Sea Prince G-BRFC

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Today at sunny Bournemouth Sea Prince G-BRFC sprung into life for the first time in five years. This is the first successful stage on her restoiration to flying condition, aimed for the middle of next years season. Sea Prince 029

Original post

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,271

Great news. Well done to all involved!

Member for

18 years 11 months

Posts: 8,847

Great news, as she was, eleven years ago.

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 1,433

Great! Congratulations to all involved. Must be a great feeling.

Don't forget though. 90% completed....90% still to go!! ;)

Member for

17 years 5 months

Posts: 112

Excellent, will be great to have an active Sea Prince again.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 9,780

I hope she gets some serious airframe attention since she has always sat outside at Bourn, North Weald and Bournemouth.

Member for

20 years

Posts: 3,902

I recall her displaying at Biggin in about '84 doing a routine with one gear down and a smoking engine.- I assumed it was intentional!

Member for

17 years 7 months

Posts: 840

Looking good isnt she. I walked around the poor looking example at Long Marston a few weeks ago. Very sad sight indeed. Grafetti all over her but beneath the horrible paint job she dont look in bad condition. Engines still have compression when you turn the blades. If anybodies int will post some pics.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 9,780

I tried very hard to save the Long Marston example in the early 1990's. At that stage she was quiete easily repairable to flight. However her then owner wanted a share in her but no expenditure on his behalf so it fell flat for the group involved. Very sad.

Member for

17 years 7 months

Posts: 840

Who owns her David. Wrecks and Relics says the local land owner but Ive also been told that its owned by Gordon Yates. Ive heard the same abouth the Meteor and other aircraft in the Long Marston site. If I Can figure out how to post pics will set a new thread some point today with the pics I took

Member for

16 years 10 months

Posts: 3,214

The sea prince and meteor are indeed owned by a chap called Gordon. I met him at long marston this afternoon, and we had a chat about the aircraft, it seems, that as david has quite rightly said she was very close to being airworthy, the story is that gordon had restored her to the point where she was just about airworthy, waiting for the cross feed for the centre wing tank to be sorted. some rotten bu9ger, broke into the poor aircraft, and stripped every single instrument and piece of electrical equipment from her, thus rendering her completely, for want of a better word bug9ered. the reason for the inactivity, was due to a family tragedy, and he lost all motivation for working on the aircraft. it also seems that there are plans afoot to start working on the aircraft again and get them cleaned up :D:D:D so i promptly gave him my contact details, as i live locally. I really hope that this may be the beginning of a brighter future for these airframes :D

Member for

16 years 7 months

Posts: 1,578

Looking good isnt she. I walked around the poor looking example at Long Marston a few weeks ago. Very sad sight indeed. Grafetti all over her but beneath the horrible paint job she dont look in bad condition. Engines still have compression when you turn the blades. If anybodies int will post some pics.

Please post the pics.

I would love to see how he (a prince must be male) looks now.

Member for

18 years 11 months

Posts: 8,847

Please post the pics.

I would love to see how he (a prince must be male) looks now.

The photo is on this forum somewhere and it is not a pretty sight, unless you are an abstract artist.:p

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 9,780

Sounds a little different to what the land owner tells me. The negociations were between him and a group in Cumbria for her. I don't recall the Sea Prince being near a condition were it could ground run. She was sat in the field for a long time looking very sad

Member for

17 years 4 months

Posts: 1,060

The sea prince and meteor are indeed owned by a chap called Gordon. I met him at long marston this afternoon, and we had a chat about the aircraft, it seems, that as david has quite rightly said she was very close to being airworthy, the story is that gordon had restored her to the point where she was just about airworthy, waiting for the cross feed for the centre wing tank to be sorted. some rotten bu9ger, broke into the poor aircraft, and stripped every single instrument and piece of electrical equipment from her, thus rendering her completely, for want of a better word bug9ered. the reason for the inactivity, was due to a family tragedy, and he lost all motivation for working on the aircraft. it also seems that there are plans afoot to start working on the aircraft again and get them cleaned up :D:D:D so i promptly gave him my contact details, as i live locally. I really hope that this may be the beginning of a brighter future for these airframes :D

Well that sounds promising Ben, especially in light of some other threads about the Long Marston collection, so lets see what happens. Bex

Member for

16 years 10 months

Posts: 3,214

I'm just recounting the conversation i had with her owner yesterday, though i have no idea that he was telling the truth or not, i saw no reason for him to lie about her, also in reference to the sea prince seats on ebay a while back, the sea prince has had her main door pried off :mad:

Member for

17 years 4 months

Posts: 1,060

also in reference to the sea prince seats on ebay a while back, the sea prince has had her main door pried off :mad:

Dont u just love society these days, just gotta wreck & graffitti things cant leave things alone Oh happy days. :mad: Bex

Member for

18 years 2 months

Posts: 1,421

Well I have to make some phones call about another one of the breed this afternoon as heard some rather worrying reports :(

Member for

17 years 8 months

Posts: 171

G-BRFC, Dave Hughes used to frighten the life out of us with his low 'fly pasts' along the grass runways at Luton! After Dave's premature death the airframe was sold on and I am glad to hear that it is looking good.

When I next see Dave's daughter, I will let her know about the restoration progression.

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