A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

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TonyC
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by TonyC »

Excellent update, it's these 'little' jobs that move the project along, that I enjoy and no mention of a sizzling meaty strip wrapped in bread, or biscuit/cake of choice in sight!

Are you on a diet or something? :grinning:
...and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in Space cos there's bugger all down here on Earth!

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Blue_2
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

Tony, unfortunately we no longer have reasonably-priced bacon on hand to start the day with sadly.
As to Jaffa cakes, only yesterday a box was received!
Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
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RAF4EVER
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by RAF4EVER »

Start your own pig farm? :smiling_imp:

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Blue_2
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

...or bring a gas burner!
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hunterxf382
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by hunterxf382 »

Another excellent update Graham.... despite the agony of the lack of bacon! The Jaffa's might be nice - but no substitute for a hearty sarnie :(

And you somehow manage to add to your 'fleet' list with the JP work - quite a wide range from Halifax to that :)
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by K5054NZ »

Welcome back Graham. It warms my heart to see a new update from you!
Zac in NZ
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Blue_2
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

It's good to be back in action! Back at it again this weekend too, so you'll be spoiled with another update...
Pete, while it's not my first rodeo with a JP, given the sheer variety of aircraft we have on site (and the ones I'm involved with elsewhere) it certainly pays to try to not be too specialised. After all, they all need some love and attention occasionally!
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by hunterxf382 »

I think you're just secretly creating your own squadron of the Yorkshire Air Force myself...lol ;)
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

We probably outnumber the serviceable strength of the RAF...!
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

I've just about thawed out enough to approach the keyboard and start writing...

17/01/2022 Update
No two ways about it, it was absolutely freezing at Elvington this weekend. We arrived in the ice and fog to find the poor Hurricane freezing its bits off...
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This didn't bode well for the hangar being any warmer an environment... and it wasn't! Kane, Scott and myself were in, and we decided to huddle round the work lamp and the Derwent for warmth. First job was amazing Kane with a crash course in the noble art of gasket making
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The youth of today it seems have no Plan B for when their car parts turn up without a gasket, or they knacker the gasket while fitting the part. As a veteran of many hours spent removing the skin from my knuckles on various old British and American cars, cutting gaskets from gasket paper (or on one very, very desperate occasion from a corn flakes packet for an MGB water pump. It worked...) is nothing new to me. I used the thickest gasket paper I had as the bottom of the tank where this gasket and the filter housing fit has some minor damage. This thickest gasket should snuggle in there nicely, and give the best chance of sealing. While I was trying to minimise this damage even further, and Scott was slackening the tank straps back off to try and make refitting the filter housing a tad less of an awkward pain, Kane was busy cleaning out the oil tank filter. This, you may remember, was removed before Christmas and was chock full of crud, so we left it in a bath of degreaser over the festive period to soften up. As the filter was...
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And after Kane persuaded this lot out of it...
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It looked much better
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You can't ask for it to be much cleaner than this!
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Where it will sit back in the tank, with the new gasket in place
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We called it early for lunch, to go get a brew and thaw out! On our way we visited the JP to view this week's progress. She looks much better with her tail feathers back on!
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Outside looked no better at all though...
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...so brew and jaffa cake time it was!
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After lunch, from which we did not exactly rush back to the cold hangar from the warm crewroom, Gary came in to supervise a "can you just" job he'd asked us to do, namely placing the canopy back on our neighbour, the Vampire T.11. This was achieved with no real problems, and she looks much better for it.
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I think that might be a little bit of a smile on her now!
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Then we reinstalled the filter housing on the Derwent's oil tank.
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Who would have thought 6 washers, 6 nuts, one pipe, one jubilee clip, and 2 earth bonding leads would cause is such problems?! But a mix of poor access, cold fingers, and did I mention poor access, meant this took absolutely ages. Still, we got there in the end, and hopefully we'll never need to remove that housing again! After this we headed back to the crewroom for another brew and thaw out, seeing as lighting up 788's starboard engine for the first time didn't really thaw our extremities as well as we had hoped!
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As someone pointed out on the facebook page, being tight Yorkshiremen we are using smaller than the factory spec powerplants. Sadly, even with the use of reheat, we are not getting the hoped-for power returns...
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Yes, I think the cold was getting to our sanity!
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After a brew and a warm, we had a lot of lockwiring to carry out on the engine, basically everything we had disturbed to fit the igniter system.
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We took this as another training opportunity for Kane, an ideal thing for him to learn the Dark Art on...
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And yes he was taught to fold the tails over. Nobody enjoys the life-affirming experience that is a wire tail under the fingernail! One very last job was to apply some paint stripper to the overpainted placard we noticed on the oil tank...
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Give it a few days to work its magic in the Yorkshire Baltic temperatures and we'll see what it says (no spoilers please, anyone who already knows!). That was about it for Saturday. Sunday, Scott and I were back in and it was marginally less freezing. Our plan for the day was to reinstate the flaps section of the hydraulic system.
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As you can see we also had the lid off the trolley acc for it's monthly battery charge cycle. We spent most of the morning moving the cockpit steps, getting our little mandraulic hyd rig (wonderful useful bit of kit) into position, and trying to find the right mix of pipes and adapters to hook it up to the flap jack feed in the port spar face. This done, we then broke for lunch, Intending to return to the task after. This didn't happen though, as friends bearing gifts appeared. Lyndon and Joe Blackburne, always welcome visitors, came to bring the Christmas presents covid had prevented them from coming to see us with in December. Foremost among the gifts was a piece of Meteor NF gold dust... this
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I had seen this on ebay back in December and gone after it, but Joe was the winner. He decided the best home for it was with us on the project! We do have a copy of a copy of a copy of one, but a number of important, nay vital pages (cross referencing the copy with the original I've found 15 so far...) were missing from it. This genuine complete Vol.1 fills in those knowledge gaps perfectly, especially the missing bits from the electrical section. It even hails from East Anglia, 788's stomping ground for most of her service career!
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I love the Amendments sheet too.
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Sadly, I assume the signatories are no longer with us, but this manual, their "tools of the trade", will continue to be very useful to us. Huge thanks to Joe for this very kind gift.
As to getting the flaps to work under hydraulic power for the first time since 1966... there's always next time...! This work will be easier now we have the full-colour hydraulic system flow diagrams in the new Vol.1!
Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
Shack WR963, Coventry
Other types meddled with by request!

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Blue_2
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

Bonus post for you, some of the pages out of the AP and how they are going to make our lives easier. First up, some of the hydraulic system pages which, being in glorious technicolour, are much more understandable than the photocopies we are currently working from
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Of course, we can modify our hangar copy with felt tip pens to make it just as clear now!
The GGS wiring was one of the sheets missing from our other copy.
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This gives us half a chance of getting it working correctly through the proper controller.
Another thing that defied us was the canopy motor, or more accurately how to get the thing out. This was another page we were missing
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Who would have thought something you might need to get to quite often in the aircraft's career required a sheet of metal deriveting...?! Cheers for that sensible bit of design A-W...
Finally... A reminder that 788's original purpose was the business of war...
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cabbage
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by cabbage »

Great update. Your reference to painful lockwiring experiences brought back many memories. In particular, the fun involved in lockwiring the underwing tank jettison lead on Buccaneer aircraft, and on the locating bolts for the sonobouy launchers on Nimrod aircraft.

I still bear some of the scars today.

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by ExVulcanGC »

I have always enjoyed the updates and like cabbage it brought back some memories:

I remember well doing work on various aircraft & systems after the lazy brigade had been at work and suffering from their idleness with punctured skin and getting stuck in a hole due to snagged denims.

One piece of locking wire that I never had to actually do myself was Detail X on the Jet Provost undercarriage cable system, working upside down in the nose undercarriage area following a very precise process to lock the main cable turnbuckle, as an independent checker it was not very good fun having to snip the wire and get the person who did it to start all over again because it was not exactly as per the good book. On each team there were usually a few people who could get it right first/second time, but trying to give new people a chance to learn was sometimes hard as the WO would rather penalise the experienced people than allow time for the learners, especially as that job was one of the last few jobs before air test time, had a couple of run ins with him over that.

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

Yay, the fun that is lockwiring... Fortunately I managed to avoid such things yesterday!
20/01/2022 Update
Yep, I snuck an extra sneaky day in on 788 yesterday, well an afternoon at least as my morning was spent on a little "can you just" job. On arrival, things were way less Baltic and more hospitable than they had been over the weekend. I'm sure I fleetingly felt some warmth in that sun! He says typing this and watching snowflakes drifting past the window as I type... because Yorkshire weather.
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The nice thing is, apparently the work on the watch office roof is just about done, so the scaffolding will be coming down soon.
So, what to do with my afternoon? One thing I had done was give the Placard Of Mystery on the Derwent's oil tank another go with the paint stripper
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Seems to be working, so it got another few goings-at through the afternoon. The right thing to do seemed to me to be continuing with the hydraulic work we had started on the flap system. Now here I must admit to a smidge of laziness. We had the covers off the starboard flap ram a while back, I figured as it was the furthest away part of the hyd system bleeding it here would suffice? Yeah....no. once I had fluid there, I nipped everything back up, tried the flap up circuit... nothing. Nil flap movement. Some swears later, and I decided to do the right thing and get the access panel off the port flap ram bay. This took a while because, as you can see, the only way it was coming off was with use of the non-manufacturer approved "screwdriver".
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Once it was off, a thing or two became apparent.
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Thing number one, the port ram seems to work as it has retracted as intended. Thing number two, it's not actually attached to anything. See, I had assumed (I know, bad me naughty me...) that because the starboard one had been left connected, the port one would be also. seems... not. Looks like it's been a while since the ram and the flap horn were friends. A loooong while...
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Fortunately though, whoever had disconnected it back in the mists of time had refitted the special nut and bolt combo to the ram. It did need some tlc though, so off it came to be given said tlc
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I gave it a good once over with the wire brush, cleared the split pin hole of debris of the Ghost Of Split Pins Past, removed the grease nipple (freeing its little bearing of course!), and using some old lockwire I had kicking around on the bench specifically for the task of poking stuff (as well as poking with vengeance and wrath the soft bits of mine enemies) I soon had the grease ways inside the bolt clear and ready for shiny new grease! You can see the 'ole for the grease to vacate the bolt and lubricate the linkage with on the right, halfway down the bolt
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It was soon back in place, as badly recorded by my crap aim with a camera phone
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The access panel went for storage on the shelf, straight now after I had carefully panel-beaten away what looked to be the evidence of many generations of lineys practicing their clog dancing upon it
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So next time, round 476 of "accept the OM-15 you (insert expletive of choice)!
One last go at the oil tank revealed the paint was definitely giving up
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Ta-Dah!!!
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Next time I'll mask that off and lacquer it to protect it from the elements.
The days are still short at this time of year. The sun really can't be arsed to climb to altitude yet...
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Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
Shack WR963, Coventry
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TonyC
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by TonyC »

Another great update(s) and considering that you must have been working with numb fingers, all the more so :thumbsup:
...and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in Space cos there's bugger all down here on Earth!

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by K5054NZ »

TonyC wrote:
Thu 20 Jan 2022, 4:36 pm
Another great update
Exactly what I was about to say!
Zac in NZ
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Blue_2
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

Thanks chaps. I've another tale of woe, corrosion, awkward 1940's design and frustration from Friday to bring you when I get a moment...
Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
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12jaguar
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by 12jaguar »

Aaah, the ongoing delights of restoring British aircraft LOL

John

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Blue_2
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

You know it John!
Anyway, from my day spent trying to resist wheeling the jet outside and treating it to a gallon of petrol and a match on Friday, here for your enjoyment is...
23/01/2022 Update
Last you saw, I was meddling with the flap system, and trying to see just how much of a pain it was going to be to get it all working again. My first job for the day was to open the centre section fuel tank bay up, and thoroughly oil all the pulleys and cables in there which form part of the flap synchronising system. This is fitted to make sure the flaps all lower and raise at the same rate, otherwise the pilot would have to work far harder for his flying pay than he is accustomed to if he's trundling round the circuit dangling 4 flaps at various angles and rates of travel! After this, I started the drudge job of replacing the captive nuts I had drilled out to access the flap jack bay
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Access to some of these involved removing skins from above where they were fitted. Always fun...
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The other way in to these bays and their associated systems was through access panels in the back of the undercarriage bays. Here, one of these is out and blinking in the daylight for the first time since the 1960's
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revealing dry, but otherwise intact and happy looking interlink cabling, pulleys etc. Nothing in there a good lubricate won't sort
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The other access panel chose to not grant access however, due to one lousy bolt right at the top
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The good news is how much the undercarriage bays have been allowed to dry out with the aircraft moving inside. It really has made a difference as, with the aircraft having stood on grass for most of the last 50+ years, combined with some bright spark having decided that the inner doors should be locked in the up position, the bays had become a haven for damp and corrosion.
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Now we can see the corrosion has stopped spreading rampantly, everything is dry, and can get on with dealing with it in those areas. But that is a job for another time. I was still having troubles on the top side of the wing.
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All I can imagine is that someone had carelessly left the lid off a pot of glue on the desk of the designer of this particular area of the jet, and he had a few damn good sniffs. Still, some of the captive nuts from this area (including a brand new one rolling around in the floor of the bay; top FOD control skills 1ANS ground crew...!) can be cleaned up and reused at least.
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I decided to head for lunch. Turns out it was a gorgeous day if you left the bowels of a Meteor wing and a T2 hangar...
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In other news, that scaffolding you see there is now down as the watch office roof is fixed. After lunch, via a sunbathing Hunter T.7...
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...it was back to drilling and riveting. We won't be reusing these!
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While I was fishing the remains of one out of the bottom of the bay, the aircraft restoration Gods proved they read this thread and our recent discussion of lockwire, as they decided I should suffer a stabbing thanks the the lazy lockwiring skills of a liney 55+ years ago
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Damn you, unknown lazy liney!! With the captive nuts swapped, I decided on a change of tack, seeing if I could get the upper airbrakes off and out of the way as they are a bit of a pain as far as access is concerned
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The nuts on the special fixing bolts they use are playing ball
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They are an odd thing. I'm not ruling out needing replacements, once we have sussed just what they are! Definitely getting movement on them
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The problem being I'll have to set up the hyd rig on the airbrake circuit to close them enough to get them to the holes you can see on the left in the airframe, as that's the only way to pull the pins. Basically, it is a system which has to be working correctly so you can repair it; what a complete dog's arse of a setup! As I said, glue is the only reasonable explanation... After showing it it's nemesis, the restored airbrake off VZ568 which will be replacing it, in the hope that it might encourage it to comply...
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I decided to take the manual to the crewroom for a sit down,a brew and a think. This time I went via a sunbathing CT-133 Silver Star...
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See, if nothing else you get pretty pictures of random aircraft!
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musings while I was examining the flap system mainly centred around me putting my head in my hands and muttering "why, oh why...". The system was I'm sure an inconvenience but workable in service, but the best part of 6 decades of neglect has given it a free upgrade to the heady status of right royal pain in the hoop. Look at the cat's cradle that is the flap synch system for example
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Pulleys, cables and bike chains here there and everywhere! At least after the Chinook incident at Leeming in the late 80's, we don't have these outer flaps to worry about
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Although looking at the book did remind me, I'd never really checked to see if the redundant flap jacks for the outer flaps were fitted. Hmm, spare flap jacks thought I... So I headed back to the jet... and no
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Someone had beaten me to it on the port side...
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...and even gone as far as taking the mounts on the starboard side! Hey ho, some you lose, and some you lose badly. Back to the airbrakes, and I think it's fair to say they have issues. It's a sort of bad news, good news, bad news, good news, bad news, good news rollercoaster situation as far as the supports are concerned. Bad news, the port upper supports are snapped. Good news, I have 2 NOS spares painted and ready to go!
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Bad news, this means I have no new supports for the starboard upper airbrake. Good news, they look totally saveable with only surface rot and flaky paint!
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Bad news, both the lower airbrake supports on the starboard side...
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...and the port side...
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...are goosed. In fact I think the port inner one qualifies as super-goosed!
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But good news (you'll be glad to know you can get off the rollercoaster now)... we have a full set of NOS lower airbrake spares
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So, one last job before I called it a day, getting a load of oil onto the chain portions of the flap synch system to soak in and doo good work in my absence. I did tell you it's bike chain, didn't i?
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I also had to go into the starboard side to do this, but as we have previously sorted the access hatch with new fixings that was a breeze!
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It does make life so much easier when we've already restored stuff like access panels!
More next time folks...
Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
Shack WR963, Coventry
Other types meddled with by request!

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by hunterxf382 »

And yet another riveting episode Graham!

I do wish you would stop flapping about though

At a stretch I could give you the link to answer all your woes

OK, OK, that's enough pulling your chain... No STOP ;)

I'll be fetching my coat :)
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Blue_2
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

Have you really nothing better to do with your Sundays Pete?! :joy:
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TEXANTOMCAT
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by TEXANTOMCAT »

I'm enjoying the rollercoaster, would scream if I wanted to go faster but I've just yaked up my candyfloss ;)

As ever, good work fella

TT

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Gt5500 »

Blue_2 wrote:
Sun 23 Jan 2022, 4:31 pm
At least after the Chinook incident at Leeming in the late 80's, we don't have these outer flaps to worry about
What does this refer to? Thanks

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

The jet was moved across Leeming as an underslung load when she was removed from the gate. Unfortunately they hadn't read the manual on how to lift a Meteor, and the straps cut into the wing leading edges and trailing edges at the outer flaps, wrecking them.
Fortunately as part of the restoration effort at Leeming before 788 came to us, the damaged trailing edges were repaired. New trailing edge sections not incorporating flaps were made and fitted. Our chances of finding a pair of outer flaps (and as I discovered the other day the missing flap jacks) are miniscule, so 788 will just be restored with inboard flaps only like the day fighter/T.7 versions.
Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
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Other types meddled with by request!

Gt5500
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Gt5500 »

Ah makes sense, thanks.

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