My Flying Control Jeep - The Ongoing Story

[Jessie The Jeep]

Yorkshire MVT Crank Up - April 15th

The season begins! Because it was the first big run out for "Jessie" since all the ignition work, I decided against travelling on my own to Tadcaster for the big convoy to the Castle, and instead decided to meet up with some friends near Croft and travel with them.

It was an early start, leaving Washington at 07:40hrs to meet up with the rest of the northern contingent a little before 9am. Two vehicles joined me there and we then continued south to Northallerton where our despatch rider joined our little convoy. Because I had a Sat-Nav, they stuck me at the front of our little convoy, so my dashcam didn't get much to look at.

We made good progress, maintaining a fairly steady 45mph, and getting to the castle about 10:15. Some vehicles had already arrived, but the Tadcaster convoy didn't get there until nearer 11am.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Once everyone arrived, there were around sixty vehicles parked up including two motorbikes and two folding para-bikes. It had been a misty start to the day, but got out quite bright at times and wasn't cold.

People started drifting away from mid afternoon, and with a long drive ahead of us, me in particular, we set off North around 3pm. I got home about 5:15pm using just under a full tank of fuel on the 160 mile round trip.

Further pictures can be found here - http://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2018/crankup.htm

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Breighton Aerodrome Radial Engine Fly-In - May 6th

The Breighton Radial Fly-In was my first camping trip of 2018. Unusually for a bank holiday, the forecast was for hot and dry weather. I made the three hour trip down to Breighton on Saturday 5th, with the Jeep doors off. I set up camp near one of the old wartime technical site huts. There were a number of people already flying, enjoying the beautiful weather. As the evening drew on, and the sun went down, I took the opportunity to get some pictures of the Jeep around the airfield.

On Sunday morning, I helped the guys get the collection aircraft out onto the flight line. Here's four of the Real Aero collection, two Bucker Jungmanns, a Bucker Jungmeister and the Ryan PT-22 Recruit that I flew two years ago.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Most of the rest of the collection were lined up outside the hangars. A few aircraft were undergoing maintenance, such as the Broussard, Arrow Active 2 and Yak18a, and they were left inside. Once the aircraft were all on display, I brought my Jeep around to its usual spot by the tower. In addition to the aircraft, the Bristol Hercules and Rolls Royce Merlin aircraft engines were there and made a number of runs across the day.

I took around 800 photographs across the weekend, thinned down to around 600, and obviously can't show them all, so for a number of aircraft, I made some compilations to get more images into a single picture. Here's a couple of the more unusual radial engined aircraft that were visiting Breighton for the day.

Focke-Wulf Fw 44 Stieglitz

Morane-Saulnier MS.317

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

On Monday morning, I got the chance to fly in Charles' Auster J/1N again. The last time I had a flight in this aircraft was in 2011, but it's only recently returned to the air after maintenance which was spread over 18 months.

Monday was another scorching hot day, hot even before 9am. I packed up the tent first thing, had the Auster flight late morning, then had lunch. I left the airfield a little after 2pm.

On the way home, the Jeep started to occasionally mis-fire. By the time I was much closer to home, it was coughing and spluttering and eventually lost all power and stopped about 20 miles from home. 

I had a bit of a fiddle and component swap to get it going, but was really too tired from the heat to be bothered. Lynne came to meet me with the normal car and took the Jeep trailer home using a 50mm ball adapter I made for the ring hitch.

The RAC turned up convinced he could fix it, although he said a big "Oh!" when I asked him what 24 volt components he had with him. He wasted way too much time trying and eventually gave up and put the Jeep on the towing dolly. My trip home was over 7 hours in total - which could have been shorter if the RAC had just hooked the Jeep up from the start. It appears that the ballast resistor burned out ( he never checked that ). The following day, I fitted a spare, and the Jeep started up and ran perfectly.

Since it was so hot going home, I'm wondering whether the heat and the high voltage for three hours put too much strain on it. I've since messed around further with the voltage regulator to get the volts lower through the system. I also fitted a second ballast resistor to the firewall. This isn't connected, but allows a quick terminal swap should it happen again.

Further pictures can be found here - Radial Engine Fly-In

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[david1212]

Given the temperature the resistance wire will melt at I doubt a 10degC rise ambient temperature would have been significant.

The combination of higher voltage plus the running time is far more likely.

As to the RAC I wonder how often they deal with vehicles with traditional ignition and so don't think to check for what were once common failures.

[gordonb]

I recently asked an AA man what they carried in the way of traditional ignition parts and the answer was none. He, an older chap, said none of the newer patrolmen would know what to do with them anyway.

 

[Jessie The Jeep]

To be fair, he was old school, with a classic car of his own. He had a 12 volt coil and spare condensor, but as he couldn't get my Jeep to run with them, couldn't be sure if they were working properly!

[Jessie The Jeep]

I trailered the Jeep to the Yorkshire Air Museum over the weekend just gone, for their "Against the Odds" 1940's RAF Station weekend. I hadn't had enough time to mess around with the Jeep to trust it on a long drive. It was a great weekend with the museum's Handley-Page Halifax, "Friday 13th" outdoors for a rare appearance in the sun.

I took loads of photos, all shot in RAW format, so it will be a little while processing before I can add a report. Two other amazing opportunities presented themselves while there too, but more of that in the full report to follow. Hot on the heals of the YAM event is "Blyth Battery Goes to War" next weekend, then East Kirkby's "Lanc, Tank and Military Machines" the weekend after! A very busy May.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Yesterday I had a little time to do some test driving of the Jeep.

Apart from the burned out ballast resistor, I think the main problem with the ignition has been the 24 volt ignition coil. I did a three mile test drive on the original coil which was ok to start with, but then the engine started missing slightly about half way through the trip. It was also very hot when I stopped for such a short drive. I swapped to the newly purchased spare coil and went for another four mile drive. So this time the drive was a little further, but similar speeds, and the engine ran well. It also started easier than the old one, even with the voltage has been dropped at the regulator.

I need a longer hot drive to be sure, but didn't want to go far in case Lynne needed to recover the Jeep with the Kuga. If all is well after a longer test, I'll order a second coil as a spare.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Yorkshire Air Museum "Against the Odds" - May 11~13th

This was only the second "Against the Odds" event at Elvington, the museum's replacement for the Yorkshire MVT "Battlegroup North" event. As seen below, it was a rare chance to see the Handley Page Halifax outdoors and get some unique photos.

I trailered the Jeep to Elvington as I hadn't had enough time to check over the ignition problem to be confident of a long trip. I arrived mid afternoon on Friday 11th and set up camp near the control tower. The rest of the day allowed me to get some photos of the Halifax and other museum exhibits without people in the way. 

The Friday evening, after the museum closed and the public left, also gave me the chance to get the Jeep in front of the Halifax for pictures of the pair together for the first time. I took more pictures than I can show here, but having the Halifax outdoors is so rare, I didn't know when the next opportunity would be.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

By Saturday morning all the re-enactor and vehicle displays had arrived and were set up ready. They included a few civilian cars, a few other military vehicles, bomb disposal, airborne troops and dancers. I've combined a number of pictures on this page to try and show as much as possible without the pictures getting out of hand.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

On Saturday afternoon, we had a flypast by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. I only had my 18~55mm lens with me so no close up flying pictures.

While wandering around on Sunday morning, by chance, I happened to be at the right place at the right time to be invited for a look around the inside of the Yorkshire Air Museum Halifax. The aircraft is a recreation, based on an original Halifax fuselage with a Hastings wing, and is known as "Friday 13th". The Hastings was a transport aircraft developed from the Halifax.

Later in he morning, I also managed a look around the HP Victor. The Victor, despite being a huge aircraft, has a very small crew space. Unlike its stable mate the Vulcan, who's crew compartment is split into two levels, the Victor is all one deck and is very crowded. There's nowhere you can stand upright and little space to move around. Many thanks to Andre Tempest and the Victor crew for the opportunity.

Further event pictures can be found here - http://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2018/elvington.htm

More Halifax and Victor internal pictures can be seen here - http://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2018/elv_walk.htm

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Last night, I clocked up a 21 mile test drive around Washington, checking out the new Jeep ignition coil. The short drive the other day suggested the old coil was the problem, but I wanted a longer test at higher speeds to put more heat into the new coil. Other than the idle being higher now, all went well, with the engine performing without any problems. I gave the idle stop screw a quarter turn at the end of the trip and put the Jeep away again. I hope now that the ignition problems from the start of May are solved. Since getting the Jeep in April 2005, I've clocked up 14.700 miles, mostly trouble free.

I did another 4.5 miles tonight to fill up the tank for the weekend at Blyth Battery. I plan to take the Jeep on Saturday and the Dodge on Sunday.

[Enigma]

Ignition problems can get very tricky at times. Hope its sorted now so you can enjoy it to the fullest.

[Jessie The Jeep]

Blyth Battery Goes to War - May 19/20th

My main report for this event will be posted in my Dodge thread shortly ( see here - Flying Control Dodge Thread ), its first event of 2018. However I took the M201 Jeep for day one, to give the coil a longer test while still remaining fairly local in case of trouble. The 40 mile round trip was without any problems. Here's the Jeep parked up near the WW2 ranging tower for the battery which was celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

"Lanc, Tank & Military Machines" East Kirkby - May 26 & 28th

This was my second visit to East Kirkby, but my first to this event. My last trip there was four years ago for the three Lancasters event. The forecast was for good weather, despite a five and a half hour trip there through heavy rain! On the first day there was a thin overcast and a stiff breeze which pulled the temperature down, but the sun still burned without realising.

"Jessie" was parked up in a nice spot in front of the tower, and not having any display to watch over, allowed me to wander freely and see all that was going on. Lancaster "Just Jane" made several taxi runs across the day, and the Battle of Britain Flight sent a Spitfire to give a few flypasts. In addition to "Jessie", there were a good number of other RAF vehicles on show around the site.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

In addition to Lancaster "Just Jane", the resident C-47 Skytrain was out on the airfield too. The recently arrived Mosquito, formerly at Elvington, was in the hangar, minus its engines. At one point during the day, a number of RAF vehicles and re-enactors set up in front of the Lancaster for a photoshoot.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

There were a large variety of military vehicles on show, mainly World War 2 era, but there were several more modern vehicles there too. There were three "tanks" there too, two M24 Chaffees and an M36 Jackson tank destroyer. 

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight only gave a Spitfire flypast on Saturday, but returned in strength on Monday for a full display by the Lanc, Hurricane and a different Spitfire. The sky was quite hazy and didn't make for good photographs. The BBMF, even after so many years on the display circuit, seem incapable of showing the top side of their aircraft. The only exceptions are at the far side of an orbit at some distance in front of the crowd, or during a roll, when the top is in shadow. I got one topside of the trio at some distance away in the haze.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Around fifteen minutes after the BBMF display on Monday, B-17 Preservation brought B-17 "Sally B" over the field for their ten minute display. The sky quality appeared to improve for the B-17, and the display quality was far better too. B-17 Preservation pilots have always shown "Sally B" from all angles, and don't need to pull high G manoeuvres to do it. I just happened to pick three topside views here as I really like the faded patchwork paint.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Monday was a bit more calm and had clearer sky, giving good light for pictures. The tank battle from Saturday was repeated again, and using video to capture the action, I was then able to use one of my astronomy programs to split the video into single frames of the Jackson firing, catching the muzzle flash. 

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[Jessie The Jeep]

Lancaster "Just Jane" moved around the airfield several times each day, giving plenty of opportunities for photographs.

However, it was during an early morning toilet trip with my daughter that we saw the Lanc being towed out of the hangar. After waiting to see if the Lanc was left on the hardstand rather than the grass, we rushed back to the tent, and brought "Jessie" over for a quick photoshoot. That made the third Lanc photoshoot with "Jessie"; the other two being the Canadian and BBMF Lancs.

It was a very enjoyable show, despite being struck down with man-flu on Saturday evening, which left me coughing my lungs up and other chunks for the rest of the weekend. In addition to the flying and vehicles, there were 1940's performers and dancing in the hangar and the museum itself to see. Put it in your diary for next year, you won't be disappointed.

Further pictures can be found here - http://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2018/lanctank.htm

Edited October 20, 2020 by Jessie The Jeep

[john1950]

Thank you for a great report.

[Enigma]

Stunning photographs. The haziness adds a bit of atmosphere to the photo's. I love the muzzleflashes on the jackson.