Lots of excitement at Wellesbourne today, on a beautifully sunny day for a change. In the morning we hosted a visit from the Faringdon U3A Photographic Group, who naturally took lots of pictures of XM655 while we only took this one of them.
All posts by Eric Ranshaw
16th April 2016
Four seasons in one day at Wellesbourne today, ranging from wet snow this morning to glorious sunshine early afternoon to showers later.
After problems with the hydraulic rig last week delaying our steering checks, we moved the aircraft forward far enough to be able to run the No.2 engine, and successfully tested the steering with the on-board hydraulics. We now have a very small adjustment to make, but the system was shown to be working well.
9th April 2016
Another busy day at Wellesbourne today. Lots of progress on the No.1 fuel tanks, which are now both open at top and bottom, so they will be well vented ready for removal next week. The Nav. Radar’s seat has been painted and is now ready for assembly and re-installation, and the electrics have been disconnected from the Nav. Plotter’s seat in preparation for removal.
2nd April 2016
The weather at the Wellesbourne pan today started cold and wet, which was nothing like the forecast. However, it dried up by mid-morning, and by the afternoon it was very pleasant indeed. We had a great day with lots of progress on a number of projects.
26th March 2016
The nice spring weather didn’t last very long ~ it was pretty miserable at Wellesbourne today. However, it didn’t seem to put off our visitors. We had a large party from the RBL Bikers in the morning, and several small groups and casual visitors in the afternoon, which kept most of our volunteers busy all day. Many thanks to Mike Pollitt for hosting lots of cockpit visits.
19th March 2016
Today, the 655MapS team successfully carried out our Spring EGR. We discovered a couple of small problems which we will need to fix before Wellesbourne Wings and Wheels on 19th June, but overall things went very well and a number of previous defects can now be marked as “closed”.
12th March 2016
Much better weather than the last several weeks made Wellesbourne today feel as if Spring might finally have arrived. We had lots of visitors, including a large party organised by Neil Grant in the morning and several smaller groups in the afternoon.
5th March 2016
Much better weather today ~ not exactly warm but the wind had moved round to the north and was a lot less biting. Lots of EGR preparation work completed on PFCU and hydraulic system oil levels, and one leaky tyre removed and refitted, but the main items to report are the installation of the refurbished AEO seat in the cockpit, and repair of the starter on the Douglas tug.
The work on wheels and tyres provided an excellent training opportunity for a small detachment of cadets from 150 (City of Oxford) Sqn ATC, who were with us today.
27th Febuary 2016
The biting east wind made it another bitterly cold day for the volunteers at Wellesbourne today, and they didn’t have any time to escape it, because after the Triumph Trophy Group visit in the morning (see below), we had fourteen members of the Volvo Tuning Network with their cars this afternoon.
