A misty start greeted our lower in number than usual volunteers on Saturday…

Although we were a bit short handed, a number of important jobs were carried out by the attending volunteers…

The first job of the day was to extend the airbrakes to allow investigation into a fuel leak on the number 2 engine which was discovered during the week.

Whilst Anne-Marie was at the pan on Wednesday, she was in position to notice this leak and her quick thinking to shut the LP cock was enough to curb the leak.

A quick follow up investigation later on Wednesday proved that the leak was in fact coming from further forward in the aircraft than originally thought – initial thoughts were the engine bay or bomb bay fuel pipes.

The airbrakes were extended to allow access to the panel above the port lower airbrake that allows access to the pipework above.  Once this panel was off, the number 2 LP cock was opened.  It was then observed that fuel was leaking from the outlet joint of the LP cock itself.  The LP cock was then closed again and the fuel allowed to drain down through the leak.  The measures that had been put in place to absorb the spillage were removed and cleaned up.  At the same time, it was deemed a good idea to replace the airbrake seals on the lower elements as they were particularly worn and not recovering as they should.

A couple of pre-booked visits took place and there were a number of casual visitors who were all dealt with by Mike and Len whilst the much reduced number of volunteers carried on with some outstanding work.  Derek and Fred continued the painting of the starboard topside of the aircraft until it became too hot to continue as the paint was going off too quickly.

An initial investigation into the reason why the starboard 115v transformer wasn’t auto coupling when the alternator bus is failed from the synchronous bus was undertaken.  At first this appeared to be a problem with the torque switch but it now appears to be a failure of a mag switch mounted on top of the panel 28P.  This has been left until more volunteers are on hand to focus on this.

During the afternoon the pump removed from one of the risers was further disassembled and the pump seal was found to have gone hard and needs to be replaced.  The pump itself will now be cleaned up and rebuilt along with the main hydraulic ram to ensure the safe and proper operation of the equipment.