A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

[hunterxf382]

Good grief - if things are that serious over some Jaffa cakes that anyone should need to call in the SAS I think I'll just deliver a jumbo pack to Graham myself if he should appear down at Coventry anytime...lol

Imagine the consequences if there was a rationing at the supermarkets of Jaffa cakes which would stall all progress on 788 completely.... doesn't bear thinking about!

Someone create a JustJaffa Giving page before it's too late

[Blue_2]

27/09/2020 Update (Maybe part one, depending if I get my backside into gear later and do today's update tonight, or tomorrow. You know what I mean)
So, this hobby is all about restoring aircraft, having a bloody good laugh with like minded mates, and helping each other out (unless you are one of the hobby's many Gollums, that is...), right? Well yesterday we had a little road trip which rolled all these things into one mini (well mazda, as it's a better freighter than my Mini) adventure...
Way back in the mists of time, when being part of the Victor team was something to be proud of, I got chatting to Graham and the chaps at East Midlands Aeropark, and even spent a very enjoyable day visiting them. Roll on to Meteor days, and we have maintained this relationship with them, swapping components and information as well as good natured abuse frequently. They asked us a while back about the possibility of borrowing our canopy perspexes, to use as a master for making moulds for a short run of new Meteor sets. We of course said yes... and then COVID-19 happened. Anyway, much horse trading has gone on, the upshot being that, rather than meeting Graham at Newark yesterday at the sadly cancelled Aerojumble, we instead loaded Simon's car with the canopies, surplus Meteor parts, Pembroke parts, Varsity parts, Argosy manuals...

...and pointed our noses south down the M1.
On arrival, we were greeted warmly and it was heartening to see the Argosy receiving a lot of love and TLC, and indeed the first thing we noticed on pulling into the car park was the Grimes beacon on her cockpit roof flashing happily away! As Graham was busy painting lettering, our first port of call was to catch up with our friends Chris and JD Elliot, who are restoring the museum's Meteor TT.20

They still have a very long way to go, but they are making great progress with this old machine. She's going to look stunning once she's back in her full TT colour scheme. Yes, I know I'm a sucker for dayglo and silver on an aircraft anyway; throw in a bit of yellow and black belly striping, what's not to like?!
Our next port of call was the museum's example of an NF(T).14, WS760. This aircraft has suffered a little, having had various items liberated over time, but as you can see the guys working on her are really doing an great job. The corrosion has been most thoroughly chased out of this machine! Here you can see the nose and tail sections, both just about ready for paint





You could eat your dinner off that cockpit rear bulkhead!

Next it was round to see 760's centre section, again looking pretty fresh

Sadly the fuel bay lid isn't a correct NF.14 item, as that was stolen from site along with a number of other major components from this jet a number of years ago. If anyone has one, with the canopy track fitted, I'm sure EMA would love to offer it a home.
Round the back of the centre section... oh look, those rudder cable brackets look familiar...!

Access is a little easier than on 788 though! Another NF peculiarity we have noticed, and so far we have confirmed this on ours, Newark's, Malta's, and now EMA's too, is the replacement of the aircraft's destructor with...

...yes folks, a carefully crafted and painted piece of wood! Seeing as this seems to be a service-wide thing, you wonder why they just didn't take the bracket out when they decided to do away with the detonator on NF.14's...
The third Meteor example on site is Graham's own NF.13 cockpit. It's pretty immaculate, and he allowed us to open it up and take a peek inside...

The 13 is basically a poshed-up NF, with air conditioning fitted for use in the warm places such as Egypt which the RAF used to have a presence in post war. One of 788's former navs and a member of this forum used to operate these, didn't you Mr. Verney!
In the early afternoon we got a very nice surprise as a couple of friends appeared, also to haggle! Nigel Coward, Canberra T.4 cockpit owner and instrument 3d printer extraordinaire, and Andy Rawden, one of those strange helicopter restorer types. The rest of the day was spent being shown around the site and some of the aircraft, including the Nimrod R.1 (a very different beast to our familiar old MR.2!), Argosy, and the rather beautifully painted VC10 nose section. Tea was drunk, banter was hurled around, aircraft parts dug through, sorted, discovered and swapped, all in all a thoroughly pleasant day. We headed northbound with a bootful of Meteor bits, and some great memories of one of the few fun days of 2020.
"but what did we get?" I hear you cry! Patience... Simon will be picking me up soon in his still-freighted car, and we shall be off to YAM to unload, sort, and catalogue our ill gotten gains. So I'll be back soon with an update on that, all being well.
One thing I will say, is we have been invited back in a month or so to help sort their Meteor Mountain of spares, and that will yield us some very, very exciting treasures which will make bringing 788 back to life so much easier...

In other news, one of those rotters on the Bucc 168 team did an "Iranian Embassy" on us yesterday, and stormed 788's tail, freeing Dave the Fox.
Revenge will be swift and childish...

[TonyC]

Looks like you had an interesting visit and '760 does indeed look good!

Shame there isn't room available, to put everything under cover to help protect all the good work (not intended as a criticism) done so far!

[Ant.H]

Great update Blue, good to see some Meteor fettling going on in other places. That's a very extensive job they appear to be doing on WS760, working outdoors too.

It must give you great comfort to know you're not the only sufferer of Meteor-itis, is being with other sufferers a good form of therapy??

[Blue_2]

Yes, it's good to know that we aren't the only ones with this affliction! And great to see 760 coming back from some very sad times and setbacks.
Anyway, I decided to do the right thing, and rather than slobbing it and relaxing on the settee in front of the TV tonight after a very busy aircraft weekend, I'd bring you...
27/09/2020 Update, The Sequel...
So this morning, it was back in the car and off we went to YAM to drop off our ill gotten gains. First item out of the car... one of the 2 ancillary gearboxes mounted on a Meteor

These are engine driven and mount on the front of the spar, inside the intake. A shaft drive from the front of the engine through an aperture in the spar spins them up. Each one has a generator attached, and the port one mounts a compressor for the braking system too. This mounts a Dowty liveline hydraulic pump, so is a starboard unit. The gearboxes themselves aren't handed and can be used either side with a bit of ancillary swapping. Also out of the boot of Simon's car, the rest of the day's plunder...

2 main fuel pump assemblies, uncut main power cables, relays, battery cables, ground power socket and some main looms, a far better suppressor box than either of ours, and a NOS belly tank rear fairing. The gearbox is a very exciting find, and was the first focus of my attention. It spins beautifully, even belching a little OM15 out of the pump at me, so I decided it may as well go on the jet for now. Probably the first time since 1966 she has toted one of these!

I put blanks on the hyd unions and a card cover on the hole where the generator will live. No point getting it full of the crud, dust and debris we generate!





While I was doing this Simon was laying out the new cabling. There's lots, lots more where this came from...

Then it was time to send Simon to continue the rudder actuator game. I had already been busy in that area, replacing all the captive nuts in the access panels, making a new bracket for one of the rudder lower hinge cover panels and renewing their captive nuts also, and indeed making up new cover panels...




]
Simon then got to work, while I removed our old Starboard suppressor box, borrowed its lid, and prepared to replace it with the lidless but otherwise much better box sourced from the Aeropark yesterday. The lid was put through the blasting cabinet before being primed. The whole unit was then repainted...

Before being fitted to the jet

It really gladdens the heart to see areas of the jet pillaged of every last little useful component previously becoming repopulated once more

Simon continued his battle, joined by Scott who has returned after a sabbatical. His return is one of the better bits of news this year, and has cheered many of us greatly.



Welcome back mate! I began what will be the long process of dismantling and returning to service the 2 main fuel pumps. This is going to take weeks, and much patience...

Spaeaking of fuel systems, I got thoroughly sick of our main tank being in the way. So, with the extra help of Scott, we decided to shift the tank out of the way for now under the wing.

So we are now positively blessed with acres of working space!
As the day drew to a close, I did a quick panel making task. The starboard fin access panel had suffered some damage to the holes during removal. I wasn't entirely happy with this, so quickly made up a new one

Seen here trying its new home for size

Finally... Simon won his battle.

And after a tidy round, that was the conclusion of a busy day and a very full weekend of Meteor business. I must thank Graham and East Midlands Aeropark for their hospitality and generosity, we can't wait to come back for the rest of the promised goodies and to lend a hand with the big spares sort out!

Well, that wasn't quite it. There is the small matter of Foxy Dave. After the commando raid on 788 yesterday which saw the Bucc guys arranging a prison break for Dave, as promised in the last post there would be revenge and it would be swift and childish. They failed to learn from past mistakes and left Dave unattended in the cockpit of XV168. One quick winding open of the canopy, one quick grabbing of said fox, and he is back in our hands once more. THis time he is incarcerated in the maximum security facility, better known as the cockpit of our Meteor F.8

The ransom is only going to go up boys!

More next week....

[hunterxf382]

Blimey Graham, progress is coming along in leaps and bounds! Fantastic result from your trip down south too!

Rather pleasing to see the result of the kidnap Version 2 as well.... those Buccaneer gang will soon learn I trust the required quantity of Jaffa's has gone up to a suitable amount now

[Blue_2]

They'll soon learn, or they will find themselves one fox short of a full team!

It's good to find a previously untapped source of spares, and one which is generous with stuff rather than hoarding for hoarding's sake. In addition, it's gratifying to see that items we have removed from 788 will be made good use of in 760's rejuvination rather than going to waste.

[Blue_2]

04/10/2020 Update
... and this is an update with a very different flavour. A distinctly Jet Provost with a hint of salt and aluminium oxide kinda flavour. And I must say, it's really not a very pleasant flavour at all. Dear Reader, prepare yourself for an early Halloween horror story...
As you may be aware, for a number of years now the museum has had a nice little Jet Provost on display, T.4 XP640. She is WS788's hangar neighbour. She has recently been joined by a second nice little Jet Provost (because JP's are all nice little sweet inoffensive things aren't they?), the ex RAF Linton On Ouse gate guard T3A XN589. 589 came to us as part of the sad closure and winding down process of Linton on Ouse, she was dismantled and roaded in with the idea that she would become our YAM gate guard. Firstly though, despite being in very good external condition, there were a few minor issues to address before she was ready for reassembly and display. So, with her wings on our ex-RAF Jet Provost wing trollies (formerly home to 788's wings a long time ago) and her fuselage bolted to a specially made wheeled cradle, the JP kit of parts was wheeled into the HP building for what was hoped would be a bit of minor sprucing up prior to going on display.
Then, COVID-19 happened. Sadly this has meant pretty much everything has stopped on the old girl. We do need her mobile though, and on returning to engineering activity at YAM I was asked if I had a spare minute could I take a look at her and see if I could work out why the nose leg was fully compressed and more or less locked in the fore and aft position. As if I have spare minutes, no lounging around on the grass sunbathing for me! Anyway, I took a look, and as the nose doors are shut could see very little. A bit of homework showed the doors should just pull open. Nope. Not only would they not budge, I was getting regular and displeasing little downpours of sand from in the doors. This is never good. I assumed the RAF had done what the RAF had always done, and ballasted her nose with sandbags. So, I did the right thing, and pretended I had seen nothing and walked away, kicking the little pile of sand out of sight! However the JP wouldnt go away, or fix herself, and we are getting to the time where we need her moveable. So this weekend she shuffled to the top of my priority list for now. Yes, I know, I have cheated on 788. But she's in a different building, pointing the other way, so I'm hopeful she won't find out...
I decided the only thing to do was to start at the top and work down, as the structure of the JP nose doors doesn't lend itself to drilling skins off and attacking it from the outside in, and the less disruption I can cause to the paintwork the better. I know if you open the bonnet, you can get to the top of the nosewheel bay, remove the top skin and drop in on the nosewheel from that way. Also, I had a feeling something nasty lurked in the nose bay, something which really could not be ignored. So, deep breath, drill off the riveted patches over the nose latches fitted in 1992 when she was allocated as the gate guard... and open sesame. The nose latches cooperated perfectly after just a sniff of WD40, a good sign. I cracked the nose open with a squeak of protesting hinges, and was met with a smell of damp and decay, a bad sign. On opening the bonnet fully, the sight of the remains of 3 hessian sandbags greeted me, draped over the equipment racking and the radio rack. Great.

After letting it ventilate, I set to dragging out the remains of the sandbags. I tried to do this keeping them as intact as possible, but the bags were already burst and, as will become apparent, had been for some years. None of this explained the sand in the nosewheel bay. Where there more bags in there, and the doors riveted shut? I would have to get digging and find out. No mean feat, and the further I dug the sadder the old beast looked

Some things soon became apparent. The reason the bay had been so wet was because nobody had refitted the join in the nose vent ducting all those years ago, allowing the water to pour straight in...



Saturating the sandbags which had, as I dug further, revealed the horrific damage this had caused to the old girl

Including in the above shot, how the nosewheel bay was so full of sand. The years of sand and water had rotted directly through the roof of the nosewheel bay, causing the whole highly corrosive mess to cascade into the nosewheel bay and doors. I own bits of HP Hampden bomber which have been in the North Sea for 70+ years, and they are nowhere near as rotten as this poor old machine

Only thing for it was to keep digging and hoovering.

Next job was to remove all the equipment I could, with a view to repair and reuse in bringing our other JP back to life.





Amazingly many of the bolts and all the terminals undid just fine, a testament to their quality

Someone has been here before!

Wrestling the oxygen bottle out was great fun...

Where it had sat was not happy at all though

Once the rack was out, I stuck my endoscope down through the rot holes to see what lay in the nose bay. The top of the nose leg...

The door close mechanisms...

...but fortunately no more sandbags!
Then, I sat down for lunch. She was watching me....

Wonder who Vince was?!

all the equipment racking had to come out. This was way beyond repair and reuse, so I didn't have to be too gentle...

Then it was time to make a quick offering of Lemon Drizzle Cake and tea to the corrosion Gods...

Before breaking out the drill and removing the nosewheel bay roof. This all went smoothly...



Revealing, again after sterling work by the hoover, much sadness within the bay. The rear wall of the nosewheel box is rotten, one nosewheel door hinge is rotted away completely and 2 more are very severely corroded, the door mechanisms are seized solid... its just a mess.



So, I did the only thing I can do really, and doused every moveable part in oil

This will be repeated over the next couple of weeks before I even consider trying to get the doors to move, as I don't want to cause any further damage. She's going to need at least the starboard side and rear of the nosewheel box removing and replacing, a new top piece making, the rest of the nose interior decorroding, treating and painting to stop the deterioration going any further, there's a long way to go yet with her. but... the worst of the rot is gone, the cause of the rot is gone, so hopefully the future looks much brighter for her

This, here, is where the graft happens in aircraft restoration and preservation. This is the coalface

And I'm bloody proud to be able to get my hands dirty and do this!

I did of course go see 788

Last weekend was all about her, as next Sunday will be apart from blessing the JP's nose bay with more oil. Here's a reminder of what a JP nose bay should look like!

Not this


One final piece of business, The Saga Of Foxy Dave. Kelvin again broke him out of his prison on Saturday... Then promptly left him unattended by the side of XN974 yesterday. Well, what's any self-respecting Meteor fettler going to do when presented with such an opportunity...? All I'll say is...

...I hope he's not afraid of heights!!

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Blimey - a digital endoscope- that sounds like a PITA....

Another great update but don't spread yourself too thinly matey!

TT

[TonyC]

Another great update but don't spread yourself too thinly matey!
TT

Sometimes, a change is good and '788 wll benefit, in the long run but I wonder, a lot of that corrision on the JP looks terminal or at the least, very time consuming, is it (I hate to use the phrase) worth it?

Of course I'm no fettler and I guess if the damage is just to the nose bay, repairs could be relatively easy and inexcessive but again, are there corrosion issues to the nose landing gear mountings......

As I said, I'm no fettler and no criticism is intended, nor do I wish ill on the airframe, if she can be saved, she should be!

[Blue_2]

I see what you did there TT! It's a very useful bit of kit, making previously inaccessible areas of aircraft easily accessible. Saves many hours fighting reluctant fastenings taking access panels off just to look in the bay, say "yep that's good" and put the cover back on...

Tony, we are in the business of restoring rather than scrapping aircraft, so of course it's worth it! The rest of the aircraft is in very good order, I believe there is possibly some sandbag damage in the engine bay (I haven't looked and that's someone else's problem), this in the nose, and really that's it.
While we won't know until we access the nosewheel bay proper, I believe the leg mounts are sound and that, once the corrosion in all the skins of this assembly is eliminated and everything is suitably protected, she will be fit and healthy to take up gate guard/display duties for YAM for many, many years to come. This level of corrosion cannot and will not recur, simply because the main catalyst (the sand) will not be present in the nose! Fitting the missing join in the nose vent system will help massively too, as any water entering there will simply run down, and then out of the drain exiting the port side of the nose as designed rather than dumping into the nose bay.

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Fair play fella

It’s just we don’t want the Yorkshire Jet Juggler to be spread too thinly that he overdoes it!

I’ve told you before you Northerners just need a Buckle Cloning Machine!

TT

[AirportsEd]

More great work to preserve these jets for future generations...well done!

[Blue_2]

It’s just we don’t want the Yorkshire Jet Juggler to be spread too thinly that he overdoes it!

I’ve told you before you Northerners just need a Buckle Cloning Machine!

It's a bit of an "a change is as good as a rest" scenario too, TT.

We have to remember, that site and the aircraft therein, it's the museum's train set so to speak, we are just the people who are fortunate enough to be trusted to play with it. If something there other than your main project is suddenly in need of some attention, the right thing to do is to put your own pet project aside for a short while and give it that attention. The majority of us understand this, so it's no problem to spend a couple of weeks working on a different aircraft presenting a different set of problems. If you are open minded enough and able enough to take these "can you just"s as opportunities, it's a chance to learn a new aircraft and expand your own knowledge and skillset. Making a fence around yourself and saying "oh no mate, I'm xxxxxx team" when asked to help only costs yourself in the long run.
Cloning me would be a bad idea. There are some who have discovered just one of me can't be overmatched; more than one of me would plain terrify them!!

Thanks AirportsEd! Just working away doing what we can to save the old girls...

[TonyC]

Tony, we are in the business of restoring rather than scrapping aircraft, so of course it's worth it! The rest of the aircraft is in very good order...

Hi Graham,
As I said, I'm no fettler and do not advocate scrapping anything, just for the sake of it so I appreciate the further explanation. It's great to hear that the rest of the airframe is in better condition, so she should have a bright future!

Tony C

[Ant.H]

Yuck! That poor old JP is a bit of a mess, all the best fixing her up. Because you just didn't have enough to do already...

[Blue_2]

Nooo, nothing better to do with my time at all....! Tomorrow it'll all be about 788, apart from spraying the JP's non-moving moving bits with another blessing of penetrating oil.

I will of course take suitable precautions to not transmit Corrosionvirus from the JP to 788!

[Blue_2]

Well now, here's something different. As I type this I am not in the usual comfort of my ex-Shackleton office chair, at my desk, beer or brew to hand. Instead I am on the road (well in a layby), having a break from the day job to try something new for me, typing this week's update on my tablet while using my phone as a wifi hotspot. High tech stuff for me indeed! Anyway, if all goes well, you shouldn't notice any difference to normal service whatsoever. So, without further ado, I present...
12/10/2020 Update (travel edition)
Yesterday was a short day for me at YAM as I had 2 cars requiring some love and attention from me. But... The JP was visited. She still looks rather forlorn...

So I got busy with the new penetrating oil, on all the non-moveable moveable parts





I then left her to sit and think about things. I think another couple of weeks of this treatment will be necessary before I try to make any of the currently locked solid bits move. I closed up the nose then returned to the Meteor, giving the fuel pumps a dose of penetrating oil too

Before cleaning my by now thoroughly grubby mitts, and reaching for the next job of the day. I decided it was time to run the pair of port forward rudder cables, a job which promised hours of fun. Hooking it onto the rudder pedal spool was the easy bit...

From there the cable pair drops down to a pulley, conveniently located in the bay for the oxygen refill point

The pulley itself has to come out for the cables to run through, so I decided it may as well sit in some degreaser to get rid of the 54 year old grease incumbent within the unit!

From the pulley the cables run through the back of the oxygen bottle bay

So unfortunately this lot have to come back out. Sorry Andy! He fitted these a couple of years ago

The flip side of this was that everything undid happily

And the bottles were soon out. This was much easier than extracting that big lump of a bottle from the JP's nose bay last week!

The cables were then run through their guides. One had to be unbolted, the cables run through, then refitted to the jet. Access onto the bolts through the 3 piece guide block was less than great, and while the piece looks simple, this was a very time consuming and fiddly job.

Still, I got there in the end! The next bit will be the fun bit. It is through a sealed area of the rear of the nose section, to where it joins to the next cable in the centre section access hatches. I need to hit the books to see what the correct method for this is, but I get the feeling it'll involve some deskinning and re-riveting. That'll be fun...!

[ZRX61]

The pulley itself has to come out for the cables to run through, so I decided it may as well sit in some degreaser to get rid of the 54 year old grease incumbent within the unit!

Was working on an aircraft that needed 28 of those. Found 29 of them for $11 each which was quite a deal & meant there was a spare. Charged owner $15 each ($435). He was outraged that we would sell him 29 when he only needed 28. Returned them to the seller.
Aircraft owner contacted seller to buy 28. He charged the bloke full price of $45 each... ($1260) & didn't buy a spare... I guess he showed us!

[Blue_2]

Some people really do have more money than sense...!

[ZRX61]

To quote another mech when talking abut this particular deal: "He knows the cost of everything & the value of nothing"

[Blue_2]

Always fun to see someone torpedoing themself below the waterline!
Apologies for the lateness of this update, I'm afraid life has somewhat got in the way. Still, better late than never eh?
22/10/2020 Update
So waaay back on the 18th, I was on site. And was quite frankly wondering what was going to happen, as York found itself going into tier 2 lockdown. How that affects us out in the sticks at Elvington, we are yet to see. As far as I know it's business as usual for the time being though.

Now last weekend Foxy Dave was notable by his absence; I wonder if that's anything to do with this latest twist in his tale (tail)?

more on him later. First order of business for me was to continue the running of the port nose section rudder cables. As you may remember I reached a bit of an impasse, with running the cables through the section from the rear of the oxy bay where in the pic below you can see the cables, to the next access point helpfully indicated by my podgy finger

I decided to break the scope out and see what lay within. It was also another excuse to play with the toy. It revealed the obstacles to be negotiated included a number of small fiddly gaps in fuselage ribs, and...

...Yeah, another of those pulleys.

Great. So, the odds of me feeding the cables through succesfully without dropping the skin had gone from very nearly sod-all to very actually sod-all. Time to break out the drill I suppose. To be fair to 788, this wasn't too bad. I had the skin dropped and the cables run just in time for a late lunch. Here they go in through the back of the oxy bay and through the 2 access step support ribs...

Through the bay to the pulley...

Through the pulley and out of the centre section access hatch!

Job done!

I'm not nailing the skin back on just yet though, in fact it may have to be a bit more removed than it already is as I may as well get the steel drop down step assembly removed while I'm in there. The foot portion of the step is gone, corroded away. Many years ago, probably during the refurb at Leeming, it was simply plated over (you can still easily see where the plate was) and when we removed the plate we saw nothing remained of the horizontal section of the step. You may remember we fell very lucky a couple of years back and received a NOS front step off Mike Davey (I think); unfortunately we have had no such luck with the rear step so it's a case of see if we have enough step assembly left in the jet to restore, and if so fabricate a new horizontal section. The first part of this process is of course spray everything with oil and leave it to think about it. The step latching pin doesn't feel seized, that's encouraging. The retract bungee is clearly goosed, not that that's an issue as we have bungee

However the guts of the step, the slidy bit if you like, are not free at all.

So they have received a thorough oiling and, as you are probably coming to expect of us, being given a few days to think about their life choices. It's essential to give these things time, rather than just wading straight in with the big nasty tools. While the skin is off it's a good time to check for otherwise hidden nasties and I have to say, her internal structure is in pretty much perfect condition!

A guy could eat his dinner off a surface that clean...

At this point, with the oil can to hand, I decided I really should wander over to the JP and give it it's weekly blessing of oil

I might try a bit of pressure on the doors this weekend, see if they are ready to do some moving yet. We'll see...
Then, back to 788. The joys of trying to repeat the cable running process on the starboard side. Unfortunately on this side you don't get the headstart afforded on the port side by big gaping holes to shove your oxygen bottles in! Dropping the starboard side panels is no bad idea anyway, as there are a couple of nasty dents in this section which I can investigate and if possible correct while I'm at it
#




So, the drill was awoken for round 2. First I used a fibre wheel to rub back the reinforcing plate enough to reveal the rivet heads; this is always an interesting process as it reveals paint schemes past

Then on with the drilling. Again, the skin drop was quite quick and simple, and again, internally the jet is in pretty fantastic shape



In this view you can see the curve bent in the structural piece behind the lower, shallower but larger of the 2 skin dents. That will need correcting...

As well as access being hampered by the limited number and size of hatches on this side, teleflexes and a bundle of wiring looms running through this area just where I want to be to access the rudder cable runs really do not help. Undoing them helps a little, but for some reason they are held on with 75 foot long screws!

This is what has held up progress this side. Behind there is a fairlead the cables go through, the same as the one I had to unbolt the previous weekend on the port side. Access really is trying my patience... It may well have to wait until Simon is back, so we can both attack the little beast.
Soon it was time to pack up. Rather than letting the skin distort and wander over the week I cleco'd the skin back down for now.

Very much looking forward to getting this job finished and the skin nailed down properly. Then, simply find the cables' way through the centre section to the rear fuse cable attachments....
Finally...

One day they'll learn not to leave him unattended! He'll be going into the custody of an allied team, where the terms of his "paternity payments" can be...negotiated...

[TEXANTOMCAT]

As ever super stuff mate - well done and keep em coming!

TT

[hunterxf382]

Yet again another great update Graham... and good to see excellent progress being made despite the torture of restricted access and design

Mind you, you owe me a new coffee mug and keyboard when I saw the second photo in your update, as I laughed out loud and succeeded in illustrating how far hot beverages can indeed fly

Keep up the good work - even if it means having to battle that JP too when you have those spare few minutes

[TonyC]

Ahhh, bless, bet butter wouldn't melt him his mouth but just out of interest, how do you intend to test this particular fox, for paternity?

Great update as usual