A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Thread

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Member for

13 years 1 month

Posts: 524

Of course I'm reading this!:)

Fantastic picture, exactly as required, thank you!

It certainly answers a few questions for me regarding identifying part numbers and grip fitment to later (NF) Meteors however, I am now just wondering if this AC14242, was a replacement or improved grip, just fitted to the post 'operational' aircraft (originally fitted with the AC10522), following conversion to more 'mundane' training roles, or an original fit for the NF14?

Any ideas? Anyone?

Martyn

GYD

Member for

14 years 1 month

Posts: 5,088

Well it has safe/fire buttons, and the NF (T) was unarmed, so my guess would be it was maybe an upgrade while 788 was still an NF?

Member for

15 years 6 months

Posts: 14

"RESTORATION"

Well it has safe/fire buttons, and the NF (T) was unarmed, so my guess would be it was maybe an upgrade while 788 was still an NF?

Well boys, you seem to be having lots of fun.

But I see little evidence of any serious RESTORATION.

Foolish action to apply power to an aircraft whose cables and wiring have been attacked with axe and hacksaw.
A fire extinguisher would have probably been useless as any electrical flash fire would likely be in the forward equipment hatch. (Inaccessible until the ventral tank is removed).

Exciting to hear relays clunk, but restoration it aint.

Get a plan and stick to it. The knuckle crunching, grotty jobs, like freeing up all the moveable parts, removing corrosion, and applying preservative should come first. Then it’s time to play.

C’mon boys. It can be done!

Member for

14 years 3 months

Posts: 1,665

Foolish action to isolate everything at the cable breaks to get around the hatchet job on the centre section and use the AP to make sure we're on the right lines and looking in the right places? Don't think so. Foolish to check the state of the wiring and test continuity and insulation on the bits that looks suspect? Again, I don't think so.

Your way isn't the only way. Yes we are having fun and part of that is figuring just how much of a Meteor we have left, and what parts of it still work. As you know we don't have the luxury of a roof over it, or the space and time to take it apart to the last nut and bolt. Part of bringing that limited small clunk of life back is to make people notice. To make us and our jet stand out and hopefully gain some donations through the museum sponsorship scheme. The grotty jobs will get done. But the plan is our plan, done our way.

Keep watching and you'll see how it takes shape. Despite how it looks we're not making this up as we go along.

Regards,
Rich

Member for

11 years 2 months

Posts: 24

Well said richw

Member for

14 years 1 month

Posts: 5,088

Grotty jobs you say? I spent a good chunk of yesterday skinning knuckles and cursing roundly whilst trying to undo long seized screws to gain entry to the port side access panels. I think that counts, don't you?

Beyond a doubt the jet is in a better place than she was this time last year. That counts as restoration. As do the myriad unglamorous jobs we are doing behind the scenes but don't bother telling the world about. You don't all need to know about the production line I have in the garage of bits being de-corroded and returned to a serviceable state for the jet. We only cover the reader friendly bits on here.
Belittling our efforts, and the time and money we have personally invested in the jet helps nobody.

Member for

15 years 6 months

Posts: 14

So I touched a nerve.

No belittling intended.Remember I was asked for advice. And advice is what I’m offering

This is an historic Museum artifact. To be visited and admired.

In show business first impressions are vital.

What I’m saying is: IMHO, the priority should be an authentic refurbishment of the aircraft externally.

This will make it stand out, and is more likely to attract visitors and sponsorship than a wreck in which
an unseen relay goes clunk and the landing lights glow.

Well, you did ask.

Sandy

Member for

14 years 1 month

Posts: 5,088

An email of advice would have sufficed Sandy. It has always worked in the past...

Any reason you chose this way instead?

Member for

14 years 1 month

Posts: 5,088

Right, having taken a moment of 'quiet reflection', after Sandy's comments I feel it is time to reiterate what we are attempting to achieve, and what we are up against.
Back in November/December I started work, on my own, to save a very unloved NF14 which was sitting in a lake in the museum's back lot. Don't believe me? See page 1. Since then I have acquired 2 more team members with help from other museum members too. Our intent is to restore as much of the jet to working order as we can, and demonstrate it as regularly as possible. This will help preserve the jet, as anyone knows the best way to keep something in working order is to use it! You can go to several museums in the country and see a tidy, shiny NF14. Most visitors won't give it a second glance. But if that aircraft is doing something, or is clearly about to, even if it is just flash the lights up we've got the punters' attention. Yesterday people were walking past the shiny but dead Tonka, Mirage etc. to see the Meteor. Why? Because we had the canopy and panels open, and something was clearly going to happen. A live aircraft engages the public in a way a dead one cannot, no matter how shiny it is.
Obviously this means we need panels off regularly until the jet works reliably. Therefore until the mechanicals and electricals are sorted there is no point painting the jet!
Where we currently are on site is the back of beyond, far from electric, essential for a lot of the scheduled jobs we have lined up for the jet such as getting rid of the grot. To give you an idea of what our location means, a simple thing such as inflating the tyres means several long tedious trips dragging the compressor back to the far end of the hangar to plug it in and top it up. Not fun.
We are pushing to move the jet to extension lead range of a plug socket, but we have to work around the needs and requirements of the other aircraft and projects. As soon as we are nearer electric the project will suddenly come on as we can get our teeth into the major tasks.
We are, and will remain, outdoors. This means we are at the mercy of the weather Gods. I don't know if anyone else noticed but it has spent quite a bit of time raining up here in the last few months. Really helpful when you are trying to restore a jet outdoors.
So there you have it. What we are trying to achieve, why we are trying to achieve it, and what we are up against. I hope the majority of the forum approve, and will continue to follow, support and encourage us. We really need you guys behind us!

Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 80

For what is worth I applaud the efforts you've put into the restoration so far. So easy to be a critic from a far away sofa but deciding on a workable strategy to get the most from limited resources and time is hard work and won't please all people all the time. All the best with your efforts and please keep the updates coming it always brightens my Monday

Member for

18 years 2 months

Posts: 136

I always look forward to your updates!!!! Keep up the SUPERB efforts!!!

Richy

Member for

11 years 3 months

Posts: 150

Keep up the great work chaps! One of my favorite threads on the forum this is and I always look forward to the latest installment.

Member for

13 years

Posts: 332

I can only echo Blues sentiments. As a person who has seen the jet close up, I can tell you it has improved immensely, yes some of it isn't yet visible but it will be. Also as a person who also works outside on our Jet I can tell you the weather very much dictates what you can and cannot do. The weather this year as been very bad I can give you an example how wet it has been. Yesterday was a very hot day, there has not been much rain lately. but there had been so much rain earlier in the year the ground in certain places was still boggy! six months after the main floods! The comment made was you need something to make it stand out, well firstly this thread has attracted a lot of attention and second were a friendly lot at the museum and we do get folk talking and looking that goes for us on the Victor or on Blues Meteor once finished it will be a star trust me I know his work ethic.

Member for

16 years 2 months

Posts: 266

I must say i am impressed by the way the project is slowly coming back to life even if it is just a clunk of a relay ,but its one step closer to power being applied again and things coming back to life and looking alive again than being sat there nice and shiny but dormant. It lived once and deserves to live again. I for one hate to see things just sat there looking nice but no sign of life. I cant wait to see the day when she is fully restored and alive as far as restoration will allow. Well done everyone and keep up the good work and i will come and visit soon and lend a hand with whatever i can to help you out :)

Member for

12 years

Posts: 87

Keep up the sterling effort and the updates I always look forward to reading them. Every restoration has to start somewhere, when I've done cars in the past the first thing I start with is figuring out what's good and what's not. Doing so enables me to save the time spent cosmetically restoring parts only to find they either don't work or are not reliable. Also this often means when I get to the shiny paint stage everything is good to go which means less scope for damaging the fresh paint debugging a thorny issue. Looking at the electric trickery means you will have been pretty much all over the jet so will have a good idea what's lurking and needs sorting out on the metalwork side. The flip side of it is we all need a pick me up at points during a resto and there's nothing quite like breathing life back into long dormant machines to perk up your day.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 10,168

Rich and Blue, keep doing what your doing.. It is pointless painting the outside of her yet only to have the paint marred damaged etc by all the work ongoing... you don't ice a cake first then put it in the oven to cook right!? :)

Member for

11 years 5 months

Posts: 11,141

Blue - your last paragraph above says it all. I endorse your intentions for the jet and applaud your small team for the clear progress made in such a relatively short time. Keep up the good work and continue to do it "your way".

Member for

14 years 5 months

Posts: 2,172

Why is it that if someone makes such a remark that everyone does their utmost best to lay praise all over this topic, as if the team would drop everthing
and leave. If someone has a different view that does nothing to degrade the work the team are doing on this Meteor. So two Meteors have had or are having TLC
laid onto them. When I visited YAM last November I was standing next to it and thought why is it standing here so sad in a pool of water. Now it is being worked on,
great isn't it.
Forget the rest.
Cheers
Cees

Member for

16 years 7 months

Posts: 2,820

I don't think I've posted here for a couple of years, too many spats (like this) for my taste but I still take a look every now and again. I saw this via a popular and well known social media site and felt compelled to make a comment. If it wasn't for the efforts of people like those involved on the project, all us armchair fans would have is pictures. No hands on, nothing tactile, nothing real. I hope that you can stick with it, and maybe get some valid, workable support from the critics, a public "pop" isn't helping at all, but I appreciate the effort, it means I have something to show my children, tangible and real that brings history alive.

Member for

11 years 9 months

Posts: 421

Blue said "You don't all need to know about the production line I have in the garage of bits being de-corroded and returned to a serviceable state for the jet."

I for one would love to see a few pictures of that process!!

Andy