Hi again,
Thought I would post some more pictures from Lindy’s time at Elvington.
4 weeks after last flight on the first taxi run we did, what a mucky old aeroplane she was!
Just before a taxi run after the repaint in 2002
View from the Co-pilots seat with all four running in 2007
Top portion of the fuel control panel
Air Electronic Officers (AEO’s) panel
Top portion of AEOs panel with Hydraulic Pump ammeters, V/UHF 2 Controls HF Controls and AAPP Controls. To the extreme left is the control and indication for the Green Satin Doppler Radar and above that the RWR controls.
After a run in 2000
Lights on at night in 2006
Any questions fire away!
Ollie
Hi All,
As promised some photos of the HDU placed in the bomb bay before installation, after installation and some of the refurbished “skip” and bomb bay panels.
The HDU placed in the bomb bay before lifting
The “skip” after cleaning and refurbishment
Bomb Bay Panels after refurbishment, you can see the large one in the background
Two Views of the HDU installed, but not connected to aircraft services yet.
After the “skip” has been reinstalled and the HDU connected to the aircraft services.
Just some minor tweaks on the aircraft side and the doors to put back on and we will be finished on the HDU side of things!
Ollie
Hi Peter,
No other panels in the cockpit have any corosion on them at all (fortunately!:) ). The only reason those ones did was because of their location in the cockpit and the angle they are mounted at.
As you can see from the picture below, the main panel is fine.
I hope it stays that way! It would be a nightmare to remove!
Ollie
More updates!
Thanks for your kind comments, it is dissapointing not having the airshow this year, but there are some runs planned, out next one is on April the 5th for anyone that is interested.
Continuing the update we decided to refurbish two of the cockpit panels, the Navigator radars main panel and the lighting control panel due to corrosion. They came up very nicely indeed, like new!
The main NAV Radar panel the was removed the last Sunday in November 2006 due to corrosion starting in the magnesium. The panel was a pain to remove mainly due to the fact that we didnt want to remove anything else unless it was absolutely necessary, minimising the risk of damage to components & plug breaks etc. Many grazed & cut fingers were left at the end of it, mainly due to the fact that the panel was overlapped from all sides by other panels& brackets, fortunately they are of Alloy construction and therefore un-corroded.
The panel was then stripped of all components and a bead or vapour blast was muted to clean it back to bare metal, this was deemed too aggressive so submersion in a stripping tank seemed a good alternative. This idea was rejected when a colleague quoted experiences involving a similar process, apparently the item that was submerged ‘dissolved’ rapidly leaving a few alloy & steel fasteners in the tank bottom!! The best option was a repeated soaking with Phosphoric Acid (Alloy wheel cleaner) & a gradual rubbing with fine wet & dry & scotchbrite pads. This had the desired effect and within a day it was bare clean metal with some areas of light pitting, the worst were on the rear of the panel due to the fact the back face collects any damp due to being fitted in the aircraft with a forward slope. Two coats of etch primer were applied followed by two of satin black enamel, this was followed by a clear laquer coat to act as a barrier and finally a further coat of satin black was applied. The panel was then assemled & the rear of the panel was then lightly coated with preservative PX-32 which is similar to Waxoyl.
The panel was refitted in the aircraft without further damage and powered up. Gloom descended when the NBS system refused to work & the Neon indicators refused to light. Fortunately it turned out to be the Normal & Emergency power supply switch was at fault probably due to the fact that it had not been operated from the Normal selection in 13 years and it didnt like being disturbed! Once that was changed the NBS, H2s Radar, & Rad Alt all ran up fine.
Various photos showing the start of the corrosion in the nav panel
The panel being stripped
After primer and final layer of paint
View from the back with wiring looms re-attatched
The Finished article!
It was decided in December 2006 to remove the main external lighting panel. labelled ‘CI’ for refurbishment as it is yet again manufactured from the dreaded Magnesium alloy and was begining to show its age (circa 1972-). It is one of the lesser ‘exiting’ panels in the cockpit (located on the starboard side next to the Navigator below the porthole window) but very important as all the external lighting with the exception of the landing lamps and wing tip navigation lights & top rotating beacon are controlled by it. It controls the wing pylon/pod lights, HDU carriage & side panel lamps as well as the tail bumper lights which shine forward onto the HDU during night refuelling, in addition it is used at night to isolate the lower rotating beacon and the nav lights on the tail regardless of what the Captain has selected on his panel so that the receiver pilot who is refuelling is not blinded or distracted.
The panel once stripped down was shipped off to a specialist sheet metal worker in order to manufacture a new one. this did not happen as more important work came along and so it was returned after several months untouched. It was decided to refurbish the original as the metal is exceptionally thick and would accept being machined/sanded down. Initially it was sanded back to remove all the corrosion which was light only and then ‘fizzed’ clean using phosphoic acid (alloy wheel cleaner) for a few hours. It was than sanded further and declared clean. Two coats of etching primer were applied followed by a white coat and laquer on the rear of the panel as original. The front face was then sprayed black satin and gloss acrylic emanel in alternate coats to build up a decent thickness, then a final coat of satin to finish off.
Final assembley took some time as there are many wiring connections and components to fit back correctly and the captions were made using a DYNO label maker. the end result was worth the effort and looks almost new with the exception of a few pitting marks. Fortunately there are no further panels that need the same attention. All panels/fuse boards ans electrical distribution boards in the Victor are labelled alphabetically, starting with A as the front of the aircraft and Z as the rearmost point. the cockpit items are labelled A,B & C with the pilots instrument panels labelled A the Nav and AEO panels B & C.
The panel after being stripped
The panel being “fizzed”!
Primer Applied
The finished panel from the back
And from the back
Back to the present, in HDU related news we today (after much tail jacking and swearing/frustration) managed to fit the HDU into the bay 🙂 . The task for tomorrow is to raise the HDU up to the retractable platform and then connect everything up and carry out the functional tests as specified in the A.P’s.
Will post photos as I get them.
Ollie
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