Has anybody approached the RAF? They used to have a 'painter and finisher' trade that would often paint up gate guards, just for the practice. I guess they may well farm them out to contractors nowadays though :-(
The Omani Embassy did send a new set of crests for the fuselage.. two sets in fact as the first set were rather large! Yup.. they're an obvious choice and tbh, I don't know if they've already been contacted :think:
Trev..
I dunno about the RAF and paint. I know they're pretty good with undercoat at Brize but I think they're flown out for top coating
DaveB wrote:Well Done James.. that 'quickie' looks good and will do the necessary until such time as it can be stripped ;-)
Glad you enjoyed your visit to Brooklands Pity it wasn't Wed as EP would've been open. Next time maybe ;-)
ATB
DaveB :tab:
I'll try to go for a wednesday next time then.
I can't take much credit for the painting, apart from a bit of stencilling I've not really touched it. I just though its a good example of how you don't have to do the full strip down and spray treatment to get something fairly presentable which keeps off the weather (I'd have thought a slightly larger brush may be required for a VC-10 though!).
Re aircraft opening..
It much depends on the day you go.. I suppose as with other museums. Vanguard crew are in on Saturdays and Wednesdays (my day) though it's sometimes opened by other volunteers on Thur and Sun. It'd be interesting to go on one of our 'off' days just to see what the other volunteers get up to but that's another story Out of interest.. I take it EP was closed on Tuesday??
The Viscount, 1-11 and VC-10 were all open. I didn't bother with Concorde as I've been onboard other ones, thats maybe something for next time as well.
Dave, re: the flaps, I seem to recall that the flaps and such weren't truly disconnected, it's just that the hydraulics have been partly disconnected thereby preventing the use of these for the flaps (even if you could get a hydraulic power source). The port flaps were wound down partly early in its stay at Brooklands but jammed and stayed like that for quite a while until we got them back in sometime in 1998. To get one side down a torque tube had been cut but this has been repaired and reinstalled since. We never did anything about the tracks then which means that they will most likely still jam if you try to get them down (but you've found that out already I guess ).
On a VC10 you don't need to disconnect anything to be able to move the column and yoke. The cables only run to the PCUs and move a hydraulic control valve there. Without hydraulic power AFAIK you should be able to do this. I could be wrong of course, I haven't seen every inch of her (just a whole lot ;-) ).
Due to shortages and cutbacks the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off.
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