Victor K2 XL231

[Mackrick]

Nice update

[Blue_2]

Double helping this week from me!
7/4/13 Update
Thunder day dawned without the traditional rain, snow or plague of locusts we've come to expect of Elvington's micro-climate!

Morale was high...

First up, the Se5. Really looking the part



Then the Devon. The unusual perpective is due to the fact that I was on the scaffolding along the starboard RAT scoop of Lindy, trying to lubricate the still-stiff seals we fitted to it.

After lunch it was the turn of the big jets. By now there was a sizeable crowd

Nimrod first, a not unreasonable amount of smoke and noise



But then it was Lindy's turn to shine




Artouste lit, and we soon had a nice heat haze going under the jet!

Functionals

Then it was time to relocate some of the museum's dust and muck onto the airfield!





Yours truly on collector box duty (cheers Ian!)

Lindy ran perfectly, apart from the sticking RAT. More on that shortly. After the runs were completed and we had successfully deafened North Yorkshire (I was told today our jet could be heard in Stamford Bridge!) the Nim team were left looking for their missing decibels...

And the sun went down on a great, successful day. Thanks to the fire team and the airfield people for their assistance.

But that's not all, you lucky people!
9/4/13 Update
An unexpected day off meant I could go spend some more time working on the jet for a few hours today. Firstly I climbed into the imaginitively named back hatch to try get some more spray lubricant onto the seals for the starboard RAT from the inside. We won't know if it worked till next time we power up though.
I then turned my attention to the nose. Spring has officially sprung as the sound of a sander can be heard at Elvington once more. I decided to give the grey underside of the nose a rub down and fresh lick of paint. Here it is rubbed back and painted, but still masked off

And job done. Looks much better!

[Dan4th]

This is All Good!

Your dedication, hard work and expertise (...not to
mention LUUUUUUUUUUV ) have paid-off in a
very Big Way!

Lindy is, in truth, very Lucky!

Thank you for a wonderful post

Danf.

[Hazzer111]

Thanks for the update, is there any videos?

[Blue_2]

Cheers guys! There are videos out there on Youtube, I have none to offer though I'm afraid.
10/04/13 Update
I'm spoiling you lot this week! I was off work yesterday as the car had an appointment with the garage. Said appointment took a lot less time to carry out than I anticipated, and left my afternoon free. Now most normal, sane people, when presented with a free sunny afternoon would go sit in a beer garden. Not I! I decided to finish painting under Lindy's radome grey. I got it all rubbed back, then received news of an unexpected visitor incoming. So off I scurried up the tower, using the opportunity to get a couple of unusual shots of Lindy and the other jets.



Then our visitor hove into view through the haze, the BBMF's Dakota.



Turning over Lindy

And second pass before making for Coningsby

Cheers BBMF!
Back to Lindy, I got the paint on in between talking with the many visitors showing an interest in our jet. Here are some pics of the finished radome!







I think it looks much smarter.
Sadly back at work today (he says writing a forum update! ) so that's it from me this week.

[RLN]

Thanks for spoiling us The shots from the tower are good. Don't usually see 'planes from that angle (well I don't).

[Mackrick]

Just caught up on this thread.....thanks for the update and photos

[Ray C]

very good shots & interesting up date, thanks Blue , might see you soon....

[Blue_2]

15/04/13 Update
I was only in for a few hours on Sunday, so not much of an update I'm afraid. The windy conditions had the rate of climb/descent indicator bouncing well!



I couldn't get shots of the needle travelling WAY further than that!
The morning shift had spent their time prepping the Bucc for the removal of it's Starboard engine before lunch. The afternoon was devoted to Lindy though, with Ian and Andre chasing the problem with the RAT, and Rich, John and I giving the undercarriage a check over. I had to jack the port main gear up so John could get under to do some cleaning; she's a bit heavy! The tyres are now holding pressure well after the troublesome set were swapped out. However there is a bonded seal needing replacement, a job for next weekend maybe.
I had to be away early, after I'd gone Andre's efforts bore fruit as he finally solved the RAT problem! I have been worried by the RAT since we had it out to replace seals, with it continuing to play up I had a nagging worry I'd reassembled something incorrectly. Thankfully it turned out to be a broken wire in a plug, once it was put right the RAT behaved flawlessly! Massive relief.

[Blue_2]

21/04/13 Update
Saturday was a very nice day to be working on the jet; the sun was out and the sky was full of the sounds of the aerobatic competition over the airfield next door.

A heavy passes over; sad to think it's 20 years this year since Lindy left contrails across the sky...

Ian got on with painting his 'pink bits'. In the roundels I mean, you filthy minded people! Here he is sanding like a mad thing.

I disappeared into the back of the jet to do battle with the plug.

This is the view forward, the bit I needed to get to is the illuminated area. As you can see it can only be accessed by fighting your way round a lot of pipes, the RAT outlets and lots of sharp sticking out metal tags and tails of locking wire. My arms can testify to the sharpness of the various obstacles, as they now look like I've wrestled with a particularly disgruntled tiger!
Here is where Andre removed the plug from last week. Fortunately it's just nicely within arm's reach.

The re-wired plug back in

And p-clipped up, I thought this would be a good idea to reduce the stress on the wires

After clearing a load of our stuff out of the back hatch and carrying it all the way across site to our stores, I closed the hatch up and re-painted the screw heads seeing as the nice fresh paint had been inevitably scratched off while accessing the rear compartment.

The jet always looks nice in the late sun!

Ian's work on the wing roundel

The tail flash is going to need doing too

More next week...

[Mackrick]

Nice update and great photos as always many thanks for sharing

[Ipso]

Good to view your report and photos. Thanks for posting.

[Blue_2]

It's my pleasure chaps! Well it was supposed to be secret but seeing as news has sneaked out elsewhere, I may as well share these shots of our Dak's first engine run a couple of weeks ago.



I took these on the 7th, when only the port engine would play. After a bit of attention to the starboard engine's starter both engines were successfully run last Sunday!

[Dan4th]

That is Great News, Mister Blue

When will she fly?

(Hope you get a RIDE, btw )

Also, about your cramped-spaces work, did
you ever consider having one or two "young
persons" as honorary members of the resto
crew? An 11 or 12 year old kid with proper,
close supervision can get into tight spots
far more easily than you might be able to....

I have a friend who is a semi-pro classic
vehicle restorer, and both his sons and his
daughter were put to use (and loved doing
it) when small bodies and hands were needed
to get into tight spots he couldn't reach.....

They were all of them rewarded, but the
true reward was the father/son/daughter
shared accomplishment

As always, great reports this week!

Danf.

[Blue_2]

She won't fly, but she'll taxy. A trundle round the airfield in her will do for me!
I don't think either the museum or the jet's owner would be too keen on us having children on the team to be honest. The cramped area I was working in would be impossible for a kid anyway; at 6ft tall I could only just reach far enough in to gain access!

Have a video of Sunday's running of both the Dak's engines anyway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HElvw5pPGyI

[Dan4th]

Nice Vid!

At one point there was almost enough
smoke for a Rock Concert !

I hope she'll do more than just trundle,
though, and perhaps have the chance
to get her tail up once in a while

Danf.

[Sploosher]

excellent video............long time overdue to see her running

when is the first taxi run..............

[Blue_2]

When the hydraulic systems have been re-commissioned! I think the crew would appreciate things like brakes...

[Blue_2]

27/04/13 Update
Another Saturday only in for me this weekend, but a busy day. YAM had visitors from Bruntingthorpe in the shape of TBAG, coming to assist in removing the starboard engine from our Bucc to allow a fuel pipe repair. So a joint TBAG/Victor/Nimrod working party attacked the jet mob handed! Brian the Tractor God did sterling work driving the teleporter too. I got some pics in between wrestling with 1x Spey.
Here the lifting beam is on and it's ready to pull clear

And she's out!

On the deck

After some lunch Rich Steve and I went over to make sure Lindy was ok and to do a couple of jobs on her.

One of our jobs was to attend to the 30+ greasing points on each main undercarriage leg!

This done the bird countermeasure nets were refitted to the mainwheel bays seeing as we're getting to that nesting time of year. They will have to come off in a couple of weeks I know for the taxying weekend, even though Steve maintains they are stressed for Mach 3+!
Then it was back to Bucc'ing around in the hangar, as the engine was ready to be coaxed back into place.

Lifting...

Shuffling it into alignment, and trying to get it into the jetpipe whilst sneaking it past the mounting trunnion

And in!

I believe the plan is to test the engine this coming Sunday. Fingers crossed...
Rich, Brian and I also toured the museum with our nitrogen trolley when we had a spare half hour; the Lightning, Hunter T7, Meteor NF14, Vampire T11, Canberra and Bucc all look a lot happier with their tyres re-inflated!
Thanks to TBAG for coming up to Yorkshire to get the job done. Look them up at http://www.thebuccaneeraviationgroup.com/

[Yorkie]

Looking fantastic, some great work going on over there.

[Blue_2]

5/5/13 Update
The museum was a hive of activity on Sunday morning, as the aircraft were given a last check over before next weekend's Battlegroup North event where the Victor, Bucc and Nimrod will be taxying over the weekend, and the Devon and DC3 engine running (serviceability permitting). First up for testing was the Bucc, after it's major surgery the previous week.
Here Steve Pepper and Brian light the Stad, improving the look of the Herald greatly!

Mick and Mal check out the 'patient' for leaks

And Ollie gives the engines some exercise.

The repairs (which couldn't have been done without the assistance of our friends from Brunty) worked brilliantly, there is no longer a fuel leak and the jet is ready to take to the runway next weekend!
Next up was the Dak. i was looking forward to this, as I'd missed the 2 engines running together. Here Andre Ollie and George man the flight deck, as Grant prepares to do long lead duties in his fetching pink hi-viz!

First the fire crews lent a hand to pull the engines through, with a sort of DC3 Morris dance!

The Starboard engine was spun first but seemed uninterested. So attention turned to the port engine which was very eager to play



The port was then shut down, and the starboard brought to life

The longer it ran, the less it smoked and the sweeter it sounded.



But what of Lindy? We decided to blow over her engines, but could do no more than dry runs due to a couple of visiting aircraft parking behind her. All went well, and the flaps, PFCU's, airbrakes got a workout too. We also tested the RAT's, the starboard one is still a touch slow but the consensus is it just needs some exercise as after a couple of goes it was actuating perfectly.
After this we indulged in a spot of house cleaning. I gave the windscreens a good clean

While I was at it I got a different shot of the intake

And with much cursing , bloodshed and effort, we got the trolley jack stowed back away in its home on the starboard side of the nose. It is as heavy as it looks...

We then left Ian to be confused by a paintbrush in his quest to refinish the roundels...

...to lend a hand to cowl up the Bucc for next week, and pressure test its pitots. We did the same on Lindy too.

Been a while since a Victor ASI and Machmeter have shown those kinds of readings!
So to conclude, as of going to press all advertised aircraft are ready for the weekend. Get yourselves to Elvington, it should be a good 'un!

[Ray C]

Il'e be there.....

[Mackrick]

Great update as always love the photos

[Sploosher]

we plan to be there on Saturday................

[Blue_2]

26/05/13 Update

Nice to be back on the jet after a couple of weekends off due to holidays. It did mean I missed the jets running for Battlegroup North, but I'm glad everything went well.
First job for Sunday kept Rich and I busy until lunchtime, putting up some nice new shelves in our stores ready for a full sort and inventory of spares. It'll be interesting to see what we've used (and what the fairies have had away :mad:) since the last inventory was taken...
After lunch we got on with some jobs on the jet. It was a diminished team, with most bodies away at Brunty or elsewhere only Rich, John and I were in. After returning our Houchin to the jet John put ground power on for a bit, and Rich and I replaced a couple of the tattier blanks and bungs with better items we'd found in stores. We then paid attention to the inboard light on the port pylon. It had been blown for a while, but now somehow its perspex cover had become cracked too. Rich had found a new cover in the stores so with nothing to lose we set to replacing the perspex and fixing the light. We managed after a lot of swearing, screwdrivers, mole grips and eventually a dremel to get the screws holding the fairing and cover off. Investigating the light, we found the bulb had simply blown. A new bulb and Bob's your uncle!

The old perspex was goosed, so I drilled screw holes in the new one using the securing ring as a template. I was petrified of cracking the perspex as it's the only one we have!

After a bit of a jiggle the dome and fairing were re-fitted. After sealing it I masked it then gave it a coat of fresh paint. I may re-do this next week as I'm not all that happy with it; we'll see how it dries.

So there you have it. Not the most gripping of updates I'm afraid but the good work continues...