Victor K2 XL231

[Dan4th]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Great to see the instrument panels all
lit-up for Christmas

Also great that Bucc is showing signs
of life, too....

Lighting off those engines will be a
major milestone, I expect, and I hope
you'll get someone with a decent cam
to get that on video

And, yes, Lindy is looking really lovely,
and ought to given all the work you guys
have put in on her....

Thanks for the report, Mister Blue

Danf.

[Xplumberlives]

Another CRACKING report, WELL DONE Lads

[Blue_2]

Again, thanks guys. Dan there are whisperings about a date for Lindy's engines running, I can't say any more than that at this time though. But I suspect Brian and his trusty camcorder will be present, for both the Bucc and Lindy's noise making sessions...

[Gaz]

Ollie (Suckling) didn't participate because he hasn't gone through puberty yet!

[Blue_2]

True fact. If you ever want to annoy him, simply offer him a glass of milk...

[Gaz]

Next time I see him, I will!

[Blue_2]

8-9/12/12 Update
Warning! This post contains twin RR Spey noise! And a DH piston twin.
A busy weekend at YAM. Firstly I apologise for the photo quality, but my camera was elsewhere over the weekend so I had to make do with the camera phone. We had a couple of jobs to do on Lindy, and the Buccaneer and Devon were scheduled to run on Saturday. The weekend started on Saturday with me getting on with a job that I'd wanted to tackle for a while. There was a panel under the port wing root which was showing serious surface corrosion, as it's such an obvious panel and it detracts from the look of the jet in her fresh hemp I decided to drop the panel for some rectification. Here it is after much swearing and the whole of Saturday morning was expended on it

And the 'ole it came from

A couple of shots of the inside of the wing root, she really is in amazingly good condition! Looking aft:

And forward:

I set on with the sander removing the corrosion and old paint, and Rich got busy cleaning and greasing the fasteners within the wing. We then wandered across to watch the Buccaneer do it's run. The TBAG guys from Brunty had come up mob-handed to run the old girl, so it was nice to be able to just spectate for once!

...and do a bit of filming too. It is only with my phone I'm afraid. Here the starboard engine is already running, the port one starts, the wings fold and then she takes a little roll forward.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik8H9B0rc7g&feature=plcp
And at full power! See the nose leg squat!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmPA5LFTbYQ&feature=plcp
After this we got to see the Devon make a slightly smoky start

Did I mention it was smoky?

And it too went for a little walk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZp5tc4L2wY&feature=plcp
After this we continued with the prep of the panel. Then the pub called...

Sunday saw a lazier day, with late starts for all of us. My excuse was I had some car maintenance jobs to do, and I'd also taken the panel home to clean the screw fasteners' slots with the dremel. After a hearty Christmas dinner in the NAAFI I got the panel fitted. Seen here masked off ready for application of light aircraft grey.

Painted

De-masked

And now making the wing root look a lot tidier

And so the sun set on a very busy weekend...

[Dan4th]

Thanks, Mister Blue, it's nice to get to
see the innards once in a while, and that
panel job looks like a lot of FUN (...not)

But it's DONE and it looks good

And thanks for the vids, too!

Woke me right up

Danf.

[Xplumberlives]

Bravo Team 231!

[Blue_2]

Happy Birthday Lindy! This day in 1961 saw her take to the sky for the first time.

Lindy's birthday had to be marked, so we mustered and Andre and I climbed into the bomb bay once more to play with solenoids and plumbing. The solenoid for the APU fuel supply has been playing s.b's and been in and out of the jet once already. We were fairly confident though, so climbed out and tried to start the beast. First attempt predictably failed as the fuel lines were dry, however we were encouraged by the smell of fuel round the APU's exhaust. Second try she didn't light, however third try she finally bled her fuel system and caught, with a very spectacular flame from the exhaust brightening the gloom! We shut down and after leak checking all the lines lockwired everything back up.
After cake o'clock we decided to fire up again and wet and dry spin the engines, so it was out with the blanks!
I missed the startup of the APU this time, but here it is winding up from idle to provide air to blow the engines over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50HjhdYOdpw
All the engines blew over nicely, the hydraulics also got a good workout with flaps, control surfaces and nosewheel steering exercised.
Another little video for you of a live Lindy in the gloom of a Yorkshire winter, her APU idling away happily.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4LWBtpyOIw
So after shutting down we blanked her up, put the Artouste doors back on and put her to bed.

We'll be back at her on Sunday. I've a light to re-wire and there are some cleaning jobs to be done to keep the new paintwork fresh.

[MOD]

Great to hear her. I hope to get a bit closer to her next year.

Thanks for posting.

ibw

[Dan4th]

BRA-VO !!!!!!!

Here's to an exciting 2013!

Lindy looks pretty good for 51

Danf.

[Xplumberlives]

Thanks B2

[Jigsaw]

Fantastic

[Blue_2]

30/12/12 Update
The weather gods really haven't been kind to us this year, and as you can see they seem to be wishing to irritate us right to the year's end!

The dark clouds and heavy showers were interspersed with sunny spells though so some jobs did get done on our last visit of the year.

Chris was sensible, working on the Bucc indoors!

My main job was re-wiring the starboard floodlight. Its wiring had been damaged and was vulnerable so Rich and I stripped the light out and re routed the wire.
Here is the light with the external cover off

and the internal wiring.

This is after I rebuilt it and made it less vulnerable. There was a really badly placed junction box, you can see its mounting holes. This frequently got stood on during expeditions into the bomb bay. So I re routed the wiring through Lindy's structure and hopefully it's less vulnerable to boots! There is also plenty of slack on the wire now too, both for some give if it does get danced on and to allow the door the lamp is mounted in to be opened if needs be.
Testing time!

And with the external perspex cover back in place

One for the ex-Victor K2 lineys out there, a view up the side of the bomb bay tanks and HDU. This narrow tortuous path to many of Lindy's electrical systems has been negotiated by us quite a few times over the last couple of weeks while trying to sort the Artouste's fuelling problems!

One last shot of our girl for 2012.

Happy new year to those who follow us, we thank you for your support and hope it'll continue into 2013, when we also hope to see more of you!

[Sploosher]

thanks for the update Graham.........

she is certainly looking good, was hoping to get to see her again before the year ended, but alas that failed to happen....

Never mind, I will make up for it next year

Happy new year to all you guys who keep her and the others in working order........

[Dan4th]

Happy New Year from me as well!

It's all the little stuff that adds up to
getting her "Right" like you want her
to be

Oh, and how far in advance did you
have to book that rainbow ?

Danf.

[Xplumberlives]

Good work B2.

Some cracking shots of her.

[Jigsaw]

She really is looking great.
Fantastic efforts as always
Happy New Year to you all

[Mags]

Really enjoyed the videos - we visited YAM for the first time on 15th Dec - an amazing place with an awful lot of stuff to look at. Will need to visit again.

[Blue_2]

6/1/13 Update

Happy new year all! Dan that was one of about 5 or 6 rainbows that day; we got one free with every downpour!

Yesterday dawned bright, and saw our first working weekend of 2013. Only Rich, Ian, John and myself were in as Andre sent a text 'sicknote', but there's always jobs to be done on the old girl. A couple of the large brackets on the main undercarriage doors have been looking in need of attention for a while now, so I decided yesterday would be a good day to rub them back to bare metal and give them a protective coat of paint. The entire insides of the doors need re-doing to be honest, but until that happens I was happy to tidy the brackets. Here's why we were doing this:

But much elbow grease saw the top one cleaning up nicely

To the extent of revealing the HP stamps!

Ian set to with the port door, which was a big help.
We broke for lunch and were surprised and dismayed when we returned to see the fog had rolled in!

I carried on preparing the lower bracket on the starboard door and soon had got rid of the manky old paint and corrosion. As you can see it too cleaned up nicely



So then I gave the brackets a good coating of primer

And Ian did the ones on his side

I was then ambushed by Steve Pepper who, as he put it, had a little job on the Devon he needed a hand with. This little job turned out to be repainting the Devon's canopy and screen frames! Brian had prepped the canopy, and he and Steve then did a cracking job masking everything off. They had intended to ambush Andre to do the painting but seeing as he'd pulled a sickie they had to make do with me, unlucky!
I got a coat of paint on then while it cured returned to Lindy to find my door had dried, so I gave the bits I'd been working of a coat of silver. They don't look bad I reckon.

On Ian's side the primer was drying too slowly, not helped by the cold damp conditions. It'll get a coat of silver next week weather allowing.
John got the Houchin running, and put ground power on the jet for a while. Here he gives the landing lights an exercise

I then went back to the hangar to get another coat of paint on the Devon. Everyone seems happy with it so it can't be too bad a job!





Although the Victor's our primary concern, we're more than happy to muck in on the museum airframes. They know all they have to do is ask!
That's about it for this week, however I should mention the Buccaneer and Devon at least are intended to run on Sunday 13th of this month, so if you need your aero engine fix you know where to come!

[Xplumberlives]

More good work, keep it up!

[Dan4th]

The sheer number of bolts and rivets
is just mind-boggling!!!!!!

How often do you encounter one or
two or a whole section that requires
re-doing?

Oh, and it occurs to me that you guys
are now entitled to call Lindy a real
"Painted Lady"

Also, the water refection effect in
the photos is a nice touch

Many thanks as usual, Mister Blue....

I always look forward to Mondays!

Danf.

[Blue_2]

We keep an eye on the whole airframe Danf, whenever we have an access panel open for work we keep an eye for corrosion. It's very rare anything needs attention though, I guess the doors have only gotten like this as they are hung open in the elements permanently.

Glad we brighten your Mondays!

[Blue_2]

The latest item to be found on http://victorxl231.blogspot.co.uk/ might be of interest to fans of lots of loud jet noise...