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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1639.PDF
FLIGHT, 9 November 1961 743 "Flight" photographs A note on this page records the start of Avro 748 route-trials in the hands of Skyways. Seen with G-ARMV at the independent's airport at Lympne last Thursday, November 2, are (I to r): Avro's chief test pilot, Mr J. G. Harrison; Miss Vanda Roberts, Skyways' chief stewardess; and CaptJ. S. Morgan, chief pilot and operations manager. Capt Morgan is in charge of the programme. On the right, DC-3 replacement and DC-3 AIR COMMERCE Avro 748 in Skyways' Hands FINAL phase in the certification tests of the Avro 748 began lastMonday, November 6, when G-ARMV embarked on a160-hour programme of route flying. This programme has been entrusted to Skyways, and it will be conducted in two nine-dayinstalments with a day's break in between for maintenance. Daily utilization will average about nine hours, and the aircraft willbe handled by Skyways' pilots and serviced by Skyways' engineers. The ARB requires that this final phase of the certification pro-gramme shall be as representative as possible of airline service, and Avro staff will not be participating except in a behind-the-scenes way. No Avro pilot will be on board flights. The routes to be flown will be from Skyways' airport at Lympne, where the air-craft will be based, to Beauvais, Vichy, Montpellier and Lyons. As Lyrnpne is not equipped for night flying, Gatwick and Manstonwill be included—as they are in Skyways' actual Coach Air opera- tions—in the programme. Main financial responsibility for this final phase of ARB certi-fication tests falls on the manufacturer, but obviously the experi- ence gained will be of considerable value to Skyways. To datesix DC-3 captains have completed their 748 conversions at Avro's Woodford airfield, following classroom instruction with Avro andRolls-Royce. Conversion was, as Flight heard during a visit to Lympne last week, "remarkably easy." The route flying now under way will not give Skyways the oppor-tunity for converting a further six 748 pilots, but it will provide continuation-training for the converted crews, and will contribute to the 50hr command time required by captains. When the pro-gramme is over G-ARMV will be returned to its manufacturers. Actual delivery and acceptance are not required until March 1,giving Skyways a clear month in which to prepare for the scheduled services due to start on April 1.Skyways are expecting to get 2,200hr a year out of each of their three 748s, all of which will be delivered by May 1. This is con-siderably more than is achieved by the company's four DC-3s, which do about l,500hr a year each. There are two reasons forthis big difference in utilization: firstly, the full-scale progressive maintenance system which will be applied to the 748 will not re-quire the aircraft to be in the hangar for the longer periods required by the DC-3; secondly, the 748 is likely to prove more attractiveto charterers than the old DC-3, enabling utilization to be kept up in the winter. The 44-seat interior of G-ARMV is finished in every detail, andis attractively trimmed in grey-blue with a mustard carpet and 11 rows of two-by-two seats (331b double units by Aircraft Fur-nishing Ltd) at 36in pitch. Baggage is accommodated in two webbed bays just aft of the flight deck, and a roomy galley at theback has a unit detachable for non-catered operations. First customer to take delivery of the 748 will be AerolineasArgentinas, who have nine on order. Avro have already converted 12 Aerolineas pilots at Woodford and delivery of the first aircraft,due to fly soon, is likely in December, soon after the award of the C of A. The three 748s so far flown have logged some l,100hr. NINE INDEPENDENTS FALL TNDEPENDENT airlines seem to fall, like the leaves, in theA autumn. Around this time last year the following companies ceased operations: Continental, Don Everall, Air Condor andOrion. This autumn Pegasus and Falcon have ceased operations, and now Tradair and Air Safaris are in difficulties. In the last 12months nine British independents, including Overseas (during August), have gone into liquidation, been put into the hands of areceiver, or have ceased operations. The fundamental reason for the difficulties of Tradair and AirSafaris lies in Section 2(2)(a) of the Licensing Act. This is the section that requires the Board to consider the adequacy of thefinancial resources of applicants for licences. Both companies had applied for a large number of B licences for ITs, about 120 in thecase of Air Safaris and about 90 in the case of Tradair. These applications were heard by the Board, together with some 600applications from other operators, in a marathon series of meetings (Flight, July 27, page 131) in July, August and September. Nodecisions have yet been published, but the Board has been advising certain applicants that, unless their financial resources are streng-thened, applications may be refused. Both Air Safaris and Tradair have been trying hard to obtainnew capital during the last few months, but have found it difficult to do so without being able to show, as security, a programme ofwork. This vicious circle has led to Tradair being put in the hands of a receiver, and to Air Safaris ceasing operations. Tradair are not yet suspending operations, although their twoViscount 707s are to be grounded. Flying will continue with the company's seven Vikings. Mr Henry Porter of Tradair assuredFlight last week that there was "no despondency," and no question that the airline is going into liquidation. In his view the Board'sdecision to implement the requirements of 2(2)(a) so quickly, with- out having given small companies time to recapitalize, is unfortu-nate, though he emphasizes that this is his only criticism of the Board's interpretation of its duties. Air Safaris have completely suspended operations of their fiveHermes and eight Vikings, which have been grounded. This company's efforts to recapitalize during the past few months havenot, as this issue went to press, succeeded, and the problem now is whether the company can hold out during the winter. The staff,amounting to about 200 people, is under notice. The chairman, Mr W. E. Hamilton, has said that since the failure of OverseasAviation "credit just has not been available to us in a normal way." He added: "If we are successful in recapitalizing then we shallfly again. But at the moment our position is not good." A factor in the demise of some independents is the increasedcost of engineering and maintenance required to comply with the tighter safety requirements, in particular with the requirements ofthe air operator's certificate. This is not likely to have been a factor in the case of Tradair and Air Safaris, whose safety standards havealways been of the highest.
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