Victor K2 XL231

[Kermit]

Excellent blog ! Had a great time exploring it, very good indeed.
And nice to have you back, methinks IA should descend on Elvington to see/ hear Lindy in March, any takers ???

[Sploosher]

Excellent blog ! Had a great time exploring it, very good indeed.
And nice to have you back, methinks IA should descend on Elvington to see/ hear Lindy in March, any takers ???

me, myself, and I are game............

[Xplumberlives]

Excellent blog ! Had a great time exploring it, very good indeed.
And nice to have you back, methinks IA should descend on Elvington to see/ hear Lindy in March, any takers ???

me, myself, and I are game............

Sounds like you just booked yourself three places on the trip!

[MOD]

I also hope to get up there in March.


Ian

[Jigsaw]

I also hope to get up there in March.


Ian

Me too. Really enjoyed reading the blog as well

[Dan4th]

I love what I've read so far.............

Give me a while and I'll read the Whole Thing!!!!!!!!!

Danf.

[Blue_2]

I'll pass on your comments to our blogmeister! I'm preparing an article for the blog about some unexpected discoveries on Lindy's airframe... I'll try to get some sort of confirmation this weekend of what date in March the anti-det runs are planned for and how much noise it's planned to make.

[Blue_2]

Despite the wintery weather it was back to business as usual yesterday, with 6 of us mustering to make sure Lindy wasn't being adversely affected by the weather. This was the sight that greeted us on arrival

And the Nimrod was wearing a facemask too! Best thing for it, some would say...

We managed to dig our way a little closer to Lindy...

And encountered some fairly epic icicles on the wing trailing edge!



We knocked off as much of the accumulated snow and ice as we could, as obviously it doesn't do the jet any good. Some of the icicles around site yesterday had to be seen to be believed!
We opened up and all was well, the cockpit needed little defrosting. Ian even brought a gift in the shape of an extended hydraulic hand pump handle, nice work mate! However, the houchin decided to play up and cut after 5 minutes warming up. A fuel starvation issue was the cause and, after a top up (of both the fuel levels in the tank and on my coveralls!) and bleeding the fuel back through the magic green box/random smoke generator was back on song. Wouldn't like to say what caused the fuel shortage, but the Houchin's tank was still a quarter full on Thursday...
Ground power was put on and, apart from as slightly bemused ADF, all was well. This could be because it's been a while since most of the avionics have been topped up with Nitrogen. We decided to retire for coffee and lunch, to give the outside temps chance to edge up towards 0 degrees C.

It had been mooted that we'd do an anti-det run after lunch, so after eats we ventured back out, fired up the Houchin and de-blanked the jet. This was a slower and even more carefully executed operation than normal due to the ice and snow! Getting the ones off the plenum chamber vents was, er, interesting...
We decided to fire up the Artouste, do wet and dry spins of the main engines and give all the hydraulic services a good workout. It was my first time on the external comms, and apart from Ian standing on my long lead repeatedly all went well. Firstly the Artouste lit cleanly, then after it'd been given chance to warm up all the mains were wet run. Some functionals were then carried out on the flaps and airbrakes, on first deployment of the flaps they deposited a serious heap of snow behind the wings! Ollie got a free workout, wrestling the controls which can be a bit heavy until the oil in the PFCU's has warmed up. We then did another dry run of all the engines, then another cycle of the flaps before calling it a day. We retreated for a brew (earned for once!) while everything cooled down and discussed our future plans for Lindy. We may soon be embarking on a repaint if all goes to plan as she really does need it, and also we're contemplating changing the starter on no.1 engine as it seems to be getting a touch lazy and smokes a bit. Overall though, Lindy's got a clean bill of health, not bad for her age!
When we left the warmth of the NAAFI we got her all blanked up snugly again... then the sun came out!

A cold, but successful weekend. Hopefully the white stuff will be gone from HQ Yorkshire Independent Air Force by next Sunday as I've a growing list of jobs waiting to be done. In the meantime keep checking the blog as we've some nice new titbits added. Though I feel I must warn you, the photos Christine's added to the 'spares recovery' article are not for the faint-hearted, and I don't just mean because of Andre's dodgy early 90's hair!

[Dan4th]

Those are some Great Shots, Mister Blue.......

What are you considering for a paint scheme?

Danf.

[Xplumberlives]

Another nice report!

[Jigsaw]

Thanks for another great update

[MOD]

Thanks again Blue_2 for the great updates and the blog stories.


Ian

[Sploosher]

Thanks again Blue_2 for the great updates and the blog stories.


Ian

+1 to that.....

[Blue_2]

What are you considering for a paint scheme?

I'm afraid you'll just have to wait and see! We know what we'd like to do...

Glad you all like the update, I can't claim the credit for the blog but I am preparing a little something for it, as are a couple of others on the team.

Just a reminder well more an ever so subtle plug really, Sunday March 4 is the provisional date for the next anti-det runs of the Victor and Nimrod. Full engine running is the intention...

[Blue_2]

19/02/2012 update
Well today couldn't be much different to last week, look at the weather!

We got ground power on and, taking advantage of the nice weather, I climbed up and opened up the plenum to let it air for a bit. We had green visitors too!



Andre testing the compasses.

Speaking of the compasses, has anyone got one of these, a TACAN/ADF indicator? Our P1's one is getting a little lazy.
We also did a battery change, we swap batteries regularly to keep them all in good condition

I also took a wander to the hangar to see progress on two of the DH inmates. The Devon is looking really good, see the newly trimmed out interior

Outside, she's had a damn good polishing

And has all 3 legs on. She's not far off ready to roll, a credit to all the guys who've been busy on her.

The Mossie is also making steady progress, Grant and Brian were busy playing with the electrics on her today. The engines look very nice

An unusual view of her

I also had a nosey at another classic piston engined machine that should soon be rolling

Again, a massive credit to all the hangar team involved in this project, specially those who like us braved the cold weather over winter.
On the way back to the jet I got a couple of shots of Kim basking in the sun



Even the Meteor 14 looked almost cheerful, unusual for the poor thing

Rich had a go with the manual hyd pump. We like to try keep the pressures up, but seeing as we weren't running the hyd pumps it has to be done mandraulically. Using Ianf's mighty extended handle is far easier we've found!

We are doing a spot of crew training too, behold our new Nav. Radar!

More next week...

[Xplumberlives]

WOW! what a difference a week makes!

Thanks for keeping us up to date B2

[Jigsaw]

[MOD]

Thanks Blue_2. I love seeing the w.i.p in the hangars

Nice to see some blue sky as well.


Mod

[Dan4th]

Nice to see, all of it!!!!!!!!

When does your "Hooters" sponsorship
kick off ?

Danf.

[Blue_2]

Glad you like the updates on the activities in the hangar chaps, although I'll concentrate mostly on Lindy I'll keep popping over there for a look-see and pass on any developments.
The owl is our mascot, only recently returned after those dastardly Nimrod types abducted him. They think their monkey is safe, the fools...

[Blue_2]

new goodies on the blog folks!

[MOD]

What are you considering for a paint scheme?

I'm afraid you'll just have to wait and see! We know what we'd like to do...

Glad you all like the update, I can't claim the credit for the blog but I am preparing a little something for it, as are a couple of others on the team.

Just a reminder well more an ever so subtle plug really, Sunday March 4 is the provisional date for the next anti-det runs of the Victor and Nimrod. Full engine running is the intention...

I vote for 231 in the Texas deployment markings

Hemp, or Gulf War Pink is sooooo yesterday!!!

ibw



ibw

[Xplumberlives]

I vote for 231 in the Texas deployment markings

Hemp, or Gulf War Pink is sooooo yesterday!!!

ibw

ibw

Pictures PLEASE!

[Dan4th]

YES!

I'd like to see that, too!

Danf.

[Ramshornvortex]

Pictures PLEASE!

I'd like to see that, too!

.....then click on the link in Blue2's signature!