Pistonrob – thanks for the background… lucky ******! That’s a sweet baby Matchless – what one? And forgive me for a lack of aviation knowledge but is that a Griffon engine in the Spitfire and flames firing up and the 5 bladed prop?

Lovely clean sketch work there AA – I love it. So clean and accurate!

If you have a look at the panels in this orthgographic view of the Wellington medium bomber, and the bottom picture of the MkIII (and others) which shows a panel about the shape and size (4ft long with a closing curve) on that shown in this thread. This is just forward of the undercarriage wheel. It may be required to pivot open in the action of lowering U/C. It may not be this piece at all but…

Picture C/- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Wellington

Very narrow strip too, prop strike after the bounce – ouch! Then a lack of taxiing skills… at least it stayed right way up – just.

I think that part of the film was for the other plane, or for an earlier pass. Check out 26:42-48 for the same damaged image as shown above.

Wings Over Wairarapa was a great sunny weekend – except for the cold blustery Friday and hot breezy Saturday afternoon. Sunday was calmer and so much more fun to watch. It’s on again in two years time… I’ll drive five hours again next time, I won’t miss it!

You can watch a video looking down on the airshow from an Avro Anson here… lovely seeing her banked over so much. It is a 747 pilot at the controls…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ir5Rg2M3ytg

At Kasfareet, there may be data available from NASA with their satellite sub surface soil and mineral analysis that would show up as anomalies. How do we get that information?

The Bristol Pegasus (32,000 approx) were used in the Fairey Swordfish and in the Short Sunderland flying boat and lot of others like a huge range of Vickers craft including the Wellington bomber. A huge range listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Pegasus The Wellington description and some photos are here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Wellington The aircraft the Fraser Nash / Thompson turrets were fitted to is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_%26_Thomson which includes a couple of planes I mentioned but the Short Sunderland had a two gun rotating dorsal turret… Interesting research…

Looking at it again with the “handle/stem” removed, there is an opening to the rollers/rolled felt or whatever from one side only – the left as we look at the picture. To the right it is closed off. So there is only motion or objects or visibility from the one side.

The stem/handle has not had anything mounted on it – there are no wear marks at all and to me it appears to be an offset distance with a locating spigot at the farthest end – the rusty bit.

Those rollers or whatever, are not moved by the rotating pieces – once the handle is off, it does not show any connection between the two, (ok on further inspection, the cogs etc are mounted on the cast aluminium bit so they can adjust “wicks”) perhaps it is part of a guiding mechanism if something comes in to the opening from the left. They are not steel rollers, they are a fibrous material of some sort formed into that shape and look as if they could absorb a light oil with a wick below into the larger bowl.

A real puzzle!!