Victor K2 XL231

[Sploosher]

thanks for the pics and updates Graham...........

good to see that you are keeping up with RAF tradition and having a goat as a mascot..........

[Blue_2]

a not unreasonable amount to report today. I was in Thursday and Friday, a lovely little job raised it's head in the form of one of the port pylon lights needed some attention. You may remember the port inboard one needed a bulb change a few months ago? well its partner in crime decided to fail too. The fairing came off happily... however that was where it ended. The screws holding the lamp's protective goldfish bowl on weren't playing.

So that job would have to wait till Friday, when a meeting with a drill beckoned for the reluctant screws. I did catch the low Autumn sun at an interesting angle though

Friday saw me returning to battle, armed with a bigger drill. Not before watching the Dak having a test run before its Remembrance Sunday appearance though

I soon drilled out the 3 reluctant screws



The lamp itself was all too happy to come apart and jettison its knackered bulb!

Quick test before putting it all back together

And Bob's your uncle! Seemed rude not to test the rest of the lights too, seeing as it was coming dark

The Lightning had a lovely sunset as a backdrop

Of course, today was all about the crews of a previous generation of Handley Page Heavies at Elvington...

As part of today's remembrance celebrations, the Dak ran. Seemed fitting, seeing as we lost George not so long ago and the Dak was his baby

She ran fine, looking and sounding great and watched by a good size crowd, including representatives from the air forces of France, Australia and Canada

In other Victor news, Andre continues to battle an infuriating snag on the autopilot, and Rich sealed around the ADF aerial in the bomb bay roof. The joy of looking again at the Starboard RAT beckons next Sunday; I can hardly wait...

[Ray C]

What a fitting salute to run the Dakota engines....Well done to you all.

[Blue_2]

They sounded well too Ray! Sadly I wasn't able to capture the 4ft long flame out of the starboard engine on throttling back, it looked great.

I doubt anyone here will be interested, but Monday November 25 the Victor will be fast taxied to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her arrival into preservation at Elvington. The Nimrod will taxy too, but it really is Lindy's day...

[Mayfly]

Love the shot of the Lightning

[Sploosher]

They sounded well too Ray! Sadly I wasn't able to capture the 4ft long flame out of the starboard engine on throttling back, it looked great.

I doubt anyone here will be interested, but Monday November 25 the Victor will be fast taxied to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her arrival into preservation at Elvington. The Nimrod will taxy too, but it really is Lindy's day...

I would interested to see this, what time is this happening as I have a doctors appointment at 09:40

thanks too for the updates and pics.......................

[Blue_2]

Love the shot of the Lightning

Why thankyou!
As to timings I'm not sure but I'll find out.
17/11/13 Update
Preparations continued today for Lindy's fast taxy a week tomorrow. I got in for the first Sunday in a while, a tad apprehensive as I knew another session of fighting with the reluctant RAT loomed. I had a visitor to show around the jet during the morning, so work for me began in earnest after lunch. Andre, Ollie and Rick were already on trying to clear some gremlins from the autopilot. I know some may, indeed do, think this kind of thing a waste of time as Lindy is stuck on the ground, but as far as we are concerned the jet has to be as close to 100% operational as possible. Even systems like the autopilot, IFR gear, radar all work.
Anyhow Andre had made up another batch of his magic spray, which worked brilliantly for lubricating the door lock mechanism. I'd asked him to, as I wanted to use it on the RAT scoop seals. WD40 and the like work, but aren't long enough lasting. We hoped this would be different. Accessing the bits needing spraying was fun though.

Everything forward of the clamp you can see in the centre of this pic had to be sprayed. Not easy when there's only just enough room to get your arm through, let alone a spray bottle!
Then it was off up top (sans boots!) to spray the inner seals of the scoop and the fuselage roof scoop. I bet this pic of the chipper will bring back nightmares for any ex-Victor bods!

Rich and I worked the scoops manually then, and they are both running very freely indeed manually. But would they work under their own power was the question...?
Andre put ground power on to test his and Rick's work





I believe they were mostly successful, but Andre took this away to tidy up as his homework for the week!

Andre then decided to give the Artouste a test run, partly to give it an exercise and partly to get the hydraulic pumps running to test the RATs. I was on the long lead outside, while Ian stationed himself off to one side to monitor the RAT's. She lit up fine

And the RAT's were tested. The confounded Starboard one wouldn't play at first, but then suddenly decided to join in and once it had had a few goes with some nice warm hyd oil through it it behaved perfectly!
After shutdown we conferred and decided that it's hydraulics were to blame, so some components will be leaving the back hatch over the winter and heading to the nice warm workshop for overhaul. It'll be fine for the run next week though.
In other news, our goat mascot came to be introduced to the jet today. He is seen here with some disreputable characters...

And mowing the grass round Lindy's parking area

In the above picture some of you may also notice a familiar face from the aviation art world. Eddie Ash of the Aviation Art Studio, formerly of Lincoln, came to visit us and have a tour of the jet. As he's still drawing and painting, and trading on t'interweb, I think we need to persuade him to forget painting any more Vulcans and get on with a picture of a certain hemp V-bomber!

[Blue_2]

I would interested to see this, what time is this happening as I have a doctors appointment at 09:40

It is intended to run Lindy at 13.45. The Nimrod will precede her.

[Blue_2]

25/11/13 Update
Well today's a big day for Lindy and YAM, as it's the 20th anniversary of her flight into preservation at Elvington. So over the weekend the team were busy readying her for her big day. A team were in on Saturday to wash her, and yesterday we prepared to move her and the Nimrod out onto the airfield. First job as ever was to check the tyres and inflate where necessary. Ollie had made a start on this but I took over, not that my knees found it enjoyable! Meanwhile there was a team removing the fence panels behind the jet and another team attaching the towbar.
Brian hitched up, and off out we went

We parked the jet out on the airfield. As an active jet she looks so much more at home there rather than confined in a museum

Brian appears to have forgotten something!

After this it was time to bring the Nimrod out

On the runway

We then declared lunch after bringing all the ground equipment out to the jets. On the way to lunch I paid the Javelin a visit. It was moved during the week from the car park to it's new purpose built pad. While we were out with the big jets the museum team had been busy bringing the puddle jumpers off the pan to shelter them for the winter

After lunch we continued our preparations. Among these was fitting the brake chute, always a fun job. We re-tested the chute bay doors and found them to be sticking a tad, so I freed them and then lubricated everything moveable. Once they were springing happily open on demand Ollie climbed into the chute bay for a look-see. While he was engrossed in this we stealthily managed to remove the giraffe...

...as you can see when he realised he was not happy!
So on with fitting the chute. Which went surprisingly smoothly! Cheers to Ian for getting this shot for me while I was otherwise engaged wrestling with said chute

Once it was in I raised the giraffe to attend to a problem with one of the tail mounted lights. Then it was time to do last checks, run the Artouste and test all the hydraulics. One or 2 minor problems were encountered but soon sorted. Lindy's version of stage fright I suppose.
Then, as the sun went down we prepared to nightshoot the jet, seeing as we have the expertise of Ian in such things to draw on I had been looking forward to this. We even had 'conscripts' dressed in period flying gear at one point!

So enjoy the following shots!















Couldn't leave the Nimrod out!

Hopefully today's run goes well. Sadly I can't attend due to work, but I know it's being thoroughly filmed!

[Sploosher]

Love the night time shots Graham..................

Had a great day there today, and she looked really good sat on the pan.................

she is a credit to you all...................

have started putting some pics on flickr, but will not be as good as those taken from the airfield

[Aceyone]

Terrific stuff !

[Blue_2]

The jets are back safely in the museum now. They were returned on Tuesday after a very successful fast taxy on Monday which some of you may have seen on local news. If not, here's a taster
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=61 ... =2&theater
Also, our jet can be seen on page 19 of this month's Flypast...

[Blue_2]

Anyone still reading this?!
15/12/13 Update
Not much to report again today

The jet is in good form and now secured and ready for the forecast bad weather at the end of this week. All we really had to do today was to check and inflate tyres as necessary, and clean the maxaret tracks of spilt hydraulic fluid

I also found the source of a minor hyd leak in the nosewheel bay, to be attended to at some point in the not too distant future.
I then went for a wander around site to have a proper look at the re-sited Lightning and Javelin

Before returning to the jet, to put her back to bed.

One thing I have neglected to mention is the recent work on Lindy's comms gear. The HF systems have been overhauled and replaced with an identical unit freshly removed from the sadly retired VC-10 fleet. The ADF has also been overhauled and returned to working order.





While Lindy isn't going flying, we do need comms for safe operation while fast taxying.

[RLN]

I'm still reading it.

[Sooty655]

Me too.

[Sploosher]

and me..........................

[Aceyone]

and me

[Dougs]

And me lovin it!!

[Ramshornvortex]

The HF systems have been overhauled and replaced with an identical unit freshly removed from the sadly retired VC-10 fleet.

Are you using HF comms with the airfield? I'm surprised it's not the more usual V/UHF which I can see you have fitted next to HF....

[Blue_2]

The airfield can't talk to us, unless they use their small portable kit! The RAF took the airfield's comms gear away with them when they packed up. However when there's a live Bucc, Nimrod and Victor all on the airfield at the same time it's as well to be able to all talk to one another.
Ps thanks chaps for the reassurance that the thread still gets readers!

[Ramshornvortex]

Hi again Blue,
All I meant was that I'm surprised you're using HF radio which is primarily for long distance trans oceanic communications (bouncing waves off the ionosphere). Either VHF or UHF would be appropriate to aircraft-to-aircraft comms especially in line-of-sight!

By the way, I, too, enjoy reading about your exploits with the also-ran of V-bomber jets.....

[Blue_2]

It's mainly to stick to our aim of keeping her as close to 100% serviceable as we can RHV. It's like systems such as the RWR or the autopilot; while we'll never need them as she's ground-bound, but as part of the aircraft we want them to work! Some places and organisations (not Wellesbourne) only bother to keep the necessary bits working for taxying; we're a bit different!
As to my exploits with the also-ran of the V-bombers; you must have a long memory as I've not laid a screwdriver on a Vulcan for a long time!

[Aceyone]

It's mainly to stick to our aim of keeping her as close to 100% serviceable as we can RHV. It's like systems such as the RWR or the autopilot; while we'll never need them as she's ground-bound, but as part of the aircraft we want them to work! Some places and organisations (not Wellesbourne) only bother to keep the necessary bits working for taxying; we're a bit different!
As to my exploits with the also-ran of the V-bombers; you must have a long memory as I've not laid a screwdriver on a Vulcan for a long time!

[Ray C]

Great reading & viewing.... Keep em comming please...

[Mayfly]

All these preservation thread are a good read I think you all do a wonderful job.