and when I first saw that T21 at Enstone I thought that the fuselage looked fairly OK………..

It was fairly OK. But we want it to be really really good. And that means all the botchjobs have to go. 😀

Now here’s a shocker. We pulled out the old stabilizer struts attachment that holds 2 of the 6 bolts that attach the stabilizer to the fuselage. It went out for reasons of play on the bushings, and oversize drilled holes that left far too little meat on the metal for safety (one of the lugs actually failed when we manually pulled it out).

But we were appalled when it came out and the extent of corrosion became visible that had not been noticable when it was still in place. Large surface areas just powdered into dust, and in some cases the exfoliation was over a fifth of the thickness of the aluminium… Oh, and yes, somebody had replaced one half somewhere along the line, and in order to do so had cut the bracket in half with a hacksaw. For comparison: see post #143 for a picture of what it should look like and is about to go in…

Thank you very much for the fittings Dave!

In the meantime, a picture of the cockpit showing some progress.

And we have fitted the stabilizer for the first time in about two decades to re-align the overhauled stabilizer attachent brackets… Cut-out for the elevator will be done as soon as the lower strut fitting is in, and the plywood is finished.

I presume, by your comment, Eric, that you feel some bits of ancient aviation hardware are more important than the people who are likely to be killed/injured by Sandy, and/or the businesses and/or livelihoods that will be destroyed?

Most definitely not. And apologies if it could be read that way, I just thought it outside the scope of this forum. Having been through a major disaster myself I know only too well what the impact of such an event is on peoples’ lives.