Saturday 22 February 2014

Beer Anyone?


Here is a pic of a original Victor K2 beer mat - would be great if we could persuade a brewery to do special ale as a tribute to the Victor fleet.

Any brewery up for the challenge?

Friday 7 February 2014

Signal Flare Rack


XL231's signal flare rack, mounted in the cabin roof, removed for over overhaul and repainting.



The RAF had carried out a crude repair to reinforce the rack as the stowage socket for the Navigators oxygen and comms lead 'umblical' had at some point been been torn out. I decided to leave the repair as it would have been a major task to totally rebuild the panel




The old paint was removed before the panel was bead blasted clean, the clips for the flares are steel and were slightly rusted, so blasting was the only option. Once repainted used flares were put back in the rack as we can't have live ones!



Fuel Tank Switch Panel

Following overhaul of the co-pilot's fuel flow panel it was necessary to loosen the fuel tank switch panel. This panel controls which tanks are refueled and which are not, flicking the switch forward puts the tanks refuel solenoid valve to 'IN USE'. 

Some of the switches were intermittent in their operation, not many were matching and all were original to XL231 and the panel was also cosmetically looking its age. Therefore I decided to bite the bullet and remove it, not an easy task while making sure the aircraft is still capable of being live during the task in hand. 

However, it was removed successfully and then stripped and repainted the correct light aircraft grey colour and new switches trial fitted, as well as a replacement magnetic indicator for the fuel probe nitrogen purge system. The adhesive captions for the switches are being replicated by team member Ian Finch .