Victor K2 XL231

[Dan4th]

This is all good, and I am IMPRESSED

Ain't She Sweet, though

Thank You, Mister Blue

Danf.

[Sploosher]

thanks for the updates Graham, the new paint job is looking good..........

looking forward to it getting noisy at 3pm...................

EDIT.

dont forget guys you can any pictures of `Lusty Lindy` you have to the flickr group I run.......

Handley Page Victor XL231 "Lusty Lindy"
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1984858@N22/

[Blue_2]

14-15/09/13 Update
A busy weekend for us, both on the museum site and with our jet. The hangar occupants have been shuffled around again, I was pleased to see RAF Finningley's old gate guard outside. First time I've seen it outdoors since 1994!

It was also nice to see the museum site hosting a wedding, I hope the happy couple enjoyed their day!
On to the jet. We were doing last minute preparations for today's taxy run, with jobs like final checks of engine doors, tyres, comms, and the seals in the cockpit roof hatches recharged. I had pics of this, but for some reason can't get them off my phone.
We summoned the Tractor God to move Lindy to her intended start point for today.

Off the museum access taxyway and on to the airfield proper

Brian did a couple of circuits of the loop

And Lindy re-familiarised herself with the runway

We also did our intake checks

With all the prep done, we retired with fingers crossed for a good Sunday...

After yesterday's decent weather, we awoke today and found that conditions were, well, moist...

We still intended to run, but at a slower speed and without using the brake chute. We didn't want to get our chute all wet and dirty, and the crosswinds were outside limits for a chute too. Ground power on, last checks.

With Grant on long lead duties, we started

And firstly went for a gentle trundle round the pan



Before heading back to the runway threshold

This was the cue for those of us on the turnaround team to get a shift on and get up the runway. And wait for Lindy...



We got her turned around, did our checks and found no problems, and sent her back on her way

SO there you have it, she ran, made lots of noise, and returned 100% serviceable. What more can you ask of the old girl?

[MOD]

Great pics. Well done guys.

ibw

[Dan4th]

Marvelous!

Don't split your lip grinning !

A happy day for one and all,
except for that poor Groom

Danf.

[RLN]

Well done. Great stuff.

[Sooty655]

Brian the Tractor God's video of the run. Which we may or may not have photo-bombed!

[Dan4th]

WowowowowowoWOW!!!!!!!!!!

Guess I can go back to bed now
'cause that Made My Day

When Again??????

Danf.

[Crew chief]

Blimey a couple of those seagulls looked a bit close to the intakes, good vid of a very nice V bomber.
It still makes me smile when you do a taxi run with a big complex jet and you hear from Joe public who say "is that it" they just can't comprehend the amount of time and money it takes just to taxi one of these things.
cc.

[MOD]

Awesome stuff. Thanks to all involved. Gonna watch it again now with earphones volume set to #11.


ibw

[Dougs]

And it never left the ground

[Sploosher]

nice video................ but no knickers


wish I could have got there though, plans for the weekend radically changed at short notice...........

[Sooty655]

Crosswinds were way out of limits for chute deployment, it would have smashed the hell out of the chute bay doors once the jet slowed. So the run had to be slower, sadly.
Edit:
A few more bits from the weekend for you, now I've managed to get them off my phone. Our facebook followers will already have seen some of these. Firstly some from Saturday, a couple of shots of the process of topping up the 2 canopy hatch seals. Really nice and easy to get to as you can see...



One I took from the tug while we were doing a couple of circuits of the V-bomber dispersal area to exercise the gear, walking joints etc. Not every day you get followed at extremely close quarters by a V-bomber!

Andre running through some of the jet's systems

Now the Sunday ones, firstly a couple of Hunter ones. Both seats are now successfully removed

We powered up the jet's electrics just to see what works and what doesn't. Even the gunsights work, which meant I could take this shot of a Halifax in a reflector sight for the first time in probably the first time in nearly 70 years.

A slightly chilling sight.
Back to things V-bomber, a slightly damp Victor (and crew!) awaiting 'the appointed hour'

A little treat for you, as I've already mentioned I was on the turnaround team and after we'd carried out our checks I filmed the launch of the slower return run.

[Blue_2]

I wasn't at the jet this weekend, however on driving past the museum on Sunday I noticed that Lindy is back within the confines of the museum once more...

[Vulcan Bomber]

Graham, Just looking at the pic with Andre in the AEO seat, the back of the cockpit looks different to xm715's (its been a while since i've sat in 715) so the question is: Do all the K2's have the same cockpit? Or were the later conversions different?

[Blue_2]

There are some differences between K2's. Firstly Lindy has been restored to the triple rear seat config, ie. 2 nav seats rather than one seat sliding between the 2 nav stations. Secondly unlike 715 Lindy has all the correct gear in the back. Tina's rear panels have been subject to a hole filling exercise with 'bits wot fit'. Ours might have some differences with the rest of the fleet too, as ours was the K2 prototype.

[Vulcan Bomber]

There are some differences between K2's. Firstly Lindy has been restored to the triple rear seat config, ie. 2 nav seats rather than one seat sliding between the 2 nav stations. Secondly unlike 715 Lindy has all the correct gear in the back. Tina's rear panels have been subject to a hole filling exercise with 'bits wot fit'. Ours might have some differences with the rest of the fleet too, as ours was the K2 prototype.

Cheers, proves i'm not going mad!

[Blue_2]

01/10/2013 update
An unexpected couple of days off came my way yesterday and today, so I went to go play with the aircraft seeing as I can't make that many working weekends this month. I arrived to see Lindy basking in the sun, looking good after the guys washed most of her over the weekend

The wing still needed doing however, so Andre and I got on. I went on the wing with the soapy water and brush, while Andre stayed on terra firma with the power washer



Looking cleaner

Andre gives the wing a last rinse off

Other work was going on around the site. After recently replacing the Canberra's canopy, Bob is busy reinstating the instrumentation in our T4





We did a few other jobs on the jet, including plugging the lead back in for the cockpit dehumidifier. There was one small problem however. When she was last moved out onto the airfield Andre had thrown the electric lead for it into the compartment in front of the nosewheel bay. Unfortunately I couldn't reach the cable so I had to access the compartment. Due to a great piece of design by HP this compartment in the bottom of the aircraft is accessed from... the roof of the fuselage! Yes you have to climb up all the way up the wing to the plenum chamber door in the roof of the fuselage, open it, lower yourself in, then open a trapdoor in the bottom of the plenum then finally lower yourself through that into the bottom of the aircraft. Here is the view from the plen

Back up from just in front of the nosewheel leg

And as first for me, the top of the nosewheel leg

Final job for the day was to put the wheel covers back on and give them a wash

This morning dawned a lot more miserable and windy than yesterday sadly

Andre and I went to have a look at his next repaint project, the Mirage. Here he is removing the FAI markings which were temporarily (!) applied to it a couple of years ago.

We then power washed all the green manky crap out of the aircraft's nooks, crannies and seams

Work still continues on the Hunter, one of the museum team is doing a great job of refurbing the cockpit

A weather window opened this afternoon, and gave me long enough to paint the hemp surrounds to the walkways. As you can see here, some specially on the starboard side were still in primer

After much patient work Lindy's grey bits are now hemp!



I also went round the jet, touching in the few bits of paintwork which have suffered damage over the year since the repaint was finished
Andre was in the jet, painting some of the more scuffed bits back in black



I'm not sure which sported the more paint after though; Andre or the cockpit!

[Dan4th]

It never ends, does it Mister Blue ?

Be sure to tell Andre how much we all
appreciate his efforts

Oh, and is the nose art finished yet????

Danf.

[Blue_2]

There's always something to keep us out of mischief! Not sure if Ian has declared his work on the nose art done, looks good though.

[Ray C]

Great to follow.....I bet your house is a decorated palace.....?

[Blue_2]

God no! getting me to lift a paintbrush at home is nigh impossible! Took me best part of 2 years to get round to painting a set of shelves...

[Blue_2]

13-10-13 Update
Another weekend of aircraft for the team, with an 'away party' heading down to Newark to hunt for Victor related goodies on the Saturday, more on that later. Sunday was working day, with a good number of team members in despite the slightly damp weather.

Ian's nose art rejuvinating is done, and looking pretty darn good

Ian decided to tickle Lindy's belly!

He was actually busy clearing drain holes.
Steve was in, busy changing one of the ADF aerials

And Rich and I got on with a little job under the wings. You may recall that the rear part of the underwing tanks is articulated, and travels with the flaps? Well we decided the whole rig needed attention. We managed to spray lubricant on the pulleys for the bungee system which holds the fairings in their normal position, then turned our attention to the rollers right at the back of the fairings.

These run along a reinforced strip on the flap, however it seems they have suffered from a lack of maintenance as one had seized and the other had started to eat the alloy of the bracket it was mounted in! They were soon stripped out though and disassembled ready for cleaning

I decided to do this after lunch, as I didn't want to eat while stinking of jet fuel!
After lunch the weather improved dramatically



And we soon had the rollers reinstalled. After a bit of work making some shims, they now function as they should and no longer eat the flaps or their own mounting brackets.

Andre did that rarest of things and put his hand in his pocket on Saturday, treating Lindy to a new compass, now fitted.



A massive improvement over the original one as you can see

I had to disappear early, but before I did I had to take this shot

My reason for disappearing early? I had Victor-related engineering of a more agricultural nature to attend to. Our Facebook followers will already know of the latest member of our team, but for the rest of you here she is

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Group Captain Geraldine de Goat! Mrs Blue_2 and I bought her, and she has been adopted as the Victor team mascot in a nod to the RAF squadrons who adopted goats and other creatures as their mascot. She will be appearing at the jet on occasions soon to inspect our work, as part of her duties I/C RAF Elvington. As long as she stops escaping...

[Dan4th]

Thanks, Mister Blue

Nose art looks great as does the GOAT

And I think we ALL need a new compass
from time to time as well....

Geraldine?

Named after someone, perhaps?????

Danf.

[Blue_2]

Ali, my better half, named the goat. I'd have to ask her the reasoning behind the choice of name... Personally I'm thinking the name of one of the Great Escape survivors would be more apt!