Shackleton WR963

[Richw_82]

We've approached the BBMF and Rolls Royce. BBMF had none, Rolls Royce haven't replied yet.

Regards

Rich

[Cluny]

Thank you for the update and good luck mate

[Dan4th]

How possible is the fabrication route?

Certainly there must be a company that
would knock these parts off for you for
a low price in exchange for some glory
for having done it?

Danf.

[Gaz]

Can they be fabbed?

Some of the guys at Bruntingthorpe are awesome at machining metal!

There's an echo in here!

[Dan4th]

It was a Deliberate echo, Gaz...........

D.

[Gaz]

I suspected as much

[Vulcan Bomber]

Can they be fabbed?

Some of the guys at Bruntingthorpe are awesome at machining metal!

I'm quite handy with a Lathe and can do some Milling and Grinding.... I Work in Rugby as well so only 15 mins from 963

[Avro683]

Richard, what about scavenging one from the Pima bird? Not as though she is going to spin a prop ever again!

[Richw_82]

Hi guys,

Sorry for the delayed reply, I've been out of country. The fabrication route is pretty much a "no" as we don't have a spare one to use as a pattern without taking apart the prop from another engine... and we're not going to do that! I guess if things got really bad a company like Timken could provide something similar... the bearing fits between the two propeller shafts, so turns at twice engine revs and is under a fairly high load.

We are looking at parts recovery from another aircraft, but not WL790. There's always a chance she'll run/fly again. We're looking at dead aircraft, but I can't say where for obvious reasons.

Kind Regards,

Rich

[Xplumberlives]

Thanks for the update Rich!

[Xplumberlives]

I believe the next time WR963 runs her engines up in public will be the 9th of July!

[Cluny]

Working

[Xplumberlives]

Working

No, you'll be sat at a desk waiting for the phone to ring, now that's NOT work is it?

[Richw_82]

Hi guys!

Yes, the next run is on the 9th July. It's to celebrate her 20th anniversay at Coventry. 9 July 1991 saw her arrive at here... so we couldn't really miss it. Sorry for the lack of notification... I've been haring around the country looking for propeller parts!

Don't worry if you can't make it to this one, '963 will be undergoing maintenance for a month or so afterwards (we have a ton of checks to do to make sure the Griffons are all happy) then we should be back with a vengeance. All being well it could be on four engines too... as we have a lead on that pesky bearing.

Then all we have to do is look at the tyres and a couple of other bits, then she may just get a sniff of the runway again.

Kind regards,

Rich

[Kermit]

Great news ! Sorry to say cant make sat.9th as we have our AGM talk about bad timing ! Hope all goes well for you and I think that most attendees at the AGM will be thinking of you ! Cant wait to hear all 4 engines going !

[Richw_82]

Thanks! We'll be checking her over this weekend in preparation, but she's usually well behaved.

regards,

Rich

[Kermit]

Rich, how did it go today ???

[MOD]

My thoughts exactly. I hope things went well?

ibw

[Richw_82]

Hi guys! Had a loooong day yesterday so didn't really get chance to post when I got back.

9 July 1991

Avro Shackleton WR963 landed for the last time at Coventry Airport, after being sold by the MOD at an auction at Sotheby's on 3rd July. Bought by the Shackleton Preservation Trust she has a total of 15483.45 flying hours over some 6800 flights spanning a 47 year career.


9 July 2011

To an assembled crowd of guests, the Lord Mayor of Coventry, and any members of the public lucky enough to be visiting today at AIRBASE, we celebrated 20 years to the day since she arrived.

Invited guests included the family of the late Gp Capt Dave Hencken, who was the last man to take her out on a runway. Also in attendance were members of the current 8 Squadron who had served on Shackletons. It was also great to meet people that had been in the Shackleton Preservation Trust looking after the aircraft in the past 14 years, and put faces to names. I think we may have persuaded some of them to come back from retirement.

First order of the day was a naming ceremony. WR963 now carries names under her cockpit windows. On the Port side, "Gp Capt Dave Hencken" which was unveiled by the Hencken family and 8 Squadron, and the Starboard side "Sqn Ldr John Cubberley", unveiled by the Lord Mayor and Clive Dickin, AIRBASE's director.

At 3.15 we got everybody who wanted to be onboard the aircraft for the engine run in, and the first engine began to turn. Everybody seemed to be enjoying it... apart from several of us.

The engines took too long to come on the throttle for such a warm day, and No 1 engine refused to start after three attempts. Faced with shutting down to find the fault, or letting people enjoy the running engines, the taps were opened and No 3 and No 4 engine got some exercise. We had that many people wanting to experience a live Shackleton, that after warming the engines up the crew had to throttle back and let some people out so more could get in! The engine run finished after 45 mins to the sound of polite applause from those that were present.

WR963 is going to get some attention to her engines over the coming weeks, as her servicing is due... so while there were a few scowls at No 1 engine, it didn't pick the worst time to misbehave.

Our initial thoughts were the booster coil had stopped working but that was found to be buzzing away nicely. However, we got nothing from the priming pump on that side. The fuse had blown and the pump had quit, possibly due to water ingress. Not difficult to change, but it means we need to chase another water leak.

Pictures to be posted as soon as I get them from my tame photographer, as I broke my camera (and no, I wasn't taking a self portrait. )

Regards,

Rich

[MOD]

So mixed news Rich, but it could have been worse.

Good luck.

I hope to see her soon.

Ian

[Richw_82]

It's one of the perils of having her live outdoors permanently. The water will always find a way in, this time it got a priming pump.

It's not a long job to change one, and we do have spares. It must have quit during the start itself, as it obviously made it through the starting checks. If they hadn't had lights showing on the priming switch the crew would have postponed the run.

Not to worry though... its the first time 963's misbehaved during a run for a while, so we were about due for a bit of gremlin trouble!

Let me know when you're coming to see her and I'll try and be on site.

Regards,

Rich

[Xplumberlives]

Thanks for the updates Rich, looking forward to seeing her again soon!

[Kermit]

How is the water leak chase going ? All gremlins dealt with ??

[Richw_82]

Good news and bad news.

We found a leaking tank seal on no 1 port tank, so we know where the water is getting in and can put it right. It wasn't helped by the fact we're running fairly low fuel levels, so once we get some more AVGAS on board that should cut down on condensation in the tanks.

Unfortunately the heavy weather lately has shown that the sealant around the cockpit windows is really starting to fail, and it's going to have to get redone as a matter of urgency. There's far too much by way of delicate electrical gear for the water to be allowe din at the rate it is!

We've also got hold of an intershaft bearing assembly, so if everything checks out we should be getting the prop build started (finally!).

Regards

Rich

[Kermit]

Thanks for the update, as you say, some good some bad, but at least it can be done. Water is indeed a major pain, sealant, nappies (!!) and de humidifier should be in every first aid kit
any idea of time scale for an all engines EGR yet ???