Victor K2 XL231

[Blue_2]

02/02/15 Update

It was a bit arctic on Sunday! I'm not sure if Lindy was bouncing in the gusty wind or just shivering.

I think here she is wishing she was back in the Gulf, rather than on a sub-Arctic Yorkshire airfield!
I was only in for the morning as I had some jobs to do back home, but my main task for the day was to refit the water drainage system for the RAT exhausts. I couldn't refit these last week as the rubber components of the pipework were solid due to the cold. This week I came prepared with my trusty flask of hot water, to aid in bending the pipes to my will so to speak. First though, I encountered a frozen Andre working under the bomb bay tanks

He was chasing the fuel gauging problems. And doing a fine job of dropping the tiny little screws off the co-ax junction boxes, due to frozen fingers!

Incidentally, if anyone on here knows anything about the fuel gauging systems on Lindy, we'd love to hear from you. They are throwing us some problems which are really taxing our electrical wizards...
I decided the only thing to do was to retreat to the comparatively tropical environment of the back hatch, armed with my flask! Sadly it didn't have a brew in it, but the hot water certainly did the trick with the rubber pipe sections. Here they enjoy a bath in my flask cup.

Must remember to wash that out before I next use it...
Anyhow, I soon had all the plumbing in place. You can see it in the shot below; it is the comparatively thin pipe running across the picture.

It is connected to the lowest point of the RAT exhausts. These are open to the elements permanently, and would collect water and eventually dump it all over the electrics in the back hatch were it not for this nifty little bit of plumbing which collects the water and dumps it out of a vent in the Starboard side of the fuselage.

Now... Anyone for a brew?!

[Blue_2]

23/02/15 Update

Not a lot of specific Victor news to share this week, but we have been a very busy set of chaps over the weekend. I took an early morning stroll down to the museum on Saturday to try and catch the jets at sunrise



















I know the Nimrod team were in Saturday too preparing for their Sunday engine run, and the Devon and Dak have seen much prep work over the last few weeks too.

Sunday we were summoned in early by the Tractor God, as there was much to do before the weather took a turn for the worse during the afternoon. We intended to have the Devon and Dak out of the hangar, both plus the Nimrod run, and then everything back away before the rain came in. Before taking the Dak out though, Brian had to fit his new toy to the top of the fin; a GoPro!

He just has to have his toys! But I must admit, it was a nice view from up there

I was able to catch a different angle of the Devon team finishing off the prep on their aircraft too, while I was up in the Gods.

On-board the Dak, it was immediately apparent that the full glazing change has made a massive difference. You can actually take photos through it now!

The Dak's cockpit has had a serious tidy and re-upholster, courtesy of Bob. It really does look smart now.




The Devon was first to run, and the TLC and new plugs it has received has really paid off as it ran beautifully

The Dak was next up, if you look carefully you can see that man Ian waiting expectantly too...

Sadly despite several attempts she wouldn't start. However her team are confident they know what the problem is, and another attempt will be made on Saturday. It may not be the only prop spinning that day...
Brian then scurried to get the prop aircraft inside before the rain, which began as the Nimrod was preparing to start. It is there, somewhere behind the wall of firefighters, honest...


And finally, it appears Andre has been busy repainting the black bits of Lindy's cockpit entry steps. Including the rather fetching wooden (yes, wooden!) threshold.

[Sploosher]

thanks for the update Graham.............reminds me that I am long overdue another visit..

[Blue_2]

2/3/15 Update

We were in on Saturday rather than Sunday this weekend, as Andre was required to be in to have another go at running the Dakota after she refused to play last week. When I arrived the Dak still had her nose in the comparative shelter of the hangar, as she was having her engines pre-warmed with hot air blowers. That or she was being shy, I'm not sure which!

She was hauled out, hooked up to our Houchin, and the Port engine burst into life eagerly

And sounded very smooth indeed.

Unfortunately, the starboard engine still had no inclination to join in proceedings

The port engine made enough noise to entertain the interested crowd of visitors though!

You can see in this shot just what a difference the new cabin glazing has made

After shutdown, the Dak crew investigated and found there was an issue with the fuel pressure to the starboard engine. I'm sure they will have it fettled soon. I went to tinker with the Flying Flea, and the rest of the guys went to make a start washing the jet. Once I'd finished doing my odd jobs on the Flea I assisted the Hangar Team with putting the Dak away. Here the Tractor God earns his keep!

Before heading to the jet to lend a hand with the wash

Tom looks worried, at the prospect of Ian wielding a power washer! Rich stays on terra firma, sensible chap...

[Blue_2]

Another fairly busy weekend at Elvington. After the excitement of the nightshoot, the Halifax is now safely back indoors. The other aircraft are slowly emerging from winter hibernation though, which means the hangar is much less crowded now. The Tonka has moved in for its repaint to continue.

While outside there is a pleasing line-up of Cold War jets

The plans for the day were to see if the Dak's minor issues from the nightshoot run had been sorted, see if the Devon's port engine would start after its refusal on the nightshoot, and if we had time dry spin Lindy's engines and exercise her hydraulic systems.
KN353 was a hive of activity when I arrived



Brian readies himself for long lead duties. A fireman stands by in case he needs hosing down if the excitement gets too much for him!

With the Starboard engine being the misbehaving one, it was started first. We had 2 persons knowledgeable in the ways of big American radials observing and listening, to assist with diagnosing just what is wrong with the engine.

It still misbehaved, but not as badly.

It seems the Dak team are on the right path towards sorting it and getting it running as smoothly as its counterpart on the port wing



Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the Devon; its port engine refused again sadly. The starboard one sounded lovely though!

After lunch, we de-blanked the Victor, ready for dry spinning the engines. The usual checks were carried out in the intakes, the rear parts of the intakes are starting to look in need of some fresh paint in a couple of little places but other than that all was well. I decided to stay on board, as I have not done this for a while. Ian continued his training by taking a turn on the long lead outside. After a couple of gremlins with comms we were ready to go.

The Artouste lit nicely, with we are told a good long flame. Only to be expected after a couple of months of dormancy! After sitting at idle for a while to let it stabilize and warm up properly, we started dry spinning the engines in order, 1 to 4. Here Andre works the starter panel

here no.4 is just winding up to 15%rpm, the oil pressure is nicely lifting, and next to it no. 3 is still winding down.

After one run through the engines, we switched on the hydraulic pumps to exercise the jet's systems. In this shot the flaps have just been dropped to fully down; the indicator for the starboard one lags ever so slightly as you can see!

Also worked were the airbrakes, RAT scoops (finally working perfectly; yay!), wheel brakes, centreline HDU, and seen here, the nosewheel steering

Next up the PFCU's were switched on and all the control surfaces worked. Rob was in the copilots seat and carried this out, seeing as he looked like he needed a good workout! Then the trimmers were tested, before one last dry spin of the engines

So after shutting down, our fault list carried a grand total of 2 items. The start light on no.1 engine, and an iffy external intercom lead.
I don't think we can grumble at that, really...

[Spitfire]

After shutdown, the Dak crew investigated and found there was an issue with the fuel pressure to the starboard engine. I'm sure they will have it fettled soon.

They want to contact Buffalo Joe up at Hay River - He and his team have probably forgotten more about DC3s and multi-engine radial piston pounders than anyone in this country knows collectively
It amazes me that they can work outside on those things in -40 degrees when this country grinds to a halt at -5

http://www.buffaloairways.com/index.php?page=douglas-dc-3

[Sploosher]

thanks for the very informative update Graham................

must come and see your lady again soon...............

[Blue_2]

Saturday is a very special day for our friends and neighbours the Nimrod team. Lindy will be playing a supporting role (for once!) but we still want her looking her best for the day. Most of the pre-run prep had been done over the weekend, but I found myself at a loose end on Tuesday and Wednesday this week so Andre suggested that the undercarriage and their bays might benefit from a clean. Done properly this is a long laborious job, involving a bucket of old jet fuel, rags, and elbow grease. Old clothes and coveralls are also a must! So on Tuesday I cracked on with the port side, logically starting in the gear bay and working downwards. Before I started I gave an ex-Marham fuel bowser driver a look around her. He had been given a 'jolly' aboard 231 before he left the RAF, and said he had been 'sick as a dog' for the entire sortie but had still loved every minute of it!
First picture shows the top of the port main leg in mid clean

Here is the freshly cleaned outboard wall of the port gear bay. Still in excellent condition after all these years!

And the section forward of it. That hatch in the middle? That's the access to the interior of the wing. Only accessible to dwarves and trained weasels!

After replacing some wirelocking that had failed with age I started working my way down the leg. This was a slow job, but the leg looked much better for it





Even the wheels got a once-over!

If Andre goes through any puddles on Saturday and undoes all this cleaning, he has already been warned he'll be beaten to death with a wet fish...
I decided to call that a day for Tuesday, anticipating that Wednesday would be a very similar story but in the starboard bay. Wednesday saw the sun out once more over Yorkshire

Unfortunately the Spring and the return of our feathered friends meant that the tail anti-bird nest measures had to be deployed

Again my morning was taken up with 'tour guide' duties, this time one of Lindy's builders! He had been an electrical systems installer at Radlett at the time our girl was built. It's always a pleasure to re-acquaint people from her past life with our jet, and hear their stories.
After lunch I started cleaning the starboard gear, however all did not go to plan. I found a fuel leak on what turned out to be the servo control pressure line for the pressure vent valve. It's job is to return excess fuel to the tank which supplies the APU (10 tank). So my afternoon was spent scurrying back to stores, finding suitable pipes, jointers, etc., then re-plumbing the whole shooting match, all the while getting to wear a slow but steady flow of avtur. 2 showers later and I still stink of the stuff! All is well though, and when I left yesterday there were no more leaks, the new pipe was secured, and all joins were lockwired. I'd even given the starboard leg a quick clean up after all! The new pipeline is the nice shiny one in the pics below.



So hopefully we're ready to go on Saturday, and make some noise.

I may no longer smell of jet fuel by then...

[Blue_2]

Rolling Thunder Day- 11/04/15 Update

As you know we have been working up to this event for a few weeks now. Sadly the Dakota was not serviceable for the day, but the Devon, Nimrod and Lindy (after the midweek fuel leak drama!) were all ready to go. The Nimrod had a last minute hitch in the form of a duff ASV, but that is their story to tell.
The participating aircraft were all out on the airfield on Friday. The Nimrod was parked on the taxyway by the museum, and Lindy was as usual on the V-bomber QRA diamond. The day started overcast, cold, and with a bit of a wind blowing. It wasn't enough to stop the Devon undertaking some taxying practice on the vast expanse of concrete that is the ex- B-36/B52 pan though.



Next up was a taxy practice and systems tests for the Nimrod. I had forgotten my ear defenders so I had to trot over to our jet to borrow a pair, stopping en route for a photo or two!

The cloud started to yield a little as the Nimrod started, giving the odd sunny patch.

Notice who the sun was shining on as the Nimrod taxied out!

The jet then had a good run around the pan, warming up for her fast taxy runs later in the day to celebrate her 5th anniversary in active retirement.





After this we went back to the NAAFI to grab a quick brew and a sandwich. On the way it was nice to see the Argus outdoors for once. It had been brought out of the hangar as part of the dedication ceremony for the ATA memorial.

After this, while the SE5 and Kitten were entertaining the troops on the museum site, we were back out on the airfield preparing the jet.



Ian chose to resort to worship in an attempt to ensure the jet's serviceability!

The wind had not abated, and was blowing straight up the jetpipes of both the Nimrod and the Victor. It was decided to turn the Nimrod across the wind, then come and get the Victor and take her onto the pan next to the Nimrod. This would work better for the crowd in that both big jets would taxy out and back past them. So I got a couple more photos while the Nimrod was repositioning.

Some of the team, which I am incredibly proud to be part of, who give up their time and effort to keep the best surviving Victor alive.

We soon had the jet hooked up, and then towed across to the pan. I hitched a lift on board, again catching Ian at prayer!

The star of the day was the Nimrod. It was The Maid's day as the day was a celebration of her 5th anniversary of retirement from active RAF service into a slightly less active retirement. Out she went for the first of her 2 fast taxy runs



On the second run the sun came out halfway along the runway!





Before returning to the pan. She walks to heel nicely behind Nimrod Mate!

As she was taxying back to her parking spot, we prepared to run. Ian was doing the see-off for the first time, and for a Wiganer did a spot-on job!

All started well, so off she went. We were just doing a short 70kts taxy run, to save our fuel stocks and also to try not to upstage the far quieter Nimrod on her special day.

After stopping by the spectators to give them a bit of Conway noise, Andre and Rob (with Rick Gill carrying out AEO duties) took her out onto the runway

The sun favoured the Victor again as she launched for her short run!





Stopping and turning around part-way up the runway, before back-tracking





After another noise stop for the audience, she came back in

With a happy-looking crew on board!

After shut down we had to get on with bringing the aircraft back in, as the airfield needed to be cleared for another event. We had a traffic jam and tailback, Elvington style, while waiting for the fence to be lifted out. Total gridlock!

Now would be a good time to mention Terberg DTS UK, without whom the event wouldn't have happened. The museum's own Pathfinder is currently undergoing repair to its monitor and would not be able to offer the usual level of fire cover. Terberg stepped in and transported to Elvington another machine, which they lent us for the day at no cost to us. Thankyou chaps, much appreciated!
After the traffic jam cleared the Nimrod was expertly brought in by Brian the Tractor God as usual



Before we finally fetched Lindy in. The fence team soon closed the fence up behind her while we blanked the jet up and put her to bed. And I declared it beer o'clock!
All in all a cracking day, the 3 aircraft behaved themselves, our visitors seemed to go away happy, and the Nimrod's arrival anniversary was suitably marked.

Though I'm not sure Lindy managed not to steal the show....!

[Dougs]

Never gets said enough but great work

[Sploosher]

Never gets said enough but great work

indeed................

[Blue_2]

Thankyou chaps. It's nice to see the feedback on here and know our work is appreciated.

[Blue_2]

27/04/15 Update
Best laid plans, and all that... We intended to have a full weekend on the jet this weekend, with the plan being to repaint either the undersides of the tailplanes or the underside of the rear fuselage now we have a quantity of Light Aircraft Grey. However damp, windy showery conditions on Saturday scuppered this plan. Sunday couldn't have been nicer though. We arrived on site in time to see the Hurricane being parcelled up for transport into York city centre for a few days.

We inspected the rear fuselage with a view to painting it, however we decided that we couldn't really get a meaningful amount prepped and painted in just one day. The weather is still too unpredictable to leave areas of the jet's skin rubbed back and then exposed to the elements for any time really.
We did take the cover plate for the tailwheel off though, and reinflated the tyre to the correct 35psi. Many people are surprised to learn Lindy has a tailwheel!

The morning was then largely taken up with doing a few little jobs on the 2 Tornados and one of the Buccs, before retiring for lunch. Over lunch, Andre, Tom Rick and John decided to continue investigating the fuel gauging anomalies in the starboard wing by checking the coax cables running to each tank's sender by simply testing them for continuity. Here Tom is putting a wire across the nice accessible plug on the wire for no.5 tank...

...while Andre is at the other end of the wire (at the junction box in the front of the starboard u/c bay) with the meter.

Tank 5's wire proved fine, so the next tank forward was tested. It was just through the hatch to Andre's right in the above shot, and nicely within arm's reach for Tom. Again, the coax cable was fine. So this meant the next tank forward had to have its coax tested. Now do you remember the photo I posted of the port wing access hatch I posted here on 9th April? The one that is only accessible to dwarves and trained weasels? Well it appears that I lied, as I was sent in to test that tank! I believe our Ian has a picture or 2 of this most uncomfortable but necessary and quite comical operation, which I hope he might let me share on here. That cable tested fine as well so it was back to the drawing board.
I decided that after the gymnastics required to get into and back out of the wing it was time for a brew, after which I got on with lubricating the nosewheel and its steering mechanisms after Andre complained the NWS was a little stiff on the last run. Now in a fine piece of HP design, the top of the nose leg has greasing points on it, best accessed from above. Fair enough so far. Above the nosewheel bay is the plenum chamber, in the floor of which is the access hatch to get to the nosewheel. And you get into the plenum... through the hatch in the top of the fuselage! So servicing the nosewheel leg involves climbing up the wing, dropping into the top of the fuselage, and then down through another hatch descending through the entire depth of the fuselage.
Once you are in it's a quick easy job though, one of those where it takes more time and effort to get to the job than to do the job. Anyway, a view not often seen of the top of the nose leg, with the grease points freshly attended to

On my way back out of the plen, I spotted another reminder of Lindy's past, in the form of this seal:

After returning to ground level I went round the other grease points on the leg. It remains to be seen what difference this has made to the steering, but hopefully it'll be a bit easier to operate.
After we put the grease gun back away, we heard the Green Box making noise, and got back to the jet to find ground power on to see if the work on the fuel gauging systems had sorted the problem. Sadly it had not, but while I was aboard I took the opportunity to get a couple of photos of the AEO's and Nav's desks with the power on to share with you good people in forum-land



And apart from a bit of housekeeping including reinflating the Harrier's leaky outrigger tyre that was it for the day. I had earlier in the day loosened a couple of panels on the underwing tanks of Lindy to let condensation out; they were refitted but will require further attention at some point before corrosion sets in.
Before we left, the Nimrod looked nice in the late afternoon light

But the space in front of Lindy had taken a distinct Gallic (Garlic?) flavour...

[Sploosher]

thanks for the update Graham, very informative as usual............

Tail wheel..........................

how come I did not get to see that on my 1 to guided tour 2 years ago.......................

[Blue_2]

You only bought the guided tour, not the behind the scenes guided tour!

[Sploosher]

You only bought the guided tour, not the behind the scenes guided tour!

oh b!"£$%&*S..........................

trust me for being a skin flint.....................

[Blue_2]

01/05/15 Update
I was in on Friday, but it was more a day of helping out with museum aircraft rather than Lindy. I did spend the afternoon sorting out some spare parts for her but that is not really exciting enough to warrant reporting on. Far more fun was extracting the front ejection seat from the Buccaneer with Ollie. It had to come out as he wants to give 974's office a thorough cleaning, and attend to a few jobs which are much easier with the seat out.
Simply remove, the book said...!

All disconnected, we waited for the Tractor God to appear with the teleporter and the lifting strap.

All hooked up...

...And it's out! Sadly no money was found in the floor of the cockpit. Andre must've beaten us to it...

The seat went into safe storage in the HP building

Back at the Bucc I found some 'service' graffiti in the protractor holder in the rear cockpit

And we got to the bottom of a mystery which had been bugging Ollie for a while; why there was a fuse on a string in the cockpit! Turns out it was a solution on the very early S.2's in case of tailplane runaway.

Suspect ony our jet is so fitted now, another unique little piece of XN974's history!

[Blue_2]

22/06/15 Update

I have been away from the jet and YAM for a few weeks recently; due to a holiday to Cyprus and the lure of a cracking line-up at last weekend's Cosford airshow I'm afraid! It was back to business as normal yesterday though. First after re-acquainting myself with the 'unique' NAAFI bacon, I took a wander round site to see what had changed in my absence. The Harrier has moved onto the grass next to the hangar, and I have to admit it looks quite at home there!

Round the other side of the hangar lies the Tornado GR4 Andre is working hard on the repaint of, into the current grey scheme. And doing a cracking job it has to be said!

I then headed back to the jet to see what the day's plans were

First job was to carry out an APU run to see if the minor snags picked up on last week had been ironed out

Here Grant monitors the start-up closely, while Ian is on the lead ready to relay the news back to Andre in the cockpit

I'm pleased to say the run was a success, and the Artouste has been declared fixed and happy once more. Andre drew the short straw of doing all the wirelocking required, using it as an opportunity to demonstrate another skill to young Sam. But first, lunch was to be had!
Andre loves wirelocking. He really is enthusiastic about it. As you would be able to hear from the muffled curses if this photo came with sound!

While the APU doors were off, I pointed the camera into the rear of the exhaust bay. Some of our longer term readers may remember that a couple of years back we had a problem which required the APU's removal, and while we were at it we took the opportunity to refurbish the bay which included replacing the bay roof. I'm pleased to say the repairs are holding up well, in fact they still look in excellent order!

While Andre was doing his favourite job, the rest of us decided to bite the bullet and make a start on rubbing the underside down ready for a repaint. This required us to take a walk across to the hangar to gather sanders and various other sundry supplies, where we found a game of hangar chess in progress in preparation for an even this week. This meant a couple of the DH aircraft were taking the air outdoors for a change



And it would seem our 109 replica has been rolled back from a G model to an E!

They actually took the tips off to make space.

Back to the jet, I took one last photo of the old paint before we struck up the sanders once more

Our plan for the day was to prep from the wing trailing edge all the way back, Ian and Sam taking one side and Rich and I on the other. The access hatch you can see on the right in my pic above had some corrosion issues round the edges, so I decided the easiest way to deal with that was to pull the panel and attack it off the jet. I soon had the corrosion cleaned off

And with the bare metal protected with a coat of primer, the panel was set aside to dry

The panel was an access hatch to the bomb bay; here is the view of the back of the rear bomb bay tank from the hatch

We slowly worked our way down the fuselage, opening the side hatches to allow us to prep the HDU skip too.



Quite a way back I found another panel which I decided would benefit from removal and fettling off the jet. What lay within? A Rad Alt. aerial!

Another part of Lindy which I suspect hasn't seen the light of day for quite a while. The panel itself is a metal frame with a composite skin, and the frame had some surface corrosion which was soon seen off and again protected with a coat of primer

Before being refitted. By this time Ian was at the tailcone; the end was in sight!

Rich just had some minor surface corrosion on a couple of fastenings to rub back, while all the rivets etc. on the tailcone made it slow going for Ian

Finally I went round the jet priming any and all bare metal I could see, then Rich had a go with the spraycan on the last detail bits he'd sanded

Overall, a good days work. A couple of little bits need revisiting, but that is a pretty good sized chunk of the jet ready for paint.

We want to be on with this, as we have a couple of very important taxy runs scheduled and we want her looking her very best. Our next few bulletins should hopefully cover more sanding back, repainting (including under the tailplanes, so I shall be getting familiar with the long giraffe climb once more!) if the weather is kind to us, and a visit to a fellow V-bomber preservation group, all in preparation for a very busy couple of months for us and our jet. Watch this space...

[Sploosher]

another great update Graham , feel a bit Jealous of your trip to Cyprus, not been there for many years and would love to go back

Bet you missed the good old NAAFI bacon butties though.......

[Blue_2]

Busy weekend for us; I'm fairly sure it was the same story for the V-bomber teams around the country though, preparing for XH558's tour over the weekend! It began for me on the Friday night when we got final confirmation that we could position the jet out of the airfield. The move would have to be very early doors though, so it was decided to nip down to the jet to de-blank her and put the towbar on that evening. With 3 of us on the job we soon had this accomplished, and not a minute too soon either as the cloud behind the jet in this shot decided to let loose!

The next day we were down to the museum very early to get the jet out.

Even John managed to get in early, and cracked on with the tyres

Off out we go...

Lindy positioned on the runway

Once the jet was out safely I then had some business to attend to at home, but got a nice unusual view of Lindy on my way back

We then settled in to wait for the visitor...
First sighting

And in she came













I'm fairly sure I got a speck of dust in my eye during what I suspect is one of the last visits 558 will make to our patch...

[Aceyone]

Fascinating reading,thanks very much

[Blue_2]

04/07/15 Update

A sneaky Saturday bonus update!
I had an unexpected day off yesterday, and decided to put it to good use by making a start on repaintng the undersides of the Victor's tailplanes. I figured with 2 forecast days of good weather I could prep and paint one each day. I started on the Starboard side. Up close they look scruffy, but there was fortunately very little in the way of corrosion.

Nice view from up there too!

I started at the fin and worked outward, slow hot work especially when you have to stop and move the giraffe across by yourself every few feet!

Anything I took back to bare metal I gave a coat of primer

After a lot of graft, I was able to start painting at the elevator tip and work back toward the fin.



And after a while the whole starboard tailplane was wearing a coat of fresh Light Aircraft Grey







So I retired for a pint or 2, and looked forward to the same job on the other side today. Well, maybe not quite looking forward to it... Anyway, after heavy rain I awoke to the grey wet view outside

Not conducive to painting a jet as I'm sure you can understand.
The weather at the other end of the airfield was no better. The Gannet looked a tad damp and reflective

As did Lindy

With little else to do I helped the Nimrod team with some housekeeping round their jet and waited for the weather to improve enough to get on with the paint. Mid afternoon the sun finally got out, but it was by then too late to start rubbing back the tail as there was no way I would have time to prep and paint the entire thing, so instead I elected to paint the starboard lower section of the fuselage we prepped a couple of weeks ago while the Nimrod looked on.

Andre had already dealt with the port side

Work in progress

I used some mileage of masking tape!

Underneath view, all done

So that is the entire Starboard rear quarter done. Not a bad couple of days work really.

[Dougs]

wow she looks ready to fly

[Sploosher]

wow she looks ready to fly

If only..............

[Blue_2]

I haven't seen much of Yorkshire myself this weekend though, as we have been away on a road trip to deepest darkest Warwickshire. As you may recall, we are running desperately short of useable mainwheel tyres for the jet. It doesn't help our situation that the Vulcan XH558 team still owe us wheels and taxyable tyres. However, we are now far better off in this respect thanks to the generosity of another Vulcan team, the 655 MaPS team who look after the immaculate Vulcan XM655 at Wellesbourne. I received a message from them saying they had a couple of useable tyres available if we needed them. Needless to say we snapped up this kind offer, so Saturday saw us trooping south.
The jet enjoying the sun

On arrival we were made extremely welcome, and a couple of brews and much discussion of old V-bombers took up most of the next few hours. We were also treated to a tour of the Vulcan; it was very interesting to compare the 2 jets we respectively know so well!





Andre enjoying the slightly cosy Vulcan cockpit!

After enjoying the hospitality, we were shown the pile of tyres and encouraged to take away as many as we liked. We thought we would be doing well to be allowed 4 or 5... we came away with 13! My poor car!

After departing Wellesbourne we popped up to Coventry to visit another Avro 4-engined heavy which frequently graces this forum

It was nice to catch up with the 63 guys again.

So the tyres are now safely back in our store, and we can breathe a little easier when we do our next few post-run tyre checks. Many thanks to the 655 team, and it is our hope we can welcome you chaps to see Lindy sometime soon and be of assistance to your efforts with your great aircraft in the future.