Kilrush Visit May 24th

A quick visit to Kilrush on Sunday morning brought no surprises.  Quite a few of the residents had left for the ILAS Fly-In in Wexford but some of the more colourful ones remained.

EI-BCJ Falco F8L - for a short history of this aircraft click here  Irelands Falcos

EI-FFZ Magni M16 Gyro

G-CPII Mudry CAP 231

N799CD Cirrus SR22 GTS

OK-TUR-22 Roko NG4

EI-FDC PZL Koliber 150

An interesting car boot sale find.

I found this at a car boot sale a while ago. 10 Euro is all it cost and it works!

Its a Short & Mason MK XIIIB Altimeter.  1930s or early 40s vintage.

A visit to the National Museum Of Ireland.

The National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks, Dublin has a large collection of historical artifacts covering the history of Ireland.  Among these are two aircraft moved from the Irish Aer Corps Museum in 2006.

 

De Havilland Vampire T11, c/n 15563 was the 260th Vampire Trainer built .  Built at the De Havilland factory at Broughton, it was delivered to the RAF as XE977 on June 7th 1955.  Withdrawn from RAF use in 1963 it was donated to the Irish Aer Corps as an instructional airframe on August 30th 1963.  Assigned the serial number 198 when delivered to Baldonnel, it wasn't applied until years later when 198 was placed on display outside the officers mess at Baldonnel.  Eventually it was moved indoors again to the Aer Corps museum and then moved to the National Museum in 2006.

Miles M14.A Magister 1, c/n 1028 was one of a batch of 50 ordered by the RAF and built by Philips and Powis Aircraft Limited. Ten of these were diverted to the Irish Aer Corps and never entered RAF service.  Delivered new to Baldonnel on March 22nd 1939, 34 flew until March 1952 when it was transferred to the Aer Corps engineering school as an instructional airframe. Restored in 1981 it was moved to the Irish Aviation Museum at Dublin Airport until 1996 when it returned to Baldonnel.  34 along with 198 moved to Collins Barracks in 2006.

Another item of aviation interest on display is a World War 1 era airspeed indicator.  Built by Wilhelm Morell in Leipzig these anemometer type indicators were fitted to many aircraft at that time. 

Taylor Monoplane EI-BKK is flying again.

Visitors to Limetree Airfield over the last few months will have seen long-time Waterford resident Taylor Monoplane EI-BKK being prepared to return to flight after many years grounded following a landing incident at Waterford in early 1991.  On Tuesday April 21st last, following an inspection by the Irish Aviation Authority,  BKK was issued with a new three year permit to fly.

Originally built as G-AYYC, BKK was first registered to the Kirby Flying Club in Leicester on 7.5.71 and first flew on 11.8.72.  She flew very few hours with no flights logged between June 1973 and February 1980.  When exported to Ireland in January 1981 she had only flown fifteen hours in the previous nine years.

Over the next ten years BKK flew another sixty five hours mostly while owned by the Waterford Aero Club. During the summer of 1982 she had both wings repaired with new leading edges fitted and new fabric fitted after a taxiing incident.  A new prop was also fitted on this occasion.  In May 1987 she was repaired again, this time receiving a new undercarriage leg.  Unfortunately BKK was damaged again in May 1991 which put her out of action for the next nineteen years.

Restored by J.J. O'Sullivan between 2005 and 2010, BKK flew again on 18.4.10 before being sold to a new owner who only logged three flights before selling her to the current owners in December 2014.

1600 cc Ardem Volkswagen Conversion 

Powered by a zero-timed 1600cc Ardem Volkswagen Conversion BKK cruises at 100 mph while burning only 9 litres per hour.  With its 27 litre fuel tank BKK has a still air range of 200 miles plus a reserve, more than enough to travel anywhere in Ireland.

The fuel gauge that never lies!

The tiny cockpit is surprisingly comfortable.