MOTAT

[corsairarm]

We, the volunteers, are not back till the 21st January due to Meola Rd being closed for an extended period for road works.
The museum will be open every day except Christmas day and entry is from Motions Rd just past the zoo.

[Deleted]

Lovely work Ron, and I hope you and the team have a great holiday break!

[emron]

As mentioned in Richard’s message above, if you are planning a trip to MOTAT’s Aviation Hall in the next 6 weeks, then it’s best to know that Meola Rd will be closed to vehicle through traffic past MOTAT 2, but that should little impact on your visit.

The footpath alongside remains open, although narrow in places, so you can still access on foot or bike from Pt Chevalier and Westmere as usual. The tram journey to and from MOTAT ‘s Western Springs site isn’t affected by the roadworks. Nor if you are coming by car and parking in the Museum’s car park off Motions Rd, (where parking fees apply) as you will be approaching from either Old Mill Rd or Motions Rd. The City Outer Link bus service that normally uses Meola Rd has been diverted for the duration too, via Old Mill Rd and Motions Rd and it has temporary stops in both directions nearby to the Museum’s Motions Rd entrance.

Quiet holiday scene at Meola Rd.
Auckland’s take on Christmas decorations.

meola_rd_closure_1 by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

Now difficult to recognise the well-travelled flying boat crossing from the mid 1960’s.

meola_rd_closure_2 by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

[Dave Homewood]

It seems to be never-ending roadworks around that area.

[Dave Homewood]

Not good for MOTAT, but I am glad all was okay.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/505969/auckland-s-transport-museum-evacuated-due-to-threatening-email

[emron]

Please pardon if you have a sense of deja vu but here’s a New Year’s treat for the Sunderland, the new-build starboard beam gun mount mid-way through production.

stbd_beam_mount by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

[Deleted]

Lovely work!

[emron]

I stopped by at the workshop yesterday and checked in with Steve. The year’s got off to a good start and here’s a snippet of what he’s been doing while the rest of the team are away, including the DC-3 ailerons with new paint. I’ll post more once we return to work and the others have a chance of a first look too.

dc3_ailerons by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

[emron]

First Sunday back for the workshop team and we were admiring the reflective rescue signs on helicopter ISJ, that were refreshed over the break.

isj_rescue by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

Peter returned to where he left off, to work on the instruments and electrics.
Most of the gaps in the main panel are now filled.

isj_panel by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

Taillights lit up and raring to go.

isj_tail_lights by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

Looking for any excuse to get into the air-conditioned display hall, I sortied down to the Sunderland to finalise the measurements of the three panels that cover the rear bulkhead forward of the rear turret. Between water breaks, back in the workshop I got them cut out and trimmed and made a replacement for a small missing bracket to support them.
Next time, I’ll trace out the screw holes and they’ll be ready to fit.

[emron]

I spent most of my time on Wednesday assembling the replica beam mount and gun so didn’t get to finish off the panels, I’ll look at them again on Sunday.
We used the best of the genuine parts that we had to complete the port gun mount so there’s only a few left over for the replica starboard one. Here’s the front bracing assembly that stiffens up the mount frame and prevents it from spreading when the gun is fired. The second bracket was broken and only half remained so I’ve made a new end that can be riveted on as a temporary fix.

front_brace by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

Likewise, the handgrips, shown here before they are trimmed and shaped, are of wood until we can make others from more durable material.

handgrips by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

The backplate for the mount has been the hardest part to reproduce and here its current stage of progress. It's topped off with one of the great gunsights that Andy from our tramway workshop has made, one of four for the Sunderland.

backplate by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

[emron]

Last Wednesday I discovered the location for a length of rope that had been carefully bagged up and was amongst the Sunderland spares. It’s one of two that are mounted on either side of the starboard beam gun hatch. I’m guessing their purpose is to be as a safety rope and they could be strung up across the open ends of the gunners’ platform, when it was in use, to prevent a fall. The tattered remains of the other rope were still hanging down alongside the rear door, but cut in half and missing the hook. I found another hook and some suitably distressed rope and on Sunday fashioned a replacement, the one on the right. It turned out to be synthetic and too badly weathered to last, but it will do until we get a decent length of manilla. Both ropes are now back in place.

safety_ropes by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

The gun mount bracing assembly and handgrips are now finished, and I’ve turned my attention back to completing the backplate.

gun_mount_parts by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

[Dave Homewood]

Great stuff.

[Deleted]

Hear hear! Excellent work and it's neat to see the in-progress shots.

[emron]

The hook that I used to complete the second safety line last week was “borrowed” from a spare sea drogue that was in the store. Later, feeling guilty that I may have robbed Peter to pay Paul, I checked out the condition of the two drogues stowed in the galley aboard the Sunderland. Neither of them had a hook attached and both appeared to be missing a length a rope and shackle to connect to the mounting eye in the galley. However, packed in the bin with each drogue was a separate piece of rope with eyes spliced to each end and small spring clips bound on. They looked more like sections of rope barrier to me.

After more than a little browsing on-line and poring over Sunderland compartment diagrams, I eventually found the answers to the puzzle. This morning, I brought both drogues back to the workshop and laid them out on the floor. A couple of weeks ago when first looking for the safety line hook, I found some others that were permanently attached to wire ropes. Next, I went and got those cables from the store. They turned out to be about 6 feet long and with a shackle on the other end, just right to link the drogue to the airframe fitting. The best two are now joined to the drogues. The second drogue was also missing the tripping line which is used to collapse and retrieve the drogue after use. I remembered seeing a spare swivel and short cord on the spares shelf. That was soon attached, and extra cord tied on. Both drogues are now complete. I’ll return them to the Sunderland next time and maybe take a photo of one hanging out the hatch as a demo. The best of the spare ones has been reserved and that will be stowed in its position in the bow compartment when that’s ready.

As for the extra ropes, I discovered they are the safety lines that run down either side of the walkway through the bomb compartment. We’ll mount them back once Mike’s fitted all the newly painted floorboards there. That’s just some of this week’s gaps filled and mysteries solved.

[emron]

Here are the sea-drogues now fully rigged before they were returned to their bins on either side of the galley.

sea_drogues by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

The floorboards and safety lines are back in place in the bomb compartment. Next up here is to re-fit the watertight doors, manual bilge pump and hoses.

[Antonio]

Ron.
The bits that I mentioned in my pm

[emron]

The fittings are inserts that have been removed from the bracing tubes of one the Sunderland’s wing spars. The cut-out window looks to be for one of the recognition light positions outboard of the bomb trolley track.

[emron]

Here’s the refurbished hand operated bilge pump for the Sunderland, to be stowed in the bomb compartment. Just like the one fondly remembered by Robin Klitscher in his account of the near sinking of NZ4113 at Hobsonville in October 1959.

bilge_pump by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

On the left are the four replica illuminated gun sights MkIIIA, that Andy from our tramway workshop has skilfully produced for the Sunderland. They just need to be finished with reflector glasses and daylight hoods. The top two are each mounted on their bearer arm and ready to be fitted back on the beam guns. The lower two will equip the front and rear turrets. Alongside, for comparison, are two genuine sights, the upper from the Hudson turret and the lower from the Lancaster’s mid-upper turret.

gun_sights by Ron Wilson, on Flickr

[Deleted]

Such small details that add so much. I always enjoy seeing things like this - thanks for taking the time to share the photos and updates, Ron.

[Dave Homewood]

A very nice photo of MOTAT's Avenger has just gone up on the Air Force Museum of New Zealand's FotoWeb page:

2023-214.2 LINK
3/4 rear view of No. 42 Squadron Avenger NZ2527. Unknown location.