build'. Being an obscure aeroplane it's a wildly expensive resin kit. But the basis is there. All I  need is a way of making my own decals for it.

 

I'll be following this thread with interest. The last time I flew in a 747 was in 2005. I guess that will be the last time for me too.

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14 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Another cracking pic James!

 

I still find it strange seeing all the civvie stuff going into Saints now, rather than the Phantoms, Buccaneers, Harriers, Hunters et al that were there in my day. How I wish I'd had a digital camera then...!! 

 

Keith

Thanks Keith, it is strange, but funny how Saints has always been repairing and scrapping aircraft, be it military or civil.  When I started there it was Tornados, Hawks and VC-10s, with lots of Jags sitting around awaiting their fates, now it's airliners.

I wish I had a digital camera back in the day, that's for sure!

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I remember the first flight being shown on the Beeb and being utterly amazed at the size and grace of the 747.  Only flew in one once - to NZ.

 

Following the build and it's looking good!  Any more anecdotes? 

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On 30/07/2020 at 20:54, 71chally said:

You're more than welcome to use my shots if it helps with either your build or illustrating various points,

Cheers James, much appreciated. I'll have a trawl through your material and see what I can find - it's all useful! 👍

 

On 30/07/2020 at 20:54, 71chally said:

I don't know how much of the fleet went through the same changes as VP, or indeed when the changes were made.

At the end of the 747's life at BA we had two versions - one with 337 seats (more economy seats) and the other with 275 seats (more flat beds). They were reconfigured a few years ago, sometime after the 'world image' tail fin era - hence having to look at historical images for some aspects of the aircraft, rather than current pictures. Another recent modification was fitting wifi antenna to the top of the fuselage. This is something else that was not on G-CIVP at the time. Recent images are still great for most other uses - only a few things will have changed.

 

On 30/07/2020 at 20:54, 71chally said:

I spent a good bit of time today crawling all over a 747 and two things really struck me, one is just how flippin cavernous that centre undercarriage bay is, it's like a cathedral of alloy skinning and piping! 

The other, is how beautifully smooth the wings are in reality, the only noticeable panel lines are the moving surfaces and the inspection panels.  Some of those wing skins are amazingly long and smooth.

It truly is an amazing piece of engineering, especially when you consider it was designed by hand, using simple calculators and fluid dynamic tables.

 

My build has been quiet for a few days, due to a last minute weekend away. The windows have been filled or opened as required and I think it's time to glue the two halves together. I'll post some photos once this has been done - there's not much new to see at the moment!

 

 

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On 27/07/2020 at 23:21, 71chally said:

I did scare the bejesus out of the pair of them by standing under the most recent 747 arrival at St Athan, genuinely felt bad about that, I didn't appreciate that it's arrival would feel like the sky falling in to a 5 year old!:devil:

I’m quite jealous now - I would love to share that experience with my two (although with the benefit of your hindsight, I would obviously warn them about the noise first...! 😉). 

 

On 28/07/2020 at 09:20, keefr22 said:

PS that P-40 looks good Matt, neat job by the little 'un

I liked the kit so much I have just bought the 1/48 version - £20 on eBay including postage. Seemed like a good price!

 

Its raining in Scotland again, so I’ll make some more progress on this model today.

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On 31/07/2020 at 12:49, Alpha Juliet said:

Following the build and it's looking good!  Any more anecdotes? 

Thanks AJ👍

 

A quick one for you, from a photo I recently saw on Twitter.

 

This is BA’s Cranebank training centre at Heathrow (now disused). There is a light blue disc between the windows on the 2nd floor that was put there in 1970 to show the pilots’ eye height on the 747. There is another disc further up showing their eye height during the landing flare, just below the roof. The discs are now a bit faded, so I've added the red circles to show their position more clearly. Allegedly it was these markers that gave rise to the expression that landing a 747 was like landing a block of flats!

 

cranebank.jpg

 

Time for today's update. My first task was to add some nose weight before closing up the fuselage. A couple of large screws were attached to the inside of the fuselage using silicon. I also glued the nose gear bay into position and added some plastic tabs to reinforce the joint:

 

screws.jpg

 

Once the silicon had cured I glued the fuselage together:

 

fused.jpg

 

There is a bit of a gap in the belly area, but I've beefed this up with some plastic strip and will add filler later:

 

gap.jpg

 

I think another mammoth filling/sanding session is on the horizon...!

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18 hours ago, Jur said:

Let's hope your screw doesn't come loose ;)

Me too (does that need a hashtag?!) - I smothered the screws with silicon, so I don't think they're going anywhere...!😁

 

The tape was removed and I have put some filler over the seam.

 

There was loads of flash around the belly panel, so I have tidied that up and have glued the undercarriage bay into position. I have also found the biggest piece of spare sprue in my inventory, which will be cut to length and used to brace the fuselage where the wings attach - it needs beefing up a bit! Here's the current state of play:

 

mbay.jpg

 

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On 8/4/2020 at 11:42 AM, Back in the Saddle said:

I’m quite jealous now - I would love to share that experience with my two (although with the benefit of your hindsight, I would obviously warn them about the noise first...! 😉).

It's probably fairly unusual to St Athan to be able to do that as the public road and footpath is so close to the end of the runway, the wake-vortex after effects were something else!

 

Great updates to your build which seems to coming nicely, and the anecdotes of the eye level points, little things like this can go unrealised or forgotten.

BTW, have you seen the Reskit wheels for this kit, they look exquisite,

s-l1600.jpg

 

Edited by 71chally
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Loving your work on this. It must be quite strange in some ways building an exact miniature replica of the aircraft you flew - I'm surprised you didn't put a miniature version of yourself on the flightdeck! 

 

I like the choice of tail too - I personally felt the Utopia tails were great. I flew home from Sydney in 2003 on 'Rendezvous' and have been considering building a replica for a while. 

 

Speaking of which, I'm working on my own tribute to the mighty 'Queen of the Skies' too:

 

50198416282_fb2dc18d3d_z.jpgBA 747-436 by Thomas Probert, on Flickr

 

Looking at your post above, you're at the trickiest part of this kit - the lower panel has fitted poorly on all of the Revell 744s I've done. I treat it much like a vacform and add tabs to the front and like you I use spare sprue to strengthen the wingroot area. Unfortunately it's then a case of some serious filling and sanding and rescribing to restore the details. On every version I've built, I've found the body gear is too short, and is a good 2mm less in length than the wing gear. I've come to the conclusion that the wing gear is the correct length, so I usually add a plastic card false roof to the body gear bays to lower them and then have all the main gears sitting correctly. Another tip to greatly improve the look of the cockpit area is to raise the roof profile above the cockpit windows using some Milliput - the kit has the curve too shallow and it spoils the look of the whole cockpit area. Not sure if you can see it on mine above, but when compared to the kit in its original form you can see the subtle difference. 

 

Anyway, sorry to highjack your thread - I'll watch quietly from the back row from now on :)

 

Tom

 

 

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On 05/08/2020 at 15:53, 71chally said:

BTW, have you seen the Reskit wheels for this kit, they look exquisite,

Thanks James, I saw a set the other day and they look great. However, I will probably go with the kit wheels for this build, as they are actually pretty accurate. Not quite as good as the resin, but very close...!

 

9 hours ago, tomprobert said:

Anyway, sorry to highjack your thread - I'll watch quietly from the back row from now on :)

Tom, thanks very much for your comments and tips! I have already taken some on board, which you will see below - the others will get some serious consideration too!

 

My first job today was introducing the strengthening spar. I may have over-engineered this, but better safe than sorry - I don't want droopy wings! I have also attached a couple of tabs at the front of the area, ready for the gear bay panel to be added:

 

belly1.jpg

 

I don't think that should shift! Once completed, the belly panel was added:

 

belly2.jpg

 

As mentioned by @tomprobert the gaps are significant, especially around the body gear bays. More filler required! The tabs made securing the front of this panel far easier.👍

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11 hours ago, tomprobert said:

Another tip to greatly improve the look of the cockpit area is to raise the roof profile above the cockpit windows using some Milliput - the kit has the curve too shallow and it spoils the look of the whole cockpit area. Not sure if you can see it on mine above, but when compared to the kit in its original form you can see the subtle difference. 

I always wondered what people meant about the profile being a bit off, but your description and picture describes it really well.

 

Nice work with the belly panel Matt, I can see why the internal bracing is so necessary aswel.

 

BTW, I think it's safe to say that 'VM probably wouldn't do another trip, this is how she looked this morning

50199749873_cbd5c830d7_b.jpg

Boeing 747 -436 G-CIVM by James Thomas, on Flickr

Edited by 71chally
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On 8/4/2020 at 7:17 PM, Back in the Saddle said:

Thanks AJ👍

 

A quick one for you, from a photo I recently saw on Twitter.

 

This is BA’s Cranebank training centre at Heathrow (now disused). There is a light blue disc between the windows on the 2nd floor that was put there in 1970 to show the pilots’ eye height on the 747. There is another disc further up showing their eye height during the landing flare, just below the roof. The discs are now a bit faded, so I've added the red circles to show their position more clearly. Allegedly it was these markers that gave rise to the expression that landing a 747 was like landing a block of flats!

 

cranebank.jpg

 

I never noticed those before! Shows just how high up the flight deck is.

 

Sad to see 400s all parked up by the fence on the road into the GLA now. 

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On 10/08/2020 at 00:18, Glen said:

I never noticed those before! Shows just how high up the flight deck is.

Me neither - and I've been in that building a few times...!

 

On 10/08/2020 at 00:18, Glen said:

Sad to see 400s all parked up by the fence on the road into the GLA now. 

Yep. Still can't believe that the 747 is extinct at BA...

 

I've done a bit more work, but not much - it's been too warm! The model sections are now primed, which nicely shows the imperfections that need attention... I'll get these attended to shortly!

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33 minutes ago, Back in the Saddle said:

Still can't believe that the 747 is extinct at BA...

 

Sadly it seems that way worldwide. Did catch a Lufthansa 747-8 going over the house today, so a few passenger jets just clinging on... :(

 

Keith

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Those -8s are a thing of beauty, they combine that classic fuselage with a beautiful slender wing, and modern engine cowls.

Shame about the timing of this version, I just hope that they can see longer service.

I will build one of the  -8Fs that served in BA colours, I will!

 

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1 hour ago, keefr22 said:

Did catch a Lufthansa 747-8 going over the house today, so a few passenger jets just clinging on...

They'll be the only ones operating by the end of the year, I reckon. QANTAS prematurely retired the last of theirs last month, too. Sadly, I think the 747F will be all we'll see soon and the A380 looks like heading the same way.

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7 hours ago, Bell209 said:

I think the 747F will be all we'll see soon and the A380 looks like heading the same way.

 

Hopefully he cargo jets will have a good life span ahead of them, tbh I've never taken to the 380, think it's pretty ugly. Do miss the 340's though. I've been watching a few airport spotting videos recently trying to improve my recognition skills on the twin jets - failing miserably so far, can just about pick out a 777......!! 🤣

 

Keith

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On 7/31/2020 at 2:02 PM, 71chally said:

Thanks Keith, it is strange, but funny how Saints has always been repairing and scrapping aircraft, be it military or civil.  When I started there it was Tornados, Hawks and VC-10s, with lots of Jags sitting around awaiting their fates, now it's airliners.

I wish I had a digital camera back in the day, that's for sure!

Totally agree with the 'alien concept' of using Saints for commercial aircraft. It was my first posting and after my initial disappointment at not getting a flying station I soon discovered that it was just as good......especially with the slightly eccentric resident pilot/navigator team who conducted the post-major test flights on Phantoms and Buccaneers.....the fly-bys seemed to get lower with each one conducted !. In my day, the place was littered with Avro Vulcans and Canberras waiting for the scrap mans torch.   

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