''It's a self-preservation society!''

Alan Longstaff looks at the work done by Air Atlantique's Classic Flight team. Pictures by the author unless stated otherwise

For as long as I can remember I have been interested in aviation - even when I was little I always pestered my parents to take me to airshows! I always hankered to find out what it is like 'on the other side of the fence' of the historic aviation scene.

In 2003 I decided to bite the bullet and wrote a letter to Mike Collett, chairman of the Air Atlantique group, to see if I could become a volunteer with the flight. He replied that I would be most welcome! My first job as a volunteer was at an open day held at Coventry Airport as 'a whipper in', making sure that visitors didn't stray off across active areas during their visit. While there I was asked if I would like to fly over to Wellesbourne Mountford airfield in a Rapide to help set up a stall for the next day's Vulcan XM655 open day, where the Classic Flight were going to be offering pleasure flights to visitors. Needless to say I didn't need to be asked twice! We were soon trundling down the runway at a surprisingly brisk pace en-route for Wellesbourne with a DC-3 following on behind us that was going to be on static display for the open day.

After this first experience I asked Ben Cox, Chief Engineer, if there was anything I could do with regard to helping out with the aircraft. I was soon put to work on the Twin Pioneer, removing and cleaning the spark plugs ready for refitting and some general TLC to get the aircraft ready for its next assignment. I have assisted at a few open days and try to help out every few weeks in the hangar with whatever is required to keep these classics in the air, including degreasing the engine cowlings on the Anson and helping to remove the passenger windows on the Twin Pioneer as part of its interior refit. I have also met and had a chat with Carolyn Grace, the owner/pilot of the 'Grace Spitfire ML407', something I probably would not have been able to do at an airshow. But it has also enabled me to see what a dedicated team of engineers are doing to preserve our nation's aviation heritage.

The engines on the Canberra are secured in place by just four mounting points - one can be seen half-way up the wing bulkhead

Now that the RAF has retired its last remaining English Electric Canberras, you would be forgiven if you thought that there were no more opportunities to see one in the air again. Well, thanks to the efforts of a small group of dedicated volunteers and one of Britain's most enthusiastic airline chairmen, that is not the case. It has not been a straightforward task however to keep one of the most important jet bombers of the twentieth century in the air.

At the end of a very successful 2003 display season for English Electric Canberra WK163, the usual annual maintenance on the airframe was put on hold as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had issued a directive that all Rolls Royce (RR) Avon engines fitted to ex-military aircraft in the UK had to have a major inspection every fifteen years, in addition to their normal overhauls, before they would be allowed to run again. This required an in-depth corrosion and structural survey of the Rolls Royce Avons before they would be released for flight. So, after discussions between Hawker Hunter Aviation at Scampton, the CAA Safety Regulations Group at Gatwick and Classic Aviation projects and Air Atlantique, the joint owners of the airframe, a life extension and condition monitoring programme was agreed.

The engineer who carried out the majority of the work required to satisfy this directive was Chris Cawdron. He has done the work in his spare time, as he has a full time job with Mahle Powertrain (formerly Cosworth Technology) at Northampton where he works as a Principal Engine Build Technician, looking after the technical aspects of assembling new, prototype, high performance road car engines. So, with the demands of a full time career and a young family to enjoy as well, we are sure you will agree that his efforts to put a much missed aircraft's shape and sound back in the air for us all to enjoy are to be warmly congratulated.

We caught up with Chris while he was getting ready to fit the refurbished and rebuilt engines back into the airframe and he gave us an insight into the demanding nature of these vintage jets. First of all, we asked him how he first became involved in aircraft and the Canberra in particular: ''I'd always been interested in aviation and upon leaving school it was the RAF for me. I initially applied for aircrew, but stumbled at the medical as I'd had heart surgery when I was three years of age. I even underwent extensive tests in hospital for them to prove I was one hundred percent only to be finally rejected even for ground crew due to my medical 'history' - well, that's their loss!

"At the time, some of my family were working at RAE Bedford and they asked the doctors there if I would be considered for an apprenticeship. They said ''No problem!'' so I applied and duly got my apprenticeship as an Airframe and Engine Craftsman. After the apprenticeship, I made it known that I preferred the life of the 'Sooty' (engine man) and so I was taken on in the base maintenance hangar as a Propulsion Fitter.

"I served a further three years on base maintenance looking after the Avon-powered Canberras mainly, but also gaining valuable experience on Dart turbo props (Viscount and HS748), Speys (BAC 1-11 and Buccaneer), Gems and Gnomes (Lynx, Wessex and Sea King) and the Pegasus engine in the Harrier.

"I then moved into one of the flight hangars to look after Canberras and the Buccaneer. I stayed there a total of ten years, right up to the closure of RAE Bedford in 1994 and the subsequent auction of the aircraft. When our first Canberra, XH568, was sold at auction I sort of just went along with the deal! It sat in one of the disused hangars at Bedford until it was to be flown away and I used to go in at dinner times and look after her for the new owner. I sorted out all the tools and spares I could get for it and fitted a couple of new modifications that had just been released for the Avon 109.

Steady now! As the crane, driven by Chris Cawdron, takes the weight of the port engine, Air Atlantique/C.A.P. engineer Bruce Doughty checks the lifting frame as it takes the strain

"I didn't really have to think about what I was doing, it just seemed natural to want to continue to look after her while she was still flying, regardless of whether I was volunteering my time or not. There's not much more to say really, I've been with the Canberras since the start of Classic Aviation Projects (CAP) back in 1994 when XH568 flew out of Bedford for the last time."

As this was the first time that this type of engine has been stripped to this extent outside Rolls-Royce, I asked Chris what the hardest parts of the strip-down and rebuild were. We also wondered what his first thoughts were when the CAA issued the directive and if he ever doubted that they would be able to get them running again? "My initial thoughts were 'How dare they suggest that my engines might be knackered!' But then it was a case of 'Okay, let's get this one sorted'. You really haven't got time to stumble on these things because nobody is going to do it for you and once the decision has been made by the authorities, it sticks."

At first Chris did a lot of the strip-down work himself in his spare time, then later with assistance from engineers at CFS Aero products, a sister company of Air Atlantique, based in the old Alvis Aero Engine works next to Coventry airport. When we asked him how useful their input had been, Chris could not speak highly enough of the help that he received from them. "Oh, absolutely invaluable to be honest. I guess we would have found a way of doing the work in the corner of the hangar had they not been able to host my engine work, but I'd be certain that we wouldn't be anywhere near where we are now if they hadn't. It was exactly the right environment for that job. I believe that I got an incredible amount personally out of working alongside guys who do that stuff everyday - nothing is insurmountable there it seems, and it gives you a great boost when things don't look so promising. There was hardly any restoration that we had to send out that they couldn't do - cadmium plating was one, and perhaps a bit of heavy-duty bead-blasting, but they did the rest. I do hope they got something out of it too as I don't think they see many turbines these days. Needless to say, we are all extremely grateful for all their support."

I wondered, with all his experience working on these engines, if he found any surprises during the strip-down and subsequent re-build? "Mechanically no, nothing really surprised me with the engines to be honest, as we had already done a deep inspection prior to the 2003 flying season. The one thing that did surprise me was the absolute and dreadful lack of support for this country's heritage. I'm not talking about the likes of ourselves and the guys at Air Atlantique and CFS, the support there is unquestionable; I mean support from the big manufacturers (trying not to name and shame here) whose very small input would have made such a big difference to projects like ours. The actual technical and mechanical side of things wasn't bad at all - after all, that's what we were trained to do and have been doing for years. I could honestly say I would do it again tomorrow if we had to and it wouldn't bother me."

"It was difficult at first for anyone else to be really involved though, as I had to work out what we were dealing with and it was really down to me as the sole engine man on the team to come up with the answers. I started by stripping the higher-houred engine and then, when I could see what we needed to do, I started to write all the work procedures, which the civil aviation world requires, and also started to search for the spares and manuals we needed. This seemed to take ages and the first engine sat there stripped for months until I had everything in place. When the restoration work started in earnest, CFS became more involved and helped out considerably during the time I wasn't able to be there. They did the lion's share of the actual restoration work (corrosion removal, re-finishing, etc.) and I did the majority of the strip-down, inspection and rebuild as I had to certify the work and release the engines to service. It worked really well that way as the second engine only took us just over six weeks to complete between us, and we kept an almost continuous workflow with me pitching up on evenings and Fridays (and the odd day off work!) to inspect and rebuild the parts they'd restored for me. I guess for me it was all the initial work getting the maintenance programme accepted by the CAA, sourcing spares and documentation we didn't have (and would need) and the like, that held the most frustrating moments. Now that's all in place, I'd quite enjoy doing another! Bear in mind though that ALL operators need to do this to high calendar-time Avons now, and so we'd definitely not claim to be the only ones. Unfortunately, we don't have any spare engines to fall back on at the moment so we had no choice, but other operators may have good spares."

For the static tests, the aircraft is fitted with some very non-standard cowlings. These have not been the subject of some strange corrosion, but were cut out by your correspondent so that the engineers could give the engines a thorough visual inspection to see if there are any fluid leaks and so that adjustments can be made while under power. The engines will not function correctly without the intakes in place.

I know that Chris spent many hours on the telephone and the Internet chasing spares from all around the world and wondered where the strangest place was that he was able to get spares from: his answer, "England…… l will explain later!" Luckily Chris was able to reuse most of the parts from the engines, but some restoration work on some items would have taken so long that it was more practical to replace with new, rather than spend hours just restoring parts. It would have taken a considerably longer amount of time to do, with the result that we might not have seen the aircraft flying in 2006. Most of the parts were re-conditioned to Rolls-Royce overhaul specifications so they should be good now for another engine life. Obviously all seals and gaskets were replaced with new.

With the large number of Canberra's built over the years and the fact that the RAF were getting ready to retire their remaining aircraft, you would have thought that Chris would not have encountered much difficulty in finding tools and spares that would be needed for the strip-down. However that was not quite the case!

"Tools were not a problem as we had most of the general 'specials' that we've gathered over the years. The ones that we didn't have but needed we made ourselves, as they weren't very complex. It's only when you get into deep overhaul that you need special gauging and tooling - however spares and manuals were initially a nightmare! We've made some excellent contacts now but firstly it seemed that nothing was available in this country anymore, hence my tongue in cheek answer to your earlier question. To get spares in this country you either need to buy an auction lot and end up with twenty jet pipes and a main wheel when you only really wanted just the five 'O' rings, or buy very limited quantities from loads of different people, which can be a headache when you just want to get on. Most of our stuff came from Australia and India where we were able to get decent quantities of good parts from single sources. We were also able to obtain the necessary manuals from overseas as well, ironically there they support British heritage!"

''After all, the Avon series engine was a benchmark for British aero-engineering and it seems tragic that it is left to rot but for a relatively small group of dedicated individuals who refuse to let them die. Who knows whether it's a cost issue or a liability issue, but they should be ashamed of themselves, it's very depressing."

Assuming the funding is there (which is probably THE major factor in operating any vintage aircraft, let alone a jet bomber), I asked Chris how long he thought the aircraft could continue to fly now that the overhaul and re-builds have been done, and his answer was encouraging: "The highest-houred engine has approximately 300 hours left, which will give us about six years at our current annual usage. If it were possible to obtain lower houred engines the aircraft's life would be limited by the fatigue that it sustains due to 'G' loading, which is clocked and recorded on a meter. As a display aircraft, it would be clearly clocking up more fatigue than one in service - however, it would be difficult to quantify that in terms of years left."

On Friday 19 December 2005 the engines of WK163 burst into life for the first time in over two years, with Chris at the controls. After a couple of dry starts to get the fluids flowing, they started perfectly and ran with very few problems apart from a couple of small fuel leaks that were attributed to some seals that needed to bed in and a fuel transfer valve that required changing. On 20 January 2006 the relative peace and quiet of Coventry Airport was broken by the sound of a pair of Rolls-Royce Mk 109 Avons crackling and roaring as they were run up to full power as the next stage in the post overhaul test schedule. And, apart from a slight adjustment being required on the fuel system of the port engine, no problems were noted, a fine testament to Chris's skills.

After some airframe checks and non-destructive testing (which the aircraft passed with flying colours) and pre-season servicing had been completed the Canberra got airborne for the first time on Friday 30 June. After completing all its CAA checks it flew direct to RAF Waddington where it was on static display for the weekend's annual airshow. It is now back on the airshow circuit once again, largely thanks to the efforts of Chris and the small team of volunteers that look after the aircraft. ''Over the years since we started, people have come and gone but really what remained throughout is a small team of individuals who will not see this aeroplane grounded when there is something that can be done about it. It's just a case of figuring what that 'something' is and getting on with it. I don't think I ever doubted that we'd be running again. There's been a few brick walls, but when your heart is in it, there's always a way around them."

WK163 came into the picture when she came up for disposal at RAE Farnborough in 1996. Classic Aviation Projects bought her along with WT333 (now in taxiable condition at Bruntingthorpe) but unfortunately the team were unable to save WH953, another Bedford Canberra, from the scrap man. They gathered a group of 'willing volunteers' together over the Christmas holiday of that year and set about the task of restoring the aircraft to flyable condition. They were in a pretty poor state, the experimental equipment being literally torn out of the airframes with no regard to the future of the aircraft, but with a little TLC (and electrical wizardry from Peter Gill, the owner at the time), they overcame the problems and got them both running and ready for the CAA to grant a permit to ferry fly them to Bruntingthorpe, which they duly did.

Ironically, WH953 was to become a bit of a saviour to her sister aircraft in her final days, as the nose leg on '163 had collapsed - the team were able to take the nose leg off '953 before she was scrapped. There were not enough airworthy Avons at this stage, so the team transported an older one by road (which had been quickly removed from XH568) in order to furnish WT333 with a full non-airworthy set. After removal of her airworthy engines, WT333 was sold as a static exhibit to Roger Wintle, who, says Chris, did a superb job along with his team in returning her to taxiable condition. Chris added "Although it's a shame that we weren't able to keep all the Bedford Canberras flying, it's quite fitting that parts from XH568, WT333 and WH953 have been used to enable WK163 to stay airborne over the years."

CAP were also involved with recovering XH567 and WT327 from Boscombe Down to fly to the United States where they are still in service with Air Platforms, who operate their Canberras on research projects. After a long period of storage and spares reclamation, XH568 was scrapped at Bruntingthorpe in the spring of 2006 and the nose and other useful parts were containerised for shipment to Air Platforms (see www.airplatforms.com). In all, the only ex-Bedford Canberras that CAP weren't able to save as complete airframes were WH953 (the cockpit section survives at the Blythe Valley Aviation Collection) and T4 WJ992 (which went to the Hurn fire dump). Not bad for a small team of ex-military enthusiasts!

My thanks to Chris Cawdron for his help in preparing this article.

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