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British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

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BPAG
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British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by BPAG » Thu Nov 02, 2017 11:56 am

With the kind consent of the FC admin (thanks Adam) the British Phantom Aviation Group have been granted permission to start an official thread for the group, Black Mike and all of our activities.

As many of you may know, XV582 'Black Mike' is a Phantom FG1 that has been hangared at RAF Leuchars since its final flight in 1992. The aircraft was eventually sold to a private individual in 2015 and BPAG- in partnership with GJD Services- have been working toward dismantling and moving it south to begin a restoration process that will eventually see it returning to ground running condition.

The latest news is that 'Black Mike' is now on loan to the RAF, for exhibition on static at the RAF100 Airshow at Cosford on June 10th 2018. The aircraft was moved from Leuchars to Cosford on 25th October and is now safely hangared while our engineering team have a well earned short rest...there has been some discussion about this elsewhere on this forum already. See here-

viewtopic.php?f=287&t=154157

We will keep you all informed with news and updates as they come in and you can also keep in touch with us through the usual social media outlets-

http://twitter.com/BPAGofficial

http://www.facebook.com/BPAGofficial/

Our YouTube channel also has a small collection of clips, for those who prefer moving pictures- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwyo0s ... TSg/videos

Many thanks in advance to you all for your interest.
Last edited by BPAG on Thu Nov 02, 2017 6:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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The Phantom
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by The Phantom » Thu Nov 02, 2017 4:40 pm

Great to have you on here. Already follow you on facebook. Look forward to updates and photos as things happen :thumb:

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BPAG
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by BPAG » Thu Nov 02, 2017 6:53 pm

The Phantom wrote:Great to have you on here. Already follow you on facebook. Look forward to updates and photos as things happen :thumb:
Thank you, it is good to be here. Thanks to the FC mods for allowing it. Lots of news to come in the future, stay tuned.
Web- https://bpag.co.uk
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BPAG
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by BPAG » Fri Nov 03, 2017 1:35 pm

The Technical Director of BPAG, Paul Wright, is the author of an article about XV582 'Black Mike' and the group's activities in support of its restoration which appears in a special issue from Key Publishing. 'British Phantoms' is available in WH Smith and other newsagents now.

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Unknown74
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by Unknown74 » Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:41 pm

Sorry I may be getting confused but on a couple of forums I've read they say Black Mike's final flight was in 1992 (May have been 1993) but I recall it was actually 1990 as part of Leuchars Airshow that Year.

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Nighthawke
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by Nighthawke » Sun Nov 05, 2017 11:45 pm

16th February 1992

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Dazza37
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by Dazza37 » Mon Nov 06, 2017 10:42 pm

XV582 was retired towards the end of the 1990 airshow season, as mentioned above, I understand it's last flight was during RAF Leuchars' airshow in September, it certainly didn't continue flying until 1992 (or later) because it was completely out of remaining FI...

-Dazza
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by Unknown74 » Mon Nov 06, 2017 10:52 pm

Could I ask this out of curiosity - Is XV582 Black Mike Phantom FG.1 actually staying at Cosford as part of the RAF Museum after 2018 Airshow or are they transporting her to Bruntingthorpe?

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BPAG
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by BPAG » Mon Nov 06, 2017 11:26 pm

Unknown74 wrote:Could I ask this out of curiosity - Is XV582 Black Mike Phantom FG.1 actually staying at Cosford as part of the RAF Museum after 2018 Airshow or are they transporting her to Bruntingthorpe?
No, the airframe will not be staying at Cosford after June 2018. It will be moving to a new home where the deep restoration process will begin. At the request of the owners of the new site, we are not able to reveal any details at this time. However, we do envisage regular access for the public and scheduled open days at the new location. The Bruntingthorpe option was ruled out earlier this year.
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Nighthawke
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by Nighthawke » Tue Nov 07, 2017 12:14 am

I took the 1992 date from UK Serials (sorry should have credited them in my post)

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BPAG
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by BPAG » Sun Nov 12, 2017 9:30 am

The BPAG technical team are up at RAF Cosford this weekend, starting the reassembly of XV582 'Black Mike'. A few pics from yesterday-

Image

Image

Image
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by vulcanxl425 » Sun Nov 12, 2017 11:27 am

Will you be restoring any of the cockpit area? The reason I ask is that I have an original instrument from "Black Mike" .
Can send you further details by PM if you like.

Al
Al

" Thoir an Aire - Be Always Alert "

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BPAG
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by BPAG » Sun Nov 12, 2017 3:38 pm

vulcanxl425 wrote:Will you be restoring any of the cockpit area? The reason I ask is that I have an original instrument from "Black Mike" .
Can send you further details by PM if you like.

Al
Hello Al,

Thanks for getting in touch. By all means, please send us some details.
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Unknown74
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by Unknown74 » Sun Nov 12, 2017 4:01 pm

I know this is slightly off the Black Mike topic this thread is really about but I have always wondered, did 228 OCU/ 64 (R) Sqdn train Pilots for RAF F-4J(UK) Phantoms as well as the RAF's FG.1/ FGR.2 Phantom Aircraft? Just curious.......

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BPAG
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by BPAG » Mon Nov 13, 2017 10:42 am

Image
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by Dazza37 » Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:42 am

Unknown74 wrote:I know this is slightly off the Black Mike topic this thread is really about but I have always wondered, did 228 OCU/ 64 (R) Sqdn train Pilots for RAF F-4J(UK) Phantoms as well as the RAF's FG.1/ FGR.2 Phantom Aircraft? Just curious.......
Initially all F-4J(UK) were experienced crews from the FG.1/FGR.2 fleet, however after a couple of years in service first tour crews straight out of the OCU were posted to the J(UK), that's straight from from the mouth, or rather keyboard, of an ex-RAF F-4 crew member...

-Dazza
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BPAG
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by BPAG » Fri Nov 17, 2017 1:16 pm

Dave Gledhill, owner of the Tornado F3 Mission Simulator, takes 'Black Mike' on a virtual flight from RAF Leuchars-

https://youtu.be/qNg7qOhxy0A
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Unknown74
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by Unknown74 » Sun Nov 19, 2017 12:00 pm

Here is a question I have had for Years but have never thought to ask until now, on numerous occasions when I saw Leuchars based Phantoms I always wondered why some Aircraft had darker grey noses than others? Also I believe there was one German based RAF Phantom that when it was in camouflage it had a white nose? Was there a certain reason for different coloured nose cones in the RAF Phantom Fleet?

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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by Dazza37 » Sun Nov 19, 2017 3:43 pm

Unknown74 wrote:Here is a question I have had for Years but have never thought to ask until now, on numerous occasions when I saw Leuchars based Phantoms I always wondered why some Aircraft had darker grey noses than others? Also I believe there was one German based RAF Phantom that when it was in camouflage it had a white nose? Was there a certain reason for different coloured nose cones in the RAF Phantom Fleet?
The differing grey of the radomes would be just down to weathering and age of the radome, they weren't actually painted different colours, as far as the white radome on a camo RAFG F-4 (I assume you mean the grey/green camo?), I'm not aware of any that were painted white although a number of 19 & 92 squadron FGR.2s in grey/green camo did have a pale grey radome fitted when black ones were not available, which could be mistaken for white at a glance I guess? XT911 (19 sqn), XV465, XV490 and XV498 (92 sqn) are some that had the pale grey radomes fitted...

-Dazza
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BPAG
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Re: British Phantom Aviation Group (Official Topic)

Post by BPAG » Tue Nov 21, 2017 12:45 pm

Want to get into aircraft preservation? Now is your chance as the British Phantom Aviation Group is actively looking for volunteers. See the message below from Technical Director, Paul Wright-

"Good morning one and all. We asking for volunteers to come forward and get their hands on Black Mike. There's a wide variety of jobs to do, so don't worry if you're not aircraft experienced. All we are asking is that you are willing to help ,willing to learn, and can be at Cosford for either a Saturday, a Sunday or both. So, from "never touched an aircraft before", to ex-Phantom guys (we'll even take people who've only worked on lesser aircraft), send us an e-mail with your name and availability to britishphantomaviationgroup@gmail.com Come on folks,you know you want to......."
Web- https://bpag.co.uk
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