August 10, 2013 at 12:24 pm
Hi everyone
Thought this may be of interest to you from our event today. As you may know our restoration volunteer group have been having regular working bees on the DC-3 at the Moorabbin Air Museum (Melbourne, Australia) and today’s event had a couple of special events.
The first one being : In a suprise move, Ash decided to see if the engines would turn over. They had not been turned over since 1992. Both still had fuel, port side required a bit of oil, but starboard was ok.
They turned over first time 😎 Took some phone video of course – links here –
Port Engine http://youtu.be/LQjlA5a9W0Y
Starboard Engine http://youtu.be/1yDDxxSjNEg
No sudden roaring into life, but there’s certainly life in the old girl just yet ! All the internal lights went on (including hostess lights !) and nav lights worked. Awesome result
The other thing of significance was that we had 92 year old Don Tombs attend. He was an apprentice at Gloster Aviation (or is that Aircraft) in the UK in the 1930’s and had many stories to share, not to mention he was well and truly enjoying the day out. To cap it off, event co-ordinator Ash Briggs suggested he may like to help rivet one of the windows – and he jumped at the chance. And I must say he did a mighty fine job too – Don, we were honoured to have you with us today, thank you 🙂
Cheers
Ewan
Warbird Restoration Services
https://www.facebook.com/WarbirdRestorationServices
By: Bellarine - 11th August 2013 at 07:20
Finally got a good set of pics uploaded to our Facebook page – 50 in all !
Heres the link – WRS DC3 Working Bee
By: D1566 - 11th August 2013 at 06:55
What a great day all round 🙂
By: Desoto - 11th August 2013 at 06:50
Don started at Glosters in 1937. Starting on Gladiators and continuing onto Hurricanes before being transferred into the drawing office in 1942. So to be able to get Don back onto the tools and drive a few rivets is something I consider to be a real honour for me. These are the special moments which make being involved in aircraft restoration so great.
Cheers,
Ashley.