Ferrymead News

[kiwi285]

Denys - just wondered what the wing panels are off at the end of Dave's work bench.

[agile]

The wings are from the Hudson.

[denysjones]

Mother nature didn't come to the party this week on the weather front that I was hoping for and an on-site visit to get a top coat on last week's painting didn't eventuate and thus some of this week's intended installation work had to be held over.

However on the home front I was able to get some matters progressed.

Item one was preparing the undercarriage down pressure switch units for 2035. We have a number of such switches but lacked the mounting brackets for them. As luck would have it the two retraction rams came with some fixtures on them which, whilst they are not for that purpose originally, lent themselves to adaptation to the role and here they now be.



You'll note that they are handed in respect of their installation as the rams are of course installed on the inboard sides of both the nacelles of the aircraft.

I did get the conduit sorted out and fitted it to the port leg.



The one completed bit of the intended work in the wheel bay was that the junction box went in along with the two conduits off it.



The lower run is to the undercarriage up pressure switch and the upper goes to the sender unit for the aft fuel cell (tank) contents, said tank being the centre section bay on the other side of the wall.

There was some non-2035 work done down in the hangars in preparation for a major team push scheduled for next Saturday but you'll have to wait for that

[denysjones]

Today was a bright and early start for a long pending job to receive attention from the usual candidates with help from Ray, Matt and others who were on hand to deliver and drive one of our favourite appliances namely a spider crane.

Due to the confines we were working in and the nature of the target object we moved up a grade in terms of the size of machine being used. Thus first up was team conference, task delegation, and general morning chat.



Then a series of trial lifts and adjustments of the sling positions to get a stable lift.



Followed by lift off



Then things got tricky with a bit of deft crane operator work to clear the roof structure and bits of Viscount to swing the wing to meet the centre section root.



Next we really got up against it inching the wing into and onto the various connections followed by the insertion of the nine primary retaining pins which come down from the upper surface of the join and lock the tongues of the wing into the centre section receptors. More bolts then were fitted to the fore and aft vertical faces of the join followed by a liberal number, but not all, of the screws upwards from beneath whence we felt the join was aligned enough to move to the act of faith of the exercise.

This was to let the weight off the crane and see if the calculations of the balance of a one-sided F27 was stable. If you go back to the post of Feb 3rd (page 44) and the concrete and steel construction..this is the engineer designed counter balance safety device. It was a moment of relief that no inkling of motion was detected when the crane relaxed, many thanks to Rory who ran the engineering numbers for us.

So now we have the somewhat impressive sight of



Our thanks for the help from the contractors guys who pitched in on the grounds that "we like this cool sort of stuff"

All this didn't leave much time but I got some more prep work done on 2035 :-)

[agile]

Well done Denys and team! I was away working so missed this big day, which has taken a lot of preparation and organisation. So great to see the pic with the wing on!

[skyhawkdon]

Awesome to see.

[Deleted]

Great work team, it looks terrific!

[markrogers]

Awesome work, looking great.

[denysjones]

This week's homework hasn't involved much in the hardware line but lots in the trawling of manuals, contemplation, and email exchanges which ultimately led to a solution which revealed wasted effort going back twenty odd years.

Over that time I have been trying to locate a pair of adaptors that fit on top of the carburettors and in turn support the top cowl and connect with the intake duct thereon. Based on our US manual for the AT-18 navigator training version of the Hudson I have been trying to locate a pair with a P/N of 162044. In all this time I've never found anybody with any. That is until this week when ChrisM got in touch.

Chris has long known of my quest, but he has recently acquired a number of ex-Hudson R1820 assemblies with both their carburettors and adaptors fitted. However these adaptors bear no likeness to the illustration of 162044 that we had and they have a P/N of 72381. Here on the left is a 162044, that Chris also now has, along with a 72381.



We both came to the conclusion that 162044 only relates to the AT-18 type of installation and as our Hudsons were ex-RAF we guessed that 72381 relates to the Hudson III (and possibly only that but how to prove it).

As luck has it a few years back I got the RAF Museum to get scanned a copy of their AP1690C Vol 3, and some related papers, and send it to me all 1904 pages of it. When I found that the document didn't include illustrations I pretty much gave up on it until this week. Luckily therein was a table and index combined which translated Lockheed P/Ns to RAF Reference numbers and linked to pages earlier on which gave a schedule of parts. In this there was no mention of 162044 but 72381 there was. We rest our case as proven!

It was even better than that though as when Chris sent me the photo above I knew immediately the exact shelf location in our store to go to and collect these



For the entire time I'd been wondering where to get the wrong adaptors we had a pair of the correct ones on hand. The third item is a 70845 "Plate Carburettor Seal" which sits between the carburettor and 72381, so far I can only locate one of those.

Never mind, onwards we go and the 70845, being stainless steel, quickly responded to a polish and coat of Cold Zinc clear preservative. Thus an early task yesterday was the removal of 28 nuts and bolts and 12 screws to separate the carburettor heat shroud from the engine shield so I could lift it and drop 70835 down over the studs on the carburettor head.



Then after replacing said removals on goes 72391 "Screen Carburettor Air Scoop".



Thus next week's home work is the two 72381's.

[denysjones]

Today's start was follow on from the other week's Friendship wing job. To gain access for the spider crane we had to demount some of the fencing around the aircraft area in the hangar and so reinstatement tasks launched the day.

During the week I turned attention to the absence of the pitot head on the wing tip. A bit of a trawl around online led to selection of close up "walkaround" photos of an F27 in a museum which presented a good wingtip shot, including pitot. From the shot, and using a prominent panel which I could measure on BXG to determine scale, I knocked up an acceptable representation, in this morning's team's opinions, that will do for the while but which certainly makes the wing tip look more complete.



Afternoon work was back onto matters-2035

Task one was more of the refurb surrounding where the undercarriage rams have to be installed. More tedious tubing related stuff here but the end is nigh of the process and the reinstatement looms.

Task two was hunting out materials elated to the valves on the undercarriage brake lines. Despite queries online I haven't got any useful responses regarding the called out Aeroquip units. So as a fill-in I've decided to used a pair of non-return valve units surplus from other regions of the hydraulic system and so was sorting out the connectors etc for that.

Finally I offered up one of the duly restored 72381 adaptors to a carburettor to see how things sat



Looks ok to me apart from the question of what, if anything, connects to the obvious location on the side and thence how does it makes its way through the heat shield (aka cowl well eh Chrism :-) )!

[chrism]

Looks great Denys! To answer the question of what goes in the fitting in the side of the intake housing, it is an extinguisher nozzle. I hope this series of pictures solves the puzzle for you!


20240825_202321 by Chris McDell, on Flickr
20240825_202252 by Chris McDell, on Flickr

20240817_144435 by Chris McDell, on Flickr

20240818_172452 by Chris McDell, on Flickr


20240722_163422 by Chris McDell, on Flickr

[denysjones]

During the week I got the job done on the repurposing of the surplus hydraulic system valves to do service in the brake lines of 2035 and today got the port rendition installed featuring also the involved new made tubing running around the leg between the two flexible hoses.



No irreversible harm was done in this process so should the unforeseen happen and we do ever acquire the Aeroquip items called out by the parts book it is a simple swap out job.

Later in the day Dean delivered me the leg clamps for the starboard leg brake hoses. These are composites he'd welded up from several bits and pieces of other broken clamps and which are now off for finishing. This then occasioned the makeup of the second piece of the around the leg tubing.

Dean was then engaged in more work pimping up the JT8D and its support stand, polishing and painting assorted surfaces as required.



Chrism's helpful post from last week led me off another "I know those and where to get them" missions and so here is one of the 1 and 2/3rds set of the baffle units we have, with fire extinguisher tubes that Chris detailed. Well I knew we had the all along but had just put them aside in the "get to them one day pile" but Chris's post got me going on it all.



By way of explanation, the Cyclone is held in the ring frame by nine bolts, one at each cylinder position and this baffle ring is mounted on said bolts. The ring is made of three segments which mount on 2,3,4 bolts all of which you may make out in this shot.

The 2/3rds bit is that while we have this complete ring we have only two units of the second.

Today I separated this one down to its bits and stripped off the various fittings to start the refurbishing process.

During the week there was a fair bit of time on society works which involved no hardware or tools. We've just been through the process of revising our constitution to meet the requirements of the new 2022 Incorporated Societies Act and have obtained registration thereunder. Now we've been through our annual financial processes which again have changed due to alterations to the reporting standards of Charities NZ and we've completed our first audit clearance in the new format.

We are very lucky to have the assistance in this of an auditor who gives his time pro bono, and the good name of his Queen St firm, so that donors can be assured that funds they donate are going to a genuine legally run and compliant body...many thanks Michael.

[chrism]

She's a big job to put those baffles in Denys! I should be able to help out with any missing baffle sections.

[denysjones]

A somewhat depleted team on site today due to several conflicts of interests.

Not to worry. Alex was busy taking advantage of the warm temperatures, which enabled opening the workshop door, to apply dope the recent fabric works on HR339. George and Oscar sought escape from the odours to the metalwork shop to continue their work.

Rob and Paul were busy on things R22 with the latter delivering another batch of home prepared items and them sorting out his next batch to take away.

Down in the hangars Dean and Barry got into a some long planned works which we haven't been able to carry out when there was a chance of park visitors dropping in. This year the park has closed for winter, re-opening September 29th, on the basis of it always being a low time in visitor numbers thus several projects with the same visitor impact could be dealt to quicker and simpler.

I busied myself with more of the current thrust on 2035 being that the second brake line run down the starboard undercarriage leg went in. Next it was the reinstatement of the deicer plumbing runs through the starboard centre-section undercarriage bay and other assorted pipe clamps and the like to finish off this work. Now it's a busy little plumbing area.



After that some measuring and planning, for what has led to all that stuff, was done to hopefully enable next week's plan to proceed smoothly.

To round out the day I also spent a brief time down with BXG doing a bit of touch-up paint work on the tracks for the inboard flap to set the scene for it to go on.

[agile]

A few pics to illustrate Denys' post above. The unusually warm weather has been great for fabric work, albeit making the workshop quite smelly for the others. The final large fabric to go on the fuselage is under the nose:




There's still a bit of work to do along the machine gun door sills, so this has to stay undoped for now:


The starboard side is a bit more tricky with the cockpit door, drift sight and trailing aerial apertures in addition to the wing root.


In order to get it wrinkle free we started with one edge:


Then doped down between the cockpit door and the machine gun door:


Then at the risk of descending into meme territory one simply 'draws the rest of the owl':


The bottom edges are reinforced with tapes cut 'on the bias' (ie at 45° to the weave of the fabric) which makes them a bit stretchier. Each of these tapes is hand-cut from offcuts:


Under the nose is a single fabric panel that is mostly covered by the metalwork for the circular access panel (through which the spent .303 brass is removed). I was surprised how ropey the original fabric on NZ2328 looked in this area, but it turns out to be a bit of a barsteward to get it tight and get the edges straight:


Still, I was reasonably happy with the result:




Meanwhile George and Oscar have been making coolant tank brackets and straps for the Merlins, based on two original brackets and the rather pathetic remains of a strap that came with a tank acquired from a Canadian project:


Brackets ready for welding:


Straps and doublers cut:


Dagy has been working on forming the removable panel that goes under the nose between the cannon blast panel and bulkhead #2:


Tricky compound curve shape, and of course made to fit the specific aircraft. We'll use Nylon webbing instead of asbestos tape to seal the edges, at the lamentable cost of authenticity:


While all that was going on we have removed all the unmachined Sitka spruce back to Dagy's place (since it always ends up going there for machining anyway), moved the timber rack and restowed, making the place much tidier. All the plumbing on the third shelf was retrieved from the scrap pile at Mapua:

[Dave Homewood]

Good work!

[denysjones]

A small team on site today, must be the weather, but nonetheless progress on most fronts.

Dag, Angus and George carrying on with their Mossie tasks, Dave on the Sunderland, and Rob on things Robinson.

My ambitions for 2035 failed due the no-show of an unsuspecting accomplice (failure to lodge leave request is duly noted :-) )

Never mind there's always other tasks I can fall back on.

There were a few more small add-ons to go on the starboard works of the last few weeks but also prep work for the next push. This is the installation of the retraction rams which are like so many things in that items have to be moved to make way.

The rams have to be installed from forward of the spar and that means making clearance around members of the undercarriage. It is hard to get a good shot of this area but here goes.



The two members with the red ground lock superimposed are what makes retraction/extension happen and the obvious void hole at their intersection is where the ram attaches. Today I cleaned said holes (both sides of the aircraft) to fit the pin that goes therein that links the ram.

Top left of the shot you can just see the ram trunion in the spar. Installation of the ram will mean the removal of the joint pin of the two rods and swinging them out of the way (one up one down) and feeding the ram up and rearwards. Hence no progress solo today but all is cleaned up and ready steady go.

I then moved over to the port u/c bay and repeated the now familiar strip out of the deicer plumbing and junction box and related conduits. So, off home for this week's attentions, another repeat selection of suitably grubby bits now well understood, plus items of tubing.

[denysjones]

During the week as I worked on the latest junction box another wee puzzle presented itself. Once denuded of grime and paint the box and lid revealed stampings of 168664-2 and -3 part numbers but surprise surprise they don't show in the AT-11 parts book.

I accept that bomber variant specific parts are often absent from said book but the cabling relating to this box is to do with the undercarriage extended and retracted position signalling and the fuel load of the two adjacent cells and I can't imagine why these would differ between bomber and nav trainer. Never mind whatever that all is, the box now awaits re-installation once its home is tidied up.

Plans to install the first ram hit a snag with a hose failure on the jack so that's all on hold pending a new hose.

I then reverted to the cleaning up of the port spar cavities. This is a frustrating job given the confines to work in and the nature of the material to remove. It is a mix of oils and dirt which has set like concrete, in some places nearly an inch thick, on the members which of course have rivets and nuts and bolts through them just to make removal more of a fag.

Also on the agenda was the matter of the hydraulic lines to the heads of the rams. Obviously these have to be hoses to allow for the movement of the ram. Reference to the E&M book yields a call out of a hose some 45inches in length and looking at a picture of the appropriate subject in NZ2013 at Wigram you see thus.



That ties up with the 45inch figure. However looking at NZ2031 at MoTaT you will see this much smaller hose fitted to a piece of tubing fixed to the bay roof.



MoTaT's Lodestar also has a similar unit and our port bay had the same in situ but with the hose amputated just past the connection. I know for sure that it was original, in the context of the aircraft, as it took a fair amount of CRC and leverage to disconnect it. Now after appropriate de-rusting and removal of the original hose remnant it is on the road to recovery.



There's just yet again a "why the differences" question.

[denysjones]

Lots of team activity Saturday morning doing non aircraft stuff by way of housework and reorganisations in the hangars in preparation for Sunday's reopening of the Park after its winter hibernation. Also part of this was the start on relocating assorted engine displays from the workshops that we've long been meaning to do but still have more to address.



In the afternoon team members spun back onto their usual targets. Rob was prepping the R22 tail boom ready for Paul to paint and Dave was boxing on Sunderland cockpit stuff. Dag, Alex, Angus and George all seemed to find plenty of mossie stuff to pursue.

Dean, Barrie and Gerry seemed to have caught some sort of bug down in the hangar as they carried on in the same vein, with a bit of extra team muscle at the critical time, and moved 1058 and then reorganised the surrounding areas to facilitate their next operations there.

I headed back into the port undercarriage bay of 2035 and rubbed down the roof of the area where the wheel resides so it is ready for paint and got the spar gap that was cleaned last week painted, so hopefully next week I can repopulate it. The rear face of the spar received its new paint apart from one plate which needed some corrosion removal and a wee skim of body filler over the damaged area, to be finished next week.



Next week will also include tidying of the rear face of the oil tank and various pipeworks and of course in the future a flap ram is to come.

There was also time for me to bestow BXG a bit of love and remove four bubbles of corrosion on the starboard fuselage, in amongst the airline titles, that I've been eyeballing for a wee while.

[denysjones]

As previously planned my major focus today was starting to repopulate the port spar gap. Things therein being fiddly as they are but we got this far.



The oil filler, the large tube top left, took some time to remove clean, paint and then replace, more than I had expected. The junction box is back in place, and out of shot at left is a fairlead for the deicer tubes which are now on next week's schedule, but will fill the centre ground above the junction box. Other plumbing items cleaned and painted and firmly secure with likewise refurbed clips, screws and nuts.

I also got made up the tube which comes out between the oil filler and the tube to its right. You can see the hole in the spar face above for the screw that will secure the clip locking the tube in place. This is a fuel line which runs to the right of shot and onto a union in the bay wall from the the tank on the other side.

The lower of the two tubes on the right size raises another puzzle point. On this side of the aircraft it connects on a T fitting which has one leg onto a tube that runs up and over the oil tank and the other leg is terminated with block fitting carefully lock-wired.

On the corresponding starboard unit there is no T fitting, just a simple elbow...what's the reason for the provision of the blanked off connection point port side?

Another difference between sides is that on the starboard the four deicer tubes are bundled together with a fairlead thus (all duly refurbed in the course of work on that side), you'll see, in the spar face to the left in today's shot, another screw hole for the earth attachment.



However port side had no such fairlead but rather the tubes were separated by several wrap-a-rounds of old fashioned insulation tape again. What could that mean, some sort of repair job? ... ah Lockheed