Good quality photos. By the way, in case anyone was wondering, the white building in the background is now the Three Horeshoes public house (Good food, better beer). Apparently it was used as a mess (Sgts or officers -I forget which) during WWII. It’s still there, and right next to NEAM…..

Almost dirctly above the rudder/fin joint of G-AWPA in the first pic, just visible amongst the trees is Hylton Castle. It used to be a school, and as such was the home (Boarding school) of a certain Joseph Swan… who later went on to invent the lightbulb and entered a partnership with Thomas Edison who developed the same idea at the same time 5000 miles away. The patents were put in withing days of each other with Edison just beating Swan. So every time you see mention of the Edison and Swan Lighting Company, remember that the filament electric lightbulb came from Sunderland…..:D

Local History lesson over.

JP mk 5! Pass…. we have a T4 owned by one of our members (in deep store- the aeroplane, not the member)….

The hunter looks healthier these days as does the Vampire. Valletta – not so well.

wrong place to post and its a disused railway bridge

Received my ‘Lancaster At Coventry’ DVD from the LLA today, and 146 very happy minutes later, I’d like to recommend it to all Lancaster enthusiasts- it’s well filmed, detailed, humerous, doesn’t rush or skimp on anything- it’s great! Well done to Roger White for single-handedly filming such a great video diary of the entire overhaul. 😀

Poor fellow came in the hangar every Thursday and put up with our abuse… well, you know what its like in a maintenance hangar… banter, etc. I agree – excellent work. I especially like the music accomanying the Linc Lanc assn visit….:D

I heard of a good one regarding an RAF Chinook:

One of the droop stops on the forward head sheared off, and the heli was kept running while a solution was found. The problem being that if the head was shut down, the unlocked blade would have chopped the poor wokka in half. The mechanics were tasked with getting as many mattresses from the block as they could and a giraffe (hydraulic steps) was placed in line with the advancing blades against the fuselage, and the matresses piled aginst the giraffe to protect the blade….

As the rotor head was shut down, the rotor brake was applied with force, stopping the head in a single revolution. As the unlocked blade lost its lift and went beyond the missing droop stop, it hit the mattressed giraffe and skipped over the fuselage saving the rest of the heli.

How true it is, who knows….:D

That method was viable with Whirlwind , Wessex and if absolutely required, sea king (static wicks would be damaged though and I’ve never heard of it done on this aircraft type). The idea is sound in principle, since the whole objective is to find a blade which flies high or low reletive to the others. The pole is in contact with the ground and the blades marked with different coloured chalk. By moving the banner into contact with the tips of the blade it is possible to see which blade is high or low due to the chalk deposits on the banner. Modern techniques have almost completely replaced this method, usually involving lasers, magnetic pick-ups or IR Cameras, or even strobe lighting.

As for the undercarriage affecting the readings – think of the helicopter as a gyroscope. It will take a huge amount of wind or undercarriage bounce to displace the rotor disk, and so the chalk readings will not be affected by any significant amount. The same can be said for play in the cyclic or collective – if there is play of any significant amount, then your helo is knackered and needs re-rigging. Also bare in mind, most helicopters have a scale on the barrels to adjust blade pitch, and so can be set with a fair degree of accuracy on the ground, given that the manufacturers will initially balance the blade and mark on it where the scale should read. (+1, -5, etc).

The chalk method is vague to an extent, or rather it is less accurate than modern methods. Which is better though – your rotor disk tearing itself apart, or getting LAC Moron / Mr. Moron the fitter to hold a flag against the disk?

Other life threatening jobs –

how about a main leg change on a Wessex? By the way, its in the hover and can’t land…. I know a bloke who did it on more than one occasion….

how about unsticking the droopstops on a Sea King .(For those who don’t know, droop stops prevent the blades from pivoting at the head when the rotorhead is rotating below a certain speed). The cure was to get a broom handle, and introduce the tip of it onto the droop stop while the head was being shut down….