10 SepA very windy day! First thing up was to check a few levels, and retighten things, before a walkaround to make sure everything on WR963 was in order. A few bits need attention, mainly a couple of dzus fasteners are past their best - and the hydraulic hand pump in the stbd undercarraige bay needed securing. The trolley acc batteries were all showing good charge (28V) which means they are working well. We replaced these recently with modern sealed lead acid types, and it was well worth the investment. We're now looking at finding an equivalent for the onboard batteries as they are getting tired and regularly need charging.
Then it was time to move some fencing! Nimrod XV232 was due to engine run at 12pm, so we were drafted in to help keep the public at a safe distance. There were fairly large numbers of people around with this weekend being part of Coventry Heritage Open Days, and AIRBASE being one of the places on the tour.
It was nice to see the Nimrod come back to life, even if she was a bit grumpy... the hard work by the engineers over the past weeks paying off with engines running, albeit briefly. I couldn't help but think about being stood in the same spot with friends, watching her make her last landing.
Following the Nimrod's efforts, it was agin time to move some fencing... as we had to keep people away from the props! Once that was done, it was all aboard and start the engines. As is customary, we grabbed a couple of unsuspecting visitors to come aboard and enjoy it...
This time we managed to grab a gentleman who was a pilot on Coastal Command Wellingtons and Liberators during the war! Now in his 90's, he still flies, and was pleased as punch to be sat in '963 (over both spars... well done sir!) with the Griffons growling away. He has said he will come back - and I sincerely hope he does.
All too soon it was time to be silent... and a very happy bunch of people climbed out. The servicing over the past month paid off - no snags, no leaks, no fuss.
This week we get to run WR963 twice more. 15th, and 17th. She's getting plenty of exercise!
3 OctWell, the run on 17th September went well, with the exception of losing part of the outboard exhaust pipe on No 4 engine. I didn't get any photo's as I was manning the engineers panel; but a visitor of ours got a couple which I found over at fightercontrol.
www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&p=265815Working on the principle of I broke it, I fix it - a new item was found from the store and cleaned of its protective coating. We've checked the others as this failed along the welded seam, so it was obviously cracked, then the last run finished it off.
New replacement, it was still in a sealed bag.
Replacement means getting the exhaust cover off. There's a slip joint for expansion, and a yoke to hold the pipe.
The slip joint is held by two large nuts, and locked with splitpins. The yoke has a similar set up but had to be 'persuaded' to part company with the exhaust.
New one on...
Job done!
While I was busy getting exhaust soot all over myself and anybody else nearby, the rest of the guys were hard at work too. No 3 engine is having its inlet ignition harnesses checked to try and cure a slight mag drop. Don and Tony took on this task, with Don teaching the rest of us as to how the system works.
You can also see Vic Marriot here up on the nose, doing the last bit of sealing. Vic is the man responsible for eradicating a lot of the water leaks, and is one of the guys on our team that seems to thrive on a hard task. I've never yet found something he can't handle.
Roger, our electrician has been working inside the aircraft renewing parts of the intercom system. There was some annoying feedback which made communication difficult, and the port beam postion wouldn't let you speak on the intercom. It now works correctly, and has been tested thoroughly.
Organisation of the hangar time next year is in progress, with undercarraige and brake components being tracked down, and all the relevant manuals being organised. We've also been looking through the hundreds of drawings to see whether we can do something about those bomb doors now the quiet season is approaching.
No news on our prop yet, we're still in the queue for CFS to do their bit.
07 OctOccasionally even a bad day can turn into a good one.
Feeling rather under the weather, I decided to spend today in our archive rather than working on the aircraft herself. Moving boxes of drawings, manuals, and paperwork is a way to while away a good few hours, as I get easily distracted by engineering diagrams and wanting to find out what makes the old bomber do what she does (and why!)
The archive is an amazing place... wall to wall with bundles of original Avro blueprints - some of which are 6ft x 4ft or larger when unfolded! AP's covering all aspects of the aircraft, parts schedules - you name it. Even the MOTU training books, lessons, wall posters, and a bunch of weight and balance calculations for the last six Shackletons in service. Some of this stuff really ought to be where the public can see it rather than in a locked room.
I was already enjoying some of the reading material I'd found, when on shifting some filing cabinets I came across a document wallet; the contents of which left me sitting there after reading it feeling rather stunned.
I had in my hand today a copy of the agreement between British Aerospace and the Shackleton Preservation Trust detailing the purchase of all rights and titles to the drawings and design of the aircraft type "Avro Shackleton", and of the purchase of the drawings themselves...
9th OctToday we had a meeting of the "Friends of WR963" which is the little supporters club for the aircraft, which ended with an engine run for all present. We could only run the outboard engines due to the ignition harness issue on No 3.
The lack of serviceable harnesses meant we were going to have to get into rebuilding a couple from scratch, or rob a couple off a spare engine in our store. Then John Cubberley surprised us all today by walking in with four bags in his hand - each bag containing a brand new tagged harness!
The intercom work by our electrician, Roger White has made such a difference. Loud and clear with no feedback, absolutely wonderful. While the roar of Griffons is very nice, it helps if all involved in making the noise can hear each other!
The recent change in weather gave us chance to recheck the cockpit for any leaks - bar a few dribbles around the lower corners of the direct vision windows, the canopy is now leak free. Next on Vic's list is the gunners/observers station and the beam windows as they still have issues.
We had a brief meeting with a guy from across the field at CFS and he should be sorting the propeller testing out this coming week.... I have to say I'm a little cynical here so I'm not counting any unprocessed KFC before I see things happen. He had a quick look at the prop blades and hubs and believed they should be okay (being bagged and unused since overhaul) but agrees checking them is the safe and only thing to do before using them.
The rear starboard hydraulic ram in the bomb bay is still weeping so that is going to have to be changed out for a rebuilt item. It is not a problem as its fairly easy to get to and WR963 is about ready for her hydraulics to get some attention. We'll be checking the filters and bleeding the whole system off to get rid of a couple of moans and groans she has picked up.
Upcoming winter work -
If I get chance I'm going to organise the first steps to sorting the doors out into long configuration. We need a nice winter task to carry us through until the hangar time in March, and that would fit nicely.
We're also chasing down leads regarding Boulton Paul N front turrets, and Bristol B.17 mid uppers; though these are likely to take a while to come to anything. We still hope in the future we can give WR963 some teeth!
15th OctWell today we had a good day. A decent turn out and nice weather all good for fitting new parts. I'll apologise now for the state of the photos, I had to resort to the back up camera. First job of the day was to start by doing a spot of light greasing round and checking of levels, and all appears to be well there. We have been in the store and have the new bomb bay ram ready to fit, but we think there's a couple of other weeps that need looking at so we only want to break the system open once if we can, so the AP's are being studied before we tackle this task. The various points that are used to bleed the system have been cleaned and oiled in readiness to hopefully make the task a little easier.
Roger White was back chasing intercom gremlins - being unsatisfied with the response he had got from a few of the outputs around the engineers station (I'm not guilty - when have any of you known me be quiet?!) By the end of the day after swapping a couple of the intercom boxes out it appears to be working well.
They were a devil to get to though, with Roger having several of them under maintenance at once. Roger had a chap working with him named Steve who used to be part of the team many years ago before moving out of the UK. He is still very knowledgeable and was able to coax 963 into doing something we haven't in a while... he managed to persuade the radio into life! 963 managed to talk to Coventry Airport for the first time in a few years which was great - usually we're working off a handheld item or by proxy through Classic Flight.
Steve took time to chat during the day, with a couple of stories coming to light about VP293 (the T4 ex-Strathallen) and its adventures at Farnborough. Apparently the aircraft had a peculiarity - which was every so often it would shake slightly, then resume normal flight. When investigated, it was found that a particularly hard landing had distorted the airframe slightly which caused the aerodynamics to be a bit 'off'!
And of course, I had to ask about how it came to be known as "Zebedee"... the answer? Well, Steve insisted it was not the aircrafts fault! The famed bounce was supposedly a certain pilot who was reputed to have similar difficulties with landing a Handley Page Hastings.
Main effort of today was to get started fitting these:
Brand new (back in 1989!) ignition harnesses, ready to go on No 3 engine.
The harnesses are now on, with all the plugs removed for cleaning. On the inlet side, the left harness feeds to the right bank and vice versa. The inlets are a pain to get to.
I'll take comparison shots next week, showing the harnesses in place. This is by no means the end of the ignition saga, as we're starting getting information (from Roush Aviation and a couple of other places) regarding the use of automotive style plugs in our engines. It would help with low speed running as they're less susceptible to fouling, make servicing slightly easier, and cost a hell of a lot less for new plugs.
That about brings you all up to date!
Kind regards,
Rich