Update from SPT at Coventry!
Well, the run on 17th September went well, with the exception of losing part of the outboard exhaust pipe on No 4 engine. I didn’t get any photo’s as I was manning the engineers panel; but a visitor of ours got a couple which I found over at fightercontrol.
http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&p=265815
Working on the principle of I broke it, I fix it – a new item was found from the store and cleaned of its protective coating. We’ve checked the others as this failed along the welded seam, so it was obviously cracked, then the last run finished it off.
The old pipe.
New replacement, it was still in a sealed bag.
Replacement means getting the exhaust cover off. There’s a slip joint for expansion, and a yoke to hold the pipe.
The slip joint is held by two large nuts, and locked with splitpins. The yoke has a similar set up but had to be ‘persuaded’ to part company with the exhaust.
New one on…
Job done!
While I was busy getting exhaust soot all over myself and anybody else nearby, the rest of the guys were hard at work too. No 3 engine is having its inlet ignition harnesses checked to try and cure a slight mag drop. Don and Tony took on this task, with Don teaching the rest of us as to how the system works.
You can also see Vic Marriot here up on the nose, doing the last bit of sealing. Vic is the man responsible for eradicating a lot of the water leaks, and is one of the guys on our team that seems to thrive on a hard task. I’ve never yet found something he can’t handle.
Roger, our electrician has been working inside the aircraft renewing parts of the intercom system. There was some annoying feedback which made communication difficult, and the port beam postion wouldn’t let you speak on the intercom. It now works correctly, and has been tested thoroughly.
Organisation of the hangar time next year is in progress, with undercarraige and brake components being tracked down, and all the relevant manuals being organised. We’ve also been looking through the hundreds of drawings to see whether we can do something about those bomb doors now the quiet season is approaching.
No news on our prop yet, we’re still in the queue for CFS to do their bit.
Oct 2nd…
A ‘Wings and Wheels’ style of event was held, organised through several car clubs that follow the progress of the Shackleton. It turned out rather nicely, with some 70 cars attending, hopefully we can make it grow a bit next year as there’s plenty of space to fill. Here’s some shots I got from on ‘963…
We at the SPT have never really ran our own event, so we were relying heavily on our friends in the Classic Flight GST to show us how to go about keeping everybody in the right place at the right time.
I have to say, I’m impressed. This forums Roger Smith ably assisted by Malcolm, Anthony, Clive (sorry I didn’t get all the names, I’m terrible at putting names to faces.) and a few others showed us how the pro’s do things. They have set the bar high for future events to the point I think I’m going to have to bribe them with cake to help again next time… 😀
WR963 has left that unshakeable memory with a few more generations – particularly children – and the use of an unserviceable flying helmet while sat at the controls of the Shackleton really makes it magic for them. ‘963 saw several more flying hours, a lot of enemy action and numerous new destinations (including “the seaside”) in young imaginations over the course of the day.
Its cool that so many other people get enjoyment from this old warrior. The Nimrod and DC6 were weaving their own spell too; a particularly neat touch was one of the GST volunteers dressed as an aircraft captain welcoming people aboard the DC6.
Even the weather was spot on.
So what does the rest of the year hold? Well we’re all looking forward to the night runs…
Kind regards,
Rich
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