WIX Archives
Re: Tracing the paper history of an aircaft
Posted by Ron Henry on Fri May 10, 2002 03:18:20 PM
In reply top Tracing the paper history of an aircaft posted by Will Fowler on Fri May 10, 2002 02:40:57 PM
: Hi All,
:
: I have an ex- RAF Chippie project that was demobbed around
: the early 70's it was sold to a ranking RAF person who wa
: s going to use it for his own run about but for one reason
: or another it was sold and passed through a number of peo
: ple before it came to me.
:
: What I would like to know is how to I go about chasing dow
: n its flight history (logs etc) from it RAF days as it see
: ms that they were never passed on to the original owner, t
: ough one I know.
:
: Or what should I do if I cannot find these papers, how do
: I start sorting them for the big air wigs?
:
: Kind regards,
:
: Will
Somebody with more experience in the topic can probably give a more definitive answer, but ............ if it's never had a civil ID, I think you're going to find it tough.
Some yrs ago, a friend of mine acquired a couple of ex-RAF Provosts that the MoD had sold to colleges as ground training aircraft. When my friend bought them, no logs came with them and I tried to help him track them down (I had vague MoD internal connections at the time). As far as I can recall, the answer came back that, once the aircraft had left RAF service, the RAF would no longer retain any logs. If your Chipmunk ever progressed very far towards becoming 'civil', there could, perhaps, be a chance that logs had been passed to the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
It's not a lot of help, but, assuming you know its military serial, you can find the outline of its service history (ie where & when) from the RAF Museum.
Ron