Jet Provost XS186

Prep for our public days

Preparations now in full swing for our events in May and June.

Engine / taxy run last week went very well, and we got chance to start putting together a training / demo piece for crew rescue. Not something we ever want our Fire & Rescue team to do for real but you can never be 100%…….
Anyway, after the boys, and girls, in the rescue team got to grips with the intricacies of a JP cockpit, complete with harness release, comms leads with mask, and Mk1a helmet, they did a great job. I feel a lot better having seen what they can do, it makes for a great spectacle and will be part of the shows during May!

Updates and itinerary will be posted during early April on our events page, watch this space!

jetprovostxs186restoration.com

Hi Ritch and Max – good to hear from you, we have plenty of space at both Metheringham and some at Cranwell too (which is a very nice link to your Chipmunk, ok not a jet but the Cranwell guys will get very excited about seeing one of their own!), drop me a line at the above email address and we can provide some more detail etc. Great to have you guys on board!

Paul

Hi Paul

Do you think our ex Cranwell Chipmunk may be of interest as a display? We are collecting for the local Hodgkin’s charity this year.
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Best wishes,
Ritch and Max Blood.

XS186 and a celebration of the anniversary of the first UK jet flight – Metheringham

Hi all

Exciting news – we have been working in conjunction with Cranwell Aviation Heritage Centre, to put on a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first jet flight in the UK.

The event will take place over the weekend of the 14th / 15th May 2016 and both sites, Metheringham Airfield Visitor Centre and Cranwell Heritage Centre, will be marking the occasion with additional activities. We have also managed to keep the event as FREE admission!

Metheringham will have several cockpits joining XS186, as well as static gas turbines, a jet powered car and many retail or activity stalls. We have a ‘still building’ itinerary, including Ian Whittle, son of Frank, opening the event at Metheringham on the Saturday at 10.00am, giving a talk during the morning, and staying on for the first of two taxy runs by XS186 (two runs per day on both days are planned). There will also be demo’s of fire fighting, aircraft crew rescue, working ground equipment, and much more.

Cranwell will be hosting additional jet related displays and displaying early gas turbine memorabilia, as well as providing a rare opportunity to access the ‘Ethos Centre’ which is ‘behind the wire’ at RAF Cranwell!

Visitors who are keen enough to visit both sites can get a ‘visitor card’ stamped at both locations and be automatically entered into a free draw, the winner of which will win a taxy trip in XS186 (at a later date due to training requirements and subject to access restrictions).

We still have the capacity to host more aircraft cockpits or jet related exhibits, or for those who are business minded, plots for aircraft related retail stalls, at £15 per day.

The weekend is looking very promising indeed, and with weather and serviceability on our side it should be a great opportunity to see some real one off activities!

For more details drop me a line at [email]relight9@btinternet.com[/email]

As you say eighty visitors is pretty good all things considered. Will look forward to seeing some photos if anyone has any?!

Rob

Great engine / taxy run last night at Metheringham, XS186 performed well, including a planned ‘wet start’…….Ian, our P1 on the run carrying out a preliminary start without ignition on to give us a bit of excess fuel in the jet-pipe.
All well managed with Lincs Fire and Rescue in full attendance.

The 80 or so visitors, on a cold February evening, had quite a treat!
I’m sure there will be some videos of the run I can post soon, taken by visitors, the crew were all a bit busy……in the meantime, watch the ‘different’ start, for a JP anyway, on the link below:

http://youtu.be/_6DqJdtmfRg

http://jetprovostxs186restoration.com/

OK, we aren’t having the best of January’s………. Metheringham is reminiscent of a WWI scene, walking boards are the only way to cross inches deep mud runs that used to be pathways…… we shouldn’t grumble though, far worse has been endured by others around the country.

XS186 is also fairly un-cooperative at the moment too, our ARC-52 decided to give up after 5 years of good service, but we have some good minds on it, and hope to be back up and fully serviceable by the time we have our next taxy run, which is a ‘dusk run’ on ***** Saturday 13th February *****
Time for the place to dry out a bit……
We can even run without intercom, but semaphore in a cockpit with only red lighting, lots of flashing lights and a fair bit of noise, is not ideal….. we are determined to make it happen though, so if you fancy asking your other half for a pre- Valentines evening out with all of the above, and as much tea and biscuit as you can force down (we’ve got to get rid of all the surplus Christmas biscuit tins that are threatening our January fitness regimes……), why not come along and see a XS186 taxy run up close!

jetprovostxs186restoration.com

XS186

I don’t think this is ‘186 but nevertheless a very evocative photo of a JP in a very similar scheme together with an accompanying David Brown tractor (photographer Unknown).

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Hi Rob

No, definitely not XS186, I think it’s a Cranwell example actually, if that’s a blue band I see on the rear fuselage?

XS186 never served anywhere except RAF Manby, and even then only for four years. We like to think we are giving her another chance to shine seeing as she didn’t get that much of a chance whilst ‘serving’. Her full history, which did have several ups as well as downs, is well described on the ‘History of XS186’ page.

Jetprovostxs186restoration.com

Paul

I don’t think this is ‘186 but nevertheless a very evocative photo of a JP in a very similar scheme together with an accompanying David Brown tractor (photographer Unknown).

Rob[ATTACH=CONFIG]242896[/ATTACH]

XS186

Was indeed.

Thanks Lee, website will be updated within next day or so. A better view of the outcome of your handiwork…..

jetprovostxs186restoration.com

Hi LH – was it the XS186 serials that you drew up (apologies, so many people have helped in so many different ways, I’ve lost track over the years), if you remind me I will ensure you get a thank you on our page!

Was indeed.

Full marks to you guys…1st class

XS186

Are those the markings I drew up for you several years ago? Looks good.

Hi LH – was it the XS186 serials that you drew up (apologies, so many people have helped in so many different ways, I’ve lost track over the years), if you remind me I will ensure you get a thank you on our page!

Exciting news about to be posted on ‘Our Events’ page in the next day or two, our first night run for a while coming up in January, always a very ‘sensory’ experience. Lots of lights and noise!

jetprovostxs186restoration.com

Are those the markings I drew up for you several years ago? Looks good.

Cheers Paul. Done.

Rob

Rob

Best way to keep an eye on dates is to ‘follow’ our website, the ‘our events’ page carries future engine / taxy run dates with about 2-3 weeks notice – we only update the ‘Work Diary’ about once a week and other pages randomly, so you won’t be bombarded by notices.

Paul

Really impressive dedication you guys are showing, I’ll make a note to get over and see your efforts for myself next year.
Are you able to give say a couple of weeks notice of taxi runs?

Rob

Hi Rob
No, we have always been very limited in terms of under cover facilities, though XS186 is almost completely covered with weatherproof / breathable covers when not in use.
These are a great help in many respects i.e. we get virtually no water contamination in the fuel tanks, and our last turbine inspection a couple of weeks ago passed with flying colours, no corrosion found at all. The dayglo is being well protected too, we don’t want to face doing that again for a while……..

We do know however that corrosion can’t be stopped for ever, and almost all steel components have been changed once already, these include several undercarriage parts, jet pipe fittings and even most external inspection panel set screws, which have been replaced with stainless ones.
We see the big problems as wing attachment points and undercarriage mounts / pinions, so in 2016 the undercarriage is coming out for a complete overhaul. We won’t go down without a fight…….

Are you lucky enough to be able to put a roof over her head when she’s not in use?

Rob

XS186

Following our post a few days ago, and a number of follow up enquiries via our website, about various aspects of XS186’s restoration, i thought it worthwhile sharing a few photographs of our normal working environment (though these omit to show the usual gale force winds and driving rain). These hopefully capture some of the hard work and results that go towards keeping this (and no doubt many others) aircraft operating.

Work carried out by groups like the XS186 crew is often over-shadowed by the un-deniably superb restoration work that results in flyable examples of our shared passion all over the world. Nevertheless, we like to think we can make these grounded old ladies turn a few heads on occasion……

As most enquiries via our site have been about the more ‘hands on’ activities we get ourselves embroiled in, a look at our ‘Work Diary’ pages and ‘Thank you’s’ might provide some insight.

http://jetprovostxs186restoration.com/