Update 5 - A Visit to Bad Voslau
On 6th and 7th February a small group including trustees Pat Marchant and Mark Griffiths travelled to Vienna to carry out a technical survey of ‘our’ Viking G-AGRW. It was well timed as the weather had improved that morning after a slow moving winter storm had passed through over the preceding few days.
It was still cold with temperatures not getting much above zero deg C for the two days but we were blessed with clear skies and lots of sunshine.
The journey by car from Vienna International Airport to Bad Voslau takes around 40 minutes and after a 7am flight from Heathrow got us there for lunchtime. The airfield is one of the busiest for general aviation in Austria with a number of resident flight training organisations both fixed wing and rotary. The museum is very much a flying collection with two beautiful Boeing Stearman, a Super Cub and a number of gliders and long term restoration projects underway. The building was constructed by the Germans in WW2, a firing range used to calibrate machine guns on Messerschmitt Bf109s, there is lots of evidence of rogue bullets hitting the walls. The team of volunteers is lead by passionate aviators Andreas, Benno and Franz who have had a lifetime in aviation starting out flying gliders in the 1960s.
As expected the aircraft is in a fairly poor state having been battered by the weather during the last 10 years. A storm in 2014 literally ripped off the tail and this lies beside the aircraft. The main spar has been partly cut which we believe occurred during the relocation from Vienna airport to the McDonalds at Schwechat in 1999. The horizontal stabiliser spar has been removed to fit an air conditioning unit hence the sagging that is clearly visible from the photos. There is just a few rivets holding this vital piece on making it look far more anhedral than it should be.
There is very little evidence of the original interior with fibre board surrounds painted with bright colours. These will be removed before we transport her back to the UK. Nothing remains in the cockpit except the basic frame in the nose. There are numerous cut pipes which would have carried air to the airspeed indicator, altimeter and other instruments.
The next step is a trustees meeting on Thursday where we hope to have more of an idea on costings - we have been quoted by a local Austrian crane hire firm for a weeks rental for €16,000! When the time comes to disassemble and prepare the aircraft for transport we will need a dedicated team to carry this out in Austria. Our target is to set aside 7 days, hoping to complete by day 5 and then have 2 extra days for contingency. It will be quite a challenge with long days and issues to overcome but it will be hugely satisfying. At present we are looking at the end of April at the earliest but many things need to come together before we can make firm plans, the transport company, crane hire, and access to the site etc.
Included are a number of photos taken during our visit. We look forward to providing a more comprehensive update at the supporters meeting this Thursday 16th February which will follow Rob Belcher’s talk.
