MEET THE MEMBERS

A fourth to reckon with…

This month we chat to Andy Phillips, an enthusiastic RV builder and flyer, who is on his fourth build. He is also the man behind fuel system component company, Andair Limited…

Welcome Andy, can you tell us something about your career?

My current day job is that I’m building another RV, my fourth, an RV-7, but I still go into work at Andair on a sort of part-time basis. I help with inspecting finished parts ready to go to the customer, but more on that later.

As for schooling I went to Courtmoor Secondary school at Fleet in Hampshire. All I really wanted to do was to play cricket, plus build and fly model aeroplanes, but I was also active in our school youth club where we took over the woodworking shop in the evenings to make a PBK canoe – a plywood frame and spruce stringers with canvas stretched over it.

I left school at 15 and applied to The Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough to become a toolmaker. Above Andy Phillips in his Van’s RV-7, his third RV build, at the LAA Rally in 2015 They offered me a craft apprenticeship and I became one of the 1962 intake, which was the start of six years of a fantastic education.

I was very interested in instrument making and had been making parts for radar etc. when my apprentice supervisor entered me in the Establishment competition to make a test piece to a drawing, and much to my surprise I won. They then sent me to the British Apprentice competition, which I managed to win as well, so they decided I should go to Utrecht in Holland to compete in the International Apprentice Competition, where I came third.

When I returned home, I was presented with a gold watch and interviewed on the radio. And to round things off, when the Queen and Prince Philip came to Farnborough to open part of what was then the new Concorde building, I was presented to them. It was a real honour!

Farnborough must have been a very interesting place to be in the 1960s

Yes, it was, and being there for the Farnborough Air Show was a yearly spectacle. One event that stands out in my mind was six, or maybe eight, English Electric Lightnings. Their show started with them in a row one behind the other roaring down the runway and then climbing vertically, as the last one in the procession started his climb you could see all eight in plan-view, top to bottom, what a racket – or should I say rocket – it must have been like sitting on a firework!

Another memory is that because we were testing parts for Concorde, we had a Vulcan bomber to play with to test the Olympus engines. The Vulcan had four Conway engines and I can remember it doing a fly-by using its Conways; then lighting up the one underslung Olympus and switching off the Conways and climbing away on the one engine!

As apprentices, we would be moved from place to place and one interesting task we got up to was to remake Cody’s memorial tree. On the main entrance to the Establishment there is a twisted leafless tree. We apprentices remade it in the foundry, casting each branch individually and bolting it all together.

One of my details was working in a small outpost close to the ejector seat gantry, this gantry was as high as a dock crane and laid over at about five degrees. I had been working in my little shop for a week or so when a group of guys turned up and busied themselves preparing the ejector seat for test – not to test the seat but the metal of the poor guy who was to sit in it. A mighty explosion sent the poor chap rocketing up the gantry, it was all over in a blink of an eye.

He was then sitting up there for quite a while till they winched him down – next please!

I believe you met Sir Barnes Wallis?

Yes, after leaving the RAE I worked at Farnborough Tech College as a technician, really to get some help to pass some exams which made it possible to apply for a job at BAC Weybridge. I was very lucky as I got on a design course in a new R&D department working under some very special people, one being Sir Barnes Wallis. I was one of 10 guys selected to help lay out designs for a number of very interesting projects, from swing wing fighters to clearing ice off fishing trawlers.

I had so much fun at BACs, it was a real privilege being in the design school, I can’t remember exactly but I think it was the BAC One-Eleven that I helped loft out the cockpit. This was great fun as we had the whole upper part of a gigantic hanger where we could lay out the cockpit shape. We used what were called ‘mouse and splines’. The mouse looked like a heavy mouse body with a little ‘beak’ and the spline was a long thin piece of spruce or similar, and the beak would hold down the spline as you positioned it to draw your shape.

Above left

Developing ice removal systems for ships in the RAE Stratosphere Chamber.

Above right Being presented to the Queen for international success in an Apprentice Competition.

Below Andy in his days at BAC Weybridge, where he worked under Sir Barnes Wallis.

What made you decide to start Andair?

I started my engineering company in 1972 with a Myford Lathe and a pillar drill. I would take anything on, and at one stage I was making parts for a nuclear submarine on the Myford. Gradually the business expanded, and we got a factory and filled it with CNC machines. I had learned to fly at Goodwood about the same time, but of course ran out of money. The next best thing was to learn to glide so I joined Lee-on-Solent naval gliding club as a civilian. I was expected to earn my position, so I made gliding trailers and generally helped out to keep my membership. Gliding is great and I think it should be a compulsory part of learning to fly. Going up the wire and experiencing a cable break you have to get the nose down quickly, something that doesn’t seem to get taught well in power flying for engine failure. I was lucky again to gain my Silver ‘C’ and this helped me to get my PPL with only a few hours of power flying back at Goodwood. I had one good year where the company made a profit and, having flown an Auster for nearly 20 years (and that’s another story of real fun and excitement), I wanted something faster. There was nothing much better than the Auster until I saw a good friend of mine, Ray Harper, flying an RV-6. Now, that was the aircraft I wanted, so I phoned Van’s Aircraft to see if I could go out to the States and fly one. This I did and immediately ordered an RV-6. Anyone who builds an RV-6, or four, must be dedicated to the enth degree, as

there are no punched holes and you need to make jigs. In the meantime, the factory was jogging along and we were locked into subcontract work for all manner of industries, from F1 to spray guns, but my true wish was to design and manufacture our own product.

We had tried lots of inventions, from bar feed mechanisms to optical tool setters, all eventually fell by the wayside until on the build of the RV, I had to put the fuel system in. In the kit was a brass (dare I say it) fuel valve, I sat down with Alan, he was our CNC programmer and we started to design a valve that could incorporate features I felt were helpful in the fitting of it, and also a key feature where the fuel cannot be turned off inadvertently, it requires a positive action.

We built up about 10 of these valves and off I went to Sun ‘n’ Fun in Florida to show them off to Aircraft Spruce. I showed the owner, Jim Irwin, who looked at them and said, “Yeah, we might be able to sell them.” So feeling buoyed up I went back to him every day of the show to ask if he had sold any, and of course he had not. Feeling despondent I came home and thought, another one ‘bites the dust’. To my surprise, a couple of weeks went by and I’d a phone call from Jim asking for some more, I just couldn’t believe it, Andair was on its way.

Owen (my son) had been watching from his room at Brunel University itching to get going, but he had to finish his degree, so as soon as that happened, he came on board. New blood and new ideas got the firm really going. We both went out to the States to see Cirrus Design, which was a pivotal moment in Andair’s future as they were designing the SR20 aeroplane. It was part of a project called ‘Highway in the Sky’ both Cirrus and PAC (the Pacific Aircraft Corporation) were involved in this project. We visited Cirrus and sat down with the designers and again were very lucky to be considered a supplier of the fuel bits and pieces. However, it took about three years to finalise production, but we kept at it as it was a very important move for us into the US market. We have been working with Cirrus for over 25 years now and it’s been one of the most enjoyable partnerships.

Above Andair fuel system components have become an industry standard in light aircraft around the world.

Below Andy by Lake Constance, having flown to Friedrichshafen from his strip near Southampton in two hours 50 minutes.

Bottom Andy’s much loved Auster for 20 years, G-AXMN.

How have fuel systems developed over the years?

We have been using lightweight materials, like the aluminium alloys, and in some cases 3D printed materials. 3D printing is extremely useful in prototype work where we can draw up a design and it can be printed up so we can ‘get a feel’ for what it would be like in metal.

The strategy of the company is to offer the customer as close as we can to a complete fuel system in that we can supply fuel tank parts, fuel filters, fuel pumps, selector valves and ancillary parts like oil/air separators.

Owen and his team have been working on our own design fuel pumps, and as far as we know we are the only light aircraft fuel pump manufacturer using our own, painstakingly developed, brushless motor technology. We do not use any automotive fuel pumps to power our systems. The spin-off in using our fuel pumps is that they are very lightweight, powerful and draw very little current, making them ideal for light sport type aircraft.

In what, where and when was your first flight?

That’s difficult, we never went on holiday abroad together as a family, remember I was born when the Wright brothers were just getting going, so a holiday flying somewhere would be in a Viscount or Bristol Freighter! I think I caught the bug when I first went solo, to be able to see and go places I could only imagine was the most exciting thing to me. I flew a lot in the ubiquitous C150 at Goodwood and to be able to fly around was fantastic. My first power solo flight was on 3 April 1976 in a Robin HR 200, G-BBCY and my first gliding solo 6 December 1981 in a K7 at Lee-on-Solent. It was no use to me just floating about in the local area, so I looked around for an aeroplane to own, and this is where my dear friends Les and Paul Groves came to the rescue. We heard that there was an Auster in a very sorry state languishing in the back of a hanger over on the Isle of Wight. All the fabric was in poor condition and had been sprayed different colours with successive paint jobs. My offer was accepted, so Les, Paul and I loaded the bits (they were bits) onto a trailer and brought it back to Paul’s workshop.

However, before that I was so excited to show Terry, my wife, we diverted to home where I displayed the project. By this time having travelled across from the island the loose fabric was halfway down the road, it looked awful, and I don’t think it made a great impression on Terry!

How did you hear about the PFA/LAA

I guess I heard about the PFA when I started flying the Auster, I can remember Cranfield and Wroughton rallies, and most of all the people that attended. I must just say a couple of things that really tickled me, one was I think Nigel Hitchman, flying his Cub over us all with a megaphone at 4am asking us politely to WAKE UP!

And one time, when it was pouring with rain, sitting in my tent and hearing voices outside. I looked out and it was a plane spotter, sopping wet, draped in cameras, and speaking the registrations into a tape machine. But the funny part was his bedraggled girlfriend being pulled along behind, I often wondered how long that relationship lasted…

Tell us about the fish and chip run?

Oh! Well, I thought it might be a bit of fun to have a little adventure, so I asked some friends if they would like to come up to the hanger one evening for a fish and chip supper with a little difference. I had flown over to Alderney in my RV a few times with Terry and had meals over there, but there is a fish and chip shop there called The Braye Chippy, it’s by the harbour. I called one of the girls and asked if they could put together 16 fish and chip suppers and the answer came back, yes, no problem. Anyway, once I’d sorted the flight planning and the weather was suitable – it’s best to have a southerly blowing wind – I then phone the girls at the chippy, who all think it’s a ruse when I say I’m flying in from Fareham, but I manage to convince them it’s on.

As a side issue, for pump testing at work we use dry ice and the containers it comes in are perfect for food storage. So off we go, my grandson Toren and me, flightplan filed and underway, weather looks good, get to Top Andy’s RVs are tweaked for maximum performance, no doubt his latest will be even faster than No. 3!

Above Andy in his youthfulness imbibing ‘low flying’ Caterham Super Seven. 50 north and we are set to go into Alderney, all no problem. I had organised a taxi from the airport to the chippy and said could he be there waiting for us, and sure enough there he was, so it’d be a nice little trip to the chippy. Just before I left the tower, I filed for return to the strip and said it was the ‘urgent fish and chip run’, just to put something in their log.

At the chippy in the queue, I poked my head round to say “Hello, I’ve come for my 16 suppers.” Wow, such consternation, one of them said she thought it was a wind up, and they all started running around to get the order ready. I pay up and she throws in freebie ice creams and now the pressure is on to leap into the taxi with our cool boxes and go roaring off to the airport. We got our clearance from Jersey as its Class A airspace, and to my amazement they knew it was the ‘fish and chip run’ so I got a helpful clearance and they said, “Call leaving 50 north, fish and chip run.”

The southerly wind reduced the return trip to about 45 minutes, and I think eight minutes of that was the taxi. A beat up over the field and a great feast ensued, with a beer or two to wash it down.

How many types and hours have you flown?

I’m not one to see how many types I’ve flown. We had a Mooney which I did enjoy but because it was a certified aircraft I couldn’t work on it, and it did need a lot of work. My Auster was my first love, and I could talk about that forever. Just one thing I would say is that I took the kids, Alexis and Owen, down to the Scilly Isles where we set up the tent and had great fun there. Just before leaving, a guy asked if we were going to Richard Webber’s fly-in. I didn’t know Richard, but he said it was near Okehampton and to fly along the A38 till the tarmac changed colour, turn left and his fly-in is in a field there.

We found it and from that day Richard has been a lifelong friend. We have flown all over Eastern Europe and have had wonderful times. Hours flown are at last count 2,400-plus, not a lot for the time I’ve been flying, but it has all been great fun.

Do you have any aviation heroes?

Oh, so many, the heroes I admire are the ones that got us all flying, but heroes is the wrong word. The people who have gone before us, like WWII pilots, are the true heroes. They knew it was their job and they showed no fear, but to go into battle with someone shooting at you must have been terrifying.

Have you had any ‘I learned from that’ moments?

Yes, too many. One springs to mind trying to get back into my airstrip. It was getting late in the day, night was coming on and of course, I’m above cloud and the deck is bright and sunny, so I start to descend through the cloud deck talking to Southampton. What I wanted to do was to get a surveillance radar approach and when I broke cloud, toddle off to my strip as it’s not that far away. However, it was too blinking dark, so I had to continue into Southampton. They were not very pleased as I do not possess an IR, it was a Permit aircraft (it was some while ago this happened), and I did not have a night rating. They weren’t best pleased with me!

What is on your aircraft and vehicle wish list?

Aircraft-wise nothing really. Like most aviators I would like to fly a Spitfire, Terry took me to Biggin Hill for a birthday gift to sit in a Spitfire, it was a coach trip so there were people there who were not really connected in any way with aviation. So there I was in the queue with a guy in his flying suit sitting on the wing explaining to this girl how to get into the cockpit and what all the knobs and buttons were for, totally bored saying the same thing over and over. Then it’s my turn to sit in and he asks me if I have any clue. I say no, not really, I just fly an RV-7, and he suddenly becomes interested and says the magic words ‘the guy who owns this Spit has an RV-7 and he says it flies just like the Spit’. Great I think to myself, I’ve saved myself two and a half grand then!

Cars, I must confess I have a Caterham Super Seven. It’s the RV-7 of the road, in fact our club mag is called Low Flying. I do track days but I’m not a good enough driver to be competitive, even on track days, so I just flash about in it. I was in a traffic jam and the car is very low, and I was close to the pavement when this girl with a little boy hanging on the pushchair said out loud “Hey mummy, look at that old man in that racing car”. It really gives one a boost – not!

Do you have any non-aviation interests?

Yes, I repair old clocks when I get bored with other things. I am also building a three-and-half-inch Alchin traction engine. It is sitting on its wheels on the boiler, smokebox and gearing made, I’ve just got the rest to do. What a lot of work, it’s more difficult than building an aeroplane.

What advice would you offer fellow pilots?

If you’ve got time to spare, go by air. So many accidents are caused by trying to get somewhere when it’s poor weather and you feel time is important. I’ve learned that if the weather’s bad, either don’t go or leave it till tomorrow, or if you are stuck somewhere make the best of it. I have had so much fun after I had to divert to some far-out places. I’ve got really plastered with the locals – aviation people are the best and they help each other, I know as they have helped me many times.

On a very serious subject, our membership is ageing, and we are getting into the area of some pretty horrible illnesses. If we take advantage of the tests available, we might be pleased to find that our health is OK, but it’s only if we push our way to see the right people and our generation have always said, “Oh I didn’t want to trouble you doctor.” Well, trouble them, it could really be worth you asking! ■