Hi all,
WR963 carried out a successful ground run of all four engines on Sat 8 March. It marked the 65th anniversary of the flight of the prototype Shackleton, and also on 11th March, WR963 herself was 60 years old. Various visitors came from far and wide, but one gentleman watching from the DC6 Diner turned out to be a CAA Design Surveyor! He claimed not to know much of Shackleton, but was straight onto the pertinent point of the wing top spar boom, so probably knew more than he was letting on. Unfortunately I didn’t catch his name, but he was very pleasant and I hope we meet him again in due course.
The next ground run is 5th April 2014, in support of “Classic Air Force – Coventry” opening its gates to the public at weekends… something we’ve all been missing which will bring much needed life back into the place. The guys have also been busy coaxing life out of Nimrod XV232 (with the help of some borrowed members of the Elvington team) and giving her a much needed wash. If all goes well she should also run in some form on 5 April. An attempt to start was made on 8 March, but with the big houchin out of action our trolley acc just wasn’t man enough for the job.
So how’s WR963 faring lately? Quite well is the answer! The radio is working, the fuel priming issue seems to be behind us, and the pneumatics are behaving as they should with minimal leakage. The annoying thing was we could have taxied on the last ground run if we’d had a pilot available and a bit of Nitrogen to top the pneumatics up before we started.
As always, there’s a few things on the snag list – we have a coolant change to do on No 2 engine as its still running the old AL-3 instead of a modern equivalent, the bracket that secures the hydraulic hand pump handle in the down position has fractured, and there’s a little bit of taping to attend to that the wind and weather had over winter. We’ve also had a couple of ‘dolls eye’ indicators fail on the electrical panel, so if anyone knows where I might find a few spares we’d appreciate an pm or e-mail.
Speaking of spares, we are starting to weed out some of our stock that is not required – so I’d appreciate it if any Shack groups that need parts get in contact if you’re looking for anything in particular, to make sure you get first pick of anything we have before it gets sold off to other groups and collectors.
Regards,
Rich
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