19/01/20 Update
After last weekend's absence, have a bumper issue of "things wot we did with the Meteor"... Scott and I were in yesterday, on a nice dry but cool day. It was warmer outdoors than it was in the hangar! First order of business was showing ex-Meteor engine man (F.4's through to NF.14's) Mike Wood round 788. He recalled the engine door fasteners being "fun" in service, so no wonder we struggled getting them off after 50 years of nil maintenance! As is traditional with ex-Meteor folk we asked him to sign the starboard JB hatch
He didn't list all his Meteor squadrons, but mentioned 8Sqn as he got a jolly in their T.7 in Aden!
Then it was to business. I set Scott on rubbing the last of the corrosion out of the canopy frame side rails
While I went exploring to find the missing IFF aerial mount under the nose.
How had I not previously noticed this??!!
It does mean this hatch in the nose needs to come off so we can mount it; the bolts all cracked off happily though
I found our old Rebecca aerial blade; with a cutting down and a little reshaping this'll do nicely as an IFF aerial once we make a mount for it. I then got on with removing the cut ends of the rudder cables as we have been very kindly offered a surplus set from a Meteor cockpit project!
As you may remember the rear cables are now in; here are their tails in the radio bay
It's the section from the rudder pedal spools to this turnbuckle we were missing, some 15 ft of cable I estimate. The pulleys where they run into the rear fuse have been removed in the most violent way...
This was done at Elvington (as I have photographic evidence of the pulleys and starter panel being on the jet when she left Leeming), probably in the first 10 years there and by the same individual who liberated the original starter panel. Needless to say if I ever see him...... Anyway back to the front and the cables gave with little struggle, apart from the starboard ones snagged on a pulley
...but I won!
One was missing from the port side, and the remaining one had somehow become reversed and snagged on the spool. It still yielded... So that is the old cables cleared! Meanwhile Scott plugged away with the canopy grot
I retired to the rear fuselage to make a start removing the knackered pulley brackets to use as patterns to manufacture some new ones. Access is abysmal. Closer up they look no better. Butchery isn't too strong a word for this...
As in theory it's easier as there is no loom running through it, I started on the starboard one
Getting a spanner in behind those bolts in a very confined space is not easy. I shed skin and gained bruises! After a lot of swearing I got 2 of the 3 pieces off...
Look at the state of the poor things!
While I was in there I found some pipes which had annoyingly been cut 3 inches from a joint!
I wonder if this 40 M.U graffiti next to the cut points at the culprit...?
That was it for the day. Scott sent me some progress pics he had taken while I was in the fuselage of his work on the canopy
Which we removed from the vice and put back with its colleagues, looking much happier
He also sent me a pic he had taken while I was battling in the rear fuselage with the pulley brackets...
He certainly photographed my best side!!