Could anyone refresh my memory on the latch arrangement on a Canberra seat which disconnects it from the rail to enable it to be removed please?

David,

There is a single latch at the top of the seat with a spring-loaded plunger. The plunger engages into a channel around the top of the seat gun to stop the seat from sliding up the rail until the gun fires.

To remove the seat the plunger must be withdrawn against the spring pressure.

First two pictures show the top latch from both sides. The third picture shows the special top latch tool in place. It has two pins on it – one that it pivots on and the other than engages in a hole in the plunger. When the tool is pivoted (to the right in the picture) the plunger is withdrawn. You don’t really need the proper tool though, you can do it with a couple of screwdrivers.

Incidentally, these photos are of a Hunter seat but the Canberra is exactly the same arrangement.

Hope that helps.

cheers for that, you learn something new every day , post edited accordingly 🙂

No worries.

Mind you, having said the tailplane is above the jet efflux on a Vamp, it’s not THAT much above it! It’s close enough that the groundcrew used to drape an asbestos blanket over the tailplane to protect it during startup, especially ‘wet’ starts which must have been a fabulous, if slightly terrifying, sight!!!

But it is interesting to hear of a system applied to inside – anyone know if the technology for that is anything like I described?

Yes, there’s nothing new about the basic principle, it’s been around for years and is very effective – it’s what’s used in ‘noise cancelling’ headphones.

Put simply, microphones on the headphones ‘record’ the ambient sound in the room/aircraft cabin. That signal is inverted then mixed back in to the sound being played through the headset. The inverted signal then cancels out the ambient noise in the cabin due to ‘destructive interference’ and the end result is that the music, or whatever it is you WANT to hear, is still audible, but the ambient noise is eliminated.

I am just about to order a ton of BS381C -283 for the Spit cockpit detailing….is everyone reasonably happy with that standard?!
I have been buying paints from Fantastic Finishes on Ebay…..

283 is ideal in my opinion. That’s what I used for my Mosquito bits and it looks spot on.

I suspect asking £5k for this is a bit of a try-on. It will go for nowhere near that on eBay.

The seller will know that too, given that the last two Hunters he sold that way made less than £2k each, and one of those (a very complete and rare ex-RAF F.6) was a far more desirable aeroplane than any GA.11.

Keep Yourself Alive or Fat Bottomed Girls…….:confused:

Nope, can’t decide.

I passed her today and took this snap with my phone, the gun pack access doors have been stolen along with a couple of other panels from the underside.

It looks like they were removed properly but I saw in the starboard side gun shroud a half inch bolt hammered into the skin in an attempt to prize that off too.

Hmm. That’s intriguing isn’t it? These panels are very difficult to get hold of – I would hate to think that some Hunter “restorer” somewhere has taken the opportunity to acquire some this way…:mad:

MkXIII was set to zero before take off and indicates height above home aerodrome in flight. For landing at any other aerodrome height difference between both aerdromes needed to be known.

Hence HEIGHT not ALT on dial.

This is the important difference, i.e. to remember that ‘height’ and ‘altitude’ are not the same thing.

Strictly speaking, and put very simply, ‘height’ = distance above airfield (i.e. using QFE) whereas ‘altitude’ = distance above mean sea level (i.e. using QNH).

(QFE being the pressure setting an altimeter needs to be set to so that the instrument will read zero when on the ground at the airfield. QNH being the pressure setting to set in order for the altimeter to show the airfields elevation above sea level when on the ground.)

Whether the markings on the instrument face do/did strictly mean ‘height’ or ‘altitude’ though I’m not sure. For example, as I understand it the RAF generally use QFE to this day, yet their altimeters are marked with “Alt” not “Height”.

:confused: