Shackleton WR963

[Kermit]

Great report and photos, thanks Rich ! Looking forward to the next one already

[Dan4th]

Rich::::::::

What's the latest on the #2 Prop(s)?????????

Danf.

[Sploosher]

Was 963 ever on one of the squadrons based at Ballykelly in Northern Ireland in the early 50`s

If so, there is a good chance my father used to work on her, you will find some old pics in the photo part of these forums..

[Richw_82]

Hi all,

No news on the props yet. I'm down at Coventry again two days this week so we'll try and find our friend in the prop bay and find out what's going on.

WR963 started in Gibraltar, then went through Singapore and Malta, before ending up with 8 Sqn in Scotland. I don't think she was a Ballykelly aircraft, but without checking further I couldn't say for certain.

Regards,

Rich

[Sploosher]

Hi all,

No news on the props yet. I'm down at Coventry again two days this week so we'll try and find our friend in the prop bay and find out what's going on.

WR963 started in Gibraltar, then went through Singapore and Malta, before ending up with 8 Sqn in Scotland. I don't think she was a Ballykelly aircraft, but without checking further I couldn't say for certain.

Regards,

Rich

Thanks Rich..............

I was just thinking that maybe if she was, then my dad might have scratched his name in her somewhere

He did this with the Canberras when he was at either Bassingbourne in Cambridgeshire or at Luqa in Malta, and when I was with the PR9`s at Wyton, he told me where to look for them, but sadly I could not find them

[Richw_82]

Its not impossible. Ask him where he used to leave his mark and I'll have a look... theres a ton of service graffiti on the aircraft if you know where to look. Some of it is very crude.

My favourite is the little stamp on the tailplane carrythrough, that is now barely legible... it says "Fly Taildraggers!!" accompanied by a pic of a small prop aircraft with its tail firmly on the ground and mainwheels in the sky. Underneath in black marker is a hand drawn arrow. And the words

"We do."



Just checked 963's service record. She WAS at Ballykelly, 18 Feb 1960 - 15 Mar 1961.

Also - WR963 confirmed for the night runs, 10 Dec.

[Xplumberlives]

Rich

what is the format for the night runs, do you know which other aircraft are expected to be running?

Dave

[Richw_82]

I don't know what the arrangements are going to be, I know that is still to be discussed. There is a provisional list of aircraft involved posted on the "What's On" page on AIRBASE's website:

http://www.airbasecoventry.com/joinin.html

The first set (24 in total) of new Champion plugs are with us at Coventry. Being a military style shielded plug - despite being for vehicle use originally - they have the same screw on connection which allows us to use them as a direct substitute for the originals. This is great as it means we don't have to alter the harnesses in any way shape or form from the original design.

60 more plugs to acquire and then we might be getting somewhere with getting rid of any low speed plug fouling.

[Xplumberlives]

Many thanks Rich, good luck with the plugs, don't forget to keep your camera handy!

[Richw_82]

22 Oct


Today was one of those days where despite best efforts nothing seemed to go right.

It started off well enough, with work starting on No 3 engine almost as soon as we arrived, with the intent being to fit the new plugs, A bank inlet ignition harness, and get it all connected up and working.

First problem was a rather attractive distraction:




Then back to what we were doing before... The new inlet harnesses are great, but we quickly discovered that despite looking alike, they are handed, and we had two of B bank.

While a couple of the guys went off to sort that problem out, I set about fitting the new spark plugs.



The rear five on both sides are pretty easy to get to, but the front two are awful. With a rag stuffed down into the gap between the induction tube and the inlet manifolds (to make sure anything dropped doesn't disappear!) it was a case of using your fingertips to get the plug started. This is fairly difficult to achieve from all but one angle - above.



You can then slip a length of rubber hose over the end of the plug and hand tighten it. Nip it up with the plug tool and the job is done.



Lacking one brand new harness, we went back into our little store, and rechecked the one we had taken off the engine. We were pretty sure it was dead, and this was confirmed when we tested it again - and the lack of a couple of the ends that screw into the plugs didn't help it any.

Another rather scruffy harness was found and this one was cleaned and put on the HT tester. Success! It worked perfectly. The problem with this was that something had fell on it years ago and squished the locking ring that secures it into the magneto slightly oval. We may end up robbing a harness off a spare engine to solve this problem swiftly.

All rather trivial stuff, but enough to slow us down, and irritate.

Underneath the aircraft maintenance goes on. A team in each undercarraige bay are chasing out all the dirt and grime from the last few years. The less oily residue when in here the better; it makes the aircraft look better cared for when visitors are looking inside, and we don't get as dirty. We still have the generator to fit behind No 2 engine, and the compressors are coming off for overhaul soon.



A couple of other notable things that happened today -

Shortly after midday our prop was dispatched to CFS for inspection and build! I'm hoping we get good news and it gets assembled fairly quickly.

The nose of the Strathallen T4 VP293 is getting some attention now that several replacement parts have been found. I will get some progress pics, and either add them to this thread or start another. There was only a vast amount of cleaning going on in there today - hopefully once the remains of damaged parts are removed it will look a lot better.

Kind regards,

Rich

[Xplumberlives]

Good news about the prop Rich, onwards and upwards Mate!

[Dan4th]

I don't know if this is 963 (probably not...)

I just really liked the photo!



In Aden, I believe......

Be SURE to click the Icon top left!

Danf.

[Richw_82]

Thats a cracking photo!

Looking carefully under the wings, the serial looks to be WG554, which was an aircraft issued to the St Mawgan Gulf Detachment 25.9.70 as a Phase III aircraft, so it could definitely be Aden.

Coincidentally it started life on 224 Sqn at Gibraltar just as WR963 left, in March 1959!

Regards,

Rich

[Dan4th]

I did a photo search for Shackleton WR963
and all KINDS of stuff popped-up!

And, naturally, not all 963.........

I'll go back tomorrow and have a closer look
at what's on there.

93 men in that photo, btw....

Danf.

[Xplumberlives]

Dan4th, counter of men!

[Dan4th]

You can Count on ME!

Danf.

[Xplumberlives]

We do!

[Sploosher]

Its not impossible. Ask him where he used to leave his mark and I'll have a look...

Do you know any mediums..........................

[Xplumberlives]

Its not impossible. Ask him where he used to leave his mark and I'll have a look...

Do you know any mediums..........................

[Dan4th]

I know a Small Medium, but she's currently
at Large from a prison break........

D.

[Richw_82]

Its not impossible. Ask him where he used to leave his mark and I'll have a look...

Do you know any mediums..........................

Really funny.
How was I to know he was deceased? I wouldn't have suggested it had I known.

[Xplumberlives]

Its not impossible. Ask him where he used to leave his mark and I'll have a look...

Do you know any mediums..........................

Really funny.
How was I to know he was deceased? I wouldn't have suggested it had I known.

Rich, I don't think Gordon is offended!

[Richw_82]

Well, not much to report from Coventry this weekend.

With the winter weather approaching, we're double checking all the places that water tries to get into WR963, we're getting the covers out, and the anti deterioration servicing schedule has been consulted to keep her happy through the winter. The work we did over this year keeps paying off with only a few weeps in the extreme nose, a couple in the beam and a small amount where the tailplane passes through in the tail. Its nice to compare against this time a couple of years ago, as now you just get the smell of cold Shackleton, rather than cold wet and damp.

A trip to our store yielded another ignition harness, as the one with the damaged connection on the magneto end was just going to cause problems. It will be dismantled and rebuilt with a new fitting in the future, along with the old one off the engine.

When you're taking parts from the store, you always have to remember to take the correct tools, as it can be a pain to make another trip to go and get forgotten items! Luckily for us the engine we were robbing has already had the magneto and a couple of other parts removed which made life easier.

While at the store we took time to select which mainwheels we're going to fit, find the box of brake units and stumbled across another couple of bits that weren't where we thought they were! The best being a brand new galley roof escape hatch - meaning if we can find a B.17 mid upper turret cupola, we can fabricate an easily removable mount for it on the aircraft without major structural work.

We also took the opportunity to clear out an empty engine bearer/nacelle, which was delivered to some friends in Doncaster on Sunday morning. Bit by bit we intend to get rid of parts that are unserviceable or slightly damaged and try and make a little more sense of our spares.

Once back at AIRBASE we set about the harnesses again. Being new, they are reluctant to take up the position of the old ones, and feeding the leads under the intakes and onto the plugs is a pain! All being well we should be testing the engine next weekend.

Hopefully there should be some info coming soon about the night runs, as I know there's been several discussions about the event at Coventry. With this event in mind, time was taken to do a thorough lighting check on the aircraft. Outside we had a few unserviceable items; the starboard nav light is out, and we couldn't get the bomb bay lights to work this time. Landing lights, taxi lights, and upper and lower anti collision lights all behaved themselves, with the motors responding well to lubrication. Inside, most of the UV lighting and cabin lights still operate, with nearly all panel lights doing their job.

I think on the night, its going to look as spectacular from inside as outside, with all the instruments up and down the cabin lit.

Regards,

Rich

[Dan4th]

I really enjoy your reports, Rich, and isn't
it funny how sometimes it's the little things
like the instrument lights glowing in the
dark that give you the biggest emotion?

I put a new wiring harness into one of my
old cars a few years ago, and it drove me
NUTS! But when I finally managed to get it
done, I had these beautiful green dash lights
after dark along with a glowing radio dial and
suddenly it was worth all the s**t!

Keep it up! You're doing a Good Service!

Danf.

[Xplumberlives]

Thanks Rich!