Hello All!
I’ve been a long time stalker of this forum, and have finally decided to take the jump and get stuck in!
I’ll just give you a little bit about me…..I’m a Second Year Aeronautical Engineering degree student at the University of Bristol, and have been in love with aviation since I can clearly remember!. It started off with a slight interest, and then the bug grew. Starting with the standard “I want to be a fighter pilot” phase, I joined the Air Cadets for a while, but then realised that I could get much more flying with the local Gliding Club (more youngsters do need to join the sport, its really not as expensive as most people think). I spent a couple of seasons flying there once I became solo, and found my soaring abilities were very much by luck and not judgement. But during this time I found that my interest in aviation went beyond the flying, and went deep into the mechanics and “How it all works”. Thus I find myself where I am today, packing up to go back to uni and to a life of stress/strain and loading calculations, and equations that just don’t make sense (to me anyway).
Anyway after that rather over zealous introduction, my love of aviation was sparked by vintage aviation, and that is what has kept it lit. It’s a mixture of the stories, the design, and the beauty and power of the aircraft. And this lead me to start asking around warbird operators whether it would be at all possible to spend a week or so with them outside term time, to give me a bit of hands on experience (and a legitimate excuse to get all nerdy and excited by the aircraft). This was also boosted by chatting to one of the TFC chaps at the Duxford September Airshow.
Unfortunately, I’ve not been very successful. It’s either been no response, or a polite ‘we can’t help’. Now I can fully understand this, as many of these operators aren’t very big, or fill up their free space with School-age students (which to me is a great idea, as it gives people the ‘bug’ early, which is needed to keep the wheels turning!). So I thought I would take the chance and just see whether any of you have any ideas I could try, just to see whether I might be able to get my foot in the door. If I lived closed to Duxford, naturally volunteering would be what I’d go for, but unfortunately down here in Sussex we are a little sparse for warbirds or vintage aircraft (as far as I am aware!)
Well many thanks for taking your time to read this post (it’s turned out much longer than I was intending).
And once again, thanks to this forum for allowing me to spend hours of time on the internet!
Cheers in advance,
Josh
By: jhoole94 - 21st September 2013 at 18:55
What a response there power&passion! Sorry for taking a while to get back, only just got settled back in at Bristol. I’ll drop you a PM tomorrow once I’ve finished unpacking! Your post very much reflects what my view is, from needing to study the past for the future. The great thing so far on the course is that we’ve studied old an new. ‘Proper’ technical drawing, and CAD along with interfacing between the two took up a fair while of my time last year!
Thanks all once again.
By: John Green - 21st September 2013 at 15:31
power&passion
What a brilliantly helpful, informative and incisive comment. Energetic and enthusiastic. If that doesn’t inspire Josh or anyone else, I’m a rancid mango !
By: Bluebird Mike - 21st September 2013 at 09:53
If you weren’t so far away, you could walk through the door of The Barracuda Project today and be given something to do!
By: powerandpassion - 21st September 2013 at 05:34
Welcome
[QUOTE=jhoole94;2067608]Hello All!
I’ve been a long time stalker of this forum, and have finally decided to take the jump and get stuck in!
Josh, a great post and fantastic to see your energy getting injected into historic aviation.
Like an old fashioned painter patiently copying an old master in a gallery to learn the art there are some mind numbingly boring things that you could do that might position you for the future :
1. Metallurgy.
Most historical aircraft performance development was driven by developments in metallurgy – stronger alloys to contain and direct more engine horsepower and lightweight airframe structures. You would find heat treatment shops and metal casting surprised and grateful to have interested labour in the shop. Rather than free work experience you might get paid to schlep in these environments but you will end up knowing more than most in historic aviation about what makes things work. Your career will develop at a time when replicas, by intent or the circumstance of originals shedding corroded DNA – airframes and engines- will constitute the only safe way for historic aviation to be in the sky. A good practical knowledge of metallurgy will allow you to navigate through future technical challenges. From my reading of aviation literature from 1918 – 1950, the dynamic metals industry always worked closely with aeroplane and engine designers to propose new possibilities and interpretations of aviation theory. The same dynamic will be necessary for reverse engineering antique components in the future.
2. CAD drafting.
The more fluent you are with something like solid works the more fluently you will merge into the industry. No doubt this is part of your course, but it will end up being more useful to you over future decades than anything else. To have a conversation and then output a technical drawing from it is an unsurpassed asset. You could thoroughly blow away crusty old types by showing them how to reverse engineer and rapid prototype casting molds for parts using 3D scanning, CAD software and stereo laser lithography or rapidly evolving 3D printers. To avoid egg on your face, your previous experience in a casting shop would make you understanding shrinkage factors in metal and what a useable casting pattern looks like.
3. Preservation of technical drawings.
The mind numbing task ordering boxes of old technical drawings, passing bits of paper through a scanner, labelling and indexing files is something you could do immediately that will be useful for decades to come. Both museums and collectors have boxes of stuff that will be ‘sorted some day’ but ends up inaccessible or lost. In performing this task you will find doors will open for you, but more importantly you will gain an understanding of a complete aircraft bolt by bolt and absorb by osmosis design philosophies and thought processes that put you in the mind of Geoffrey DeHavilland or Barnwell or Pollard who are the folk you really need to get to know. Do article searches on these type of names or the names on drawings you find on the Flight Global database and you will enjoy some of the greatest conversations across time, that will also inform your skills navigating through modern engineering problems in your day job. Get infected with their spirit and you will help sort out space tourism, sentient drones the size of a bee and maybe segue 1920’s aeroplane brake concepts into lightweight polymer electric vehicles.
4. Be generous. Be the opposite of everything that frustrates you. Don’t give up.
Hey, I have a job for you ! I am in Australia. I need someone in the UK to organise, collate and scan thousands of antique aviation drawings. Something to do during a semester break. It might take a few years, a few odd weeks per year. You need to walk in with a large flatbed scanner and scan. You need to be ‘in love’ with what you are scanning because otherwise the job is like breaking stones in a prison. If you are not in love with it, your curiosity will not drive you to ‘go the extra mile’ and unearth things that less excited folk say ‘don’t exist’ as code for ‘ I can’t be bothered’. It is amazing what is out there, it just needs a good digger. I will pay you a fish and chip shop holiday wage to do this, $20 Australian dollars per hour. You set up an Australian bank account under your control, email timesheets and I will pay into the Australian account. Timesheets don’t include travel time on the bus, and if you really amortized total time it’s better to get work in a garment shop in the subcontinent…there is a limited budget and this is really learning for you ! The reason for setting up an Australian account is that it works administratively here (business deduction) and that it will force you one day to come to Australia, spend the money, try and drown at a beach, get bitten by something, lager up and have a good time. Am I selling this to you ? PM for more.
By: jhoole94 - 20th September 2013 at 23:14
Thank you everybody for warm welcome and some great ideas!
Once I’m set up again back in Bristol, I’ll begin sending the feelers out again. And quite honestly, the chance to get up close and personal with anything aviation related would be ideal!
Many thanks all once again, and I hope I become a more regular face on this forum!
Josh
By: boguing - 20th September 2013 at 21:46
Gatwick Aviation Museum was actively looking for volunteers. No WWII but have a look at the website to see what they do have from just after, and plenty of interesting stuff needs doing.
The people that I met were very friendly and more than a little experienced, and will probably be able to show you classic examples of ‘what the designer didn’t think through!’. I’m pretty sure that you’d get as much out of it as you put in.
By: ZRX61 - 20th September 2013 at 20:04
Thorney Island maybe?
By: Clint Mitchell - 20th September 2013 at 19:07
What about trying M.A.P.S. Medway Aviation Preservation Society at Rochester Airport?
By: Mr Merry - 20th September 2013 at 19:05
Josh, don’t give up. Try general aviation first.
I stated that way looking after Pipers etc and then going onto Tiger Moths, Cubs.
Volunteer as much as you can, Sussex isn’t like it’s in the back of beyond.
I’m now volunteering at ARC in North Yorkshire, a bit more remote than Sussex:)
By: 8674planes - 20th September 2013 at 19:04
Have you tried Retrotec Limited? They have restored quite a few airframes for vintage aircraft operators and they are based in East Sussex. You could drop them an email or call them to see if they are interested in new engineers .http://www.retrotec-ltd.co.uk/contact/
By: John Green - 20th September 2013 at 18:27
Josh,
Try an approach to Airframe Industries (Steve Vizard’s the boss) on the Isle of Wight.
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September 20, 2013 at 5:38 pm