richw_82Thats right! It was written up for an aviation magazine, along with all the details about taxying around to try and remove the flat spots on the mainwheels from standing so long. I’d love to find a copy of the article if anyone has it?
richw_82Group Captain Dave Hencken and a few others did a few flights with one of them in the years immediately after they were delivered…. around 1993 I think? Certainly there were definitely plans to continue operating them as our contract with BAE for the design rights says we had to allow access to the manufacturers archive data to Helimed, in support.
richw_82As to the U.K survivors – corrosion is having an effect on these machines whether they are maintained or not.
I don’t think we really need to go down the path of the “Get them all indoors” spiel again? The fact that everything is subject to the laws of nature and will corrode doesn’t really make your point that they would be in a state similar to the Long Marston aircraft. The Duxford Shack may have more of its components intact but it gives WR985 a run for her money in airframe terms. Of all the Shackletons preserved over the years those owned by national museums and organisations have fared worse than their counterparts in private hands. And that goes for UK and South Africa.
As for “Zebedee” – even the wrecked remnants had to be purchased at a cost, so what makes you think East Fortune could have picked it up for free?
With the Cyprus pair I’ve often said one ought to be parts while one goes to a museum such as Malta; but until the Paphos Authorities legally obtain ownership (non payment of parking/storage as is often done), they’re not really in a position to donate somebody else’s private property.
richw_82Yes, its still there along with three spare Griffons for company.
richw_82It depends entirely on where they had ended up David. One was to have gone up to Scotland (Possibly East Fortune?) and certainly until his death our Trust’s founder still planned that for a long while. Looking at UK survivors, Newark’s and Gatwick’s aircraft do well outdoors as does ours. Even though WR985 at Long Marston looks in deplorable state; having crawled all over her with her owner a few weeks back she’s better than you would think. Not great, but not bad for so long unprotected and uncared for.
Back to the Paphos pair… there’s a few bits of correspondence we have on file regarding an approach made to Mr Constantinides a couple of years after both aircraft went derelict. After meeting and surveying them he wanted well over £500,000 for each aircraft; which made any hope of recovering them then a non-starter. The South Africans also tried approaching him for parts and initial attempts were encouraging – but when they arrived in Cyprus suddenly the price went through the roof again.
richw_82Piston,
Mr Constantinides wasn’t the only bidder for them, and he didn’t really save them from being scrapped either. Given how he’s seemingly abandoned them I’d be pegging him closer to ‘villain’ than ‘hero’.
Nobody is going to get to repatriate the pair either – as we’ve found – especially as the airport won’t let you near them and the original owner isn’t around.
richw_82
Photos courtesy of Barry Wheeler.
richw_82A couple of videos.
From inside, the gunners position.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSC30ztXVYE
From outside. Slightly shaky camera, blame the Griffons! Yes, we know all about the poor safety drills by the chap at the end of the video, and he has been told.
richw_82Well,
As many will have seen from paul1967’s thread, Sunday 13th September turned into rather a good day for us.
During the week leading up to the event, WR963 was positioned at the side of Dakota House to make room for the rest of the fleet. The purpose to this was that the hangar was needed to seat the large amount of VTTS Club members for lunch and entertainment, so with the Shackleton towed off the grass there was now space for some of the smaller aircraft of the CAF fleet. WR963 must have been liking the idea, as half way off the grass there was a towbar malfunction and she was rolling free and off towards the concrete by herself! Thankfully, as we always maintain a bit of pressure in the system, the brakes were applied and she came to a smart halt within a few yards. The towbar was fettled, reattached to the tug and the aircraft behaved herself for the rest of the move.
Sunday rolled around and with the addition of some temporary fencing we were ready to face the 2500 plus people arriving on site. Interior tours proved as popular as ever, with the queue from the door reaching back to the fenceline for most of the day.
But while people were enjoying their tours, we were busy with the spanners again, as the gremlins had struck. The first things we do when we know we are running later in the day is test and prepare various systems on the aircraft as early as we can. Priming pumps, pneumatic pressures, fuel drain checks, booster coils… oh. There lay the problem – No 2 booster coil had decided it wanted the day off! Ground power on, master start switch on, No 3 booster coil on, and no angry buzzing from the back of the engine. Drat.
So with the cowlings off it was time to start looking into it, with three hours until we’re due to start up and taxy out. All of us were now hoping it wasn’t going to be a repeat of the failure of the booster coil on No 3 a few months ago where the coils had packed up; as the nearest known working spares are 15 miles away through roads now jammed with cars and people. With the top off the booster coil box, inspection showed a little corrosion on the contacts, so a thin probe was inserted into the points and they were given gentle encouragement (If anyone has ever had an SU fuel pump apart on an old car, you’ll be right at home, as these are just a bigger version of the same old pain in the ****.) Still nothing. Time for the big guns and head scratching, the multimeter goes across the terminals. Nothing. Double drat.
Back into the aircraft and with polite use of elbows to move visitors, the main electrical panel and fusebox are opened. Each of the booster coils has its own fuse, and No 2 is PP-1. Unsurprisingly, this little 5 Amp fuse couldn’t handle the stuck points and blew. In goes a new fuse. Back out onto the port wing and clean the points. Flick the switch and… BZZZzzzzzzzz!! Angry noises from the points, and the multimeter showing lots of volts heading for the spark plugs. Everybody breathes a sigh of relief, and now we wait for 12.45 to roll around for the taxy run.
Taxy run
For those watching us start up you will have seen No 3 and 4 start as normal then No 2 attempt to start, cough, die, turn on the starter for about 20 seconds, then we start No 1 instead. You then see me hurtle (or as close as I get to that..) out the crew door, round the back and up to No 2 engine, before getting back in the aircraft again. No 2 then turns a few blades and starts.
There was a problem, but it wasn’t the aircraft. It was me. Nervousness really got the better of me, and I overprimed No 2 engine. We then had to get rid of the excess fuel, and check that what our outside man saw coming out the bottom of the cowling was excess primer and not something more serious. Once we were sure that we wouldn’t have to shut down, we had a second attempt at No 2 and with the throttle open and no primer, it behaved as you would expect and fired right up.
Then the magic happened, and I can’t wait for the next time. We received clearance to taxy, the brakes hissed, and Jon Corley opened up the throttles and away we went. Pneumatic pressures held, the brakes worked superbly, so we stopped alongside the Nimrod on the return and opened all four engines up to 2175rpm and around 40″ of boost to get a good ‘growl’ for those filming. Pneumatic pressures still holding, we made our way back to our parking and shut down.
The only snags were a volume problem on the Pilot’s headset while switching between VHF and intercom and a slight amount of backlash on the No 1 throttle lever. Oh, and as we turned around on the way out we managed to blow our gazebo inside out and most of our stall away. Oopsie. Somebody said it would be okay there?!
As you can imagine, there were big grins all around from the SPT team, and we do plan to do a couple more runs again soon so those that couldn’t see it this time get their chance.
The rest of the day was a blur of visitors, and then towards the end, what may be our last time seeing the Vulcan fly past and display. A little sad watching it from on the wing of WR963, as we’d all hoped we could get the funding together to get her flying and join her younger relative at least once, but even getting our aircraft this far has been a monumental amount of work, even so we think the effort was well worth it.
Photos and video will follow, our team are all frantically downloading and editing bits, and there’s a couple of good ones appearing on Youtube already for those who are impatient!
Thanks to VTTS and CAF for setting up the event and letting us be part of it. Thanks to the Classic Flight GST for keeping it running, a lot of who are on these forums and do far more than people realise for not a lot of recognition. Big thanks for Jon Corley for taking the controls of WR963 on her little wander about the airport. And thanks to all that came to see not just Vulcan, but another old Avro aircraft that we all are very proud of.
Next taxy dates TBC… 😀
Regards,
Rich
richw_82I’ve been in contact with the Airport Manager a couple of times this year – all enquiries just result in a pretty standard answer being given that they are the property of Mr Constantinides and that anything to do with them should be directed to him. When pressed, they admitted they hadn’t had any contact with him since Hermes Airports took over control of Paphos which was quite a while ago.
I get the impression they don’t care; and by the time they do, it will be due to them becoming structurally unsafe to remain there.
richw_82The tyres have collapsed resulting in them being sat on the rims and the bomb doors, but apart from a few escape hatches they’re complete. The airport still won’t let anyone touch them as they still consider them to be private property.
Looking at the photo’s they’re starting to suffer. WL747 on the left has both ailerons up – so the control lock is out and the linkage has let go somewhere. WL757 seems to be faring a little better, but that tree is going to be an issue soon. Both of them are showing severe corrsion on the steel panels behind each engine on the leading edge of the wing.
If something isn’t done soon, they’re not going to be worth saving.
richw_82We have two new ones in store at Coventry, they’re the same part on Lincoln and Shackleton, though some Yorks seem to have the fabricated item you mention.
Regards,
Rich
richw_82Fingers crossed. Other than a few small preparations which we’d normally do for a run up, we’re as ready as we can be.
A shame to hear about the fuel leak given the hydraulic problem last week. I hope its something thats an easy fix rather than a tank leaking as with last time.
See you tomorrow.
richw_82The large 25 ton jacks we ended up using are the ones we purchased and were waiting for, the smaller orange one we used last week being a borrowed item. Thanks for the kind thoughts on how to acquire the ebay items but they’re really not needed.
richw_82A few photos –
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