July 2011 review

First of all an apology, once again it's been ages since I did an update for all sorts of reasonsso this is a catch up on all that has happened really since the start of the year

The last report was posted in late november and things have moved on quite well since then.

Early in the year Gaz made contact with a very helpful Guppy engineer and received quite a lot of help in the form of flight and service manuals (no she is NOT returning to flight!) and lots of other useful literature and will hopefully receive some spare dials to replace our missing ones.

The painting work has continued whenever weather has allowed and the right hand side is now painted as far as the rear of the wings

click on the images to enlarge
and here's a before and after of the hatch- roll over it to see the difference

Gaz also did a bit of painting inside when outside painting was impossible due to the weather. - here's another roll over image to see the before and after effect:

Gregg carried out some painting above the wing and then decided to test the escape chute from the overwing hatch and realised there wasn't one (click on the images to enlarge:

 

Mechanically during March, Gaz and Gregg tried some jack maintenance and managed to get the nose jacks to extend and retract but the tail jack offered more resistance and remained seized so the advice of a hydraulics expert may be in order.
Then in April we succeeded in getting the main cargo door closed however when we attempted to lock it, the locking pins pushed against the rest of the aircraft and opened the gap up again. It's looking like the door/hinge may well have been skewed when it was opened incorrectly. We've tried a few different combinations of front and rear jack heights to try and line it up and we have made progress, but, it's going to need someone on a big ladder to see the top locking pins so we know which way to manipulate the aircraft/door

In March we have had another platform given to us. She's a beastie too. Needs a good service though and one of the stabilisers needs removing and either straightening, or, having a new one fabricated but once refurbished will be a useful addition to our equipment

The rudder has also been fixed into position now to save it from the effects of the wind - click on image to enlarge

By June the retaining pin that prevented the tail jack from retracting all the way, was all but ready to come out. Once out the cargo door SHOULD close and we'll be able to get the nose leg off the ground so it can be repaired (we received an overhaul manual to help our man that can). Hopefully that, long awaited, repair will be started soon.

We failed to get far with the radome from Toulouse so invested some of the takings from the Open day in paying the Beech team to carry out the restoration for us, this has now been completed and the radome refitted so she looks complete again

the radome before and after - roll over the image to see the difference:

...........and the repaired radome back in place on the aircraft - click to enlarge

and finally the sun setting on another hard day's work at Bruntingthorpe (click to enlarge):

That's about it for now, I'll try to do another update before too long. You can also see regular updates from Gaz and the team on the forum , and even leave a message if you wish although you need to join to post in some sections. Well done to the team for their work this summer so far and to all those who donated to the cause both at the open day and at other times.

Finally thanks to everybody who has visited the website , we have now recorded over 7000 hits!