Update
Hello Folks,
Been a while since our last update so thought I would update you all on the goings on with XL231!
We have been waging war against dry grease nipples and are winning, the flaps, flying controls, airbrakes and undercarriage have all been greased in accordance with the lubricration charts in the A.Ps. Its a long and dirty job!
Our new tug is now finished thanks to the hard work of Museum Volunteer Brian Whatmough. It is now fully functional after a nice service, a lick of paint and just generally a lot of TLC! We needed to move the jet off site for a week or two whilst there was an event on so we hooked the new tug up and moved her out onto the airfield, fortunatly the new tug worked just fine and managed the slight incline to the runway with no issues, we then parked her over in the far corner of the airfield and towed her back the next week.
The newly restored Tug
“Excuse me sir I appear to be being followed”
We have also been restoring another rear crew seat, the last one that needed doing which was the AEO’s seat. Its nearest the door in the cockpit and as such tends to get most of the abuse. We also took the time to re-cover the thigh supports which were looking a wee bit tatty.
The air bottle for inflating the emergency egress cushion in the base of the seat.
Various views of the shiny new paintwork. Seat still has the parachute to be fitted
Most recently we have once again be working on the director horizons, whicha re part of the MFS. The vertical gyros that control the horizons obviously don’t get much movement up and down these days and so they were wandering slightly, not really an issue, but you know us, everything has to be just so!
So we consulted our friendly instruments man and he suggested we make a heath robinson gyro tilting rig and gave them some exercise and that should solve the problem…and it did! The Vertical Gyros are mounted on a tray under the Navigator Radars footrest and are a complete pig to get to! We had a spare comparator unit, which the gyros plug into. This we slotted into the pins on the back of the gyro tray whilst attatching a spare erection switching unit to one gyro at time. The gyros had been unbolted from the tray so that we could give them a proper work out. Pictures below, I have also posted a short video of the gyros working the horizons on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9h84gy8BMg Note the warning flag is showing, this is becasue only one gyro is connected so the comparator unit can’t compare the signals from both gyros!
A Complete Gyro tray. The comparator unit is the box at the back
The “heath robinson” set uo for testing and exercising the gyros
And thats it guys, comments welcome as usual, next fast taxi is in August and next engine run is soon date TBC, will keep you updated.
Cheers
Ollie
Hello Everyone,
Sorry its so long since the last update, been keeping busy though. The past few months have consisted of routine maintenance, a few bits a pieces of extra stuff, but nothing noteworthy.
Today we did our first engine run of 2009, after trying out the museums new tug! It hasnt been painted yet, thats why it looks like a patchwork quilt! It was kindly donated to the museum by teeside airport.
All systems were tested including pressurisation, air conditioning, the RAT scoops (holding down above 51% engine RPM with all 4 alternators on-line) and all hydraulic systems and flying controls were functioned and exercised. All systems were servicable, the engine run-down times were excellent and the jet past the tests with flying colours!
First an overhead view before the runs
Fire Detector tests, here number 4 is being tested hence the illuminated light!
A sequence showing the start-up of Number 1
1 started 2 at 10% HP **** open. JPT just starting to rise
All engines idling
Running up from idle to 65%, which is all we take it up to whilst on the museum site
Engines spooling down. Waiting for them to be below 10% before closing the LP COcks.
No 4 Engine after the run
Pushing back into position after the run
So there you have it. The next public full run is scheduled for the 5th of April, whether it is on the airfield or not has yet to be decided but will mostly depend on whether we can find the £2000 needed to pay for some more fuel!! If it is on the airfield it will be a full bore fast taxi with a chute.
Hope you enjoy the pics!
Ollie
Hi Ross,
Unfortunatly I have no pictures of the system…bar the control panel, which we do have! See outlined item in picture below.
As for the rest of the bits, we know where they were located in the aircraft and have the part numbers, but no idea what they look like!
Its an unfortunate situation!
Cheers
Ollie
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