In this edition:

• The Lord Kirkhope Inquiry into UK Lower Airspace
• Down on the Farm #16 – Tony gets in a sticky mess and Farry sorts him out!

The Lord Kirkhope Inquiry into UK Lower Airspace

This report, commissioned by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on General Aviation has now been published.

From the introduction by Lord Kirkhope:

Airspace has long been an element of British infrastructure ignored by Government and Parliament. This complacency has resulted in the UK having some of the most complex lower airspace in the world and as a matter, of course, a major review has been required for some time.

Considerable evidence was amassed from a wide range of aviation organisations and interested parties, and a stringent set of recommendations have been formulated.  Let’s hope it provokes some action.

The full text can be downloaded from here as a pdf:  The Lord Kirkhope Inquiry into UK Lower Airspace

The finding of the report are particularly poignant in the case of the failure of Lasham Gliding Society’s legal attempt to prevent the Farnbrough TAG sky-grab.  The finding of the judicial review can be read here: www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2019/2118.html  Essentially the CAA carried out the procedure correctly; that the result may be daft is not a matter for the court!

Down on the Farm #16

This month 7.19

Klemm L25C G-ACXE

Engine:- We had a wet spell and spent a day building the number 1 cylinder, which enabled us to produce a build procedure as there are many areas where you must do things in the correct order and if do certain things first it will all be wasted. We have gapped all the rings and fitted them to their relevant piston ready for installation. We had one other problem and that was we could not fit the second gudgen pin circlip as the new gudgen pins were about .005” to long. I had to make up a fixture to hold the pin in the lathe and set up a windy grinder to shorten the pins and grind the chamfer back to accommodate the circlip; all the pins are now with their respective pistons.

Popjoy engine with first pot in place

We started with the colour coats but ran out of black cellulose and I went down and purchased another from the same company. Applied it and noticed that it was not going off and looked remarkably glossy. After a week I rang the paint company who denied it could be 2-pack sold in error but would get back to their suppler.  I never received a call back as promised!

Fuselage with wet black paint (see text)

Two weeks on I spoke to Farry with my fears and problem and he came up with a fix that he had used in the pass and that was to spray a thinned coat of 2-pack hardener over the top and wait until the next day and low and behold it set i.e. it was 2-pack.

The paint company still denied it was their problem but has supplied more paint and materials.

We are going to have to go with paint materials that we had not intended to use due to the cock up of the supplier.

Let’s hope it works out OK.  Come along to the Palmers Farm flyin on 3.8.19 to find out the next thrilling instalment!!!  Download the details as a pdf here: Fly-in Briefing

Old Warden on 22.7.19

Jim Copeman my partner in the Klemm, and my old friend Brian who had been a DH apprentice and had worked for Boeing, DH Canada, Lear, Miles, Beagle (and had resurrected the Mew Gull shown below) and I, went to the Old Warden evening flying show. Unfortunately it was too windy for them to fly the pre WW1 planes but the rest certainly made up for it. See here are some pics.

Miles Magister taxing in

The record breaking Mew Gull being towed in after a great display

The 1934 race to Australia winning DH Comet after a spin

Tony Palmer

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