Happy New Year to you all, and Good Luck for 2014

It has been a quiet time since my last post, nearly seven months ago, time really does fly.

We have had some ups and downs, but came out the other side, onward and upward they say.

I have been waiting for some items to sell before I can afford a couple of things I have been offered, but the bargain of the year so far has to be the new A.O.A indicator I purchased from a company in FLORIDA!

BPB Surplus had it on their website, and dad found it, sent them an email for a price, and hey £18.50 for the item, £15.23 post, and six days later, it arrived fantastic!

Lots of things to be getting on with, so as they say, watch this space! See you soon         

                                   

                                   LUCY’S FIRST AIRSHOW

The day came, after a long and hard two and a half years, we finally got to take Lucy to her first show, and what a day.

Having met up with Simon Pulford of Air Pulford and his Tornado F3 simulator, we set up side by side on the grade I listed apron outside of the iconic Speke airport, now the fabulous Crowne Plaza hotel at around 09.45, with our first visitors a few minutes later.

We had lots of great feedback and comments which made it all worthwhile, and hope it won’t be too long before we get to venture out again.

So a big thank you to Simon and also a big thank you to Roy Coates of SAHR, (Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group) who arranged the whole day. 

A.O.A

Spring is here, and lots of thing to do…….not, what a joke with all this snow!

We couldn't even get “Lucy” out for a spring clean and wash… until today.

A great chap has been keeping his eye out for a A.O.A probe, and the postie arrived bright and early with a package enclosing said item. That then covers all external instruments….pitot x 2 and now the probe…fantastic.

Hopefully our first show is at the end of June at the old Speke airport for their eightieth birthday celebrations, so watch this space!!!!

Thanks for viewing

More to follow soon

 

Glare Shield...

Its been a while since I have updated this… due to the fact that the cockpit’s progress is almost near completion.

Having acquired a correct compass and cockpit clock, the glare shield needed to be sorted, having searched high and low for a genuine glare shield; fabrication was the next best thing until we can source a genuine part.

Funny foam and 0.5 sheet metal were glued together, and with a bit of jiggery pokery, hey presto

Not bad for a first attempt if I say so myself. (Comments gladly received J)

So for now I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, till then all the very best…………..

Trailer

As you may be aware to get the cockpit out anywhere you need some sort of trailer… trying to find the correct one is another mission in its self!

We first started off looking at boat trailers, and the shape and size of them are of that near the cockpit. But with the prices of them being that nearly four figures it soon came apparent that there must be a cheaper and simpler way.

So here we go… a Caravan chassis!

Caravan chassis are the same shape as a boat trailer and also nearly the same shape as the cockpit. Caravan chassis come with the huge wooden and polystyrene floor still in place. Getting rid of that was a big task in its self. Then we had to shorten the trailer. We cut off around 4ft off the back of it and used the off cuts to create a back support to hold the shape and also the light board in place.

Once the shape was there then the work of making it from a old unloved Caravan chassis from a breakers to a trailer worthy of towing a Harrier cockpit around began. We sanded down the trailer and decided to paint it white, and paint the axel, hubs and wheels black, along with sheets of marine ply painted in a rosewood varnish. The ‘A’ frame at the front is topped with checker plate and we just tidied up the towing hitch with a new coat of paint. 

Tag Heuer Cockpit Stopwatch

One of the final things left to fill the cockpit spaces was a Tag Heuer Stopwatch. After researching them on the internet it soon hit us that it would be near impossible to obtain one after seeing them sell for between £500-£2000!

So once again we thought… it can’t be that hard to make! So we purchased some of the parts from Portugal and including postage it came to a grand total of…………… £20! Talk about bargain of the century!

Although the hands need to be remade as they are there temporary, they don’t really look that out of place. 

Panels Fitted...

The four panels that we've made have now been fitted, and that fills all of the 'major' gaps and holes that were missing panels. For homemade replicas, they don't look too bad i think!...