Any volunteers in Blackpool area?

In the next few months we will be trying to throw as many bodies at dismantling Series 1 748 G-BEJD as possible. I wondered if it might be worth trying the Lancashire area for even more.

With Sisyphus being (I believe) the last series 1 in the UK I thought there may be a few people interested in working on her.

If you feel you can contribute please PM me and I will sort out some dates. Mid week is also a possibility for dates.

G-BEJD colour scheme/wing removal

Well thats 2 in favour of Dan Air vs Demonstrator so far. I think the historical accuracy is quite valid there.

In the following pics you can see the wing removal points. First 2 pics show the stbd. top plate (a lot easier than it sounds to remove the Hilok bolts). I did half of the port top ones on Sat in 30 mins using big hammer and chisel although they need punched through. The underside ones seem softer and pop off easier. The reason we have only removed half of the bolts is that she is moving to a quieter part of the airfield to remove the wings/tailplane.

Third pic shows the stbd bottom plate pre chisel attack!

Pic 4 is the access into the port wing that I have been using in my role as museum ferret to get to the main wing bolts in pic 5. The brown stuff in pic 5 is not rust. It is Waxoyl. The bolts are flying off with our air ratchet.

Pic6 shows the underside of the port top wing plate and the bases of the hilok bolts we need to knock out. It also shows the prongs that bolt onto the stringers inside the wing.

When we re-assemble everything back at Millom, we should only need to replace half of the bolts as the aircraft has a 75% redundancy. So if it can fly with 75% of its fixings, it can surely sit static with 50% of them.

Please get in touch if you think we have overlooked anything.

HS-748 Series 1 G-BEJD “Sisyphus”

Work has been underway over the past few weeks to ready Series 1 748 G-BEJD for dismantling and removal for preservation at RAF Millom. Yesterday with the assistance of Mark and Eric from International Air Parts we removed the remaining engine and prop and placed them in their carrying frames.

Engines and props will arrive first with the dismantling work going on over the far east side of Blackpool Airport where we dismantled the Shorts 360 last year.

The last photo was taken in April of last year during dismantling of Shorts 360 G-SSOW.

This post relates quite well to the question in last months Fly Past “why is nobody interested in preserving anything British without roundels on it”. We believe the Southend Series 1 748 mentioned in Fly Past has now been chopped up so Sisyphus will be the only one in the UK. It has been suggested to repaint her in the demonstrator colour scheme. Anybody got any views on this?

Blackpool 748s

Planemike, I would love to get locked in the library for a night. Although I think it would take longer than that to get through it all!

Nick, we are ready to recieve the reductions from your collection!

We have taken delivery of some new 748 bits and pieces very kindly donated by Steve Ferris and Mark from International Air Parts. They are currently chopping up 748s at Blackpool for parting out. We now have a proper freight door, seats, yokes and throttle console for Old Ben (pic) and haulier Tommy Stafford has just picked up the cockpit section of ex Parcel Force 748 G-OPFW. I may well swap the control converters for the simulator into this aircraft from G-ATMI. The new cockpit section will take up much less space inside and is much more portable. A little bit of chopping so it sits on a flat base and taking the sharps off and it’s an instant exhibit! A big thanks to
http://www.intl-air-parts.com.au and all their Blackpool crew. (I think some of the lads work for AMS, anyway you know who you are so thanks).

Reproduction 360 Parts

After Retro Aviation drew a blank on cowls for their Shorts 360 classroom in the Midlands, our inventive carpenter John decided he would mould some new ones for ours enabling Retro to get out of a tight spot. Retro did get us SSWO after all so it was the least we could do!

The other pics are to show our expanded library room containing published aviation titles. This frees up a room for A/Ps, technical manuals and back issues of Aviation Magazines. Then, a further room for archives including the late Gilbert Rothery’s extensive archive on North West England aviation. (I lost almost 2 hours flicking through his lake district crashes 1990-1999 file). His files include, newspaper cuttings, AAIB reports that are now unavailable online and many photos like the sample here. We can take requests for info for a very modest donation via the “contact” section of http://www.rafmillom.co.uk .

Spit Simulator

I have sent a P.M. to you OldSpitty old chap! Anybody else wanting “gen” on simulator software please feel free to PM me.

Patty

No nose cone on the GR1 yet David. I forgot to mention that the measurements were from the F3 cockpit at the Devonshire road museum. The length measurement was to the first joint for the nose cone ring forwards of the windscreen. That is where the Saudi one stops.