A group in Milton Keynes are making a PA28 cockpit simulator, which they hope will be at the Astrasim Expo at the RAF Museum, Cosford on October 22-23 2011.

On Thursday 24th March we delivered our cockpit down to Milton Keynes. The PA-28 Warrior has now gone for refurbishment. Its home for the next few months will be RailCare at Wolverton. The aircraft will share a spot close by to the Royal Train which was not only built but now also resides at the works.

Here local children from The Radcliffe School, Wolverton and RailCare apprentices will undertake the project which will hopefully also include a bespoke trailer for transportation of the finished aircraft.  

John Marshall, Director of Astrasim Expo Ltd welcomed the opportunity for young people to get involved in this engineering project. “Engineering in the UK as we all know is suffering at this time. Britain needs young people to come through the system and keep this country as one of the world’s leading players in development and research”.  

John who is also Vice Chairman of (YES) Youth & Education Support went on to say “This project will give people involved a taste of engineering and the processes required. It is vital that we maintain education on this level, and of this nature, our aim is to develop other projects in the future to allow all an opportunity to go forward within this sector of industry”.

The Piper Warrior is a very popular aircraft amongst pilots, and ideal for learning, it is also used extensively at airfields around the UK being either privately owned or club.

The cockpit, which was originally from the Netherlands, unfortunately has no historic documentation as to when it flew or where it was based.

If the work goes to plan the aircraft should be unveiled at Xtreme Simulation Weekend on October 22nd & 23rd at RAF Cosford, where the show will do a live link up with a similar simulator show in Sydney Australia. For full details see:-

http://www.astrasimexpo.co.uk

Credit: John Marshall and Andre Faehndrich (Chairman YES – Youth & Education Support – www.flyers.org.uk) working together with Community Action:MK (http://www.communityactionmk.org/).

Thursday 5th May 2011, RailCare Wolverton

John Marshall and myself met at the RailCare Wolverton works, where we were introduced to the RailCare Training Officer Gerald Digby, and after a site induction, we proceeded to where the PA-28 cockpit is being housed, in its own project area, where we met apprentice Project Co-Ordinator Rory Price. Rory (20) had already split out all the parts and components that had been delivered to Wolverton a few weeks earlier.

When Radcliffe School’s Stuart Rennie arrived, he had with him the 3 intrepid youngsters who will have the pleasure of working under Rory’s supervision every Thursday for the next few months, while the cockpit section is refurbished and made ready for its debut at RAF Cosford in October.

Panel Oheneampong (15), Brian Ringrose (14) and Brandon Street (13) took to the task at hand with gusto and were very keen to get on with the work.

We will have regular updates as work on the cockpit refurbishment progresses over the next few months.

Andre Faehndrich