Tutor T1 disposals

[IanM]

Babcock Aerospace Ltd who supply the Grob 115E for RAF flying training have started disposing of 28 aircraft on sale to the Finnish AF.

The G-INFO website shows the following as deregistered from the UK civil register, the reason shown as disposed of to Finland:

G-BYUG
G-BYUP
G-BYVS
G-BYWJ
G-BYXN
G-CGKA. this became Finnish AF G-01

Ian

[SpilsbyPete]

Ian,
Thanks for the info.
This is the first batch of the 28 being sold
Are these aircraft being "pooled" somewhere prior to going to Finland.

Pete

[Bobby Jo]

There was quite a few in the Hangar new to the Control tower at Barlaston Heath last month [WINKING FACE]

[phantom23]

Would anyone know which of the remaining fleet are due to go?

[IanM]

I’m not sure if they are pooled prior to disposal but I guess if they were then Barkston would be an obvious choice given Babcock’s presence there. There appears to have been some changes to the complement of some units so this may have been in preparation for the disposals. Benson has seen its former G-BY** aircraft replaced with G-CG** so this might be the reason why.

What we could do with is the current fleet disposition as I often see Tutors over Abingdon on navex exercises - it would be good to know what unit they belong to - G-BYUB & VV flew over today.

In the meantime I’ll keep an eye out for future disposals.

Ian

[blackbox]

Noted on the tracking sites on 25-26/9/17 were GBYUA, GBYVJ, GBYVX, GBYWE & GBYWT all routing UK-Finland

[David Thompson]

What we could do with is the current fleet disposition

EGVP posted this Tutor fleet list up in July 2015 and it just needs bringing up to date ; viewtopic.php?f=324&t=116853

[IanM]

Thanks blackbox / David.

I guess the CAA haven’t yet caught up with paperwork for the later deliveries!

Regarding the current fleet disposition list, most sightings are in 2015 so this might need some updating. Maybe if people could report recent sighting I’ll try to get a more up-to-date list together and post it on the forum.

Ian

[FlyingFairy]

Would anyone know which of the remaining fleet are due to go?

I heard that in line with usual RAF sales, the aircraft with the most hours available were sold, so it is a mixture of Classic (G-BYxx) and EA (G-CGxx) frames. As to exact registrations, unfortunately I don’t have that information.

Any normal Air Force would have sold their most problematic/unserviceable aircraft!!!

FF

[David Thompson]

Both G-BYVJ and BYVX from YUAS at Linton are due to go and I think each UAS unit is reducing to five aircraft per unit ?
Edit ; I've just spotted them noted as leaving for Finland last month on blackboxs' post above !

[Phoon]

Would anyone know which of the remaining fleet are due to go?

I heard that in line with usual RAF sales, the aircraft with the most hours available were sold, so it is a mixture of Classic (G-BYxx) and EA (G-CGxx) frames. As to exact registrations, unfortunately I don’t have that information.

Any normal Air Force would have sold their most problematic/unserviceable aircraft!!!

FF

Except that these aircraft are not the RAFs to sell. They are all owned by Babcock.

[roger4]

Ian,

I too have seen a lot of non-Oxford UAS Tutors overflying Abingdon in recent months, but they are generally routing to or from Membury rather than being on a NavEx. Certainly both 'UB and 'VV routed Cranwell to Membury yesterday and so I assume e.g. Southern Sailplanes are doing something with them. They seem to stay for 5-7 days, suggesting maintenance.

I have my AirNav ADS-B system running almost every day (I'm about 1 mile from Benson) and the log for September shows Oxford UAS used G-CGKD, 'KG, 'KH and 'KO extensively, but also used G-BYUS for just a single day (28th Sept) - it departed the same day back north as "Cranwell 58".

So far in October OUAS have used G-CGKB (last noted by me operating from here 4th May), 'KD, 'KG, 'KJ (last noted by me 4th June) and 'KO.

Benson also gets occasional visiting Tutors, using for example Army, Cranwell or Wittering callsigns, as opposed to the Oxford UAS ones which use "UAO" or "Nickel" callsigns.

LAAS's members magazine Aviation News and Review, is listing about 15 changes a month to the Tutor fleet, so perhaps the best we can say is that their whereabouts is currently very fluid!

Roger

[IanM]

Roger,

I could see the aircraft disappearing off ADS-B around that area and assumed they were flying into Middle Wallop or Boscombe - didn’t think it could be Membury! Fifteen changes per month is quite a lot. I wonder why so many? I might wait until we know all 28 for Finland have been delivered and see whether it settles down.

Ian