2 Feb

WR963 has got through the cold snap quite well. No water ingress in the fuselage, no sign of it in the fuel tanks, and all the covers we managed to fit are present and correct. It was hoped we’d get plenty done on the aircraft today but efforts were stifled by the number of visitors we had. Despite Airbase being closed, with careful management we can still allow people access to WR963 up close and personal.

Most of todays work centred around work on our ground equipment, with the old Tugmaster getting prodded and poked until it awoke in a cloud of grey smoke. There seems to be an engine problem with this, so those of a military vehicle bent will get an update when things get a bit more radical.

At least the sunshine kept spirits high…

There are other things needing doing around the place though. Part of that is looking in the archive for some drawings.

You can’t see the other two walls, but they’re floor to ceiling too with Shackleton drawings and AP’s. This is not counting the contents of the 16 large boxes of drawings stored in the hangar. There’s all kinds of things in there such as this:

There’s lots more such as MOTU course notes and the like. We’re sending a lot of this to Avro Heritage, so EVERYBODY can make use of it not just us.

However, we weren’t just messing around in the archive. We have a mission… to find all the necessary drawings for lifed items. Including these rather large booms.

Wonder what they’re for..?

Also nice to receive was an email regarding the civil registration, which indicates that should be processed shortly.

More next week and an engine run.

Regards,

Rich

It might be an idea if we can get the airport to allow it.

One minor problem is we’re still waiting to find out where on the airport we’re going to be once Airbase moves. The latest we’ve heard is that there is some building work planned where we are now, so we can’t plan ahead too much.

We’re going to try and get her indoors one way or another within the next 18 months, as there’s no way any serious return to flight work can start while WR963 is outside.

Hi all,

Not much work happened on WR963 this weekend what with the cold weather conditions. Despite attempts to hide out of the weather early on there wasn’t much warmth to be found and there were a few muttered comments about the sanity levels in our team. I’m glad to report though that all thoughts of rebellion were quashed, and it was a productive day..

We have been getting all the covers we have out to try and protect WR963 somewhat from the coming harsh weather and much fun was had trying to fit engine covers, cockpit covers and the like. Its much easier in good weather when covers and fingers aren’t cold and stiff. Cockpit cover in particular is a necessity now due to all the new glass that has been fitted.

We’ve also closed the bomb doors to try and keep things as sealed up as we can – a task which involved an unsuspecting victim (why is it always me?!) manning the hand pump for the hydraulics in the starboard undercarriage bay.

Inside, there has been some minor work on replacing some of the damaged upholstery. We have to be careful as we don’t want to remove the well used look WR963 has, but attention to specific areas works wonders and can be noticed. Things like damaged rudder pedal grips, the protective pads under the instrument panel and various capping strips here and there.

On the return to flight side – there’s still contact going back and forth with the CAA as we try to supply them with the information they require. The level of detail required on even minor items at this initial stage is impressive; but we’re rising to the challenge. There’s some major digging going on through archive material.

Other news

The next ground run is going to be in early February (weather permitting).
Volunteers wanted, to work on Nimrod..

Regards,

Rich