Now we are well into January things have been a bit quite at Coventry with the Viscount and Heron, does any one have any news on how well the Viscound is doing on its rebuild, and how well the Heron G-AORG is comming along?
Before we know it, the Summer will be here and the Heron needs to be where she belongs back in the air , she has had a very long time at Coventry on this major check with needed spares from far a field?
By: RamboII - 26th January 2008 at 00:01
Re; Heron ‘ORG i have been told two different stories to explain the long-time on overhaul.
First was that DFS have been unable to process the engines as quickly as expected – but it wasn’t explained whether they have found problems or that their work load is high at the moment.
Secondly there has been corrosion found around the windows.Roger Smith.
From previous chats with afew of the guys there I’d say the latter is most true. She was apparently in terrible shape in terms of corrosion, most of which by all accounts had been getting that way for a while….she cann’t have been very well looked after in the past given the few glimpses I have had inside her. To explain the long overhaul I believe her owner’s ran out of money as it was initially apparently only supposed to take afew months but rapidly overran when the corrosion problems arose.
By: Arabella-Cox - 25th January 2008 at 22:46
I posted some pics of the inside of Vicky last year in another thread and she is in great internal condition, i am going to MAM tomorrow so will take some outside pics of Vikky and if i get time post them up tomorrow.
curlyboy
PS who is CM?
By: RPSmith - 25th January 2008 at 22:17
Re; Heron ‘ORG i have been told two different stories to explain the long-time on overhaul.
First was that DFS have been unable to process the engines as quickly as expected – but it wasn’t explained whether they have found problems or that their work load is high at the moment.
Secondly there has been corrosion found around the windows.
Roger Smith.
By: RamboII - 25th January 2008 at 21:53
Moving away from the Viscount and on to the other topic of the origional post Heron G-AORG:rolleyes: . Last time I looked was beginning of this week, lots of banging, 2 guys on the tail surfaces (one in De Havilland overalls interestingly) fitting the rudder, elevators are back on and copious piles of nasty looking old electrical wiring hanging out the cockpit area. the fuselage seems to be a real patch work of colours, varying shades of silver, couple of patches of primer grey and afew more of that green you see on the inside. Saying that the elevators and rudder must have been overhaulled as they looked gleaming and must have had a new fabric covering.
By: Phantom Phixer - 25th January 2008 at 16:41
Did CM as we shall call him never show you his pics? :confused:
By: BlueRobin - 25th January 2008 at 16:37
PP. did you ever get around to doing the press release and when can I see CM’s photos? 😉
By: TEXANTOMCAT - 25th January 2008 at 16:25
you lucky SOD! 🙂
TT
By: Phantom Phixer - 25th January 2008 at 16:20
Was working in the cockpit today and had a rummage behind the main panels. Appears some thoughtful chappie labelled all the wiring that they disconnected from the instruments.
Dont you just love fridays? 😀
By: Phantom Phixer - 25th January 2008 at 09:05
Fair comments Ben and you are of course correct.
Certainly we intend to leave the side wall panels in situ as they have all the switch gear in and its still connected up.
Unfortunately the main three panels have a mixture of original, non original or just plain missing instruments and very very very little is connected. So from a removal point of view we are ok on that one.
Remember she was an instructional airframe and it seems in certain cases the lil tykes that were training on her didnt put things back together as they should have done 🙁
By: TEXANTOMCAT - 24th January 2008 at 12:46
Well Martin if you and Rob will insist on having jobs and family lives as WELL…tsk…:diablo:
You sure about removing the instrument panels mate – thats a BIG job, I’d resist it unless absolutely necessary – if you’re intending to get the engines running there are an awful lot of connections behind the panel to be labelled and reconnected…:eek: 😮 (as we are doing our panel on the Beech at the moment I know – and she’s only got two engines and much fewer systems…:p ) if it were me I might be tempted to leave that to the post-cleaning, reassembly stage and only do it if you absolutely HAVE to…. but tis your airyplane my friend!
TT
By: Phantom Phixer - 24th January 2008 at 12:26
Somebody mention the Viscount? 🙂
Bad weather has meant that not a lot on the outside has been done as yet. But thats the same with most outdoor projects I guess. The big changes there will be when the good weather comes.
Internally a few jobs have been done but as she is not yet open to the public these will not be seen yet. Im presently working on restoring the co-pilots seat which is presently in pieces and stripped back ready for a respray.
I have also restored a pair of jet pipe blanks for the girl and some of the throttle linkages. In the next few weeks the instrument panels are coming out for some restoration work.
The main push has been on putting together an information pack that will enable us to approach companies with a view to getting a sponsor for her reassembly which is planned at somepoint during easter-summer 2008.
If anyone has any leads on potential sponsors for her reassemby please drop me a pm.
We are also negotiating a couple of sponsorship deals for other areas of the restoration which if they come to fruition will be a bonus for the project. Cant say anymore than that at the present time though.
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January 24, 2008 at 12:10 pm