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My Former WC51 "Flying Control Dodge" - A New Chapter


Jessie The Jeep

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For some time, when I've been away on my own with one of the vehicles, I've camped in a little 3 second pop-up tent, on the front of which I've made a small cooking shelter from a fly sheet. This was usually covered with a large camo net. It worked well, though I did have to do quite a bit of crawling around!

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There are plenty of reproduction canvas military tents available, usually for several hundred pounds, which I wasn't prepared to pay for very occasional use. However, last year, a local Girl Guides unit was disposing of some canvas tents, and we got this white first aid tent rather cheap. There was nothing wrong with the tent, other than colour, but we were told by a friend, that shed/fence paint was really good for staining canvas.

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It was a nice day today, so after a trip to B&Q for some paint, we took the opportunity to put up the tent for the first time and to get it painted. Best of all, my pop-up tent fits inside it, so I can have a nice warm tent to sleep in, with a built in ground sheet to keep dry. There is enough space left at the front of the ridge tent for my cooker and cool box, so I no longer have to grovel on the floor to cook and eat, and from the outside, the tent fits in with other military tents.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This was the first event of the year that I got to; after the electronic ignition failed on the Jeep on the way to the Crank up in York. However, even this trip wasn't without trouble. It was the first time for the Dodge towing the trailer after recently fitting the trailer socket and swapping the trailer bulbs for 6 volt.

The journey to Elvington is about 90 miles, and it was an uneventful trip. I was to display inside the museum grounds, but the gate was blocked, so parked up and switched off the engine to wait. When I came to restart, the engine wouldn't fire. I was getting no spark, so fitted a new replacement condenser. This time the engine did fire, but coughed, banged and spluttered and then died. I fitted yet another new condenser, and this time all was well! I think my vehicle electrics have something against Yorkshire!

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The memorial at the Yorkshire Air Museum, to the RAF and Commonwealth personnel who served in WW2.

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There were heavy showers all weekend, but on Friday evening, there was Sun and great light for photos. Despite the rain showers, it was more dry than wet, and there were a good number of public there, though it was difficult to tell on such a big site. The trip home was also uneventful, but of course, my electrics knew I was heading away from Yorkshire!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Compared to Elvington the week before, Blyth was at the other end of the scale with the weather. Gentle off shore breeze, and temperatures in the very high twenties. There were a good number of displays with English, German and American vehicles and re-enactors, a battle on the beach and the displays within the gun battery itself.

The only down side of this show is a mini wind turbine which sounded like a helicopter all night, preventing me from getting much sleep! With such a sunny weekend, there were hundreds of people at the sea front seeing what was going on.

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For a while now, small rust spots have been appearing through the paintwork, and it was time to deal with it. I think the long term goal will be to strip the paint from all the bodywork, grind out any rust spots and then repaint. This will probably have to be done over the next couple of years, panel by panel. Just after Blyth, I began some work.

There were a couple of bad areas on the hood, and also on the rear body. These areas would be looked at first. The left side hood top was completely stripped to bare metal, while the right side just had the serious rust spots taken back to metal. The hood was then primed while other areas were looked at.

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The rear body on both sides were also showing rusted areas, the right worse than the left. On the right, the outer skin had rusted through, though the angle behind was solid. On the left side, it was just surface rust. The rusted areas were ground out and the underlying metal cleaned as best as possible, The sharp edges were hammered inwards and it was then primed. By this time the hood was ready for the olive drab top coat.

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The rotten areas of the rear body were then filled with car body filler. This is just a temporary repair to this area. In time, it will need the metal cut out and new material welded in. While the filler cured, the hood received its white base coat for the checkers. All painting was done with a small roller.

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When the white was dry, the checkers were marked out in pencil and then the edges painted first, then the rest of the black was then filled in. The white is a bit bright at present, but once fully hardened, the paint work can be wiped over with a dirty rag to dull it down.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've had a few hot start problems on the Dodge, which first showed itself the middle of last year. On the way home from the Great North Fly In this weekend, the engine was intermittently missing and loosing power briefly, so I decided to investigate further.

At Blyth, I replaced the points, so they were gapped ok, and I checked the plugs for colour and gap. I fitted a new condenser and also a new coil and king lead. The coil has been on since I got the truck, and when purchased, was mounted on its side, so may not have been cooling properly. I also stripped the carburettor and checked for dirt.

After the work, the Dodge started much better than it ever has. Usually, it would turn over a few times, and often fire as I took my foot off the starter and the current went to the coil. This time, it fired within one turn. A four mile test drive was ok, so although I haven't had the opportunity to try a start after a long hot run, I'm hoping it will be fine.

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I also spotted the insulation on the positive terminal of the dizzy was wearing a bit thin, so added a little insulation tape around here to be sure.

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It was a nice warm sunny afternoon Friday, June 20th, as we set off for Eshott Airfield for the Great North Fly In. We made the hour trip North through the centre of Newcastle to avoid the fast stretches of the A1(M), and we were set up by late afternoon.

It was soon after that I was offered a local flight in one of the Purple Aviation Eurostars, flown by Charlie, who I'd met at the Breighton Fly In last year. It was fairly calm and thermal activity was falling, so around 19:44hrs, we taxied out for runway 08. After take off, we headed past Acklington Prison and on to Amble. From there over Walkworth Castle and on to Alnwick Castle and the Gardens. We then turned South back towards Eshott, joining the circuit at around 1500 feet, and keeping a close eye on four paragliders circling the airfield.

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Eshott was at one point a Spitfire base, and I believe that one of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Spitfires was based there during the war. Over the weekend, there were 173 visiting aircraft and 657 aircraft movements, making it the busiest event they've had. There were a few military vehicles there and several dozen classic cars.

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Unfortunately the runway in use was well away from where I was parked, so I didn't get many photos of the flying activity. There were a couple of gliders dropped in and were aero-towed out again, one by the tug shown below, and one by a Piper Super Cub that I'd worked on some 25 years before when I worked at Newcastle Airport.

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  • 1 month later...

Croft Nostalgia - August 2/3rd

Thursday July 31st was such a busy day. It started with removing the 12 feet long aircraft box from the flatbed trailer, and getting 'Jessie' loaded before heading off to Croft Circuit. Upon my return, I drove the car to the farm where 'Faith' is kept, and brought the Dodge home. With the Dodge across the bottom of the drive, the GPW and Jeep trailer were pulled out of the garage.

The aircraft box was then winched into the garage and 'Hope' loaded onto the flatbed ready for Friday The now heavy trailer was then winched up to the top of the drive, leaving space for the tow car, now abandoned at the farm! The Jeep trailer was pushed to the top of the other side of the drive, and Dodge reversed up to it and connected, then most of the kit and camping gear were loaded.

When Lynne came home from work, she then drove me to the farm so that I could bring back the tow car for the flatbed trailer. The first couple of pictures show some of the preparation to get to Croft.

On Friday morning, I drove the Dodge, towing the small trailer while Lynne drove the Honda towing the GPW. Chris, who displayed his Dodge with us last year was meant to be joining us, but events conspired to stop him coming on Friday, so the planned display was rearranged with 'Jessie' parked where the Dodge would be.

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Saturday's Display

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This was the first time I'd brought all three vehicles to one event, but in addition I'd set up an engineers display for another friend who would be joining us. There was also the signal square with the Dodge, my dad's navigator's display, and my photo developing and target analysis display. The vehicles and tables, along with the tents, took about three hours to set up in the rain, excluding the items to be displayed which would be set up the following morning.

Engineers Display

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Navigator's Display

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Target Photo Display

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Hope & Jessie

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Chris turned up late afternoon on Saturday with his Dodge and Ben Hur trailer, and after a brief but heavy rain shower, I moved 'Jessie' to the other side of the display and the Dodge was parked up on the right. Chris was going to sleep in his trailer, but ended up in my 351st Sqdn Engineering tent.

Sunday's Display

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At the end of Sunday, when most people had packed up and gone home, I parked up all three vehicles for the photo shoot I'd planned for since April when the GPW became registered. The darker clouds had passed, the Sun came out and the light was perfect for nice bright and colourful photographs.

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It was a huge effort to get all three vehicles there and hope again, and to set up all the other parts of the display, so it is unlikely to happen again. The cost and effort was too much for me virtually on my own. If I had a few more local recruits, then it would be more practical, but at least the fleet were all together once.

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