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I think there should be a lot more care and responsibility taken on this problem.Primarily we are talking about the pilots life being at risk ,secondly the effects if the aircraft came down in the event of an in flight failure , and thirdly the demise of the aircraft itself.I know that the only way to keep an aircraft reasonably safe is to keep it in a museum ,but that is not the choice of the RNHF or many other owners (not what i would choose either for that matter)so the answer is to make the engine reliable,the Centaurus should be a reliable engine,but if they can’t even assemble it correctly there is no chance of it being reliable.
Trouble is many establishments can now only use companies who are on ‘their’ approved lists of suppliers,or companies that are for instance –
ISO 9002 or A8-20 registered etc, (awash with QA/QC and all the other bulls**t that goes with it) this is not always the best way to go in my experience,especially if the job in question is specialized or in this case almost unique.

Steve

It seems that those engineers who are responsible for the Centaurus in VR 930 (is it Ricardo’s) have made some very basic mistakes during the reassembly of the engine

If it is Ricardo’s, then that would explain a lot…….sheez, why on earth did RHNF get an automotive engineering company to rebuild a Centaurus… 😮

They may have a fabulous reputation as automotive engineering designers/consultants etc but that’s a bit different from something such as a hands on rebuild of a Centaurus for an airworthy aircraft, I’m surprised they are certified to do it.. :confused:

I used to know someone who worked at Ricardo’s (this was about 10-15 years ago) and back then he said they were trading on past reputation rather than on current ability…. 😮

Regarding the Centaurus for VR930 after 3 re-builds you would of thought the
company involved would of got their act together by now, why dont they have a look at the guy doing TFCs Centaurus perhaps he could look at that their one and point them in the right direction.

Any Offers ???

Does anybody on this forum, have any latest pictures of the RNHF Aircraft under maintenance i.e. Swordfishes, Seafury, Seahawk e.t.c

Regards

Eddie Winch

This Centaurus engine had already been rebuilt three times before this latest setback!

Hi Steve,that gent is correct,every one of the sleeve drive gears has a timing mark as do all the idler gears.There may be a difference in timing marks between front & rear rows but if you have the maint & overhaul manual the timing procedure is laid out for you.I feel for RNHF,the removal & teardown again must be a source of total frustration.Maybe the front & rear sleeves have been mixed as they are also different,cheers,Pete

Re : VR 930

Bad news i’m afraid,

Enquired about servieability of the Sea Fury at Legends yesterday whilst at the RNHF stall,
It seems that those engineers who are responsible for the Centaurus in VR 930 (is it Ricardo’s) have made some very basic mistakes during the reassembly of the engine,
apparently three of the cylinder sleeves are timed so that they are out of sequence with the firing order,(these cylinders are on the exhaust stroke when the ingnition fires,the result of this is that the engine has to come out of the aircraft and be rebuilt yet again.
The time frame for this is unknown,but the guys an the stand were not optimistic about seeing her in action this year.
If it was my aircraft i think i would be looking for someone else to over haul it,
i think the people they have been using need to have a look at their procedures in the light of their performance with this engine.
according to the older gentleman on the stall,in his experience all the moving parts have alignment marks and it is easier to overhaul than a Merlin (subject to parts obviously)although i think i’m not convinced having seen one sectioned.

Steve

Elvington could be WV908’s debut!

Would be nice – especially as the show has had one or two unfortunate cancellations up-to-press (Canberra and Hind in particular).

Elvington could be WV908’s debut!

Sea Hawk has been confirmed for Elvington, Sea Fury is still in question. I wish them all the best of luck too, there was a time when the BBMF and the RNHF were the only warbirds we ever saw ‘up north’… happy memories.

Slight error dodrums, TF956 was in fact lost in 1989 at Prestwick

Stringbag, you are of course correct, there was a similar discussion a couple of months ago, but the brain is getting addled now.

mike

The Sea Hawk last flew back in 97 so it will be nice to get it back again.

They have had it ground running a few times in the last few months with all systems working very well 🙂

Thanks for that info I knew it had been a while but didn’t know it was that long

Last few months? It was noted running its engine today 🙂 😀
It has started the last leg of the journey to get back in the air.
Congratulations to the BAE-Systems and RNHF team.

mike

The Sea Hawk last flew back in 97 so it will be nice to get it back again.

They have had it ground running a few times in the last few months with all systems working very well 🙂

Slight error dodrums, TF956 was in fact lost in 1989 at Prestwick, when its undercarriage hydraulics decided to go u/s of course 🙁
The T20 was lost just over a year later, thankfully without any fatalities.

The Sea Hawk was grounded in 1997 Mike.

the last Sea Fury i saw in flight was at Prestwick in 89, unfortunately memorable for the wrong reasons.

Never seen a Sea Hawk in flight so am looking forward to that whenever it is. They will both be ready when they’re ready, but fingers crossed.

edited to correct year

I’m obviously not the only one looking forward to seeing the Sea Hawk in the air again, how long has it been now? all I know is it is far longer than I would have liked but hopefully she’ll be ready to go again soon

Leuchars and indeed Yeovilton the following week are doubtful for the Sea Fury.
The Sea Hawk should be at both though 🙂

Just noticed that the Sea Fury and Sea Hawk have been added to the ever changing list of anticipated flyers at Leuchars on Sep 11th

Lets hope they don’t change that list too much in the future. :rolleyes:
Fingers crossed!

J.V.