A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

[Blue_2]

Be that as it may, you can't deny it!

[K5054NZ]

I thoroughly enjoyed that update Graham, how cool to be able to watch things attempt to - and actually - return to life. The end of the last video made me smile, bravo!!

I'm still incredibly daunted by working with all those wires though. Not for fear of getting hurt, but for fear of tearing looms out from frustration!

[Blue_2]

Sometimes it's like battling the hydra. You feel like you're getting somewhere, then a whole bunch more cut looms pop out to say hello!

[cabbage]

I sypathise with your leccie problems. Dealing with "electric string / spagetti" and wiggly amps was always a nightmare for me.
I could understand why A was connected to B, but couldnt always understand why it had to be routed via the rest of the alphabet,(or so it seemed).
To add to the "fun", I also had to learn valve theory, in order to service one particular weapon system.

[Blue_2]

Sounds like lots of no fun.
Just never, ever let the magic smoke out of the wires!

[Blue_2]

No update as such this week, as we haven't raised spanners at 788. I was around for a few hours yesterday though, paying my respects on Remembrance Sunday. Firstly at the memorial in Elvington village for the annual parade and ceremony there







I then headed to the museum where I was meeting up with friend and partner in crime in all things aviation Rich Woods and his family. We spent a bit of time over a brew or two talking aviation and actually keeping our hands clean, which made a pleasant change! In the afternoon we attended the wreath laying ceremony on the museum's memorial garden



As with the village ceremony, it is as you can see a very multi-national affair. The representative from the RNZAF knows our pet Kiwi Monty who we had with us for a year too!

After the ceremony I placed my own small memorial too

A cross dedicated to my Great Uncle and the rest of his Lancaster crew

We will remember them.

Normal service, well at least the new normal service, ought to resume this coming weekend.

[andrewclark]

Hi Graham. To me, your 'remembrance' posting is every bit as important as the others. Probably more so. Thanks for sharing.

[Blue_2]

Cheers Andrew. It's nice to focus on the memorial aspect of the museum for a change.

[Blue_2]

20/11/2023 Update
...and after the Remembrance weekend, it's been back to the metalwork in our cold and rather soggy corner of Yorkshire.

As you can see, and it was a pleasant surprise to me on Thursday afternoon when I rolled in, WL168 has moved to 'guard' the path to the T2 hangar. Think she looks good there!

From the other side. In the distance, the Victor running its landing lights. Part of the systems checks and prep as she prepares to celebrate 30 years' retirement at YAM this coming weekend. In the hangar, first job was to put away some new arrivals. Jon Dean had brought some large heatshrink to use on our repaired looms

Much appreciated! Should protect the repaired loom joins nicely. John has been busy too, making a start on repairing the damage to the 2 NOS small breather intakes 788 currently sports. He's cut away the damaged skins, and the rib inside that was crushed, and begun the process of making a new rib

Looks much better with the damaged metal removed!

At least he has skins to use which are already rolled to shape, in the form of skins off 788's old scrap intakes. When they are mended these intakes will go on the F.8 as 8's wore either style intake, and her big breathers will come to 788 as NF.14's wore big breathers only. But that surgery is a way down the road yet!
I had finally remembered to bring my tin of spray lacquer from home. I intended to use this to preserve the pencil markings on the jet, applied to her back in 1953 when she was built. We had already masked these when we painted the front bulkhead and the bulkheads in the fuel tank bay, now they needed a protective clear coat to keep them for the future. So, I got busy pointing the spray can at the jet! Starting with the 'Tues 10pm' note I will never get to know the significance of on the port side of the front bulkhead

then what I take to be the completion date of the nose section on the starboard side of the same bulkhead, 'Fri 4-12-53' and the number 235

I also did a small calculation that is present lower down on this side, before moving on to the ones in the fuel tank bay. This meant I got to use John's epic creation, or rather recreation, of the tank bay lid stay!

In the tank bay, on the front wall, were some calculations which received the protective coat of lacquer

As did these makers marks and inspection stamp on the rear wall of the bay

The similar marking on the inside of the bay lid has gone rather flaky. I'm hoping a coat of lacquer will prevent any more of it being lost

It appears to have done the trick, preventing any more loss. While I was in the bay I decided to reattach the safety chains for the 2 access hatches, so I found another chain and 3 rings in stock to replace the AWOL items

Saves these hatches being lost over the side, or even worse into the bowels of the jet!

I then moved on to jobs on the cockpit rig. With it having had it's first disabled visitor on open cockpit day, which is really what it is intended for, I really need to crack on with this and make it more, well, cockpit-y. First job was to fit the ranging scale to the GGS, after Joe Blackburne very kindly sent it to us a couple of weeks ago

While my made replica wasn't bad or far off at all, original is always better! I then dragged out the retractable GGS tray which is on loan to us for this project, to make sure the sight fits. The tray is Vampire rather than NF, but it's near enough for our purposes and beggars can't be choosers! The sight looks good on it

The last time that sight was mounted, it was in a distinctly crispy Hunter at RAF Manston fire school. I took it back off, and turned my attention to the tray. It had seen better days and was seized, so I gave it a quick clean to start with

The emergency retract control was seized solid in the in position. That would need sorting out. I dismantled the actuating rods leading back to the tray latch, and bathed everything thoroughly in WD40. By close of play I'd got the first section from the knob back to the first join sort of moving, after WD40 and a hammer persuaded it, and one of the brackets the rod moved through was removed to be de-corroded.

So everything was doused again in WD40

And left to think about it overnight. Friday I was back in, and it was actually that rarest of things it seems, a nice sunny day!

The Qatari Hunter looked more at home in the sunshine at least

The guys have very nearly completed this repaint now; more on that later. Back to Meteor business, and Gary had told me he had left a surprise for me in our corner. Well, 3 surprises. The old display boards for the Meteors which had been in storage for many, many years. He thought they should be back out on show by the jet, and had left them over there pending a piece of wood and some hooks to mount them to the hangar metalwork.





It was nice to notice that at the bottom of one of the boards was the credit for them, and that they are partly the work of the much missed Steve Hague

I think he'd be chuffed that we are still making use of his work to tell the Meteor story. Also I suspect he'll be chuckling at me fuming at him incorrectly referring to the NF's as "Gloster" rather than "Armstrong Whitworth"! Back on with the GGS tray, and the overnight WD40 basting had helped. The pilot's end of the emergency retract mechanism was now working as intended, so it was greased and reassembled

I then dug a load of foliage out of the tray body. lovely...

Before continuing work to persuade the back latching half of the retract mechanism to free off. After a lot of patient work, it complied!

Suspect it hasn't been extended like this for decades. Here it is back in the retracted position for comparison

I will admit I did then take some time investigating the possibility of getting the motor working, but that would be a pointless frivolity, mainly because it would require the rig to have 24 volts, and the best it will have is 12 volts for lighting. Having got the tray moving so it can be shown deployed or retracted will do nicely thankyou! Next step having got both ends of the retract mechanism to work was to thoroughly grease and then refit the middle linkage section. Here it is all reassembled, and latched...

...and de-latched!

So this is as much as it'll get. Sight refitted, and in the down position...

...and in the up position

I couldn't resist plonking it on the rig to see how it would look, only temporarily though as it's a big heavy lump and the rig would need some serious butching-up before it could go on permanently

It doesn't look 'arf bad! I took it back off again, and found some channel section with which to reinforce the rear of the rig underneath. After this was cut drilled and fitted it improved matters but there's still work to be done. While I was in a making mood, I decided to bite the bullet and make a start fabricating up a representative winscreen assembly for the rig. Now had I chosen to do any other mark of NF this would be dead simple as they all had the straight sided T.7-style assembly, in fact there's one on ebay right now, but oh no, 788 has to be a 14 with that curvy screen doesn't she!

I had decided a while ago I didn't want to use original screen items for this even if they were available, as the cast frame and armoured glass panes would weigh far too much. I was mulling either using that there wooden wood (not my favourite medium, unless I'm chucking it in the log burner!), or aluminium alloy. Fortunately while chatting about this with Rich Woods he had pointed me at a 'how to' on t'interweb of how another chap had got round the problem of making a replica screen frame in alloy, so I shamelessly copied his method. Enter stage left some aluminium alloy sheets I had "liberated" from an airfield skip "somewhere in the Midlands", and after taking measurements from 788 these paid a visit to the HP for a date with first the guillotine and then the metal folder. After this they were clamped to 788's windscreen hoop, and fettled to match before I then made the facing pieces, the bit the canopy would meet up to on a real one. Then the pillar drill and riveter were called into play, until I had this...

Effectively a lightweight replica of the NF.14 canopy hoop

There's still a lot of fettling and tidying to do on it, but it's a start and I can work forward from here making the rest of what I hope will be a convincing enough replica of the NF.14 screen to put the cockpit rig into context for visitors. To finish the day, I did a bit more bracing work on the rig, and fitted the recently acquired port throttle grip assembly to the lever I'd made

Yes we had a grip already, but this is a complete unit with the ranging apparatus on it and therefore is much more betterer than just the grip we had fitted before. I need to do more bracing on the starboard side of the panel really, and that will be a challenge as nothing really offers itself as obvious bracing points, but it's strong enough for me to drop the sight and tray back into place

So that was it for Friday! Quite a productive day on the cockpit rig really. The next day, well I think it's fair to say normal service had resumed as regards the weather...



And on arrival we had had some bad news in relation to this particular aircraft

All being well, in a couple of weeks she will be getting officially unveiled in a ceremony revealing her new colours. But first, the guys need to finish painting her markings etc., and they can't do that outside. You can see what's coming here, can't you? Yep, we had to prepare 788 to move again, so the Tornado could come out, so the Hunter could go in and be finished off. It's not the move that browned us off, more the fact that nobody told us until Saturday, when I could have spent Thursday afternoon or Friday preparing her to move. It's fortunate we actually turned in on Saturday! So that changed the day's plan rather, as I'm sure you can appreciate. In better news, Gary had brought us hooks with which to hang our Meteor display boards. The way the boards in the hangar work, they are hooked to a piece of wood inserted in the metalwork of the hangar and secured to that metalwork with screws at the outer end. The inner end slots into the angle between 2 of the diagonal members of the vertical hangar steelwork, and can't go anywhere. Unfortunately we were short of one of these, then I checked the upright behind our lockers and found it was harbouring one of these pieces of wood. It was soon liberated, and Scott and I were then able to hang the display boards correctly for the first time in I would guess at least a decade!





On one of them, a photo of 788 not long after her arrival at YAM

What a difference 32 years makes...! We then got on with working out what we had to do to ready 788 to move to let the Tornado out. All the wiring would need tucking back away underneath, electrical bay securing, belly hatches refitting, topside hatches securing, canopy cover tying back down, nosewheel door removing, but fortunately there was little in the way of kit needing moving outdoors, only the extended nose on it's trolley and the trolley acc. The overnight rain had got into the hangar too...

We went and got the Meteor towbar from under the F.8 to help the Movements team out, one less job for them to do, then I had the idea of rather than removing the nose door simply tying it up out of the way

While 788's nose is off this works a treat and saves a job! Next was putting the centre section hatch back on. I decided it needed a clean first. Before...

...and after!

This came to us as a NOS part as 788's was rotten, and that paint is the original factory applied High Speed Silver. Still as good as the day it was applied! With a feeling of deja vu, I fitted it back on 788's underside

Before moving forward and stowing all the wiring back up in 788's cockpit underfloor bay and fighting the panel back on

It's an awkward bugger, not helped by the nature of the fasteners used on it. After a small war, and cursing one particularly awkward fastener, it was made to have my way of thinking though. We then declared lunch, stopping off by the Buccaneer on the way to drop the trolley acc off

It would have to come outside for 788 to move, and it may as well have a friendly Buccaneer to hide under while outdoors. Besides, we had a cunning plan...! The sun had come out too, which was a nice surprise after the grey wet start to the day. It was now a bright wet day instead!



After lunch John arrived for a couple of hours tinkering with his intake repair and to have a catch-up with us folks. As the nose section had to go back outside, and the paint had been delivered, we opened a hangar door for ventilation and I finished off the repaint of the innards of the nose section/nosewheel bay





Unfortunately I ran out of the correct vellum colour so the steel bit at the top of the section had to make do with it's rear face being green instead. That was more about getting a protective layer of paint on the metal than looking good though, as you don't see that bit once the nose is back on the jet as it's against the cockpit front bulkhead. While that was drying we got on with other jobs, such as tying the canopy cover down. She's only supposed to be outside while the Tornado comes out and then going straight back in, but you've seen how fickle the weather is in our patch just now already so better safe than sorry! Once the nose paint was dry we then moved the section outside on its trolley then I summoned Scott's, er, help...

to tip the nose up onto it's rear face as this prevents it collecting as much rain water

Very pleased with how that has turned out!

While we were out there we checked in on our little Chippy, WK640. She is very much on the back burner but we haven't forgotten about her, still safely wrapped up behind the hangar

With the firewall in place...

...and that cover on most of the weather is staying out of her.

Looking forward to having her in and righting the wrongs the accident which ended her flying career did to her. Back to 788...

It was getting dark and time to go home. John had got his replacement intake rib fettled, primed, and pinned back in the intake structure

And 788 was as ready as she was ever going to be to venture outside once more!

If she has to that is. We had a site meeting with Gary during the afternoon and suggested an alternative plan which seems more sensible, less disruptive, and means no aircraft have to go outside; we'll see what actually comes to pass tomorrow though I guess. If necessary, 788 is ready to move, that's the important thing. 4PM was nearing; home time nowadays at YAM. But we had one more bit of business to attend to. Take one Buccaneer. Add one trolley acc, and a sprinkle of twilight...

And you have a living, breathing ex-Brough gate guard, Buccaneer XV168! Not many lights left to reinstate on her now; rest assured they will be done though!
One final bit of business for the day, and it relates to every aircraft restorer's favourite treat. Long term followers of this project will know of our team's involvement with the Shackleton at Coventry, and that the project's leading light Rich Woods is one of my closest friends. Sadly circumstances have made it very difficult (impossible actually) for us to get down there to help the dismantling process now, but the good work continues there nonetheless.
Followers will also know that the jaffa cake is the fuel of aircraft restorers, and we on the Meteor team are known for embracing this orangey treat to the extent that visitors frequently bring us resupplies. During Saturday afternoon by way of a taunt David Bayliss sent me live from Coventry a shot of Rich eating a jaffa cake, or several.

Well, we had to down tools and return fire didn't we!

It's the daft inter-team banter like this which makes this hobby of ours fun, even on the coldest, darkest and wettest of days.


More next time folks...

[TonyC]

But first, the guys need to finish painting her markings etc., and they can't do that outside. You can see what's coming here, can't you? Yep, we had to prepare 788 to move again...

I'll bet the air was a little blue for a while!

Nice work on the rig, will you be putting glass/clear acrylic in the framework or leaving it empty?

As a silly suggestion and its a long way down the list, if you could lay your hands on 3 old computers, could you make an interactive disply by fix them in the 10:00, 12:00 and 02:00 positions, then have a picture of the sky, or an airfield and runway, on each, to make it as if the rig was flying or taxi-ing!

[Blue_2]

I might have expressed disappointment...!
I'll be putting glazing in the frame, obviously not to the thickness of 788's armoured glass though. That would just be too heavy.
It's not the worst idea. More likely is it'll be rigged to stick a big TV in front of the monitor and a pc running FSX occasionally. But the main aim is to have an accessible cockpit with the red lights running to give people an idea what a live Meteor cockpit is like.

[K5054NZ]

Another great update Graham, almost too much to take in at one sitting!

[Blue_2]

Best prepare your comfy chair for second sittings Zac, because here comes a bonus midweek portion to chow down on!
22/11/2023 Update
Work's a bit funny at the moment, so I found myself at a loose end on Tuesday. Seeing as the Meteor was slated to come outside to aid the hunter coming indoors I decided to head to YAM, after all it's not every day you get to play Classic Jet Chess! At least it was a nice day for it. After getting the hangar doors open we got the Commer outside while the movements team brought the Hunter round

Next up was moving the Meteor to free the Tornado to move

After a minor Tonka shuffling the Meteor was out and clear

Then the Tonka could come out

edging carefully past the Jaguar's wingtip...

...to make room for proper classic British jets! After WS788 had beeen slotted back in to her corner

The Hunter came in. A much more pleasing view!

Am I biased? Yes. Do I care? Not one jot. 2 1950's classics together

And the Hunter's first time under cover in many, many years

Also coming indoors, the Commer air starter truck for it's last night at YAM before going back to our Vulcan friends at Doncaster who very kindly lent her to us so we could run the Bucc for Thunder Day. Cheers chaps!

On a personal note I absolutely love this machine, and have enjoyed operating and driving her. Sad to see her go, looking forward to her hopefully coming back to us for another borrow! So, everything under cover, job done

John and I brought the extended nose section back in on it's trolley, then after the combined exhaust fumes of the Commer and David Brown had cleared while we had lunch we'd close the doors. Hopefully this is the last of the aircraft moves, and 788 won't be disturbed again until Spring 2024. During the afternoon we helped our friends on the Nimrod team with some jobs on the Jaguar, then John started harvesting metal off our old intakes for the intake repair while I made templates up for metalwork for the cockpit rig windscreen

Which once cut out may have resembled a dead jellyfish, but really wasn't!

First bit of windscreen tin cut...

then it was time to call it a day, leaving the Hunter to her first night under cover since God was a nipper!



More next time folks...

[Wissam24]

We spoke to Graham about the Meteor NF14 WS788 restoration on our podcast! Listen below:

[TEXANTOMCAT]

‘For those who have difficulty understanding Yorkshire, subtitles are available on Ceefax 888’

You are celebrity! Great success! 🫡

Actually I enjoyed -that good interview!

[TonyC]

‘For those who have difficulty understanding Yorkshire, subtitles are available on Ceefax 888’

that's funny

[Blue_2]

‘For those who have difficulty understanding Yorkshire, subtitles are available on Ceefax 888’

You are celebrity! Great success! 🫡

Actually I enjoyed -that good interview!

Cheers TT! Not my fault you don't speak proper English..!

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Quarter past nine mate why do you ask?

[Blue_2]

It's your round mate...

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Nah definitely didn’t understand that one! Oh and a pack of pork scratchings- good man

You up at the Shack before Xmas ?

[Blue_2]

Unlikely, as YAM have changed my better half's rota we no longer get any full weekends off to do anything 'life', let alone go aeroplaning elsewhere...

[TEXANTOMCAT]

🫡

[Blue_2]

I've had a change of pace for the last few days I've been in at YAM, mainly doing a bit of fabrication for a change. So here is...
26/11/2023 Update!
Over a few days I've been working on the windscreen replica for the NF.14 disabled access cockpit rig. Thursday I was in but busy with all sorts of other jobs, so I didn't get that much done. I did get the top section in place though

Our new neighbours were in too, working on the roundels and detailing of the Hunter. As you can see, the Commer has now gone back home too

By close of play I had the port side screen DV window frame mostly done and test fitted, and the port side main screen assembly well under way

The sky over WL168 as I left the hangar was interesting!

Friday the metalwork continued. A slow, drawn out process of measuring, double checking, cutting, fettling... here the port side of the main screen frame is in position

I then spent the day continuing this process. Also on site, a team from Drax power station were in on a team building exercise, washing one of the Tornados. She does look a lot better!

During the afternoon I had the port lower frame in

then the starboard main screen frame assembled and clamped in place, and a windscreen lower fairing in progress



Then the actual lower screen frame was cut and clamped

And I started working the starboard lower frame section up

Giving me a Meteor windscreen shaped hedgehog!









On Tuesday the Nimrod guys had been in continuing the job of putting the Jaguar's systems back together. John and I lent a hand with a few jobs, but I forgot to photograph the progress. I grabbed a couple of pics on Friday though. As you can see the spine beam is back out

But systems in the port wing are hooked back up, and the leading edge and the rudder are among the most obvious items refitted

It's definitely coming dusky as we leave the hangar now...



...which was good news for the photographers assembled for the Victor's 30th Anniversary nightshoot! Saturday 25th November 1993 saw XL231 arrive to start a new life as a preserved aircraft. I have many happy memories of years spent helping keep this jet alive, with some good people. As part of the celebration of this milestone, the jet was subject of her own shoot. I didn't hang around long though as it was decidedly Baltic, and at home the dog was waiting to drag us to the pub!





Spitfire replica dusk shoot, just to be different...?

Saturday was XL231's big day, with an engine run to mark the anniversary of her final flight. Not a great deal of work was done in the morning as I was busily catching up with old friends and former Victor team colleagues. One very welcome visitor on the day was Elaine Wilcox, one of the driving forces behind Mosquito HJ711's restoration and then move to her current home at East Kirkby. I had to get a pic of her back in the YAM hangar with a night fighter, albeit a slightly younger NF than previously!

Jess has returned after a busy season farming, to carry on with her Rebecca aerial mount rebuild

Once she remembers what goes where, and how to use tools that is!

After the Victor had marked the time of her arrival with an engine run I carried on with the windscreen. By close of play I had this

The basic frame, done and dusted

And plonked very approximately on the rig!

I am pretty chuffed with that though.

Jess had redone the mounts for the aerial

So when in position it should now sit flush with the wing top skin!

Nice work Jess, good to have you back with us. So that has been a bit of a different weekend. Hope you've enjoyed the podcast, and I'll leave you with this little treasured possession, a reminder of Lusty Lindy's final flight, Marham to Elvington via Flambrough Head

XL231 Spartan one, 25/11/93, 5 P.O.B. Happy anniversary old girl.


More next time folks...

[ianf]

What I want to know is what fee did he demand for the podcast? How many Jaffa cakes did he get to do this? As Graham said a very busy and successful weekend for Lindy. We had many ex crew both military and museum visit. It was also good catching up with Elaine, and one of mine and Graham partners in crime Rich Spaven was there to swap stories. I may post a few pics later.

[Blue_2]

I reckon between the nightshoot, the display in the Elvington Room and the run day you must have got enough pics to be worth chucking a post up Ian!