Pete,

Your experiences sounds similar to ours. We’re going to up the bore of the outlet pipe, as we believe this will help with flow and reduce any restriction we had there. We did get as far as removing the pipe and pumping into a container to check and to prime the pump but we believe the low temperatures aren’t helping either, by thickening the new oil and that within the engines.

There’s not going to be any work done this Saturday by the look of the weather, but we’ll be there the following week and see how much further we can get.

Regards,

Rich

Ooops! Sorry Rich, I sort of did! Chalk it up to posting at 3am…

…and the Chez Vegas location tag. :p

No worries.

Chez Vegas? I take it you know of our town then!

Wherever you are you’ll have to come look at 963 sometime if you haven’t already.

Think you might have confused me with someone, as I’m Rich, but thanks anyway.

The Long Marston Shackleton is still there and in no better state than she was a few years back.

Regards,

Rich

27 Nov.

A cold cold day! And the snow would pick today; the first meeting of the restarted “Friends of WR963”. Our friends at Airbase kindly let us use the Canberra cafe, which gave us a nice warm place in which to enjoy coffee, food and tall stories. There is a wealth of good things to come from this little group and the enthusiasm is pleasing. We also had access to the hangar, and one of the Classic Flight GST was on hand as a guide. Many thanks to all for helping make it a great day!

WR963 wasn’t too happy with the overnight low temperatures! Our first job was to get in so our visitors could have a tour. The lock barrel on the crew door was well and truly frozen, so the ‘alternative’ method of entry was used. This involved a less than amusing Bambi impression done by yours truly on the starboard wing. Happily, with a little persuasion from inside, the door behaved and the tours could be done.

After lunch, most people had left to get home before any more snow arrived, so we took the opportunity to open up no4 engine cowling and have another crack at the pre-oilers. We’ve bled and rebled the system, the oil is quite viscous even in low temperatures, we’ve tried pulling the prop through with the pre-oiling pump going but still nothing seems to make its way up to the cams.

That’s where I have to chime in with bad news..

There are some things you just don’t want to have to write. More so when you realise how hard people have worked to try and make something good happen.

Sadly, I have to tell you all WR963 will NOT be running at the Classic Flight night runs on 11 Dec. It didn’t really take a genius to figure out that our target date of “just before Christmas” for running was decided on for a reason. We gave it our best shot, and ran out of time.

The pre-oiling system still has issues that need working through. As such, we’re not willing to run an engine knowing that we have less than adequate lubrication for those vital first few minutes. So to all those that were hoping, and to those that knew what we were up to and were keeping silent for us… I am truly sorry.

Regards,

Rich