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richw_82

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June 2, 2015 at 1:13 pm in reply to: Another garage clear out – too good to scrap? #897748

richw_82
Participant

Item 9 are Electro-Pneumatic Valves Type ES/A/98 24v d.c. Max Air Pressure 350 lb./sq. in. My hopes were probably raised by seeing “98”. Any ideas?

I think these might be Shackleton, part of the camera bay door system.

May 31, 2015 at 11:32 am in reply to: Is there a Maritime MK surviving anywhere? #899807

richw_82
Participant

It is very different, and its hard to find the correct parts. We have some Autolycus parts but are still looking for more. We’re still chasing turret components and scanner parts too.

The last MR2 was probably the gate guard at Lossiemouth, I think it lasted slightly longer than Cosford’s aircraft.

May 31, 2015 at 9:18 am in reply to: Is there a Maritime MK surviving anywhere? #899827

richw_82
Participant

There are no surviving MR2 at the moment. Both WR963 and WL795 are retrofits. We’re collecting parts and digging out our drawings to put WR963 back to true MR Mk2 Phase 3 over the next couple of years.

May 21, 2015 at 2:27 pm in reply to: Steve Hague #906532

richw_82
Participant

Sad to hear… it was always pleasant to catch up with Steve during visits to Aeroventure; and I remember his pride in the WW1 exhibit that was being set up last time I was there. He had a very dry sense of humour which never failed to catch me out or have me in fits of giggles.

Regards
Rich

May 17, 2015 at 9:34 am in reply to: Avro Shackleton WR963 Project Thread #909671

richw_82
Participant

16th May update –

A long but productive day for the SPT, with some members being on site until 9pm! The intent was to try and trace the problem that caused the red light on the Starboard undercarriage and if possible fix it, it was thought that one of the valves was not properly selecting ‘down’ and preventing hydraulic pressure to the rams. So, the day started with multimeters being pushed into various places on WR963 and the problem was slowly traced back to the wire from the undercarriage selector switch in the cockpit to the ‘down’ selector valve in the starboard undercarriage bay. It appears to have a short to earth in the starboard wing leading edge area.

This means that the complete undercarriage system is not being supplied with hydraulic pressure to ensure the gear stays down and locked, and because of this, the starboard inboard ram was allowed to retract in an uncommanded fashion – unlocking the leg. Because we haven’t managed to replace the damaged/shorted wire yet, WR963 is still closed to the public for the time being.

While working in the undercarriage bays, Mark Ward and his son Curtis have been making amazing progress. This is a before and after shot of one of the undercarriage locks.

Work was also being carried out on No 3 engine, and as predicted the problem seemed to be related to the boost coil. Initally there was some head scratching as there seemed to be no output from the booster coil despite it buzzing away merrily. Investigation slowly narrowed things down and it was found that while the primary coil was doing its job, the secondary coil had failed. A replacement was fitted from our stock and once the undercarriage issue is sorted we will be able to try and test run the engine.

Time was taken to have a look at our latest acquisition, a hydraulic servicing rig.

As its been stood for some time it was suffering from stale petrol, a seized clutch and a few other issues, but by the end of the day it was turning over freely with good oil pressure. Would it start? No. As often with WR963, a magneto fault of all things…

Last but by no means least, some work in the drawing archive, which is slowly coming back into some kind of order due to the efforts of SPT team member Michelle Mclaughlin. We had to dig out some more drawings for use in a certain plastic model project, and these will be dispatched shortly. When looking through the manifest, once again we were reminded how much Avro DNA is within the Shackleton.

All in all a fairly productive day, and we’ll be back on the 30th.

Regards,

Rich

(Photos courtesy of Mark Ward, Michelle Mclaughlin and Phil Woods)

May 17, 2015 at 9:04 am in reply to: Wellesbourne Replica Spitfire #909682

richw_82
Participant

It was restored and put on a pole over a garage if I remember right?

May 15, 2015 at 11:40 am in reply to: Paphos Shacks's to be destroyed?(2015 UPDATE) #911262

richw_82
Participant

Dodo is still there as of a couple of weeks ago, whenever anyone I know is in the area I ask them to check.

May 15, 2015 at 11:02 am in reply to: Paphos Shacks's to be destroyed?(2015 UPDATE) #911378

richw_82
Participant

Meddle, its not that hard to grasp. The Shacks were under threat during the airport redevelopment, fortunately it was realised they are of some value and effort was put into carefully moving them out the way – and hence saved.

As for their eventual fate; its been something everyone has been wondering since about 1994!

Regards

Rich

May 13, 2015 at 8:26 pm in reply to: Paphos Shacks's to be destroyed?(2015 UPDATE) #912317

richw_82
Participant

I was escorted by Hermes Duty Manager and had a limited time to view them, about 45 minutes. I took my truck and a ladder to the airport but they would not allow it on the airfield for safety reasons. So, without a ladder, it was impossible to climb up and get a look inside. All the tires are flat and the wheels have sunk into the ground. There is some relatively minor damage, broken glass and an access hatch missing etc. and a few propellers have been taken, presumably to decorate a wall somewhere, but still a full set available? The corrosion is apparent in some places but not too bad considering the time they have been out in the open but generally the sad look is the bleached and peeling paintwork.

The engines should be in relatively good condition with nothing missing as all the cowlings are in place and one engine pod even has a rotting tarp over it. I would expect any oil to be like tar now after all these years. So, eight Griffons could be recovered by someone who was interested enough?

There is a problem however! Nobody is actually sure who owns these aircraft as the original owner never paid the parking fees and owes the Government (CAA) about 20 years of parking fees and I would assume that they repossessed both aircraft in lieu! Hermes did take over the operation at Paphos but even the Hermes senior personnel do not know who owns the Shackletons and the Flamant.

The Cypriot Government (CAA) is owed an awful lot of money (running into tens if not hundreds of thousands of Euros) and they are greedy, as I was informed that the last time the subject came up some years ago, they are expecting to recover most of their ‘losses’ from any sale.

Hi, the e-mail I got back recently from Hermes Airports was that they considered Mr Constantinides to still be the legal owner. I know there have been a number of attempts to secure parts or the entire aircraft, but lack of any decision on the matter has prevented anything useful being done.

Are the Shackleton fuselage and spare Griffons still on the dump near the black Jet Provost?

Regards,

Rich

May 11, 2015 at 11:30 am in reply to: Avro Shackleton WR963 Project Thread #913728

richw_82
Participant

Hi all,

By now you’ll have no doubt seen the several threads regarding Airbase’s opening and our little part in it right at the end of the day. The glaringly obvious is No 3 engine not running; more on that to come over the next few weeks.

The event itself? Fantastic from our point of view. The crowd must have easily been a couple of thousand people despite the slightly grey and cold conditions, and the queue to get on board WR963 for a look around stretched out towards the wingtip most of the day. We made a lot of new friends, met a few old ones, and made a lot of people aware of what our intent is for the Shackleton.

So you can imagine our frustration when No 3 just turned on the starter, peed fuel out the priming drain and refused to do so much as cough! We believe the problem is in the booster coil connection to the magneto or the mag itself, as while there was plenty of fuel there wasn’t even a hint of life in the engine, it felt as if we were turning it over with the switches off. So plenty to get into for our engine/electrical guys as it will need tracing through to the mag switches just to be sure, as well as inspecting the ignition system on the engine.

The rest of the run-up went fairly well, and with careful management of the brake pressures (only one compressor available because No 3 was U/S) we still managed to exercise things and blow out the cobwebs after a fairly lengthy quiet period over winter. Then came the bigger problem. After settling the engines down and bringing them to a halt, the staboard undercarriage indicator flickered then went from a ‘green’ indication to a ‘red’. Never has that tiny little light looked so evil or so bright…

We got off the aircraft fairly carefully and thanks to the crowd barriers were able to keep everyone away. Tentative checking of all the ground locks was done before venturing into the undercarriage bay to see what the problem was, as none of us wanted to see WR963 take up a reclining position, or for one of us to get intimate with a mainwheel. A quick check of the jacks and the downlocks showed the inboard hydraulic ram had crept back just enough to set the switch to open and show the red. With persuasion the ram would come out to its full extent, but soon crept back again. The decision was taken to manually adjust the lock to prevent any creep from the ram inadvertantly unlocking the leg, and unfortunately to limit access to the aircraft for the moment.

So, on the job list, we now have an ignition gremlin to chase and plenty of undercarriage work to do. Plans are being tentatively made, a hydraulic rig obtained, spares hunted out from store, and its looking as if we are going to have to jack WR963 and replace some components; followed by a full bleeding of the hydraulic system and a function test of it – including the undercarriage.

Still, life could be boring and cleaning oil streaks is repetitive. So we’re all eagerly standing by with the spanners and wondering how long it will take us until someone gets to push the selector for WR963’s undercarriage to “UP”!

We’ll next be on site on the 16th May so if you’re out and about please drop in and say hello!

Regards,

Rich

May 4, 2015 at 8:56 pm in reply to: Visit to Airbase Coventry May 2015 #918729

richw_82
Participant

Hi Varsity, the Phase 3 was a series of modifications to MR2 and MR3 aircraft, mainly upgrades and repositioning of equipment in the interior. In the MR3 it invlolved the Viper and it is often used to easily distinguish between the variants of MR3. On the MR2 there was very little by way of changes to external appearance, so referring to different phases is not often done.

Geoff, the Spitfire will likely have been Maurice Bayliss’ aircraft, MJ627. It was based at Coventry for quite some time.

Regards,

Rich

May 4, 2015 at 6:52 pm in reply to: Visit to Airbase Coventry May 2015 #918885

richw_82
Participant

Currently we’ve not done much to convert WR963 back, as we didn’t want to end up with an aircraft that was half and half. We have been spending a lot of time sourcing equipment and fittings such as the front turret and ammo feeds, various antennae for sonobouy receiving equipment, the ASV scanner radome, etc. We’re also scouring the drawings to allow a refit of the interior of the aircraft, rebuild of the bomb doors to full length (hopefully during this season) and also to reactivate dormant systems such as the camera bays at the rear.

What we intend to end up at is a Shackleton MR2 Phase 3.

May 3, 2015 at 7:20 pm in reply to: Visit to Airbase Coventry May 2015 #919828

richw_82
Participant

Presumably larger blade area means more thrust and that with a single prop there is a practical/technical limit on blade area at a given diameter?

The blade diameter available on the Shackleton was limited by using a Lincoln/Tudor wing with minimal modifications. The engine spacings are the same right the way through from Lancaster.

Great photos and good to meet you yesterday Paul!

Regards,

Rich

May 1, 2015 at 6:30 pm in reply to: Avro Shackleton WR963 Project Thread #921504

richw_82
Participant

Depends if they’re doing it from our recipe, or one they’ve borrowed. If there’s no Mars Bar in it I’ll feel cheated…!

Cheers Howard – we hope things will go well, but they’ve only given us 15 minutes right at the end of the day to make a bit of noise. 🙁

May 1, 2015 at 8:49 am in reply to: Avro Shackleton WR963 Project Thread #922166

richw_82
Participant

I’ve heard there’s going to be refreshments on site, but I’ve no details of how or where. Unfortunately WR963’s galley water heater is offline (not for long..) at the moment so we can’t take up the slack. If I hear anything in the next few hours I’ll post it up.

Regards,

Rich
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