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Avro Shackleton WR963 - ongoing restoration work


Rich W

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Nov 12

 

Mixed weather at Coventry today, it started quite gloomy, before drying out and becoming quite pleasant at one point. I'm told the weather conditions prevented the planned drop of poppies by one of the DC3's yesterday, which is a shame..

 

Still, the weather was good enough for the Harley Davidson Owners Club day and plenty of bikes turned up, bringing plenty of visitors.

 

Moving on to all things Shackleton - we dug into the problem No 3 engine had (it's always No3... that engine hates me. ) regarding the slow running cut off, and its failure to operate.

 

With power on, we tested the fuse, then the circuit, and finally the solenoid; and found that it was intact, and appeared operational. We pulled the solenoid and the cut off valve off, stripped it down and cleaned it. While the solenoid comes apart fairly easily, the valve appeared to have a sealed body, which made life difficult.

 

After cleaning and lubricating we reassembled the parts and refitted them to the engine. Trying the system again and once again fuel poured down the intake drain and all over the floor and starboard tyre. The offending solenoid/valve is still unserviceable and will be replaced by a new one next week.

 

Last but not least, I had these photo's passed onto me that were taken as we were leaving last week. I liked them, and thought you guys might. They were taken by Pete Curran, one of our crew.

P1060368-6.jpg

P1060362-1.jpg

 

Kind regards,

Rich

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  • 2 weeks later...
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  • 1 month later...

Congratulations, to all concerned! Whilst I am a regular "Flypast" subscriber, I don't remember, the item that you mention, and am sure it didn't do justice to the magnificent work that you are doing.

 

If I still lived in Balsall Common, I would certainly offer you my services, such as they are.

 

 

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fantastic work you guys are doing!

 

I would very much like to volunteer for helping out if that is possible, however I wont be free of uni commitments until the beginning of July - it looks like you are doing such good work, that there wont be any jobs left to do by then! :laugh:

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No problem with more volunteers. The more the merrier! Don't think I've forgotten about you guys over here in HMVF, its just that my computer keeps screwing the format of the updates up!! I'll have another shot at uploading some stuff tonight.

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  • 2 months later...
My favourite story heard to date has to be this one:

 

In the 1980's Shackleton's were used for crew training for the BBMF Lancaster, due to similarities and to avoid stressing the Lancaster to much doing repeated take offs, landings and using valuable flying hours.

 

After the training was over, the Shackleton had to return to Lossiemouth, and set off north, battling against a headwind. A while after takeoff they were asked for an ETA. This they gave. "1600hrs". More time passed with the old grey lady growling sedately on. Another request for an ETA. Again they reply "1600hrs." After a short pause another request is heard.

 

"Is that 1600hrs today, or tomorrow?"

 

 

The longest recorded endurance flight for a Shackleton was 24hrs 21 minutes.

 

Regards,

 

Rich

 

Hello all.

 

My first proper post on the forum, apart from my introduction.

 

On the post quoted above, There has been a longer Shackleton flight than the 24 hr 21 minute one.

 

Down in South Africa, over the 24th and 26th of July 1970, Chris Lombard, with Captain Hoon flew Shackleton 1721 for 26 hours 15 minutes, as part of Operation Mortgage.

 

Which is staggering.

 

Lombard also flew a 21 hour mission from South Africa to Madagascar and back, a 16 hour weather mission in the Geophysical Year (1957/1958) and another 16 hour mission to Marion Island in the 1960's .

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We're working harder than ever now. We found out a couple of weeks ago that WR963 is the LAST Shackleton still running.

 

 

Rich, the South African Shackleton is most definitely still running.

 

It does not fly due to an almost expired main spar, and the fact that all the last qualified aircrew are now getting on a bit, but it most certainly has everything else still working, and still gets an engine run every now and then, to the best of my knowledge.

 

Keep up the good work by the way.

Edited by leading edge
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  • 6 months later...

Hi all, sorry for being away so long.

 

The various other activities taking off to do with the Shackleton severely cut into my time. As a result I only kept a couple of the forums updated. The museum that we're part of has been and gone, with it moving south to the former RAF St Mawgan, but the old Shackleton will be staying with us at Coventry. If people are interested with catching up I will post a large update tonight!

 

leading edge -

 

I didn't know about the SAAF record, it makes sense as the MR3 could carry quite a bit more fuel even without an overload tank in the bomb bay. There's very little info on SAAF Shackleton operations get published which is a shame. I suppose I can adjust my quote as 'longest MR2 mission', as it was carried out by WR964.

 

Regarding the last Shackleton running, I was rather happy to hear of 1722's return to health this May. When I wrote about WR963 being the last; at the time she was - with 1722 still suffering from the hydraulic issues which had prevented her running for two years. Since then (over a year ago) they have been resolved and looks to be back on a monthly run schedule. There are also rumours that our friends at Gatwick have been thinking about reviving MR3 WR982 'Juliet'.

 

Back to WR963....

 

On Dec 15th we're due to carry out a ground run if anyone is interested. Its a scheduled run as part of our upkeep of the aircraft as she has been quiet since September. The run is usually carried out around 1300hrs, but you're welcome to get there a bit earlier if you choose. Bear in mind that now Airbase is closed, your entry won't cost you anything but you will be restricted somewhat on where you can walk about in the immediate area.

 

This is not a taxy run, as there's still a few little niggles to be resolved with No 2 engine before we can wake it up. Taxy runs are still on the cards though for next year.

 

WR963 will be open for inspection, but we will be asking for a donation on the door of the aircraft. As is usual there are no barriers inside or outside, so if you fancy a sit in the Boss's chair or want a close up look at a particular widget, be our guest and do so! There may also be spaces available on the aircraft during the run.

 

Come on over and help support Avro Shackleton WR963!

 

Regards,

Rich W

Edited by Rich W
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  • 1 month later...

Hi,

 

Lovely thread, absolutely stunning!

 

You mentioned that you were looking for some different spark plugs. Does the Griffing use the same plug as the Merlin? If so I wonder if Meteor plugs might help. I know that they are used in ground run Merlins. If they are of use I know someone who's got a few.

 

Paul

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Hi

wow , just found this very nostalgic thread. I Joined the RAF in 1976 as an air comms tech and did my training at cosford mainly on the `Shacks`, which were a real pain if they gave you an intercom snag to sort out due to the amount of stations in the system.

 

I can still smell the leather seats and bed at the back and used to love climbing over the main spar...oh happy memories...much more enjoyable than doing snags on the victor, javelin or canberra.

 

Pity I live in Dorset otherwise i would help out.

 

Chris

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Hi all, sorry about the lack of updates - there seems to be an issue with access from the computer I use most which messes up the format of my posts. I'll endeavour to work around it where possible. Griffon plugs and Merlin plugs are pretty similar, but for ground running use we use the same spark plugs you'll find in a military spec V8 landrover. The price is quite agreeable too against the £90 per plug it costs for the genuine Griffon item! We'll have to change them out if we get to the point of flight though. If any of you are near Coventry on a Saturday from 10am on, come and have a look.

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  • 2 years later...

Hi all,

 

We're still trying to get this aircraft flying. If you fancy helping us raise some funds, there's some interesting rewards up for grabs.

 

 

 

 

Full update to come... brace yourselves!

 

 

Regards,

 

Rich W

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Hi all,

 

With 13 days to go we're just over £8000 towards our structural inspections. We really need your help if we're going to make it!

 

Besides the taxi run, there are also Griffon pistons, a Michael Rondot Shackleton print, polo shirts and other things available as rewards for different levels of support. We know the Kickstarter platform is a bit clunky to use and requires sign up; but we really would appreciate it if people could take the time - even if its £1 it helps get WR963 closer to flight.

 

We haven't had the begging bowl out until now, having made it from a dead aeroplane up to a taxying, live and growling Avro masterpiece. We need help to go that little bit further.

 

Again, help if you can; or share the information if you can't directly.

 

 

Kind regards,

Rich

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6 days to go and less than £1500 to hit the target! Please help us if you can by pledging or sharing the link, it makes all the difference.

 

First public engine run of the year is on May 2nd for Airbase (Coventry Airport) reopening, so if you haven't heard the Griffon growl this year now's your chance!

 

Kind regards,

 

Rich W

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Hi Iain,

 

Many thanks, we hit the £12k mark just before midday today, so once kickstarter collects and releases the funds we'll be getting on with sending out all the rewards for pledges.

 

Then we'll be tearing into WR963 with a renewed enthusiasm and seeing just how good the wing structure is internally.

 

We've always said we want to take her around some of the old Shack bases when we get her flying again, it would be nice to see her in the air over Kinloss and Lossiemouth again.

 

Kind regards,

 

Rich

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Rich

 

Unfortunately I have lived in East Anglia for the last 27 years and I don't think there are any Shackleton connections down here :( so I will need to make a special trip to hear and see it again or rely on YouTube ...

 

Good luck with the refurbishment !

 

Iain

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Iain, true, East Anglia isn't really 'Shack' territory - but what warbird doesn't visit Duxford?

 

Just to reiterate; thanks to all that made it happen. We hit (and surpassed) the fundraising target!

 

As soon as the Kickstarter period ends, we'll be cracking on sorting the rewards out, and also getting things organised to get deep inside some parts of WR963 that haven't seen daylight since her last major.

 

Regards,

 

Rich

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi all,

 

I thought I'd post a little update into progress over the past couple of weeks. As always its two steps forward, one back as the run up on 2nd May did not go at all according to plan.

 

The event itself? Fantastic from our point of view. The crowd must have easily been a couple of thousand people despite the slightly grey and cold conditions, and the queue to get on board WR963 for a look around stretched out towards the wingtip most of the day. We made a lot of new friends, met a few old ones, and made a lot of people aware of what our intent is for the Shackleton.

 

So you can imagine our frustration when No 3 just turned on the starter, peed fuel out the priming drain and refused to do so much as cough! We believed the problem to be in the booster coil connection to the magneto or the mag itself, as while there was plenty of fuel there wasn't even a hint of life in the engine, it felt as if we were turning it over with the switches off.

 

The rest of the run-up went fairly well, and with careful management of the brake pressures (only one compressor available because No 3 was U/S) we still managed to exercise things and blow out the cobwebs after a fairly lengthy quiet period over winter. Then came the bigger problem. After settling the engines down and bringing them to a halt, the starboard undercarriage indicator flickered then went from a 'green' indication to a 'red'. Never has that tiny little light looked so evil or so bright...

 

We got off the aircraft fairly carefully and thanks to the crowd barriers were able to keep everyone away. Tentative checking of all the ground locks was done before venturing into the undercarriage bay to see what the problem was, as none of us wanted to see WR963 take up a reclining position, or for one of us to get intimate with a mainwheel. A quick check of the jacks and the downlocks showed the inboard hydraulic ram had crept back just enough to set the switch to open and show the red. With persuasion the ram would come out to its full extent, but soon crept back again. The decision was taken to manually adjust the lock to prevent any creep from the ram inadvertantly unlocking the leg, and unfortunately to limit access to the aircraft for the time being.

 

Fast forward to a couple of weeks later and the team were on site from just before 10am to just after 9pm; determined to get to the bottom of things.

 

The intent of the day's work was to try and trace the problem that caused the red light on the Starboard undercarriage and if possible fix it, it was thought that one of the valves was not properly selecting 'down' and preventing hydraulic pressure to the rams. So out came the multimeters and they started getting pushed into various places on WR963 and the problem was slowly traced back to the wire from the undercarriage selector switch in the cockpit to the 'down' selector valve in the starboard undercarriage bay. It appears to have a short to earth in the starboard wing leading edge area. Normally one side of it is always live - so you have either an up selection, or a down selection. In this case both sides are unpowered so the hydraulics are 'free'.

 

The complete undercarriage system on that side is not being supplied with hydraulic pressure to ensure the gear stays down and locked, and because of this, the starboard inboard ram was allowed to retract in an uncommanded fashion - unlocking the leg. Because we haven't managed to replace the damaged/shorted wire yet, WR963 is still closed to the public for the time being, meanwhile we're getting stuck into the manuals and planning the best course of action for getting to and repairing it.

 

As this work was going on, so were other bits around the aircraft.

 

While working in the undercarriage bays, Mark Ward and his son Curtis have been making amazing progress. This is a before and after shot of one of the undercarriage locks. As we're overhauling things there will be a retraction test at some point, and the locks have had precious little attention in the last 25 years other than making sure that they are positively engaged..

 

1743636_10205649664658506_9156266637864119568_n.jpg?oh=dd061493eb08984d9ccf22e4206a11df&oe=56014B9F&__gda__=1439174222_8a4c8b16a3077cf08f756efa41929162

 

11025745_10205649665538528_3177750863707691549_n.jpg?oh=db983df4ec2455ed5ccb755b87ed92c2&oe=55FE7298&__gda__=1439034766_1f5d6235dfe7d45a871ccda69911aa01

 

As mentioned, work was also being carried out on No 3 engine, and as predicted the problem seemed to be related to the boost coil. Initally there was some head scratching as there seemed to be no output from the booster coil despite it buzzing away merrily. Investigation slowly narrowed things down and it was found that while the primary coil was doing its job, the secondary coil had failed. A replacement was fitted from our stock and once the undercarriage issue is sorted we will be able to try and test run the engine.

 

Time was taken during the day to have a look at our latest acquisition, a hydraulic servicing rig.

 

10559656_1443855369241653_8991461454741173068_n.jpg?oh=0bc700a761900bdfe0a611d610290120&oe=55C89419

 

As its been stood for some time it was suffering from stale petrol, a seized clutch and a few other issues, but by the end of the day it was turning over freely with good oil pressure. Would it start? No. As often with WR963, a magneto fault of all things...

 

Last but by no means least, some work in the drawing archive, which is slowly coming back into some kind of order due to the efforts of SPT team member Michelle Mclaughlin. We had to dig out some more drawings for use in a certain plastic model project, and these will be dispatched shortly. When looking through the manifest, once again we were reminded how much Avro DNA is within the Shackleton.

 

11052026_1666640616897691_7775268707309944675_n.jpg?oh=9a80f8c3f57ed2e85b9a2815b139bae1&oe=56008E9A&__gda__=1442985110_fa15b1f622054b9ed948225bce554efb

 

All in all a fairly productive day, and we'll be back on the 30th.

 

Regards,

Rich

 

(Photos courtesy of Mark Ward, Michelle Mclaughlin and Phil Woods)

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