A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

[Malcolm McKay]

Oh!! Well fettled that man

[Blue_2]

It's turned out really nicely.
Part of this restoration malarkey is knowing when someone can do a far better job of something than you, and letting them get on with it!

[Blue_2]

If the Weather Gods play ball, we should actually get to Elvington and get some work done tomorrow. Which is good, because I'm quite excited to see how this newly refurbished trim box top looks once refitted. Also, I can't wait to see our shiny new rudder mount, and some other goodies which should have arrived for us!

[Blue_2]

23/02/2020 Update

"A proper update? It's about bloody time!" I hear you shout! And yes, it is. Yesterday was still very windy indeed (will it ever cease?!) but I made the trek to Elvington for a day aeroplaning by myself. On arrival, before bacon, I checked how the big girls outside were faring in the weather

Lindy had spat out her port intake blank, the Nimrod no.4 blank and some smaller bungs etc from either side of the forward fuselage, but these were all soon reinstated

After bacon and brew, I decided to get on with the fun of the trimmer box. It was certainly loud in the hangar, the way the wind was attacking it and rattling the walls! Not a bad office view though...

I offered the newly refurbed cover up...

That'll do nicely! So next I rubbed back the rudder and elevator trimmer control wheels, before repainting them. Rudder...

...and elevator...

While I was in a painty kind of mood I broke out the yellow and gave the new IFF aerial I've been building a coat...

While waiting for stuff to dry I started removing the cockpit red and U/V lights from the front cockpit for testing and repair where necessary

Then once the pillar for the rudder trimmer was dry I fitted it and the cover.

Before reattaching the pipe runs to the cockpit wall in their fibre blocks. The elevator trim wheel received another quick dust of paint on its visible face...

Before it rejoined the trimmer box. Magic!

Very happy with that. The IFF aerial has turned out nice too. It just needs its base painting and fitting to 788.

In the afternoon Marie, our fabric and doping expert who has recently returned from serious illness and who we are all very glad to see back, press ganged me to help do a job on a very different aircraft

Our Mignet Flying Flea, G-AFFI. This is an old friend as I put some work into this a few years ago and very nearly got her running. Now there is another drive to bring her back to life, but yet again the wing fabric has been damaged so Marie is having to make good. She removed the damaged fabric and had glued down the new piece at one edge, and now needed willing volunteers to pull the new fabric tight while she glued that down too...



Job done, she reckons now simply tidy the cut edges, treat the patch to some aluminium dope, and it'll be like new!
Then I was back to more familiar territory, 788. I got the light units apart for testing and fettling. A couple of them are beyond use, so I'll need to acquire more, but I expected that. 60 years of decay takes its toll. One of the lights' bulbs still worked though, amazingly!

But I replaced all 4 survivors' bulbs with NOS bulbs as a matter of course, and all now work



Their shades were straightened up and repainted too

Both UV lights were tested... amazingly both worked as advertised!

So I put them back in the cockpit, hooked the small test battery set to them, and had some fun illuminating the instruments. It's the first time since 1966 this will have been seen in 788's cockpit...







It'd be nice to have the cockpit rigged so all the lighting, rather than just the rear cockpit lighting, is running for this year's Open Cockpit event in June. It should be doable...
Finally, to the other end of the aeroplane, and the other side of the site. I popped into the the workshop to take a look at our new rudder mounting frame. Here it is with the pattern part lent by East Midlands Aeropark, and for which we are eternally grateful!

And this is the jig it was assembled in. All simple but clever stuff!

I hope this has made up for the lack of updates from the last 2 weathered-off weeks. More next week. And if anyone has some more of those cockpit pillar lamps lying around spare....!

[Blue_2]

Bonus update-let; today the front cockpit lights on the starboard side and the re-mounted UV lights all lit up again! Small steps but steps nonetheless...

[Malcolm McKay]

Splendid stuff Blu_2 - it's amazing how having the lights etc. working really brings the aircraft to life.

[Blue_2]

Just a quick shot from yesterday. The first time any of the red panel lights in 788's front office have powered up since early 1966...
This, and the UV lamps, were powered from directly from the starboard junction box by applying 24v to the correct terminals. All fuse protected too just in case...

[K5054NZ]

As much as I enjoy the Meteor updates it really is a nice surprise to see the Flea again! I thoroughly enjoyed the progress updates on that little project back in the old Key forum days.

[Brenden S]

Keep up all the great work.

[Blue_2]

I thought the Flea deserved a mention! I should imagine this year they'll finish the work I started and get her fired up.

[Blue_2]

All being well, and weather permitting, there'll be anti-det runs on the Victor and Nimrod this Sunday...

[ianf]

Blue will be on duty with the ground crew of the Victor team, as he can't quite shake our lady off completely! Then after cake o'clock I've no doubt he will be back on the Meteor. Both det runs are full engine runs btw. entry to the museum is the normal price so if your fed up with this weather come and see a few cobwebs blown away.

[Blue_2]

I'll be wearing a selection of hats on Sunday. Meteor fettler, Victor crew, Pathfinder driver...

[Blue_2]

01/03/2020 Update

Its another not very exciting one. I was only on site today as they needed a driver for the Pathfinder in order to provide fire cover for Nimrod and Victor engine runs, otherwise I would have stayed home in bed as I have for most of this weekend as I'm not exactly well. Anyone mentioning coronavirus will be subject to a £10 fine, payable to the Meteor restoration and jaffa cake fund! Nimrod did her thing...

However the Victor did not perform due to her Houchin's alternator self destructing. I put the Pathfinder away then did a measly amount of work on 788 before retiring home to bed, where I am now typing this. My job was preparing the rest of the light units (more arrived this week) and their brackets for use. 2 new shrouds in paint...

Mounting brackets found ready to fit...

And our entire supply of lamps re-bulbed and tested. Should be enough...

While I was sorting this Bucc 168's tame electrician Kelvin started work sorting out the wiring to the wingtip lights. Top chap, he is...

I finally got round to refitting the air reservoir gauge in the cockpit rear decking...

Before fitting the left hand lamp unit on the lighting circuit in the front cockpit we began bringing back to life last week... and there was light!

There's still the trimmer box light and brake gauge light to bring back to life (on a separate circuit), and the clock and gyro compass lights to get running (on another separate circuit...) but hopefully it'll all be working in time for Open Cockpit day!

[Malcolm McKay]

Thanks Blu_2 - I hope you are rid of your malady soon.

[HAVAVSOC]

Hi Blu_2

There is a small present in the post
Get well soon
J
http://www.havavsoc.org.uk

[Blue_2]

There is a small present in the post

That brightens my day!!

[wallace]

I too would like to see a Flea ground running, it seems like every museum has one and all too often they are ignored but he public but they did hold an important piece in the home built history of British aircraft, if not an ignominious piece.

But for now... keep on working miracles on 788 Blue!

[Blue_2]

I think running is the plan for the Flea. As long as we can coax someone little into it!

09/03/2020 Update

I had several visitors yesterday, including Jason, the chap behind the Meteor WL405 cockpit project. After helping us by supplying the rudder cables a few weeks ago he found himself in Yorkshire on business so took the opportunity to pillage my spares shelves, and get reference pics of 788 and 168 all at the same time. It's nice when spares can swap between projects, think he went away a happy camper!

Visitors mean work on the jet falls by the wayside a little. Yesterday this was no bad thing though, as I decided to get the instrument panel looms assembled and fitted. Yep, you know that instrument panel we had all lit up last week...? Yep, I removed it yesterday. I was spurred on to this effort because one of our chaps has very kindly taken the time to re-print my Vol.1 manual in A3 size, so I can actually read all the numbers etc. on the wiring diagrams far more easily!

So... The 2 main instrument panel looms. These run in from their feeds through 2 big black cables. They are the 2 big black cables horizontal in the shot below, with the breeze connectors to the left

We shall call these cables F4 and F18, mainly because that's their names! From those breeze connectors they become F145 and F146 respectively, and split and go scurrying off all over the back of the instrument panel. So you can see we have F18 and F4 still fitted to the jet, but 145 and 146 are conspicuous by their absence. We did in the early days find their cut off breeze connectors in the cockpit floor debris, which was bad for morale. So this presents a problem. Fortunately the problem half resolved itself when a long long time ago, our friend Trevor was able with remarkable foresight to save a load of what most people would call NF junk. In among this was... a loom F145! it's been cut off behind the panel but that's no big deal. So out with the meter, start continuity testing and fitting wires.

Fuel gauges were tested then became the first to be wired...

Followed by the undercarriage indicator...

and finally the fuel and undercarriage warning lights

These all just need earths making up and that's that.
But what to do about the missing loom F146? Because it's kinda important... Well, turns out Trevor had also saves a set of the F4/F18 cables (thanks Trevor!)...

So after removing F18 from its bracket, then removing the male end of the loom labelling each wire as I went, F18 magically moves one component space along the wiring loom to become an F146! Simples....ish...

I started wiring it up, getting the instrument panel dimmers and JPT gauge wired up before close of play

So you can guess what I'll be doing next visit....!
In other news we had a lovely letter, cheque and bits and bobs arrive from the Haverhill Aviation Society. They meet in the former Officer's Mess of RAF Stradishall, the station where 788 served with 152 Squadron in the mid 1950's then returned to in the early 60's to finish her flying career with 1ANS. As 788 is one of "theirs" they have taken a keen interest in her wellbeing, and in the envelope was a nice cheque towards 788's paint fund, a photo and enlargement taken circa 1955 by Les Dickson of 788 on approach to "Strad", and extracts from 1ANS instructor pilot John Shelton's logbook, showing his flights in 788 in 1962. A really nice thing to send, many thanks HAS!



Next time... chasing electric spaghetti, part deux...

[HAVAVSOC]

Hi Blue

Welcome back.
Very pleased that those few pieces have found the correct home.
It's a pity that we do not have more on 788 but we our archivist tells me that he has photos of others at Strad.
So when I have a little more time I will PM you a list.
J
http://www.havavsoc.org.uk

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Well done Blu 2 as ever, the cable stuff made my brain fry but I'm glad you know what you're doing- nice to help other projects and in return receive help from them! Great stuff!

ATB

TT

[Blue_2]

Hi Blue

Welcome back.
Very pleased that those few pieces have found the correct home.
It's a pity that we do not have more on 788 but we our archivist tells me that he has photos of others at Strad.
So when I have a little more time I will PM you a list.
J
http://www.havavsoc.org.uk

Very, very much appreciated. I'll be organising a little bit of 788 to come back "home" when I get a moment...

[Blue_2]

Well done Blu 2 as ever, the cable stuff made my brain fry but I'm glad you know what you're doing

To be fair, I wouldn't say it's easy but the schematic diagrams make it make sense, as long as they agree with the mod state of the jet that is! If you take a proper look at that page I posted the pic of showing the undercarriage indicator wiring, look at the route from the top microswitch pair. It tells you which cables come from where to Terminal Block (T.B.) 7, and their colours. The colours are again given as it leaves T.B.7. It then travels through loom P10 to the wing root break, where the letters after the P10 signify which pin on the breeze connector each wire goes to. From there it's loom F20, again with plug pin letters, into Junction Box (J.B) 2. Following the 2 lines heading straight to the U/C indicator on the right, from junctions U2 and U3 in J.B.2 they travel as part of loom F3, plug pins E and F, becoming loom F4 E and F at the pressure bulkhead. From there to the indicator they travel as part of loom F145, still pins E and F at the breeze connector terminating in terminals 5 and 6 in the indicator itself.

So it does kinda make sense you see...

[TonyC]

To be fair, I wouldn't say it's easy but the schematic diagrams make it make sense...

Well, you lost me at 'easy'!

[Malcolm McKay]

Blu_2 you have woven a stirring tale with all this talk of looms - good work.