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Post by mit on Dec 23, 2020 14:45:02 GMT 12
What's that for? I have a few spares kicking around as part of the Rebecca set up on the devon It's all part of the IFF system. If you have a spare we'd love one since it might be years before we can get the one from the UK. Even if we could borrow one it would enable us to make the bracket. We have a cathode ray tube for a Rebecca MkIV, there's a couple of pics of it here. www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/3842490-projects-wants-and-trades-2019Would be happy to swap! Ok, I'll have a dig in the hangar here otherwise I have more at Dad's hangar
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Post by denysjones on Dec 24, 2020 9:51:15 GMT 12
Having fought the battles of the Xmas provisioning shopping and with grey clouds looming it looks like a day for inside pursuits so perhaps a wee update. There are a number of Hudson things, all small detail stuff, that are WIP at the moment and not overly photogenic but here's a couple of areas of progress The two junction boxes for the lights in the cabins have moved on there being no question about where they go given the obvious holes in the fuselage skin for the attachment screws but the the problem loom about the cables and conduits that go to them and where the other end of those thing are located. This lead to one of the interesting things about Hudson, in my experience. Here's a photo of the cabin roof in NZ2013 at Wigram where you see the dome light at the top and out on the side wall are a flexible light and a radio station box, both of these are attached to mounting base panels which attach to the aircraft structure. Here is the same area in NZ2035 (an old photo with out the dome light box in place but you can imagine it being up by the astrodome hatch opening where eagle eyes may discern the four holes for the attachment screws). Now if you compare the pattern of the mounting base panels on the wall you'll see how markedly they differ, especially when you see the radio box further forward and mounted on it's side. These were all in place in the aircraft so we know that they're correct but it just goes to show that there is some flexibility in the matter of locating things in Hudsons and resolving this is what chews up the time. On another tangent...a few months back a certain well known friend of ours, and of P40's, offered us some sundry bits Note the innocuous piece in the centre of the photo with two similar cast pieces on a tube. After much showing of it to various bods and head scratching as to what is, to no avail of course, I took it home and stripped off the remnants of black crickle finish with slight green overspray and accumulated dirt and you can now see that one piece slides and is locked by a stub pin on a strip of spring and that both have some locating stubs More importantly the cleaning yields the P/N 56512-D on both end units and the Hudson parts book lead to them being the items shown here Frustratingly we didn't have a control lock, and we still don't, but now we do have part of one. Which begs the question why did someone cut one in half, and use which half for what purpose, and where can we get the rest? Do have a merry Xmas one and all
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Post by baz62 on Dec 24, 2020 14:57:22 GMT 12
Merry Christmas Denys to you and all the team at Ferrymead. Look forward to further updates in 2021.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 24, 2020 18:21:25 GMT 12
That Hudson looks so fantastic! Merry Christmas Denys, Alex and the Ferrymead team!
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Post by ZacYates on Dec 24, 2020 20:33:15 GMT 12
Hear hear! Merry Christmas to everyone with FAS and thank you gents for keeping us updated throughout 2020.
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Post by agalbraith on Dec 24, 2020 20:47:39 GMT 12
Yep, thanks guys, love each update you all take the time to post.
Been a somewhat crazy year with one thing and another, hope to get down more in the new year. How did the gardening go? Was planning on coming down but my father in law had a stroke and life got very busy!
Brilliant attention to details, and would have to be one of if not the most complete internally Hudson on the planet.
Have a safe festive season and see you all in the new year
Cheers Ants
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Post by agile on Dec 26, 2020 9:06:59 GMT 12
Ok, I'll have a dig in the hangar here otherwise I have more at Dad's hangar Thanks very much Mit. I'll PM you my email address so we can communicate on this. Yep, thanks guys, love each update you all take the time to post. Been a somewhat crazy year with one thing and another, hope to get down more in the new year. How did the gardening go? Was planning on coming down but my father in law had a stroke and life got very busy! Brilliant attention to details, and would have to be one of if not the most complete internally Hudson on the planet. Have a safe festive season and see you all in the new year Cheers Ants Thanks Ants, we did have a good turn out for the gardening, including the elusive Mr Wesley of this parish who came down to lend a hand. A reminder that we aren't just restoring aircraft - the same finite number of volunteers also have to take care of our buildings and grounds: Sorry to hear about Belynda's Dad, hope he's OK and that you guys had a good Christmas. See you soon.
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Post by denysjones on Jan 8, 2021 20:36:17 GMT 12
Hello and welcome to 2021 folks and if the whole year matches the next few weeks' work schedule it's going to be a busy one. Over the festive times time in the workshop at the park has suffered of course but we've got on with a few jobs at home. As mentioned in the recent post one of the surplus storage bins we recently acquired is being repurposed to become part of this storage area which is behind the Hudson navigator and below the cockpit instrument panel. Moving on from having done the bin I need to fabricate the bits to the right of it which secure the flare canisters in two semi-circular fittings. This leads to a wee tale. Years ago when the AWM Canberra were doing their Hudson John White and Jamie Croker of the project team paid us a couple of visits to record details of 2035 to assist them to refabricate areas that had been cut out of their aircraft in the conversion to a camera ship. In the course of this they gave me a USB stick with 12526 jpg files of Hudson blueprints on it. The images were arranged in directories named Roll-A through to Roll-N as the images had been converted off microfiche rolls made from the blueprints in the late 1940s at Wright Airfield Dayton Ohio. The images are simply sequentially named such as scan.12428 scan.12429 etc. Some lucky persons had obviously been set off on the task but there is no order to the images in respect of like or related items being together so I've had to set to reviewing each image and then trying to figure out what they are and then prepare an index of my own. It's not easy! The original materials had seen use and lots of them show wear with areas of the blue having vanished, in some cases major amounts of the whole image, here's a wee sample I've found also that it is a lot easier to interpret the image if I make a negative of it thus but there's still heaps I just can't work out exactly. Also one of the images is a title page as it were and says that the images relate to the american version of the aircraft so I'm reconciled to the fact that I can't expect to find RAF specific features among them. Anyway as luck had it I've found the blueprint for the unit for the canisters mount so after some metal bashing we're underway. On the F27 front it's time to finish of what someone else somewhere back in time started. Four of the cockpit window frames have had lots of, I presume, corrosion ground out from around the heads of the fixing screws and around the edges so it's body filler time on these so the pink filler hopefully shows up in this shot. However while working up here I came across the latent bubble of metal maggot you can see as the grey on the panel line above the windows...ah but another task to tackle. ttfn
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Post by denysjones on Jan 17, 2021 14:14:42 GMT 12
Carrying on with processing our recent parts acquisitions yesterday. In the photo of acquired parts on the Dec 24th post above here you'll see an object just to the right of the piece of the control column lock. This was one of two similar but not identical ones that came together. The other has a cog end to it's shaft that is about twice the diameter of the one shown. Both of them had solidified mud behind the perspex/resin endplate. Once that was removed they prove to be.... It seems that they belong to some trim control unit but they're unknown to us. Does anyone out there recognise them? The nuts on them are american but the shape of the perspex/resin piece is very similar to the trim knobs in the Mosquito I'm informed. Moving on then to some more of the Hudson stuff led to puzzling over these items The item at the rear has been with us for many a year but we've not devoted too much time to it as given that it is unpainted, apart from some primed pieces, we weren't 100% sure it was Hudson. However the arrival of the other one nicely painted in the familiar Hudson interior green settled that. Once I stripped the paint it yielded three P/Ns 775886, 77588, and 77616 on the frames pieces. A quick flick through the parts book turned up....NOTHING ! Given our old issue that the book is for the US versions suggests that this would then be an RAF specific piece. The most RAF specific area in the a/c is the navigator/bombaimer nose compartment so looking through photos of that area showed the drift sight mounted on a similar looking unit on the starboard wall, I took it in there and we had a hit, in two fuselage frames were exact matching holes to the rivet holes in our item. I'm now starting to wonder if the unpainted item was originally in 2035 when it came to and got removed some time ago, and that it in fact might have been an RNZAF replacement for the original factory item. cheers
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Post by denysjones on Jan 23, 2021 20:30:05 GMT 12
Evening folks, During the week the drift sight mount progressed. The two right angled rusted metal pieces succumbed to the attentions of striptex disk and wire wheel and in bright metal condition yielded up stamps identifying them as AirMin parts 6B/209 thus confirming the whole assembly is RAF specific. 6B identifies parts as "Aircraft Navigation Equipment, Accessories and Spares" so that tallies with drift sights.. Today the mount took its place and now the wall liner can be tailored to fit around its presence and over the next week the "Drift recorder Mk II" (6B/258) destined to live on it comes in for some TLC. Another small part that came our way last year, from our good mate Mike Nicholls, was identified. I'd made an error of assumption that the legend "160577 ALCOA" referred to a part number from ALCOA's catalogue as I didn't recognise the item from any Hudsons or photos I've seen. So I had gone off on a tangent trying to trace it on that basis until the light came on and I reverted to the Hudson IPC. I found it there, albeit that its depiction in the illustration is minute and bears little resemblance to the real thing but now after a comestic makeover it took up residence. When rotated downwards it pulls the hinge pins of the entry door to allow the door to be jettisoned. Further adding to my stupidness is the fact that above it we had already re-instated the stencil JETTISON HANDLE FOR DOOR so I should have recalled it was missing duuuhhhhhhh! cheers for now...watch this space for something coming up
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Post by denysjones on Jan 26, 2021 10:06:10 GMT 12
As a result of the generosity to our GiveALittle page after we did the upper wing "NAC" installation, it was an early on site today with our friends Carl and Jack from Langham Signs as they worked under wing this time and added the underwing registration to the port wing of BRF, a quick way to spend nigh on $700. Now we have to move over to the starboard wing which awaits painting and then it will need the same signage as the port but reversed in the sense that upper port appears lower starboard and lower port is upper starboard To help with this we have a two in one deal for some of you out there who would like to assist in preserving the history of NAC but would also like to add a copy of the Waugh, Layne & McConnell NAC illustrated history to your library. Thanks to the authors' generosity in donating them to us for this purpose, we have a limited number of copies of said book available for sale, all proceeds to this work. So if this is the deal for you then contact FAS's very own equivalent of Del Boy Trotter, he known as Agile on this forum, to secure your copy now. The heat of the last couple of days has provided the perfect excuse to slink off to the garage and so now we have the Drift Recorder Mk II reduced to components and ready for phase two. Lastly here's this week's puzzle...another one of those items that has long been on the shelves of Hudson material but which remains an enigma. On the side is the number 166225 which fits in a block of numbers in our parts book but is not actually there if you follow me. Stamped adjacent to that number is 3835 which is also painted on the other side. Wherever it goes it is secured by the spring tab on top. Is it Hudson? ...... well the tantalising thing is that 3835 just happens to be the Lockheed c/n for NZ2022!
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Post by denysjones on Feb 1, 2021 14:41:54 GMT 12
This week just a couple of posers for the great minds out there 1. We received a number of aviation related radio items from our associates at the Radio Preservation Society this week. One of them is an MN-24C loop antenna which is nothing special visually apart from its size (18" in diameter). It turns out to be used with the AN/ARN-11 kit and according to info to hand was favoured for use on low speed aircraft with that kit due to its "excellent anti-precipitation-static qualities". So does anyone know what a/c might have run that here in NZ? It may or may not help to know that it is painted trainer yellow. It's way bigger than the MN-20 for the Hudson, and would never fit in the enclosure for the C-47 but I start to wonder about PBY's? 2. The other is this object which is another of those ones that has been lurking with the piles of Hudson bits for yonks I'm not entirely sure that it is Hudson because of the light shade of green but having said that it could possibly be the NZ produced interior shade. As you see it is two parts and they are id'ed as TC4163-2 and -3 All inputs gratefully accepted in both cases.
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Post by denysjones on Feb 6, 2021 20:22:01 GMT 12
As threatened last week the drift recorder for 2035 occupied this week's homework. 'twas a very sad neglected beast when first picked up but after said total tear-down and assorted cleans, strips, sands etc it now is worthy of taking it's place in the aircraft. the two strips on the side of this shot are retaining springs to hold the unit on the support frame. I left them off at this stage so I could easily offer the unit up to make the fit to the mount and then to the aperture out the side wall. I'm a little mystified about the circular scale on the front left with the centre piece which rotates. There is no mechanical connection inside the case (you might just make out the nut in the first of those two photos), unless it is missing some other piece...any old navigators out there who can elucidate? I haven't been able to find an appropriate instruction manual online. The next task to hand was the fitting of the wall lining panel that the sight projects through all in all just a bit of a juggling act once I'd determined, by reference to holes in the frames, the size and shape of the panel. This took today's efforts but in the end we've the panel in place along with the navigator's map case (well I guess that's what the item is) and so now we've a couple of wee adjustments to fit the drift recorder plus small paint touch ups to screw heads etc. cheers
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Post by Venomnut on Feb 8, 2021 6:13:25 GMT 12
Denys, i have sent you a PM regarding information for the Hudson drift recorder.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 9, 2021 19:52:03 GMT 12
Wow lovely job cleaning that up!
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Post by denysjones on Feb 13, 2021 20:54:51 GMT 12
Moving on from drift recorders the next things to hand from the piles of bits on the shelves relate to the entry door. For the benefit of those not in the know, the Hudson entry door had a large bulge on the inside which housed an inflatible dinghy, a CO2 bottle to inflate it, and mechanism to run said process. This could be started by one of two methods. The manual one was a wire that ran along the upper starboard cabin wall and could be pulled by crew members. The second was by an immersion switch located in the floor of the nose compartment forward of the pitot tube which obviously would one of the first points of the a/c to make contact with water in a ditching. The outside cover of the door was a fabric material that the dinghy was able to burst through as it inflated. Again back in early Ferrymead times someone removed the various fittings from the door and this week those I've to hand I've dealt to them from their surface conditions (previously well past it paint and outbreaks of rust on two as these are steel items). These four are two brackets that I'm assuming mount the CO2 bottle, a small door which the manual implies could be opened to allow hand access to also start the inflation, and an electrical socket linked back to the immersion switch (this one still a wip as we might have access to a replacement). Reference to rivet/screw holes etc in the door has resolved where these all fit but reveal that there is another item which I haven't found to date; plus the puzzle as to which way up the left most bracket mounts. Resolving this is a wee drama. The manuals offer no images of the inside of the door and the MoTaT and Wigram Hudsons have at some stage of their careers had their dinghy doors replaced with a simple door with a flush inside surface (perhaps Lodestar in origin or simply they had the dinghy bulge cut off and plated over). So that leaves the Smith-Reid Hudson which still has a dinghy door that looks like this (thanks to Mr Homewood). However 2035's door is quite a different, as in more complex by way of a lot of apertures, as you see here Lower left is the aperture for the electrical socket. To the right of it are two set of two holes for the "which way up" bracket. I've put a bit of wire through the left pair to highlight them. Above that (again likewise highlighted) are the left pair of the other restored bracket, and further above those for the "missing bracket" and right above them the obvious opening for the hinged access door. btw the colour of the door bits is a Resene paint shade called Lemon Ginger which we found to be a good match to the zinc chromate in the rear end bays of 2035 but we've used a gloss finish to hidden areas for cleaning purposes and resistance to dust etc. As you see in the two images here it can vary in greeness depending on light conditions. Ah well more sleuthings to be going on with!
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Post by davidd on Feb 14, 2021 10:56:37 GMT 12
The "dinghy in door" plan was much later (1943/44?) abandoned for reasons little understood by me, and replaced by a dinghy packed in a "Valise" which was mounted on opposite side of fuselage, upright, but sitting on floor I think. Perhaps reason for this innovation was that the "Valise" dinghy was always visible to crew (well at least the valise itself was!) and there was no reliance on remote controls and so forth, and dinghy was probably easier to inspect, and to launch. It also provided easier access through the doorway, no longer having to fight "the battle of the bulge". The Ventura had a somewhat similar "dinghy in door" scheme, although this seemed considerably less bulky than the Hudson type. A recommendation made by the CO of No. 1 BR Squadron in his "End of tour" report in about mid-1945 was that the "Valise" type dinghy stowage be replaced by the original "dinghy in door" in their Venturas! David D
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Post by agile on Feb 14, 2021 20:17:18 GMT 12
**** Before we get entirely off the subject of drift recorders, the one we have for the Mossie is an American one that is in reasonable nick although missing a few bits. If anyone has a pommy one we'd love to swap **** Anyway, following up a few earlier items, we have now installed the IFF switch bracket shown previously, and wired it to its accompanying terminal blocks. The coloured wires are an aid-memoire for when we attached the cable back to the IFF transponder, since the donor bracket and the original terminal blocks in NZ2328 were wired differently to the published wiring diagram: We have also obtained placards to complete the two oxygen regulators, which look pretty spiffy: Wal Denholm at Avspecs heard that we were after a Type 62 beam approach aerial and kindly sent us down one of these very rare items in the hands of Dylan Stace. The donor one needed a tidy up and a new diode which was supplied by friend of the Society Terry Collins. The full complement of bits is quite extensive: You can see that the accompanying woodwork looks a bit sparse - but it provided a good pattern for me to bash up a new mount: We were also short the mounting for the Magnesyn remote indicating compass. The compass itself was donated by Cam McKenzie a few years ago. I was hoping that TE910 would provide the info I needed to make the mount, but unfortunately she has been modified with a hinged compass bracket (alleviating the need to trestle the aircraft for compass swings): This is a postwar mod which it seems was sporadically carried out - NZ2328 had also received this mod (confirmed from the small remains of the bracket in the fuselage) but HR339 had not (in any case it would be an anachronism for a 487 Squadron aircraft). Once again Dylan stepped into the breach with pics of the 'unhinged' bracket from which I was able to build a new mounting: This pic shows the compass installed int he new bracket and what was left of the compass bracket from HR339 - enough to confirm which type was fitted: These two items are now fitted in the fuselage: Along with the junction box for the VHF radio: Still looking for the rack for the radio itself - it's a roughly F-shaped tubular steel item holding the dynomotor above the radio itself. Any leads on one of these would be greatly appreciated. The dodgy looking 'Set No 2' is traced over the original marking. I'm not clear why it is labelled No. 2 but quite a few other Mossies carry the same marking. Perhaps the Gee set or the duplicate VHF set is 'Set No. 1'. The control lock stowage has also been restored and the control locks stowed for the first time in many years: These two chaps, the insulators for the Gee aerial are the next items to go in - these were donated a while back by Tony Agar - I didn't know what they were at the time, but turned them up while looking for something else on Saturday - don't you love serendipity: The Gee aerial is a simple length of stainless steel wire running around two sides of the bulkhead - a suitable length of wire is on order from Al Lee's Express, and Craig's next mission will be to turn me the couple of widgets needed to complete the assembly. Dagy has been boxing on with the fuselage repairs, which are creeping forward: The windshield area promises to continue being a bastard. The Omaka guys were talking on FB about swapping the screen out of TE910. I hope they have an easier time of it than we had - there is an absolute crapload of previously flexible sealant, horrible slotted CSK bolts and odd little packing pieces, as well as the ridiculous weight to contend with. That was a bad day. You can see why we had to take ours out though... (of particular note, the bolt hole going through the side of the spruce member at the bottom left corner of the windscreen opening - classic Standard Motors craftsmanship: Last but not least a new recruit (an apprentice aircraft engineer who loves what he does enough to want to mess with our old bag of bolts in the weekend) has been piecing together one radiator fairing assembly prior to dismantling the second one for corrosion treatment and repairs: A bit of a change from ATRs and A320s! Anyway, a bit of a novel but hopefully of interest. Cheers A
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Post by ZacYates on Feb 14, 2021 23:02:24 GMT 12
Thanks for sharing Alex, lots to take in and enjoy!
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Post by baz62 on Feb 15, 2021 5:33:29 GMT 12
Great progress on the Hudson and the Mosquito! There sure is a lot of equipment in the fuselage of a Mossie. Shame it's all hidden away as you've done a first class job getting the fit right. Well done.
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