Victor K2 XL231

[Jigsaw]

Another excellent update, even without pics. Thanks mate

[Blue_2]

No worries. I'm glad I didn't take the camera, it'd have ended up full of oil like my overalls!
Advance warning, if anyone's intending to come see us this weekend, don't get excited. I don't think there'll be much doing on Sunday as I don't think anyone's in, however Rich and I are in on Saturday morning to get a couple of jobs done.

[Blue_2]

19/05/2012 update
It was decided that we'd move our working day to Saturday this weekend, as it was the only day some of us were available. Only Rich and I turned in, and were greeted with the news that Lindy would be moving out onto the airfield this coming Friday to make room for the Battlegroup North event at the weekend. So as well as the jobs I'd scheduled for the morning (Rich had to go at lunchtime to work) we had the jet to prepare for moving.
I set Rich on with checking the tyres and inflating them as necessary, while I climbed the giraffe to do the jobs on the tail I intended. The tail lights we refitted a few months ago needed attention as the mountings have disintegrated already! So I replaced them with something a little tougher. I also refitted the panel on the port side of the tail fairings that Christine and Andre have been de-corroding and painting. It looks well now.

After lunch I was kept busy securing and stowing all loose articles on the jet. At close of play the jet was ready to go walkies

[Sploosher]

Thanks for the update .............

we shall be there at the weekend, most likely Saturday as we will be watching the F1 on Sunday,so may pop over and see you if we are permitted to venture that far....

[Blue_2]

I very much doubt you'll be allowed across to her, if it's anything like last year. I'll not be in Saturday as I've a wedding to attend, intending a mooch around on Sunday though

[Blue_2]

shameless plug time! On Sunday there shall be much noise at Elvington, with engine runs of the Se5, Devon, Buccaneer (now with all hydraulic systems working!), Nimrod, and Lindy.

[Sploosher]

shameless plug time! On Sunday there shall be much noise at Elvington, with engine runs of the Se5, Devon, Buccaneer (now with all hydraulic systems working!), Nimrod, and Lindy.

Damn, we have someone coming for dinner who is not really into aviation,despite having worked for BAE at Brough for many years..................

[RLN]

And?

[Sploosher]

when this Sunday was organised, we decided to make it our weekly cards/scrabble event instead of Saturday night

[RLN]

That's alright, then

[MOD]

shameless plug time! On Sunday there shall be much noise at Elvington, with engine runs of the Se5, Devon, Buccaneer (now with all hydraulic systems working!), Nimrod, and Lindy.

Damn!!! One of these days my ' occasional' visit up North will coincide with a noisy day out at the YAM.


ibw

[Blue_2]

Don't worry MOD you missed nowt, it was a day of torrential downpours and serviceability problems. The Bucc spat its dummy followed by Lindy; both jets are now sorted however. The Nimrod was well behaved but due to the weather it was thought best not to run the SE or the Devon.
Lindy's repaint prep is now under way. Sadly it will now after all be hemp, seeing as no kind donor has stumped up for camo paint but the rubbing down has commenced though, so will anyone visiting in the near future forgive Lindy's slightly shabby appearance!

[Sploosher]

Its a shame the weather had to spoil things..........

It would have been good to see Lindy in two tone camo for a change, but hey, hemp is good too.........

[Blue_2]

Had a busy weekend on the jet. On Saturday Rich, Steve and I were in. Seeing as the weather was poor we stayed under the wing, removing and servicing the fixings on the panels under the port wing root. One panel had a little bit of corrosion round the edges so has been taken away for rectification. We also found the long-defunct port air start point!
This little bit of work proved that the seals in the upper hatches on the wing root need changing too. No surprise really, given that the starboard ones investigated last year were also goosed.
Sunday the weather was much better, so more preparing of the port wing for paint was the order of the day for Rich, while I made a start on freeing the walkway hatches. Rich concentrated on the flaps, as he, Ollie and Andre had prepped (and primed where necessary) the wing surface.
It's a lot of wing to sand! Apparently it's already killed one sander (machine not volunteer that is)...

I did my shoulder a misfortune so declared the wing hatches a job for another day and helped Rich with the sanding instead. We decided the flaps, Kuchemann carrot and the aileron would do us for the day as that'd mean the prep of the entire port wing was completed. Here, Rich sands his carrot

John appeared and got busy cleaning out all the fiddly bits on the flaps (and there's lots of them!)

With the good weather we really got on, and by about 3 we'd completed our tasking and were wearing as much hemp paint dust as lindy's wing!

In a few places we even found her old green/grey camo. Still wish we were going for that colour scheme...
If the weather plays ball this week we hope Andre will get some new paint on her

[Xplumberlives]

Great report, keep up the good work chaps!

[MOD]

Thanks for the latest update Graham. Out of interest do you know what is the cost of a Green/Grey scheme as opposed to Hemp?

Ian

[Jigsaw]

Great stuff

[Blue_2]

Out of interest do you know what is the cost of a Grey/Blue scheme as opposed to Hemp?

Not sure Ian. Sponsorship for the paint was sought but wasn't forthcoming. Andre already had hemp in stock so it made sense to use that up before investing our frankly dwindling resources in new paint. Perhaps when it comes time to do her again things will have improved and someone will be in a position to stump up the money for green/grey...

[Blue_2]

1/7/2012 update
Well I figured it was about time I posted a proper update, seeing as I've been a bit lax for the last couple of weeks.
It was a busy weekend at Elvington, as NM said it was the De Havilland weekend. Many of us were away at Waddington on the Saturday, however we had a reasonable turn out of Victor team on Sunday. more paint prep was the order of the day, however in the week the first new paint had been applied, to the port underwing tank and pod so finally there was some visual progress to boost morale!
The flaps came in for some attention, John fettling this particularly nasty bit

And Rich got the flaps' upper surfaces finally ready

Meanwhile Andre and I got on with the prep of the intakes for the port engines. This was hot, dusty and unpleasant, would have been much worse had the sun been beating down on the aircraft!

I found some surface corrosion in no.1's intake but it's not there any more! It really is amazing how good a condition she's in for a 50 year old aircraft living outside.
Andre then got on with painting the intakes, back in their original white.



A comparison of the old grey and the new white. Notice how much brighter the new paint makes the whole intake!

Looks so much better when viewed from the ground too.

In other site news, the Nimrod welcomed a lot of interested visitors, seen here flying the flag for Armed Forces Day

We had a flypast from one of the BBMF's Spit XIX's

And Tony Agar's Mosquito was out too.





And for the first time had its props turned over on the starters!

Well done Tony, another milestone reached in this priceless piece of history's restoration.
The Devon also taxied, but I was too busy attacking the intakes with sandpaper to go watch sadly.

So, we're making progress, slowly but surely.....

[MOD]

Thanks for an interesting update.

ibw

[Blue_2]

Update with a difference, in that it doesn't contain Victor matters. But I've had an interesting weekend, so I thought I'd share with you.

A couple of weeks ago i received a text from Mick who looks after Lindy's neighbour, Nimrod XV250. The gist of the text was basically "we've been asked to take a trip to Coventry to get their Nimrod running and drink beer and are undermanned. Come play."
Well I couldn't say no, as I'd been present to witness 232 fly in in May 2010. So Saturday morning saw Ali and I heading southbound for a weekend of Nimrod-fettling!
On arrival we mustered at the jet, having given Shack 963 a friendly pat in passing. Despite 2 years of the great unwashed tramping through her 232 was in good condition inside, with only a couple of minor items yoinked. The port wing and APU fire bottles had been discharged though. We soon had power on and started bringing the jet back to life.
We had a list of things to check out before we could consider firing her up, so got to work. Ali, Phil and I were tasked with dropping each of the four starters and making sure they were fully functional. Not the easiest of jobs as any ex Nimrod groundcrew will testify. Meanwhile Mick was off checking the APU over. we also dropped as many of the underwing hatches as possible to inspect wiring etc. inside and drain out 2 years' worth of water! As well as checking out the fuel state in each tank, partly to see how much we had to play with and partly to compare to what the gauges were reading as a rough guide to their accuracy. There was much other work done too, but I spent the day mostly contorting myself round Rolls Royce Speys and their associated plumbing, a job not helped by the fact that the Starboard oleo's collapsed and has therefore dropped no's 3 and 4 engines to the most awkward working level possible! Ali summed it up perfectly when she said "who needs yoga when you've got a Nimrod?!"
One of the last jobs of the day was to break the risbridger out and give all the engines a drink of oil. A really really clean job. In disguise...
We repaired to our digs and leaned against the conveniently placed bar to recharge our batteries for the Sunday, happy to attempt to start the beastie.
Sunday morning saw us de-blanking and doing final checks, before seeing exactly how much of the old girl was still functional. The APU started on second attempt, and the no.3 engine fired up beautifully. No.4 was reluctant but went on second attempt, 2 was sweet and 1 just wasn't interested. Flaps, bomb bay doors etc. all behaved, however there are issues with the tail controls to be addressed. Overall though for an aircraft that's been stood for over 2 years in the elements, and hasn't seen power for over a year, she did really well.
We'll see what's next for this old girl...
A big thankyou to the guys at Airbase for all their help, and for keeping the brews coming!

[Jigsaw]

Just caught up again. Great reports on both aircraft mate

[Blue_2]

15/7/12 Update
Back on familiar ground this week, back to working on Lindy.

The sight which greeted us yesterday on arrival, Lindy with her new paint on the intake, underwing tank and pod looking a bit good. On closer inspection the intake is done and looks excellent.

The plan for the day was to finish off the prep of the port outer wing and get some hemp paint on. Much of the prep was done, there were just a few detail bits to sort. Below, the wing after prep completed and a good clean off.



Andre started on the wingtip...

While Rich carried on with the prep of the flaps

I was busy preparing and priming round all the vortex generators, round the carrot and the other fiddly little bits on top of the wing.
Meanwhile, Ian started preparing the starboard inner flap, assisted (?) by John

Here, the prep continues, while I clean some spilled hyd fluid off the HDU

After this I got on with brush painting the fiddly bits round the vortex generators, the ends of the control surfaces, the leading edge dogteeth, and all the other bits where Andre would have struggled with his roller.
By the close of play the wingtip, aileron and leading edges were all painted.



Good to see some morale boosting visual progress!

[Xplumberlives]

She's coming along nicely, that intake looks much better!

[Jigsaw]

Great update as usual. That intake looks bloody brilliant btw Can't wait for the next installment