Good morning all and Happy Easter

Yesterday was the first opportunity that a few of us have had to get together at the workshop; we’re limiting numbers to 3 people so that we can remain socially distanced, but even so a lot of the side projects that we have been working on have started to come to fruition.

The Elevator control pushrod from the pilots Control column is now complete and fully installed minus the split pinning as this will have to come apart again when we come to install it. You may recall that the forward end of this is an original part recovered from the 2nd MacRoberts Reply Stirling so a significant piece of history incorporated into the build.

The elevator tie rods (main controls and autopilot) from Fr5 to 6 that I made at home have also been installed, this now makes the underside of the flight deck look a lot busier.

Now that they’re finished, I was able to get back to working on finishing up the Glycol Tank; the restraining straps have now been made and secured with cork strip cushioning. These were based on an original strap used to restrain the pneumatic air tanks and from what can be seen from original photos, look to be pretty close to the original design. If we find some original ones that are complete or can be used as accurate patterns we may replace these in the longer term.

Cliff has been working on the diaphragms for the larger of the 2 fold up steps between the pilots seats, these are now almost complete but the lightening hole tool needed for the bottom skin needs a slight modification before we can complete that one. One piece of information we found out yesterday is that our stringer sections which we have previously had manufactured are an exact match for the internal spacers for the step, so they’ve now been cut to size and we just need to make the ‘C’ sections that provide the edges

Finally, David Collins has been working like a Trojan behind the scenes finalising the design for the Bomb Bay Frames. Essentially, in the area that were’re reconstructing (Frames 6 to 14) there are 4 different types of frame, not including the Port, Stbd and Centre bays that all differ slightly. We have pretty much frozen the design now and are just awaiting one piece of confirming information before we start cutting metal. Some very positive news though is that the design for the MDF formers to construct the frames is now Frozen and we have started requesting quotes for these to be CNC Milled ready for the metal blanks which will eventually be laser cut. An image of one of the proposed formers is seen below.

Pheeew! A longer update today but the guys have been doing a lot away from the main base and a lot of side projects are coming together.

Hi all

a very small update today,  we’ve just received 2 off stops for the aileron flying control run, these are located on the aft side of the vertical bulkhead at frame 9 (rear cockpit bulkhead). These were made by Alan McDardle who previously worked at Shorts in Belfast and has now retired. There should be another 4 coming of a slightly different design that are used on the rudder and elevator controls at the same location.

take care

John

Hi all

Just found this documentary comissioned by the Local Government in Almere on the recovery of BK716.

It runs for 30 minutes and includes recovery of the aircraft including identification of the human remains and also interviews with family members. In Dutch and English with subtitles

http://vliegenoverpolderlijnen.nl/

take care

John

Where would the fun be in that LOL

True though, having access to some cheap original spares would be good, but we’ve been fairly lucky over the years with people contributing information and parts. Hopefully once Covid ends we can step up a gear and we have some exciting plans for the year coming

John