RAF Millom Aviation & Military Museum Update

[Peter]

Excellent job on the Shorts! The spinners look the part and so do the props! Well done!!

[Niallpatty]

Do you want external or internal measurements David? Will get them tomorrow.

[David Burke]

External length and width would be great!

[Niallpatty]

David,

The length is 195" (16'3") width is 61" (5'1")

The height to the top of the hump behind the canopy is 73" (6'1")

If you need any more measurements PM me your email and I will send you my sketches which show more detail.

Regards

Patty

[David Burke]

Thanks very much ! I forgot to ask does your GR.1 have a nose cone yet?

[Niallpatty]

No nose cone on the GR1 yet David. I forgot to mention that the measurements were from the F3 cockpit at the Devonshire road museum. The length measurement was to the first joint for the nose cone ring forwards of the windscreen. That is where the Saudi one stops.

[QldSpitty]

What Flight Sim are you using for the Spit and Me109 Pits.They look awsome.

[Niallpatty]

I have sent a P.M. to you OldSpitty old chap! Anybody else wanting "gen" on simulator software please feel free to PM me.

Patty

[Niallpatty]

Just to let you know, we haven't been napping. Here are the latest progress pics.

John Phillips' labour of love on the flea rudder and the painstaking construction of the Shorts nose cone.

Also pictured, the Me109 Simulator is starting to look a bit more complete.

[Niallpatty]

After Retro Aviation drew a blank on cowls for their Shorts 360 classroom in the Midlands, our inventive carpenter John decided he would mould some new ones for ours enabling Retro to get out of a tight spot. Retro did get us SSWO after all so it was the least we could do!

The other pics are to show our expanded library room containing published aviation titles. This frees up a room for A/Ps, technical manuals and back issues of Aviation Magazines. Then, a further room for archives including the late Gilbert Rothery's extensive archive on North West England aviation. (I lost almost 2 hours flicking through his lake district crashes 1990-1999 file). His files include, newspaper cuttings, AAIB reports that are now unavailable online and many photos like the sample here. We can take requests for info for a very modest donation via the "contact" section of www.rafmillom.co.uk .

[Niallpatty]

The middle picture shows some of the tech docs and A.P.s. Not the new library for published aviation books as i previously posted. Thanks to Morcambe Library for donating the shelving to kit out the new library.

Pic below, the new library shelves start to get re-stocked. Also pictured below is our latest volunteer "Douglas" (his legs kept falling off when trying to dress him). If he is waiting to start some restoration work on the Unimetals Firefly then he could be waiting a while! (see forum april 08 for explanation).

To use the library or archive facilities in house charges are £1/hour £3 half day £5 all day.

[Planemike]

Library looks good...........would love to come up and have a browse !!!

Planemike.............

[N.Wotherspoon]

Hi Everyone

Still snowed under with our house renovation - plumber driving us mad at the moment So unfortunately very little time for other projects, but hopefully only a temporary problem and we have at least got floors in every room now . Got several boxes of books for you here - mostly ex the main reference library here which is currently being reorganised & includes some really good stuff + my own collection is going have to be seriously reduced when we finally start moving back into the rest of the house - So hope to make a trip up to see you all soon.

[Niallpatty]

Planemike, I would love to get locked in the library for a night. Although I think it would take longer than that to get through it all!

Nick, we are ready to recieve the reductions from your collection!

We have taken delivery of some new 748 bits and pieces very kindly donated by Steve Ferris and Mark from International Air Parts. They are currently chopping up 748s at Blackpool for parting out. We now have a proper freight door, seats, yokes and throttle console for Old Ben (pic) and haulier Tommy Stafford has just picked up the cockpit section of ex Parcel Force 748 G-OPFW. I may well swap the control converters for the simulator into this aircraft from G-ATMI. The new cockpit section will take up much less space inside and is much more portable. A little bit of chopping so it sits on a flat base and taking the sharps off and it's an instant exhibit! A big thanks to
www.intl-air-parts.com.au and all their Blackpool crew. (I think some of the lads work for AMS, anyway you know who you are so thanks).

[Niallpatty]

A quick update on G-OPFW the ex parcelforce 748. She nows sits on a flat base and the scrap man has taken away our cuttings in exchange for a twin wheeler trailer that she will sit on. This will make it easy to position in the museum and also be roadable for shows. This is how she looks at the moment.

[Niallpatty]

Work has been underway over the past few weeks to ready Series 1 748 G-BEJD for dismantling and removal for preservation at RAF Millom. Yesterday with the assistance of Mark and Eric from International Air Parts we removed the remaining engine and prop and placed them in their carrying frames.

Engines and props will arrive first with the dismantling work going on over the far east side of Blackpool Airport where we dismantled the Shorts 360 last year.

The last photo was taken in April of last year during dismantling of Shorts 360 G-SSOW.

This post relates quite well to the question in last months Fly Past "why is nobody interested in preserving anything British without roundels on it". We believe the Southend Series 1 748 mentioned in Fly Past has now been chopped up so Sisyphus will be the only one in the UK. It has been suggested to repaint her in the demonstrator colour scheme. Anybody got any views on this?

[Fouga23]

Nice work! Any pics of the demonstrator colors?

[Niallpatty]

Here we go. These are some links to airliners.net with both series 1 and 2 demonstrators.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Avro/...4e27bc406f57b2

and

http://www.airliners.net/photo/DLT--...ed7e33db54df7a

[Fouga23]

I'd go with G-ARAY

[FiltonFlyer]

Personally, my vote would be for Dan-Air colours (earlier not later) as in this photo ( http://www.airplane-pictures.net/image3580.html ). But I wouldn't complain about any livery, it's just great news that she has been rescued.

Andy

[cometguymk1]

G-ARAY looks a good scheme

[David Burke]

How easily do the wings come off??

[Jon H]

Originally Posted by David Burke

How easily do the wings come off??

Derivet fours sizeable doubler plates, remove a few thousand bolts plus one or two other things and away they come - simple really

Jon

[cestrian]

I'm so glad to see a 748 preserved at long last in this country.Well done to all concerned. I also would love to see it finished in the early Dan-Air scheme which is historically correct for G-BEJD.

[Niallpatty]

Well thats 2 in favour of Dan Air vs Demonstrator so far. I think the historical accuracy is quite valid there.

In the following pics you can see the wing removal points. First 2 pics show the stbd. top plate (a lot easier than it sounds to remove the Hilok bolts). I did half of the port top ones on Sat in 30 mins using big hammer and chisel although they need punched through. The underside ones seem softer and pop off easier. The reason we have only removed half of the bolts is that she is moving to a quieter part of the airfield to remove the wings/tailplane.

Third pic shows the stbd bottom plate pre chisel attack!

Pic 4 is the access into the port wing that I have been using in my role as museum ferret to get to the main wing bolts in pic 5. The brown stuff in pic 5 is not rust. It is Waxoyl. The bolts are flying off with our air ratchet.

Pic6 shows the underside of the port top wing plate and the bases of the hilok bolts we need to knock out. It also shows the prongs that bolt onto the stringers inside the wing.

When we re-assemble everything back at Millom, we should only need to replace half of the bolts as the aircraft has a 75% redundancy. So if it can fly with 75% of its fixings, it can surely sit static with 50% of them.

Please get in touch if you think we have overlooked anything.

[pagen01]

Only just caught up with this thread again, well done for saving the Andover!
As for markings (probably way down your priorities at the mo) I would go with accuracy and early Dan Air scheme - as nice as the demonstators looked.

[Niallpatty]

We have been beavering away over the last two weeks on the HS 748s. The first pic shows the maiden (virtual) flight of FW. We are still trying to decide on projector (setup pictured) or huuuge lcd telly for the visuals.

Pic 2 and 3 are from our visit to Blackpool yesterday to prepare for dismantling of Sisyphus in her new location near the threshold of rwy28.

Pic 4 is Old ben sporting his new freight door (donor G-BVOU Lynx Express) and nose cone (donor G-OPFW).

Pic 5 shows the new castor setup on FW to allow us more space in the museum. The flat bed trailer was going to take up too much room.

[Niallpatty]

In the next few months we will be trying to throw as many bodies at dismantling Series 1 748 G-BEJD as possible. I wondered if it might be worth trying the Lancashire area for even more.

With Sisyphus being (I believe) the last series 1 in the UK I thought there may be a few people interested in working on her.

If you feel you can contribute please PM me and I will sort out some dates. Mid week is also a possibility for dates.

[Jetstream Man]

Have you tried the Avro Heritage group at Woodford? They may have some leads to willing volunteers.

[Niallpatty]

Thanks Jetstream Man,

I have emailed the contact on their webpage.

Do you know where we might find main U/C legs for a Jetstream-31? We are on the lookout for one (not sure whether R or L yet). We need it to get G-EEST standing on her own 4 wheels again. We also need one main wheel. (we have the tyre).

Regards

Patty