The logbook was opened at a total of 9812:50 hours and the first entry was on
the 04/06/1989.
Brinkley Light Aircraft Services had taken over the maintenance and the first
entry was for an Annual Check, which was completed on the 3rd of June 1988.
Bob Sammè worked there as an engineer and was able do do most of the work for
the group at a "good rate". Maintenance of the aircraft continued at BLAS for
some time after Bob left to take up a Flying Instruction post "up north",
working for her majesty.
In 1989, COMM1 died and with COMM2 also U/S the aircraft operated non-radio for
a time. This did make life difficult as there was no fuel for several year at
Henlow and the Group had to cast around for fuel every three flying hours. Andy
and Lynda had one fun-filled arrival at Luton using a hand-held radio...
After a group meeting, it was decided to replace COMM1 with a brand new Narco Nav/Comm. funded through a bank loan, to be repaid by adding an extra £10 an hour to the flying rate. Installation of the new radio was completed on the 22/11/1989 by Thurston Avionics Ltd at Stapleford .
Operations at Henlow at this time were strictly 24 hours prior notice for each flight through OC flying and if you couldn't contact him or did not remember, then you could not fly. A subtle campaign of flying as often as we could and requested as often as we would like to fly soon wore him down and we were given permission to operate as we wished, providing the correct paper records were kept.
During a 100 hour inspection, which was completed on the 10th of April 1990, the Direction Indicator and Airspeed Indicator were replaced.
During the annual inspection (which was completed on the 21st of June 1990), a new Artificial Horizon and a new Turn and Slip Indicator were installed into the instrument panel and a strobe style Beacon replaced the (very) old style rotating beacon on the tail. COMM2, the Ditel was removed on 27/06/1990 for "service repair" following reports of "poor receiver" (from what I can recall, it would work for a bit and then fade away).
One day, on the climb out from runway 20 at Henlow, with Graham "under the hood" to simulate instrument flying and with the Turn Coordinator unserviceable, the vacuum pump failed and as a result he lost both the Artificial Horizon and the Direction Indicator. To give him his due, he kept it going for some minutes with just the Compass, Airspeed Indicator and Altimeter for help. (This happened before the new instrument panel went in, but I can't remember the date - there is no record of the vacuum pump being replaced, but see below).
The vacuum pump was replaced on a 100 hour check which was completed on the 1st of December 1990.
During the Star/Annual inspection (C of A), which was completed on the 9th of August 1991, Bob Samme replaced the old 1950's "chuck the instruments anywhere" instrument panel with a totally new one one. At the same time a "new" ADF (of the "Coffee Grinder" type, with digital indicator) intercom and a transponder were installed. On the negative side, Bob had added a rather nice annunciator panel, but this was not allowable and it had to be disabled. Regrettably, the Master Switch somehow ended up being installed upside down.
The wind shield had become somewhat crazed and was replaced with a new one during the Annual inspection which was completed on 02/09/1992.
Sometimes things do not quite work out as expected and Pete Townsley got a bit enthusiastic and did a carrier type landing on the (very) short runway at Clacton, landing tail first, pushing the eye bolt bracket (tie down) up into the fuselage. It did it's job and the rear fuselage was not badly damaged. The lower fin post and eye bolt bracket were repaired by BLAS on the 09/09/1994.
During early 1996 (probably February/March) Mark was doing his Navigation Flight Test with Andy and diverted to Bruntingthorpe with electrical problems. BLAS soon fixed the damage, which included fitting two new fuel gauges on 12/03/1996.
In the spring of 1998, the aircraft looked rather tired and HFG decided to re-spray it. Upon it's return all was well for a few flights, but it was noted that the control column squeaked and juddered a lot when moved. Andy and Dave Milne suffered an in-flight control jam and extensive repairs were required. This involved extensive renewal of the control runs and cables by Bonus Aviation at Cranfield. The control column still squeaks! A very comprehensive logbook entry was made by the engineers.
The logbook was closed at 11129 hours 50 minutes with the last entry being made on 10/02/1999.