...I'm afraid it's not that exciting really. As well as carrying a knee injury I have also been laid low with a proper stinker of a cold, so Sunday was never going to be that productive. Still, I showed willing, having been asked to get a pair of wing trestles serviceable in readiness for a new arrival at YAM this week. This I did with a lot of help from Danni, Eloise, Scott, some big hammers, penetrating oil, and interesting vocabulary!
This took the morning, and most of my energy. So in the afternoon I decided to have a gentle tidy of the shelf under the bench...
...and soon wished I hadn't! It did mean I found some more goodies to send to East Midlands Aeropark for their Meteors though, and a NOS port aileron access panel which I soon fitted. Means there's one less to make!
Then, some panels got a bit of paint added. Primer for the underwing access panels and NOS fuselage access hatch
More primer for the outer skin of the inner u/c door
And a couple of coats of black for the cockpit rear decking and the hyd tank access hatch
Now I'm off for a mug of hot chocolate with a slug of something "medicinal" in it!
Yep, I battled across a slightly soggy Yorkshire this morning to spend the day mollycoddling that old jet again! To be fair the weather this morning was good, as you'll see in the following picture of the wing trestle trolleys we spent last Sunday morning overhauling doing the good work of supporting the wings of our new arrival, ex-Linton On Ouse Jet Provost XN589
After some TLC she'll be resuming gate guard duties for us at YAM.
Anyway, back to 788, where our day started well with another donation to the jaffa cake stockpile!
I spent a chunk of the morning finishing the rub down of the inside of the starboard inner undercarriage door, and while I was at it one of the port nose panels which had been overlooked. I then replaced some blown rivets in the door, before treating both items to an etch prime
While I had the compressor out, and the gear set up for riveting, I got on with replacing the rivets in the port aileron trailing edge. This job was completed after lunch
So I then continued the afternoon throwing silver paint at various bits of the jet...
So not an unproductive day really. All being well... more tomorrow!
Thank you Blue. You are living proof that you CAN survive Key's attack on the site. Of course, it's "their" site, but without us it would not be here. And you are proof of that pudding. Also, congratulations for overcoming the problem of embedding your pictures in the text. Wonderful stuff.
Cheers Laurence. Yes we are still here, despite rather than thanks to Key, and only because I feel it'd be unfair to abandon our faithful non-Facebook followers who have supported us through the forum from the get-go. We'll keep plugging away...
03/11/2019 Update
It's an updatelet rather than a full update. Eloise and I were in the museum this afternoon, having been on business elsewhere on the airfield for the morning. We decided to get some more painting done... except I had run out of rollers and failed to acquire any more! So Plan B was formulated. But first, we decided to eat rather than hoard Jaffa Cakes, as modelled here by my Glamorous Assistant Eloise
You can tell its not my hand, the nail varnish is not my colour!! Anyway, plan B. Prepping and brush painting the rest of the rear cruciform fairing, and the insides of the 4 airbrake access doors we have. We own 2 sets, one off 788 and one off VZ568, and will use the best 2 from the 4.
Here the prep has begun. One has mysteriously got covered in oil at some point, so while it sat in some degreaser we reached for the Jaffa Cakes and hot chocolate, essential fuel for resto teams in autumn!
I then masked the fairing off
then painting commenced, me on the fairing and Eloise on the airbrake hatches. I finished my job first, and got a quick snap of work happening before grabbing one of the airbrake hatches myself to paint
Soon, we were done! A bench full of hatches...
And a rather tasty looking fairing...
How about a taste of things to come? While tidying away I fitted 2 of the freshly painted panels back on the jet for now...
These little tasters show, she's going to look a bit special when she's done!
Just to forewarn you all, there won't be a great deal in the way of news from us over the next 3 weekends. This coming Sunday is obviously our remembrance day, so there won't be loud hammering and riveting happening! The 2 weekends after there is a corporate event in the hangar so again, no engineering.
We will try and take items elsewhere on site to work on them and keep our momentum up; none of us want November to be a total loss of a month!
We may be moving 788's storage and work bench facilities soon, an exciting prospect indeed as this means we won't lose work days to hangar events etc. Fingers crossed...
...As I'm sure you can appreciate, given the fact that it was Remembrance Sunday yesterday, not very much engineering happened. It was one of those days that was more about the people than the aircraft, and rightly so. Given the museum's French connections, this took an unexpected turn later in the day for us on the Meteor team too; more on that later. But first, seeing as it was sunny, and the Meteor 8 has moved round to outside our side of the hangar, I decided to open her canopy to give her cockpit a few hours' airing out.
I thought seeing as this was a day for reflection, this shot seemed very appropriate. The number of crew killed flying these first generation jets, the Meteor, Vampire, Venom etc, as the RAF took its first steps into the Brave New World of jet operations are quite staggering.
A part of why we do what we do is for those chaps, who were then flying at the cutting edge of British aviation. It tends to be overlooked these days, just what a dicey business operating the early jets could be...
Anyway, in the morning before the ceremonials started I broke out the new stash of rollers I bought this week, and got the outer skin of the starboard inner undercarriage door and 2 of the airbrake access hatches in silver topcoat
Scott, Simon and myself then made our way to the memorial garden to join some of our visitors for the Silence at 11am. After this, not a great deal of work happened really, I was busy sorting some stuff for our move to the workshop for the next 2 weeks as we have had a work embargo put on us as Kia have hired half the hangar for a corporate event and don't want us noisy dirty oiks in there, so we'll cart stuff over to the workshop to work on. At least there's heaters in there!
After lunch, we were again largely busy with visitors etc, though we also got on with the laborious process of checking out the captive nuts in the forward fuselage sides. A number of the screws attaching these to 788 had had to be drilled out, and while the remains of the screws could be coaxed out of some with some deft application of mole grips, this didn't work for them all. So we played noughts and crosses on the jet, marking out the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...
Then the afternoon service and commemorations were carried out at YAM, which we were proud to attend. After this, I was asked to show some French visitors around the NF project. A lot of people forget that the NF was exported widely, including to the French air force. One of the French pilots inextricably linked with York is Yves Mahé, who as a wartime Hurricane night fighter pilot flew against German bombers attacking York during the Baedecker raids during 1942. This link tells you his story, and it is quite a story;
While I had of course heard of him, I was not aware that after his wartime service he rejoined the French air force, and was in 1962 killed flying a Meteor NF. The visitors I was asked to show around 788 were his son, and 5 grandsons, who were all keen to learn more about the type Yves died in. All had a sit in the cockpit, and went away knowing a lot more about the machine that sadly claimed their relative's life. That is one of the reasons why we do what we do to return 788 to her former glory...
As things started to quieten down, we made a start on replacing the duff captive nuts on the starboard side and turning those crosses into noughts...
before calling it a day. I'll leave you with this picture...
Well I tried to respond this morning Malcolm, but it appears the forum had yet another rush of sh*t to the brain. Still, it seems to be working now. It was a very wintery bonus day in the hangar today; with this in mind Eloise and I fortified ourselves with cookies as well as Jaffa Cakes!
Today, we decided to make a start on removing the port lower engine nacelle skin, prior to fitting the first of the pair of shiny new examples sent our way by East Midlands Aeropark. To ease access, the port main undercarriage door had to be taken back off first
This duly done, we then started in with the fibre wheels on the rivet lines, to reveal the rivets requiring drilling out
I soon had most of the inboard side of the nacelle cleared...
So while Eloise finished the outboard side I hopped into the nacelle to commence the attack on the rib rivets
Eloise soon had her side done. I was still working in the nacelle so, rather than have her start drilling rivets out of the nacelle and potentially holes in me, she went and began rivet chasing on the other nacelle. She got a good bit of it done too, before I called her back as I was ready for the rivet removal to commence!
This gives us a head start on the starboard nacelle. And so, the drill-athon began...
Not the most exciting of things to look at, a row of holes! While I was down there I took a couple of pictures to show you all just why we need to do this work, and why the new lower nacelles are such a godsend...
It ain't pretty, is it?!
By close of play I think we had 75% of the rivets out...
...and enjoying a new life as piles of swarf!
So, more next time. The good news is, the corporate event in the hangar will be less disruptive than we feared, so it'll be more or less business as usual for the next fortnight!
Posts: 5,088
By: Blue_2 - 28th October 2019 at 20:15 Permalink
28/10/2019 Update
...I'm afraid it's not that exciting really. As well as carrying a knee injury I have also been laid low with a proper stinker of a cold, so Sunday was never going to be that productive. Still, I showed willing, having been asked to get a pair of wing trestles serviceable in readiness for a new arrival at YAM this week. This I did with a lot of help from Danni, Eloise, Scott, some big hammers, penetrating oil, and interesting vocabulary!
This took the morning, and most of my energy. So in the afternoon I decided to have a gentle tidy of the shelf under the bench...
...and soon wished I hadn't! It did mean I found some more goodies to send to East Midlands Aeropark for their Meteors though, and a NOS port aileron access panel which I soon fitted. Means there's one less to make!
Then, some panels got a bit of paint added. Primer for the underwing access panels and NOS fuselage access hatch
More primer for the outer skin of the inner u/c door
And a couple of coats of black for the cockpit rear decking and the hyd tank access hatch
Now I'm off for a mug of hot chocolate with a slug of something "medicinal" in it!
Posts: 582
By: DH82EH - 28th October 2019 at 23:54 Permalink
Just what the doctor ordered!
Look after yourself friend.
Andy
Posts: 5,088
By: Blue_2 - 29th October 2019 at 18:10 Permalink - Edited 29th October 2019 at 18:11
I'm doing my best Andy! I don't take well to being out of commission...
Posts: 1,566
By: Malcolm McKay - 29th October 2019 at 21:46 Permalink
That's the spirit Blu_2, keep battling on. Every little bit done is a step forward to the sunlit uplands of ...... Oh hell I ran out of cliches ?
Posts: 5,088
By: Blue_2 - 30th October 2019 at 12:25 Permalink
Thankyou for that stirring motivational speech Malcolm! The cold is shifting, so hopefully this weekend may be more productive...
Posts: 5,088
By: Blue_2 - 2nd November 2019 at 18:12 Permalink
02/11/2019 Update
Yep, I battled across a slightly soggy Yorkshire this morning to spend the day mollycoddling that old jet again! To be fair the weather this morning was good, as you'll see in the following picture of the wing trestle trolleys we spent last Sunday morning overhauling doing the good work of supporting the wings of our new arrival, ex-Linton On Ouse Jet Provost XN589
After some TLC she'll be resuming gate guard duties for us at YAM.
Anyway, back to 788, where our day started well with another donation to the jaffa cake stockpile!
I spent a chunk of the morning finishing the rub down of the inside of the starboard inner undercarriage door, and while I was at it one of the port nose panels which had been overlooked. I then replaced some blown rivets in the door, before treating both items to an etch prime
While I had the compressor out, and the gear set up for riveting, I got on with replacing the rivets in the port aileron trailing edge. This job was completed after lunch
So I then continued the afternoon throwing silver paint at various bits of the jet...
So not an unproductive day really. All being well... more tomorrow!
Posts: 2,115
By: l.garey - 3rd November 2019 at 10:48 Permalink
Thank you Blue. You are living proof that you CAN survive Key's attack on the site. Of course, it's "their" site, but without us it would not be here. And you are proof of that pudding. Also, congratulations for overcoming the problem of embedding your pictures in the text. Wonderful stuff.
Laurence
Posts: 5,088
By: Blue_2 - 3rd November 2019 at 17:14 Permalink
Cheers Laurence. Yes we are still here, despite rather than thanks to Key, and only because I feel it'd be unfair to abandon our faithful non-Facebook followers who have supported us through the forum from the get-go. We'll keep plugging away...
03/11/2019 Update
It's an updatelet rather than a full update. Eloise and I were in the museum this afternoon, having been on business elsewhere on the airfield for the morning. We decided to get some more painting done... except I had run out of rollers and failed to acquire any more! So Plan B was formulated. But first, we decided to eat rather than hoard Jaffa Cakes, as modelled here by my Glamorous Assistant Eloise
You can tell its not my hand, the nail varnish is not my colour!! Anyway, plan B. Prepping and brush painting the rest of the rear cruciform fairing, and the insides of the 4 airbrake access doors we have. We own 2 sets, one off 788 and one off VZ568, and will use the best 2 from the 4.
Here the prep has begun. One has mysteriously got covered in oil at some point, so while it sat in some degreaser we reached for the Jaffa Cakes and hot chocolate, essential fuel for resto teams in autumn!
I then masked the fairing off
then painting commenced, me on the fairing and Eloise on the airbrake hatches. I finished my job first, and got a quick snap of work happening before grabbing one of the airbrake hatches myself to paint
Soon, we were done! A bench full of hatches...
And a rather tasty looking fairing...
How about a taste of things to come? While tidying away I fitted 2 of the freshly painted panels back on the jet for now...
These little tasters show, she's going to look a bit special when she's done!
Posts: 1,566
By: Malcolm McKay - 3rd November 2019 at 21:29 Permalink
More good work done - a great tribute to the energy and creative powers derived from a diet of Jaffa Cakes.
That fairing looks very impressive.
Posts: 582
By: DH82EH - 4th November 2019 at 00:30 Permalink
Thanks Blue.
You folks are making great strides and look like you are having lots of fun!
I can see this thread being worth checking in on this forum from time to time.
Press on!
Andy
Posts: 5,088
By: Blue_2 - 4th November 2019 at 07:31 Permalink
We keep plugging away with the old beast. Still a long way to go, but nearing 4 years into this project we have come a long way too!
Next year should see big strides forward. If what's in the pipeline pays off, 788 will present as a very different machine this time next year!
Posts: 5,088
By: Blue_2 - 5th November 2019 at 12:01 Permalink
Just to forewarn you all, there won't be a great deal in the way of news from us over the next 3 weekends. This coming Sunday is obviously our remembrance day, so there won't be loud hammering and riveting happening! The 2 weekends after there is a corporate event in the hangar so again, no engineering.
We will try and take items elsewhere on site to work on them and keep our momentum up; none of us want November to be a total loss of a month!
We may be moving 788's storage and work bench facilities soon, an exciting prospect indeed as this means we won't lose work days to hangar events etc. Fingers crossed...
Posts: 146
By: Trak-Tor - 5th November 2019 at 14:05 Permalink
Great to see you eating it all up, piece by piece!
?
Posts: 1,988
By: jeepman - 6th November 2019 at 08:45 Permalink
Do you mean the big box of Jaffa Cakes or the Meteor?
Posts: 146
By: Trak-Tor - 6th November 2019 at 11:52 Permalink
Both, of course. ?
I have to taste those cakes while visiting the UK next time.
Maybe I'll find some nice old aeroplane in my backyard after eating a few...
Juraj
Posts: 556
By: me109g4 - 8th November 2019 at 02:27 Permalink
Living in the States do you realize how many yrs. its been since i had a Jaffa cake??? sheer torment to see boxes of them but so far away. lol.
Posts: 5,088
By: Blue_2 - 9th November 2019 at 08:59 Permalink
Jaffa cakes and morale go hand in hand I find; Happy tummies= happy team!
Posts: 5,088
By: Blue_2 - 11th November 2019 at 07:48 Permalink
11/11/2019 Update
...As I'm sure you can appreciate, given the fact that it was Remembrance Sunday yesterday, not very much engineering happened. It was one of those days that was more about the people than the aircraft, and rightly so. Given the museum's French connections, this took an unexpected turn later in the day for us on the Meteor team too; more on that later. But first, seeing as it was sunny, and the Meteor 8 has moved round to outside our side of the hangar, I decided to open her canopy to give her cockpit a few hours' airing out.
I thought seeing as this was a day for reflection, this shot seemed very appropriate. The number of crew killed flying these first generation jets, the Meteor, Vampire, Venom etc, as the RAF took its first steps into the Brave New World of jet operations are quite staggering.
A part of why we do what we do is for those chaps, who were then flying at the cutting edge of British aviation. It tends to be overlooked these days, just what a dicey business operating the early jets could be...
Anyway, in the morning before the ceremonials started I broke out the new stash of rollers I bought this week, and got the outer skin of the starboard inner undercarriage door and 2 of the airbrake access hatches in silver topcoat
Scott, Simon and myself then made our way to the memorial garden to join some of our visitors for the Silence at 11am. After this, not a great deal of work happened really, I was busy sorting some stuff for our move to the workshop for the next 2 weeks as we have had a work embargo put on us as Kia have hired half the hangar for a corporate event and don't want us noisy dirty oiks in there, so we'll cart stuff over to the workshop to work on. At least there's heaters in there!
After lunch, we were again largely busy with visitors etc, though we also got on with the laborious process of checking out the captive nuts in the forward fuselage sides. A number of the screws attaching these to 788 had had to be drilled out, and while the remains of the screws could be coaxed out of some with some deft application of mole grips, this didn't work for them all. So we played noughts and crosses on the jet, marking out the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...
Then the afternoon service and commemorations were carried out at YAM, which we were proud to attend. After this, I was asked to show some French visitors around the NF project. A lot of people forget that the NF was exported widely, including to the French air force. One of the French pilots inextricably linked with York is Yves Mahé, who as a wartime Hurricane night fighter pilot flew against German bombers attacking York during the Baedecker raids during 1942. This link tells you his story, and it is quite a story;
http://yorkcivictrust.co.uk/heritage/civic-trust-plaques/yves-mahe-1919-1962/
While I had of course heard of him, I was not aware that after his wartime service he rejoined the French air force, and was in 1962 killed flying a Meteor NF. The visitors I was asked to show around 788 were his son, and 5 grandsons, who were all keen to learn more about the type Yves died in. All had a sit in the cockpit, and went away knowing a lot more about the machine that sadly claimed their relative's life. That is one of the reasons why we do what we do to return 788 to her former glory...
As things started to quieten down, we made a start on replacing the duff captive nuts on the starboard side and turning those crosses into noughts...
before calling it a day. I'll leave you with this picture...
Posts: 1,566
By: Malcolm McKay - 11th November 2019 at 21:51 Permalink
Thanks Blu_2 - another fine update from the Operation Jaffa Cake team. ?
Posts: 5,088
By: Blue_2 - 12th November 2019 at 18:16 Permalink
12/11/2019 Update
Well I tried to respond this morning Malcolm, but it appears the forum had yet another rush of sh*t to the brain. Still, it seems to be working now. It was a very wintery bonus day in the hangar today; with this in mind Eloise and I fortified ourselves with cookies as well as Jaffa Cakes!
Today, we decided to make a start on removing the port lower engine nacelle skin, prior to fitting the first of the pair of shiny new examples sent our way by East Midlands Aeropark. To ease access, the port main undercarriage door had to be taken back off first
This duly done, we then started in with the fibre wheels on the rivet lines, to reveal the rivets requiring drilling out
I soon had most of the inboard side of the nacelle cleared...
So while Eloise finished the outboard side I hopped into the nacelle to commence the attack on the rib rivets
Eloise soon had her side done. I was still working in the nacelle so, rather than have her start drilling rivets out of the nacelle and potentially holes in me, she went and began rivet chasing on the other nacelle. She got a good bit of it done too, before I called her back as I was ready for the rivet removal to commence!
This gives us a head start on the starboard nacelle. And so, the drill-athon began...
Not the most exciting of things to look at, a row of holes! While I was down there I took a couple of pictures to show you all just why we need to do this work, and why the new lower nacelles are such a godsend...
It ain't pretty, is it?!
By close of play I think we had 75% of the rivets out...
...and enjoying a new life as piles of swarf!
So, more next time. The good news is, the corporate event in the hangar will be less disruptive than we feared, so it'll be more or less business as usual for the next fortnight!