miketetlow
Member
- Joined
- May 12, 2014
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
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Hi Guys,
I too am new to the Skybolt having just bought a 5 year old UK built example with 80 hours on it - (There are only 15 in the UK). I am in the RAF having flown the F4 Phantom for 5 years in the 80s and Tornado F3 for 2500 hrs until we scrapped them all in 2009. I co-own with a Tornado GR4 colleague and we both fly Air Cadets at the weekends in the Grob Tutor.
Having turned ours upside down a lot in the first exuberance of new ownership I manged to suck debris from the tank into a fuel injector and ended up flying home on 3 cylinders. I then landed on a rough grass strip and bent the single leaf tail wheel spring and dinked the rudder - not my best day!!. Had all that fixed and just fitted a bespoke 3 leaf spring as I couldn't find one off the shelf that would fit. I am about to fly it again, but slightly concerned that as I think I have a standard length main gear, the prop to ground clearance is a lot less. Should I worry about that? On the other hand, the old spring was just not up to the job so I don't think I had much choice. I attach some photos of the current configuration.
I appreciate any tips and hints for a Skybolt newbie in a country with very few fellow users.
Mike Tetlow
I too am new to the Skybolt having just bought a 5 year old UK built example with 80 hours on it - (There are only 15 in the UK). I am in the RAF having flown the F4 Phantom for 5 years in the 80s and Tornado F3 for 2500 hrs until we scrapped them all in 2009. I co-own with a Tornado GR4 colleague and we both fly Air Cadets at the weekends in the Grob Tutor.
Having turned ours upside down a lot in the first exuberance of new ownership I manged to suck debris from the tank into a fuel injector and ended up flying home on 3 cylinders. I then landed on a rough grass strip and bent the single leaf tail wheel spring and dinked the rudder - not my best day!!. Had all that fixed and just fitted a bespoke 3 leaf spring as I couldn't find one off the shelf that would fit. I am about to fly it again, but slightly concerned that as I think I have a standard length main gear, the prop to ground clearance is a lot less. Should I worry about that? On the other hand, the old spring was just not up to the job so I don't think I had much choice. I attach some photos of the current configuration.
I appreciate any tips and hints for a Skybolt newbie in a country with very few fellow users.
Mike Tetlow
