A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

[TonyC]

Trust that the move and new job is going well and good to see you all back at 'work'!

The intakes for '168 certainly do look good and I'm looking forward to see how the larger intakes, change the look of '788!

[Blue_2]

I'm looking forward to seeing how the swap changes the look of both jets; I think the bigger intakes will make 788 look more purposeful, and the taper on the small intakes will make the F.8 look more 'sporty'!

[Blue_2]

11/03/2025 Update
As you may have seen we were in on Saturday, making the most of the glorious early Spring weather to make a start on reassembling Shackleton WR963. On the Sunday, we again decided to make the most of the weather, and get on with the Meteor intake swap.

The F.8 started her career with small intakes, and at some point in her career received the big breather upgrade, worth about a 200lbs thrust gain per engine supposedly. The NF.14 was built with big breathers, and the mark only ever had them fitted. Sadly 788's original intakes were beyond restoring, however Bruce Gordon donated a NOS pair of intakes. These intakes were small breathers unfortunately, which could be legitimately used on the 8 but not the 14. Due to time constraints we could only repair and fit these to 788 to get her looking her best for her 70th birthday last year, we just didn't have time to look at this intake swap. Now though, we can get on with it, and indeed have! To start we brought one of the small breathers over to WL168

With a bit of help from Rich and Si before they got on with the Shack, Scott, Ryan and I made an assault on 168's starboard intake

Intake away!

Leaving the leading edge of 168's starboard wing denuded. Everything in there looks in good condition

We took away the intake, returning the trolley, loading the small breather onto it, then lining it up to fit

After a bit of a battle, actually a lot of a battle if truth be known, it was fitted! This image graphically demonstrates the difference between the 2 intake types

I think the longer, tapered lines of the small breather intake suit the F.8 very well.

After lunch, we repeated the process on the port side. Removing the intake...

...Wheeling it round the back of the hangar, saying hello to WR963 on the way...

...removing the small breather from 788...



leaving 788 ready for her new port gearbox and ancillary set to be fitted

Then we took the intake for a trundle round to the F.8...

...where it was soon fitted in its new home!



The inboard leading edge section needed to go into the hangar for a bit of fettling before refitting; we decided to let the trolley carry it as it needed to go back to the hangar otherwise empty anyway!

This original Meteor intake trolley has proved absolutely invaluable at the weekend; original ground support equipment makes such a huge difference.

A piece of history in its own right, it'll go on display with one of 788's original unusable intakes deskinned and mounted on it to demonstrate the internal structure of an aircraft to our visitors. Back at 168, we got the leading edge sections refitted, then tidied away our kit

I really do think these intakes suit the F.8's lines



The port intake ring will receive the fabric covering ASAP; until then the wood is well protected though, don't worry.

These intakes will be restored then fitted to 788, as you can see there is some corrosion on them but really they are in very good condition.

At least 788 got to enjoy some Spring sunshine!

After a very busy weekend, I think it's fair to say we achieved a lot from which 3 aircraft will benefit. WR963 has begun to look like a Shackleton again, WS788 has acquired a set of the correct intakes, and WL168 has had her appearance changed for the better

Looking much closer to the "original" Meteor day fighter shape



As we have them, and they are not exactly commonly seen in museums, we also decided to fit engine running intake guards (AKA "Daunt Stoppers") to 168!





There's something you don't see every day. We do like to offer something different if we can at YAM! Speaking of offering things, you too could get to enjoy this view later this month as we intend to have WL168 open for Open Cockpit Day, YAM's first big event of the year, on March 23rd

So that's that from a very busy weekend...



...more next time folks!

[K5054NZ]

Lovely stuff! I agree the small intakes look "right" on the F.8.

[DOUGHNUT]

Excellent work. Couple of questions ...
1. Are the intake guards adjustable for the large / small inlet.
2. Could you please measure the internal size for each type and also the length the measured from their attachment points.

3. and a more general point did Meteor T7 use large, small or both types of intake.

Thank you in advance.

[Blue_2]

Glad to see you're back around Zac!
Doughnut, to answer your questions,
1. Yes.
2. Will have a measure for you!
3. Both!
Hope this helps.

[Blue_2]

31/03/2025 Update
It's a bit of a bitsa update this week, lots of little bits of news to share as the last weekend we were in wasn't really a "proper" working weekend as we were preparing for, then hosting, Open Cockpits Day, the first big YAM event of the year. We did have a handy new arrival for the library

A big blue tome!

Our chances of ever finding an NF Schedule of Spare Parts are tiny. We do have the T.7 one, and now the F.8 one too, between these 2 books about 75% of the NF component list is covered

We do live in hope of finding the grail, the NF.14 book though... Back to the event, and we were in on the Saturday to prepare for the Sunday event. My team would be manning the Zebedee, the Shackleton MR.1/T.4 cockpit, and we would have Meteor F.8 WL168 open too. As usual I brought items out of my own collection for "show and tell" in both the Shackleton and by WL168.

It all adds to the visitor interest

I noticed other teams have started doing this too, so it must be a good idea!

On arriving on Saturday, I found that Peter Grieve had very kindly sent us a couple of Rolls Royce Derwent spares from his collection

our first job was giving the Shack a clean and airing out

She's not in bad fettle, I had forgotten that I had the yoke centre off the P1 yoke to mend after it had come a cropper thanks to ham-fisted children on the last OC day!

I took this to be mended, and with Rich's blessing I also retrieved the bombsight from WR963's nose for a bit of TLC and then fitting to Zebedee's nose. After I retrieved it, Tom and Tam (yes it gets confusing!) gave it a good clean up. As you can see, it's in one more piece than it ought to be!

The rubber anti-vibration mounts that secure the sight to its cradle had perished and given up the ghost. I found some rubber, and made a new set of mounts for it



We then deployed it into Zeb's nose section

Looks a lot better with some mission kit fitted!

So we left Zeb with the windows open to air out ready for Sunday, and got on with setting up our other exhibits

One of which was another Avro heavy, making a one-off appearance at YAM. My Avro Lincoln panel/cockpit rig, on show for the day next to my Meteor NF rig

We next took WS788's cockpit steps over to the F.8

I then got on with opening WL168 up and giving her office a clean

Closing up, I even found a spare control lock to fit!

On to the event day, Sunday. We were absolutely snowed under all day, so I didn't get chance to take many pics. Here Tam is preparing to welcome visitors aboard Zebedee

From during the day, the queue for WL168 at one of its quieter moments!

Finally, at the end of the day we got 168 closed up

Unfortunately, during the day she had taken damage at the hands of an over enthusiastic member of the public

That's what happens when you take 10 minutes to go have some lunch, and leave the jet in someone else's hands... Hey ho. We got the steps and our show table back over where they belong, by 788

And returned all my goodies including this rather nice F(TT).8 model back home

I think 168 would look rather good back in this scheme. And she is due a repaint...!
The story of an NF less fortunate than 788 now. During the week one of our followers on facebook sent me some interesting photos of 788's sister, WS787. This jet has always interested me, partly because she was 788's sister, partly because of the very different career path she took, and partly because I own one of her fuel gauges! While 788 was home based for her entire career, 787's story couldn't have been more different as she ended up in the Far East, based at RAF Changi, Singapore. When retired, she was put on display as the Changi gate guardian, seen here circa 1962

Sadly, this was not the beginning of a long and happy retirement as when the RAF withdrew from Singapore in the very early 70's they took 787 with them. Not to preserve her, but to meet her end on the fire dump at RAF Gan. She is seen here on the Gan dump in 1972 looking very sorry

Apparently, these were taken not long before she was hacked into chunks and dumped in the sea

A sad end to 788's sister, but at least part of her lives on in my cockpit rig.
Moving on to this weekend just gone, I had reason to pop into YAM yesterday afternoon, so while I was there I got a little task done. During the week one of our wonderful facebook followers had arranged a replacement for the broken gauge to be sent to us!

It would have been rude not to give it a clean then fit it...

...so that's 168's office back to rights!

Also... Al and the guys, with a little help from us in the Naughty Corner, have just about finished reassembling our latest arrival, Tucano ZF448!

How good does she look!

This must be one of, if not the, most complete Tucano on UK museum display. There's just some very minor bits and the seats to fit apparently, and she's done

While we can't run her (T's&C's of donation by RAF Heritage) there's nothing to stop us applying electrical power...!
Finally, I had reason to be on site on Saturday night, and got a couple of unusual shots of the YAM "inmates"





Always interesting to see YAM differently!


More next time folks...

[K5054NZ]

Another great update Graham. The open cockpit day is such a great idea! It's heartwarming to see the damaged gauge replaced so quickly.

[Blue_2]

The beauty of having kind followers on the Internet!

[TonyC]

Ditto Zak's comments on the gauge and have to say I like the H&S solution to the Tucano seat!

Anyone for tennis?

[Blue_2]

If it's stupid but it works...!
09/04/2024 Update
So I'm doing this arse-first really, as I was in on Saturday afternoon after some family stuff Saturday AM, but I was on Shackleton duties. So I really should write the Shack update first! Hey ho. At the end of Saturday, as we had the bodies we lifted Sunday's job into position on its trolley though...

Yes, I decided that the first intake could go on the jet as quite simply hung on the jet is the easiest place to prep and paint the thing! So we got it onto the trolley, and into the hangar ready to play on Sunday. We inspected it, and I reckon it's in great condition. We will need drain holes though...!

So, on to Sunday. Scott and I were in, Scott had some Bucc stuff to do but he was available to assist me too. I thought while I was at it I may as well remove the gearbox we hung on 788's port engine position ages ago, and fit the one I built up which will be permanently fitted in that position. So, the gearbox came off happily enough

It looks good, but it'll need to be gone through thoroughly before we can declare it servicable

So as you can see, 2 of the mounting studs are missing.

No big issue, we have new spares!

I fitted the inner one first, it threaded in happily. Here you can see I'm using an old bit of locking wire to feel for the split pin hole

That was then split pinned, one down. The other one was not so simple. On trying to fit the other stud, I found that the hole actually had the remains of a previous stud still stuck in it! The easiest remedy was obviously not going to be drilling a steel stud out of a cast alloy so I checked the inventory for another bracket. Then I checked the numbers of the brackets I had against the numbers in our shiny new F.8 parts manual...

Yes, one in stock! So I got on with removing the old bracket, which was a pain as the bolts had all been peened over and the access to the rear of the bolts was somewhat difficult as someone had left an engine in the way. But, off it came

I couldn't find replacement fitting hardware so I broke out the old faithful First World War era tap and die set to clean up the original nuts and bolts

Finally... the brackets were on and done.

Challenges like this is why aircraft restoration takes so bloody long! The gearbox/generator/compressor unit mounted up quickly and easily by comparison

Also, with Scott assisting the intake went on nicely too. We gave the internal structure a nice coat of ACF50, then with a little jiggery-pokery, on it went!

A view of the Derwent down the big breather. It's a long time since this view has been possible

In the same way the small breathers suit the F.8, I reckon these intakes suit the NF!





Just wait until these intakes are in silver and dayglo...!

Final jobs for the day, I mounted the gearbox we had removed in the cradle ready for a thorough investigating

It turns really nicely, so I don't envisage any issues with it. I also rearranged the manuals on the desk to accommodate a couple of new arrivals properly. These 2 are worth their (considerable) weight in gold!

And now, I'd best go write the previous day's doings up on the Shackleton page...


More next time folks...

[K5054NZ]

Thanks as always for the update. The water marks make the issue rather obvious!

[Blue_2]

I added the wording, but it illustrates nicely why we'll definitely be making sure the intakes are well drained!

[Blue_2]

22/04/2025 Update
I hope you all had an excellent long weekend scoffing chocolate; some of us were a tad busy! I was in on Friday, and on arriving to work on a first generation jet was greeted by 4 of the latest generation of jets, F35's, flying over the museum site

There's been a bit of a move-around in the Shackleton area...

...but I'll cover that in the Shack thread. On Friday I bit the bullet and decided that Easter weekend was the ideal time to get on with repairing the wiring loom that runs down the rear bulkhead of the front cockpit of 788, the one that handles all the comms and intercom stuff. I call it Loom S because that is the designation of the pressure bulkhead plug in the cockpit floor it passes through. So into the container I went, and found a correct Breeze plug with plenty of wire on it. This I stripped, then began identifying and comparing to my notes I had previously compiled

Confirming each wire was good was a time consuming game

I then set up my professional soldering station (a plastic chair, prayer mat and the lamp nicked off my admin desk) and started soldering wires up

This took a while. Especially when one of the Lightning team nudged the jet quite hard while moving their access steps mid-solder so I had to redo that particular join...

...but eventually I had joined all the wires I could positively identify.

I then repaired the VHF selector switch wires behind the starboard console

why these had been cut is beyond me. So that was it for Friday. Saturday, we were in mob-handed. First job was spring cleaning. As we are now entering the busy season for YAM, we moved the stack of boxes of spares yet to be sorted into the container



This made 788's area look tidier, but only moved the problem elsewhere. This lot will still need sorting and cataloguing at some point!

But we did remove the Hunter ladders Gary had stashed in our container to make way for our spares boxes. There was only one place to put the Hunter ladders...!

Tom and Tam were busy on the Shackleton, so I carried on with the wiring on 788 with some assistance from Scott. Trying to make sense of the post-mod wiring of the relay and the pre-mod diagrams in the Book Of Lies

Some of the confusion stems from the telebrief system, which I thought had been removed from 788. Turns out that it's been disabled but there's a lot of it left, such as its switch and lamp in the panel

Wondering if these were actually active, Scott took a look at the back of the panel from the outside

They are indeed wired in. This will take some trial and error I think. With all the wiring now back in a safe state, we decided to put battery power on 788 for the first time this year, to make sure everything still worked as it ought







Sunday was all about WR963, So moving on to Monday Scott and I put in a short day. I wanted to identify all the cables leading away from loom S, and the wires in them. This I initially intended to do from the Breeze plug under the floor. There it is, really far away...

Closer inspection with the scope revealed it was unlikely to consider undoing nicely for us

So plan B was to send Scott into the cockpit to bell the wires from the floor plug instead. As the cockpit is dark, the lettering is tiny, and his eyes are old, I drew him a large scale map of the pin arrangement to take with him. You can see he was pleased!

Much messing about later, we were part way through

Much more messing about later, and we were done!

So in theory, I should be able to connect this lot through to the back end of the jet, and we'll have intercom. Guess what we're planning to do next visit!
In the afternoon, I got a bit makey. I decided it was time to build the stick assembly for the cockpit rig.

It's not perfect, but it does the job!

All being well, I'll have this setup on display at Cockpitfest at Newark later this year... So then all that remained to do was to cover the jet's cockpit back up and put her to bed



Then go home for a few hours' down time before returning to work today. At least the weather got me out of cutting the grass at home!



More next time folks...

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Terrific 1!

[TonyC]

Great job on the wiring, I'd have most likely looked at running new wiring between the two terminals, rather than doing a proper job but then as I've probably said before, I'm strictly in the 'can't see electricity, don't trust electricity, hate electricity' club!

[Brenden S]

Well done on the wiring front.

[Blue_2]

It's all good progress! This and '63 are certainly keeping us out of mischief.

[Blue_2]

06/05/2025 Update
Bank Holiday weekend saw me at YAM for 3 days.



Most of the Saturday was taken up on Shackleton business, but I did have to break off to show a special visitor around 788, one of the sadly dwindling number of Meteor Boys. Alan Brown was visiting the museum with his family on the occasion of his 90th birthday, and while much of his time was spent with Canberras he did spend some time getting his hands dirty on Meteors, both in the Far East and much closer to home at RAF Leconfield! On spotting the underwing tanks, Alan then told me that out in Singapore it wasn't unknown to liberate 2 of these tanks, a plank, a "mast" and a sail, and go sailing on the resulting contraption! Of course, as a Meteor Boy we asked him to sign the jet



happy 90th birthday Alan! Saturday was taken up mainly tidying up other people's mess in the hangar ready for next weekend's "We'll Meet Again" event, as well as moving our docs control station away from the jet for aesthetic reasons and hiding it behind some display boards

but I did get a bit of work done on the seat for the Meteor cockpit rig, making a start fitting the recently obtained mounts



We did also get distracted more than once, Spitfire Season has returned to Yorkshire with the return of 2 seat Spitfire 9 jollies out of Church Fenton, on this occasion G-CLXB

great to see and hear a Spit over Elvington again. So, that was Sunday... And if anyone dumps anything in this freshly tidied, swept area of the hangar, I'll be having words!

Monday, I had had a "can you just" from Gary. As part of the preparations for next weekend's event, the centrepiece of the event, our Halifax, has been undergoing some work in addition to the ever-ongoing process of making her more "right". A panel on the starboard fin had been replaced with a newly made and far more accurate item, and just needed the rivets dressing, then priming and painting.

Also, the same process was under way on the port fin, but the new panel wasn't in yet, however there was plenty of blistered and peeled paint on the fin needing rectifying. But back to the starboard fin, which was my first port of call. I got on with dressing the rivet heads, and generally tidying up round the panel

before applying etch primer

While this was drying I got on with the port fin. Firstly, measuring and recording the F on the fin for re-applying later, before removing all the loose paint and prepping the affected areas

As you can see, the fin is still awaiting the panel. It may well have had it fitted today! But I thought you'd like this rare view inside a Halifax fin; it's certainly not a view I've seen before

Again, once the rubbing back was done with, I etch primed the treated metalwork

Sadly some of the yellow striping had peeled, so I had to rub this back and prime it too. I had hoped to not disturb the yellow but it was not to be. Still, I'm sure it'll get touched back in before the weekend. Back to the starboard fin, and the primer had dried so I applied the matt black topcoat

Before being distracted by the sound of a Rolls Royce Merlin once again

I'd brough my camera with me on Monday; sadly the sky was overcast unlike the glorious day we had had on Sunday, but I still managed a bit of camera waving!







I hope we are treated to this sight and sound a lot more frequently over the summer. Back to work, and I got the port fin black applied

The starboard fin was drying, and matting off, nicely

I went back to Meteor business, making up a replica of the control column and crossmember after a rethink about the direction the cockpit rig will take

I also got the rig onto its own base, a former workmate bench thingy

It needs some adjusting but the principle is sound! I've also a surplus ropey main undercarriage mudguard which as you can see, once suitably painted, will give the effect of the nosewheel bay "shell" which makes up the lower part of the instrument panel's central pedestal

It means the other workmate the rig was sat on can go back to being a workmate, doing useful stuff like being used to paint bits of Meteor on, in this case the newly made aileron rod guards for 788

The ones on the left are the originals borrowed out of WL168 to copy, as 788's were missing. Now they have been repaired and copied, they will be returned to 168.
So this is the bones of the rig we will be taking to Newark Air Museum's Cockpitfest, which is looming all to closely now!

Back to the Halifax, and I'm really pleased with that starboard fin

this week, in fact probably today, the red French squadron identifier lattice bands will be reinstated. The port fin had dried nicely too



Really pleased how this lot has come out.

As always, it's a massive privilege to get to work on what is undoubtedly the jewel in the YAM collection, and arguably one of the most important preserved aircraft in the country

Back to the other jewel in the collection (not that I'm biased!), 788 needed to be put to bed

but not before I'd got the other side of her aileron rod guards in paint!

So, a busy weekend, but a productive one. Time to leave 788 in peace for a few days!



More next time folks...

[TonyC]

A bit of Meteor, a bit of Meteor Rig and a bit of Halifax, what's not to like

[Blue_2]

14/05/2025 Update
This week I have basically nil Meteor content for you, sorry. But it's all been about the Halifax, and getting site ready for the "We'll Meet Again" 1940's weekend which was held last weekend. Obviously, the Halifax has to be the centrepiece of this, and a lot of work has taken place to get her over the line. Don't worry though, the Dak got a look in too!

Our Heritage manager Gary decided to spice things up this year, with it being the 80th anniversary of VE Day he decided to alter the appearance of particularly the "Friday" side of the Halifax to represent the real "Friday" when she was on display on Oxford Street in London immediately after peace finally settled over Europe. This meant the prop hub domes needed to be repainted with Friday's "medal ribbons" as the real Friday's were for the display, and the caption HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX III applied to the port side of the nose twice. This was the other clandestine activity we were on with last Wednesday night! In the course of all this surgery, 2 of the replica domes were to be replaced with nice new 3d printed items, the one original dome she wore refitted, and another original obtained by Gary fitted. The domes had already been painted, simply fit... Only it wasn't simple. Having been hammered into the ground at whatever speed a crashing Halifax hammers into the ground, then sat under German soil corroding gently for decades, the threads in the prop hubs were not particularly playing ball. We did get the 2 inboard engines' threads cleaned up enough to eventually thread the domes on though,

equipping the outer engines with the 3d printed ones, not that you'd tell the difference

All 4 done

I think they really pop

Arty shot; the port outer seen through the antique (and bloody heavy!) prop dome spanner

Moving ahead to Friday, and I was able to get away from work a couple of hours early, so I headed to YAM to see how the event setup was going. Of course, the Halifax was out and looking great outside as she always does!

A timeless view of her framed by the T2 hangar doors

I checked with Gary, and he was more than happy for me to take up the challenge of re-applying the French daylight identifier markings on the starboard fin, seeing as he had been let down on this during the week. The first challenge was drawing out and masking up the pattern, using a long ruler, a tape, and the remaining markings on the rudder for guidance.



It was a bit of a head-scratcher, but after a while I was satisfied I'd got the pattern as good as it was going to get



Then, it was time to bite the proverbial bullet and get the red paint on

After a while, it was done

So after letting it tack off, I got on with removing the masking tape. I was bloody chuffed with the outcome!



But it was the "Friday" aspect of the Halifax that was the star of the show this year







Sadly I didn't get chance to repaint the yellow 158Sqn identifier bars on the port fin. Hey ho.
Saturday I was away with work so missed day 1 of We'll Meet Again, appropriately I was on another ex-Halifax base though up at Croft. On Sunday I was back in, doing Shackleton stuff (see the WR963 thread) but we did get a nosey around the Halifax once again, rarely is she outdoors and uncluttered like this!



Later we popped aboard as Si and Graham of the Shack team hadn't seen on board the Halifax before.

Nice to see my "COVID Project", the engineer's panels I restored in my front room, are still looking wonderful!

We also had a visiting Tiger Moth over a few times during the day

Another pleasant rarity, seeing the Argus outside

So that was that weekend done with. I'll leave you with some edits from the weekend







More next time folks...

[TonyC]

A timeless view of her framed by the T2 hangar doors

Cracking picture that and an excellent job on the stripes! I'vegot a few kits that need painting, can I send them up for you to finish?

I think that the Friday the 13th, is the scheme that has been carried, seen the build was finished, has there ever been any thought of repainting her in another scheme, such as Halifax MK III NP-G "Clueless" of RAF 158 Sqdn?

Nothing the matter with the current scheme and no reason for picking that particular airframe, just talking out loud, which usually means rubbish spouts forth

[Blue_2]

I've enough kits to get round to finishing myself Tony, without adding any more!
19/05/2025 Update
As you might have seen over in the Shackleton thread, most of this weekend's energy was expended on WR963. On Saturday aft we did have a visitor, Abigail Mills is restoring Meteor T.7 WL332's cockpit and popped by for a Meteor chat, to gather some spares, and to deliver a present!

On Sunday, I was in by myself. WL168 is still crammed away in front of the Nimrod for now

as space was needed as last weekend was the "We'll Meet Again" event, and this week we had a car show in

In the hangar, someone had left a set of steps by 788's tail. Well, it would have been rude not to!

I need to concentrate on getting the Meteor cockpit rig progressing, as Newark Cockpitfest is only just round the corner and it is supposed to be attending! I decided to get the bracketry holding the throttle box more firmly in place made and fitted, copying the forward mount off 788. Rough cut of the metal

After a quick visit to the folder

No, not a burnt samosa, just the bracket in paint

After a job on 63 took longer than envisaged, it was back to the rig, fitting the front bracket

The rear of the throttle box on a real Meteor is supported by the next box section aft, but I don't have that on the rig so a bit of bracket making was required instead



Net result, one much more secure throttle box! As you can see there's still a lot to do before this is 100% ready though

but it is getting there. Finally...

...look how roomy the hangar is now! The Halifax is back indoors, but I'm liking this reshuffle.

More next time folks...

[Blue_2]

09/06/2025 Update
I've been a bit remiss when it comes to updates this last couple of weeks, but I didn't have a great deal to report the previous weekend as I was only in on the Sunday. I did get some work done on the Meteor cockpit rig though; getting that ready for Cockpitfest at Newark in all too few week's time is my current priority. The main job of the day was modifying the "chassis" of the rig, firstly to make it possible to quickly break the rig down into easily transportable sections, but also reinforcing the structure by adding more genuine Meteor structure

With this done the whole thing is much more sturdy, yet remove 4 pip pins and the rig can be lifted off the stand

I then got some aesthetic jobs done, such as fitting the starter button covers

And removing the space filler where the rudder adjustment knob would be...

...as I had found something much better...

...which was soon installed!

With a few other little jobs done, such as fitting the GGS spare bulb holder, the rig itself was looking a bit good

But there was still the issue of the stick and the seat to address. I got a bonus afternoon at YAM yesterday,

so I made a start on the mounting the stick on the rig problem. This required a highly accurate technical drawing to be made, requiring measurements off the real cockpit...

The stick assembly was then placed in relation to the panel, using a couple of "borrowed" YAM barrier stands, which just happened to be the right size.

A few weeks ago, John had brought in some aluminium extrusions he had lying around at home for use, so I grabbed one of these, cut it to size, and mocked up the stick mounts

That should do!

My plan is that these will be again pip-pinned in place, so the rig can be broken into manageable chunks relatively quickly and easily

Everything looks right from the pilot's perspective!

I do need to crack on at the weekend; this lot really needs to be finished by close of play this Sunday so it's ready to go to Newark the following weekend. But it's getting there. I don't see finishing the stick mounts taking long, then it'll just be a question of rigging the seat and final fettling.
I've dug out some "support acts" for the rig too. This Meteor NF rear cockpit electrical panel I restored a few years ago. More recently I had to borrow a couple of breakers and a switch from it, but I kept the u/s items they were swapped for and fitted them at the weekend

I'll also bring my NF Nav's instrument binnacle, for it's last outing with me before it gets sent off to the Jet Age Museum for use in their restoration of one of 788's sisters. Also, we'll bring an interloper, from another one of our side quests

We haven't forgotten about WK640!

More next time folks... and maybe see some of you at Newark!

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Super stuff look forward to seeing you at the ‘Fest!

TT