[It really has not been here long enough for it to be substantially more than that although Roobarb will no doubt be along to clarrify :)[/QUOTE]
As if by magic the shopkeeper appeared……..:)
Right well it actually arrived on 12th January, so that’s quite a while by my counting. It has had a substantial overhaul, with some in depth work on one of the wings in particular. Installation of fuel system for gun bay tanks, Prop overhaul, rads and oil cooler overhauled, new avionics, a lot of work in the cockpit including the fitting of a number of authentic pieces of wartime equipment to improve its standard of authenticity. Some items previously fitted in the cockpit during another rebuild were not correct to the MkIX, and these have been changed. Full span ailerons to replace the non standard D.Melton MkXIV cropped ones. Replacement legs, as those fitted were of the mark V splined type and not correct to this late a MkIX. New exhausts (original and literally still in the Rolls-Royce box and wrappers!), and lots of other things were done. If I told you it all, you might not go and buy the next issue of Flypast, which of course you all do don’t you? It of course arrived in a very dubious glossy cammo scheme to “US Specifications” one might say. This was removed and a new authentic scheme has been applied using an original image of it in 1944 supplied by Mk12, as a basis. As MkV correctly observes it is the first Charles Church built aircraft to wear a scheme of an authentic nature. Now if only we could do that 2-seater!! Today she did two test flights, with only minor trim and radio adjustments needed. My advice to all you photographers is don’t put your camera away for the winter just yet! if you see her take a picture as she isn’t going to be here for long. And for the joker who is waiting in the wings……”No she won’t be at legends!”. Hopefully with some more test flying due later in the week (given the weather) some of you will be able to see her yourselves. I’m sure some won’t like the colours and some will. I like them and I did the design of the scheme for the owner who also likes it, so that’s two of us happy!
Roobarb 🙂
By the way the work was done by ARC not HFL. We used the HFL jigs for the wing work, and one of their guys was seconded for a couple of weeks to help in the latter stages and we are very grateful for the helpful advice given by everyone on the other side of the fence. However it should be pointed out that they are a separate company, who happen to share the hangar and the noise output within 😀
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