Hi,

The intention is to be able to fast taxi, with a view to offering places to the public on board as is done by the DC3 and DC6 at Airbase, and more famously by the Lancaster at East Kirkby.

We set a rough target of the end of this year to have her back out on the runway. It’s looking achievable, but it’s not a date set in stone… we need to be sure WR963 is fit and well before she goes for a wander round the airfield under her own power.

Regards,

Rich

Wow, what a spares holding! Is that a full length bomb door?

Unfortunately not, though it was checked. There’s a couple of forward doors in there too. In the bottom of the packing crate (which you can’t see as it’s about 12ft up) is a load of retract jacks and other parts.

We’re hoping to shift some of this around before long as we need to get a few mainwheel/hub/brake units out, and we could do with getting into some of the other boxes lower down the pile. There’s still some glazing unaccounted for which we could do with.

Regards,

Rich

Come and help out grollie, it’ll bring the feel and the smell of things back too!

Am I right in assuming that Atlantic Airlines owns the type authority, or is it the Shackleton Association itself?

If so, what would be required for a return to flight (other than millions of pounds) ? Are we talking about new spars or new spar webs? Would the CAA give authorisation? (I know that the CAA wouldn’t let Mr. McHenry fly back from the US, but don’t know the reason) Details please….. 😀

As I undertand it the type authority rests with the SPT. The drawings (both blueprint and original) are all ours as is most of the archive on the type that was cleared out by BAe.

The CAA implied that if enough evidence could be found about the programme used by the RAF to operate beyond the fatigue life specified, they may have been satisfied that the aircraft could operate on a Permit to Fly. It was a bit tentative and not encouraging.

The SPT had a feasibility study done, which concluded that it was possible to return the aircraft to flight. Work was done into finding out what would be involved and several of our member spent months organising all the drawings and various other bits of paperwork. It was a combination of finances, and the fact that we would be building more or less a brand new wing that stopped things.

To avoid any issues with its ageing aircraft status, a return to flight would involve at least the replacement of all lifed components – which include spars, webs, attachment hardware, skins – there’s a list that runs to about three or four pages. This is realistically the only way to get around the various SI and STI checks introduced and the fact that the CAA consider the aircraft to be life expired.

As for the problem with WL790, it was to be grounded on return to the UK, without having a look through that aircraft’s paperwork I wouldn’t know why. I’m guessing it would be due to the same reasons as with WR963.

Regards,

Rich

13 August

Long time no update! This doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy though, far from it. Its always difficult to keep momentum at this point in the year as people are off on holiday. For a couple of weeks the numbers of our crew were diminished, but now we’re back to strength.

What’s been going on?

We started with a few niggles. We’ve always had a few bits that were needing replacement but the trick was finding the parts. So we’ve been raiding the store. This time I took my camera.

WARNING! NOS Shack parts pictures coming up so if you struggle with things like this, sit down before reading on.. 😀 )

We have a mainwheel swap coming up. Not a problem. We counted around 10 and a few spare tyres. Lots of brake units too, which is good.

Airframe parts…

Powerplants…

Including this one… possibly the last overhauled by the RAF?

Spare props…

We also found a couple in boxes. Speaking of boxes…

This gives you an insight into how much of a pain it is to find some of our stuff. In that pile alone we came across fuselage frames, a couple of brand new bomb aimers windows, some Grifffon cylinder banks – and that was just in the boxes we could get to.

But it all helps.

We now have a complete aerial set up, with a brand new tensioner on the starboard fin. It had been safety wired in place after the last one failed, and had annoyed us a long time. Standing inside the aircraft now you can hear it hum merrily in the wind.

A major part of the search has been for glazing panels. we now have nearly a full set of cockpit glass, the latest part being a brand new pilots escape hatch.

Fitting a new hatch is fairly easy, but the great thing is by consulting the schedule of parts, we found brand new seals to fit with it to keep the water out. I took a few shots while Vic was fitting this.

We’ve been continuing with replacing as many access hatches as we can, though the vast majority need drilling out and tapping. Where we don’t have the panel or it is badly damaged, we’re having new ones made.

We are prioritising which ones we do, the most recent ones are to get access to the trim cables and sprockets. We’re still working at freeing them off, the rudder is starting to behave but still needs attention.

20 years outdoors has caused a little corrosion inside but we’re pretty happy that we keep going fairly deep into the aircraft yet she seems to have held up well.

The engine guys have been going at the engines, with filters, hydraulics, cams coolant, and a multitude of other tasks getting attention. The news is good with No 3 still behaving, the wear hasn’t got any worse. We’ll still keep a close eye on it, but it looks like it will make it to the end of the year. I’ll report back on No 1 and 4 as they are done.

And last but not least… our old tug..

Finally this old beastie earned its keep, shoving WR963 forward a few yards so we could put steel plate under her mainwheels to stop sinkage and help protect the tyres. There was a bet going on whether it would, and it seems it found some guts from somewhere! It’s been getting some attention too to smarten it up and give it a long overdue service.

More from me next week…

Regards,

Rich