A very busy weekend indeed this weekend prepping the pan and XM655 for her Members Day.  In fact, some of our volunteers were even there on Friday!

The day started early with the completion of the fuse checks started the previous week, cleaning of the aircraft and swapping the aircraft battery before removing all of the bird stoppers.  Work started on the putting up of various tents ready to greet our members including a “marquee” set up where the talks and presentations would take place.

At mid-day, the towing arm was attached to the aircraft and she was towed forward from her pan and positioned on the taxiway and prepped for an EGR – blanks removed and engine intake inspections undertaken.

The engines were started and ran with only a few small niggles – problems with the alternator on number 4 engine and the engine start switch for number 2 sticking down.  The engine start panel was removed, checked and cleaned and with no problem identified it was reinstalled in the aircraft.  On testing it was reported that it was still sticking so the panel was again removed and a temporary “Local Mod” was applied – string around the button so it could be pulled manually!. A check of the oil level in the No.4 alternator CSDU (Constant speed drive unit) was carried out, and it was found to be low and was topped up before the second set of runs, unfortunately this did not resolve the non-appearance of electricity from the alternator, so, a further round of fuse checks was undertaken to try and resolve the failure. As no further engine run was scheduled for the day, the status would be checked on the Sunday.

Once the tents were in place and things were more or less ready the aircraft had her main blanks refitted and was put to bed ready for her big day.

Pictures courtesy of Helen, Isi, James and Roger.