Hello All,
Although many may be familiar, it was once an icon of our military airborne defence, the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod was the UK’s maritime patrol aircraft for the RAF. Engaging in anti-submarine warfare, airborne reconnaissance, and search and rescue operations until its retirement in 2011. I am writing on behalf of a small charity based in East Yorkshire (who have been waiting for a couple of weeks for their forum registration to be approved, which hasn’t happened yet) which has taken the challenge to restore the primary Nimrod MR2 flight simulator which undoubtedly trained numerous Nimrod crew over its many decades in operation.
The cockpit was stripped of its avionics and flight equipment by the RAF prior to its disposal, but importantly it was saved from being turned into scrap by a matter of just hours. Since the aircraft was acquired the charity have managed to successfully find the majority of spares needed to restore the cockpit back to its former glory.
We have decided to document the restoration here so many can follow its progress, and also if we need any information we can call upon some of you here who I know are ex Nimrod.
I have attached a photo of the aircraft ‘in service’ and a photo of the cockpit so far. We will endeavor to keep you all updated as things progress.
Thanks for your support!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]254819[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]254820[/ATTACH]
By: TonyT - 7th August 2017 at 02:06
They don’t unscrew do they? short of that do they have a small Allen key grub screw in the side of them?
good job guys and well informative posts
By: THEAPF - 6th August 2017 at 23:55
Next update comes after almost reaching the end of the removal process.
The cockpit is looking pretty bare now, but everything is now ready to be cleaned, lubricated and reinstalled, some of which hasn’t seen its rightful place since it’s RAF service days. We have lots of switches to de-rust so out comes the vinegar and the wirewool and already they’re coming out looking like new.
Now the cockpit is empty we turned our attention to the outer shell paint job, which due to it’s time outside previously has not done the cockpit any good, particularly as the simulator shell is made from wood. We have stripped back the paint and will begin sanding and re-tacking some of the ply shell pieces back in position. Once this is done we can start applying filler and a primer coat. Before that happens we want to get all the dirty and dusty work out the way, so we will soon begin a thorough deep clean of the cockpit whilst everything is removed, it will then be covered so no more dirt and dust can get access to the cockpit whilst we slowly begin reassembling this 3D jigsaw.
P.S We still haven’t heard any solutions to the removal of the control knobs shown in our previous post, this is preventing the removal of the last 2 panels in the cockpit, so if anyone can offer advice it would be greatly appreciated.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]255196[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]255197[/ATTACH]
By: THEAPF - 25th July 2017 at 11:02
Thanks to Geremy for the previous update, we will now post the latest news on the project.
We have now completely removed all panels that were left in the cockpit, although there were not many to start with, all the panels need cleaning and whilst the cockpit is looking bare it can be deep cleaned itself! The training simulator differs slightly in that the outer skin is timber plywood, of course when it service the outside nose section was seldom seen due to the visuals screen.
We will shortly be sheeting and sealing off the cockpit internally from the back and plugging any gaps to allow it to be cleaned without dirt and dust finding its way back into the cockpit and onto the components.
As we mentioned earlier, all the panels have been removed for cleaning and restoring, apart from two! See photos below, we are having difficulty removing the panels due to the handles being larger than the panels behind, these are: The panel behind the rudder, aileron and elevator levers on the centre overhead section, and the panel behind the fuel supply levers on the engineers panel.
If anyone knows how these knobs remove in order for the face panel to be removed this would be really helpful information!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]254953[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]254954[/ATTACH]
Sign In
July 20, 2017 at 4:22 pm