Update, 22/06/2011
Good weekend for the museum, a Spitfire flypast on Saturday (photos in the airshow photographery thread) was good to see. Sunday was a very busy day, with quite a few Victor crew in, the fire crew in, and even 2 of the Nimrod mob appeared!
After the mandatory bacon start to the day and a bit of a catch-up, it was to the jets. I opened Lindy’s door and got cooked instantly. Warm would be an understatement! I shot in to open the DV windows to let some air in, then retreated to the shade of the wing as the sun was already a tad warm. And this was before half past 10!
As it was far too warm to spend any time inside the jet, I decided to take the wheel covers off and clean the maxaret tracks and check the tyre pressures, all 18 of them. The usual suspects (starboard front outer) wanted some wind in them, so Rich and I set off hiking round the museum trying to find which ‘safe place’ our nitro trolley and walkabout pack had been put in. We eventually found it hiding around the back of the Halifax and dragged it to Lindy.
After a suitable break (by now it was getting properly hot) we topped all the tyres, Rich checking them with the gauge while I followed administering Nitrogen where needed. Apart from the 2 expected flat ones there were just 3 or 4 others requiring about 50lbs in.
Inspecting the Maxaret tracks revealed that the usual fluid weeps were present. But the port front inner was leaking more than was tolerable from a union. This was soon tightened and declared leak-free, and all the tracks were cleaned as were the tyre sidewalls. I hijacked Brian and his tug to roll Lindy back a bit, just to rotate the tyres. He was clearly feeling generous, as he extended this service to the Nimrod as well. Thanks Brian! 🙂
While all this was going on Ollie had appeared, and was helping the museum team rectifying some hydraulic snags on the Buccaneer.
Once all tyre and wheel shenanigans were done with, it was time to retreat to the NAAFI for gallons of juice and some lunch. The gammon made a nice change, indeed John has now for one week only been re-designated Johnny Two Gammons! 😉
After feed and re-hydration we were back to Lindy. She’s had a recurring problem of the gauge for the starboard tanks mis-reading, and Andre had been chasing this problem while we’d been playing with the tyres.
We put ground power on to see if he’d been successful… and sadly he hadn’t. Hey ho.
We then went to the Bucc, to help with the hydraulics. Steve had appeared, I must admit Scott Marlee’s stitching is damn good as you can hardly see where he sewed Steve’s head back on after his encounter with an angry Klingon last week at NEAM! (see the NEAM thread for details)
It was all hands to the deck, as the Bucc was very reluctant to fold it’s port wing without help. This help basically consisted of two of us jumping on the wing, Steve and Rich waggling the wingtip, and NM and Mal off the Nimrod team ‘persuading’ the locking pins with a pair of strategically wielded ‘universal adjusters’ (hammers). The wing was eventually persuaded, after a YAM/Victor/Nimrod mass team effort, to fold and unfold slightly more happily, the verdict being hopefully it just wants years of crud and dried up grease removing, and fresh grease applying.
After this we emptied the NAAFI’s stock of juice again, then had another unsuccesful go at the fuel gauge problem on Lindy. With the weather too hot and too nice to do much else Rich, Ian and I went for a look at some of the museum’s other machines. With the YAM team having their hands full with the Bucc and the canopy locking system on the Mirage, we decided to do a bit of housekeeping for them, replacing slipped blanks etc. on Harrier and Tornado and just having a general nosey at the ‘puddle jumpers’.
Then back to Lindy, where it was decided enough was enough. John had given the wheels a good clean, so we got the covers back on, stowed all the gear, and called it a day.
Next week is Waddington, which it appears most of the Victor team are attending. So there won’t be an update from me, but I suspect Nimrod Mate will step up as XV250 is (serviceability permitting) running her engines on Sunday.
Sorry there’s no pics this week, but no doubt IanF will be posting some from yesterday in the near future…:rolleyes::D
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