New Bungs for Lindy!

As time goes on, age and the weather take their toll, especially on the softer items such as weather protection.

One such item we have run out of are some of the 'bungs and blanks', all very necessary to keep the weather, insects and birds out. The bungs simply rot away over time and in some 20+ years the stock of them has been gradually used up.

It was decided that some new one's had to be made as prototypes so, after a sheet of the correct material was kindly donated by Gary Hancock, YAM employee and former Bae Apprentice it was decided that Danielle would have a go at making some.

The end result is pretty good for a first attempt and these are for the Powered Flying Control Air Intakes in the leading edges of the wings.

Any bungs or blanks from any aircraft type can be modified to fit so, anyone with such items lying around please let me know!

Preparation for 7th August 'Thunder Day'

Its been a while since anything was posted on the blog. But, rest assured work has continued on XL231 as usual. Every Sunday and other days.

The Museum's final 'Thunder Day' for this year will be on the 7th August. ALL activities and engine runs  will be on the Museum site. There will be NO taxi runs for this event.

One item of necessity is fire detection so, regular checks are carried out on XL231's engine detection and other zones of the aircraft. Pictured are the individual engine fire warnings during test and the 'attention getter' that was fitted as a modification to ensure the Captain saw any fire warning as it occurred. To operate the relevant fire extinguisher the illuminated button is pressed.

 

Gulf War Victor pilot reunited with XL231

A surprise visit on Sunday the 24th April brought another ex-Victor K2 pilot Flt Lt Dave Attwood along for a look at XL231.  He didn't seem to be disappointed by what he saw and we thoroughly enjoyed showing the Victor to him once again.

Dave flew Victor's for a considerable time, including Gulf War 1 (Operation Granby) and was on No55 Squadron until the end of Victor operations in October 1993. He delivered XL161 to RAF Lyneham as one of his last duties for fire training purposes and in order to complete 2000 hours on the Victor K2 took some 2+hours to transit from RAF Marham in Norfolk, to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire!


Dave Attwood in the Captain's seat during a TV interview in 1993

In the Captain's seat again 23 years later!

First Full Engine Runs of 2016

The 3rd April was The Yorkshire Air Museum's 'Thunder Day' with myself not only running my own XL231 along with the teams support but, also being the 'responsible person' in charge of the event.

The event, despite being static engine runs only was extremely successful on visitor attendance and the Bae Nimrod MR2, Douglas DC-3, DeHavilland Devon and Se5 aircraft were also all run successfully.
                                       
                                             
                                         
                     Port engines at high power

The next planned event is on the 7th May. The Victor and Nimrod will be taxied on the airfield parking apron which is 52 acres (yes 52) of concrete! and the Douglas DC-3 will be on the runway for its first high power taxi tests with a current DC-3 pilot at the controls, with myself in the co-pilot's seat.

Compass change for Lindy!

The Smiths Military Flight System (MFS)  Beam compass for the co-pilot's position failed several years ago and as it is 'type specific' for the Victor K2. I found it impossible to locate the correct one.and so I had to replace it with a Vulcan B2 version which is a Type B. The Victor is modified up to Type C. They are externally identical to each other but with some differing operations . I was lucky to be able to finally locate a correct and unused Type C at Newark Aerojumble and so team member Tom Winter (ex-55 Squadron INSTIE) changed it last Sunday and it is fully serviceable and the system fully working.

A new Basket for Lindy!

In December I asked a question to a friend at Cobham Aviation, formerly Flight Refueling Ltd about the possible chances of replacing some of the Air to Air Refueling kit fitted to the Victor, if anything suitable was available.

Luckily, I was offered a serviceable Mk17B Hose Drum Unit basket which is actually a Victor one and which we soon eagerly went to collect from Cobham Aviation!

This will soon be replacing the one currently installed in the bombay in XL231. In the main due to the fact that during service some of the basket spokes were bent during a bad contact with a receiver aircraft. The damage is commonly known as being 'spoked'.

Auxiliary Power Unit fuel valve

Artouste Auxiliary Power Unit fuel solenoid valve

After numerous unexpected shutdowns of the APU over recent years it was deduced that the valve which controls the fuel supply for starting and running the APU was sticking. Several attempts at repairing the valve have met with limited success so I decided to look at replacing the valve as a 'New Years Resolution!'.  Obviously, with 1960's era equipment its difficult to locate a replacement so, I decided to go for a modern equivalent. A commercially available valve used in domestic fuel oil heating systems! In fact some fuel oil is reclaimed jet fuel.  A couple of replacement adaptors were required because the original valve had male threaded adaptors and the new valve had female threads and this required a bit of homework. Anyway the end result is ready to fit back in for testing and wirelocking in place.

New valve fitted and the old valve shown for comparison