You can find details and lots of pictures of our Saturday activities on our Facebook page. For those readers who don’t use Facebook, we repeat the text below.
Saturday 1 August 2026
I could save a lot of time here and simply cut and paste last Saturdays report as today has been almost a repeat performance. The weather was perfect again as I am sure you all know but no pre arranged visits. That was more than made up for by the number of drop in visitors so our visits team must have gone home pretty tired as they never seemed to stop all day.
I arrived on site at my usual time around 8am to be greeted from a voice from above…..one of our painters was already set up on top of the port wing making the most of the cool air. It was obviously going to be another hot day and they wanted to make as much progress as possible before it got too warm up there. I think it affects the paint more than the painters but they made great progress as usual which means our paint supplier will be pleased when I contact them on Monday morning!
The facilities guys were also well under way and it wasn’t until later that I realised they too made the most of the cool start by hitching up our trailer and removing the site rubbish before sorting out some of our stores and making yet more space in our storage units. Its difficult to keep up with their progress on site and I am sure its this glorious summer that’s the main contributor.
We had a 9am committee meeting today so some of our maintenance work took a back seat until mid morning but the teams seemed to work in the same groups as last Saturday so by the time the meeting was over work was well underway on the aircraft brakes once more. The team completed the refurb of the slave cylinders on the stbd undercarriage and by late morning they made their way to the other side of the aircraft to repeat the exercise on the port mains. They’ve made good progress from what I can tell and I am confident we’ll be applying brake pressure to test the port system early next Saturday.
We took delivery of 2 batches of Jet A1 (fuel) late morning so the aircraft has sufficient fuel on board to take us through a bit of crew training, and ground runs leading up to and beyond our public event on September 27th. Booking for the event is now live on our website and we’ve already had a good response in this first week. We await the bill for the fuel but in light of recent global events its bound to cost us a bit more. Hence we’re always grateful for your support.
Back on the aircraft we completed the main terminal replacement exercise on our alternators started a few weeks back, so that’s all 4 alternators re-terminated. We should move on to the smaller field terminals next as we have had failures on those from time to time. At least there’s less to replace. But they could be a bit fiddly as they sit under the main terminals but it will give us peace of mind if we replace all the connections….after all the aircraft is over 60 years old now so a bit of husbandry won’t goes amiss.
Finally, I can’t finish without mentioning the tug winch. The ground anchor got fitted today which was no mean feat! I’m amazed at the ingenuity of the volunteer who reattached that anchor, it’s pretty heavy yet with a bit of ingenuity he managed to lift it into position then line up and fit the pivot pins. Next job is to put fresh oil in the winch gearbox. The old oil was drained today and you can probably guess what it looked like…The tug is older than the Vulcan so it would definitely benefit from the oil change.
Well that concludes today’s roundup of events around the pan. Our thanks once more to today’s visitors, we really do appreciate your enthusiasm and generosity, we couldn’t get by without your support which makes our efforts seem worthwhile. We’ll be back for more next weekend, I wonder if we’ll still have the same weather.
Saturday 25th July 2026
Yet another warm and sunny day at Wellesbourne. With 2 pre-booked groups to look forward to, both were Mustang owners and there were plenty of them.
The team had made their usual early start and work was underway by 8am finishing our external bench and tidying up our containers. They’ve made a great difference on both fronts and seem to have created a massive amount of space and I think we may be in with a chance of actually finding stuff in the container in question. The external work bench is looking great too as the team have laid old slabs on the ground around the bench. The whole thing is topped off with a homemade BBQ. There’s no end to their ingenuity and like I said last week I feel I’m on a continental camp site when I walk down that end of the pan.
There was some work going on in support of the a/c. The painters made an early start followed after a few hours with an early finish, its progress whichever you look at it but the painters aren’t happy with all the dust on the wing, nor the chaff from the farmer harvesting his crop! I don’t suppose we’ll be able to wash the wing at present but that’s what it needs.
We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our ground equipment engineer so that we could get a verdict on our failed Houchin from last Saturday. After a few tests he confirmed that this failure had been seen before so in no time at all he was spraying switch cleaner over a dirty microswitch and the Houchin was declared serviceable long before our visitors arrived.
The next task on the agenda was the continuation of the replacement of the terminals on our alternators. We had completed alternators 1&2 last Saturday and today we resolved the No4 in between the visits. We should complete the job next Saturday once we’ve worked on no3.
The other main task was the servicing of the brake units on the stbd main undercarriage and the team were still on the case at 6pm but they seemed to be making good progress…..and their spirits were high! I think this task is mainly about fitting new seals but it entails stripping down the brake units ……after jacking the undercarriage!
The aircraft is generally in great health which means there may not be much to do leading up to our next public event in September. We need to fire up our ground equipment so that should keep us occupied for a while and hopefully I haven’t jinxed things by suggesting things are in good shape.
So in summary, we’ve had a great day again and we’ve enjoyed hosting our visitors. I hope they enjoyed their day as much as we did. Looking forward to next weekend already!
Saturday 18th July 2026
This weather is getting a bit boring now, sunshine, no rain, light winds…..and it looks like more of the same for the next week! So we are able to progress all sorts of jobs at Wellesbourne – brilliant!
We’re a bit down on volunteer numbers at present as many of them are making the most of the weather to do their own stuff. They seem to be spread all around the country and I hope they’re all enjoying themselves.
Those of us that remain on site are keeping ourselves busy and following a bit of a routine these days. The early crew were early once more and they had jobs well under way by the time I arrived on site at 8am. 2 of the team were picking up the last tasks remaining on the AAPP left over from last Saturday. In no time at all they had the external panels refitted and those pipes which exit the AAPP bay through holes in the panels were all installed without problem.
Other early starters on the Facilities team were up on the roof of our containers using a flame torch to install roofing felt over our external bench. Its looking like a continental campsite down there.
The painters were also on site early and with the acquisition of fresh supplies this week they were soon back up on the port wing. A bit later they were also seen working on the cockpit roof. I cant wait to see this weeks pics to see how much progress they made but with less heat and humidity I suspect they had a good day.
The Sentinel winch was also an early ‘work in progress’ with more of the winch components being fitted both topside and underneath. The challenge was going to be fitting 3 spring assemblies which needed to be stretched when fitted. I checked in late in the day and they are all done so they must have found a suitable method. The good news is that there doesn’t need to be any more laying under the winch applying heat or hammering. It just remains for some pneumatic pipes to be connected to the tug to aid operation in service. Its a job well done for sure.
Back on the aircraft the one of the jobs was the re-termination of the cables connected to the alternators on No1 & 2 engines. We managed to complete them both despite having to cut off all the crimped connectors before fitting the new ones with the use of a hydraulic crimping tool. We won’t be able to check the alternators operation until we carry out our next engine runs but I’m confident everything will be fine.
The other aircraft job on today’s agenda was the rectification of a hydraulic leak on the stbd outboard rear brakes. The team were waiting for the AAPP work to complete as they needed to jack the undercarriage and get the wheels off the ground. The AAPP sits over this area so the teams would be sharing the same space.
I heard some cursing late morning and it became clear that the team were struggling to get to the slave cylinders, partly due to corrosion and lack of use as the brakes sit there largely unused for months at a time. The guys managed the strip them down in the end but not before cutting off some retaining pins with a Dremel. I understand we have spares and you might see things better in todays pics. The team managed to reassemble everything and we applied hydraulic pressure to the brakes before the end of the day and, so far so good, no leaks.
The bad news was the in order to get the system up to pressure we had to start our Houchin power set. It seems it doesn’t want to produce 24Volts DC…..There’s a job for next Saturday.
So that pretty much sums up our day. It just remains for me to thank all our visitors. I know many of you were destined to go to RIAT. We can’t compete with that but we try our best and we always enjoy seeing you. We’ll be back again next Saturday, can’t wait.
Saturday 11th July 2026
Another day in the oven!! At least it was cool first thing and the good thing about the Vulcan is the shade it provides under the wing. With a slight breeze its really cooling under the wing. We hate that effect in winter but at this time of year it’s more than welcome.
Those volunteers that came today were mostly on site shortly after 8am. I think we all had the same idea and needless to say the painters were set up early and up on the port wing. They paid the price later and took the opportunity for an early finish. I can’t say I blame them.
The facilities guys were also on the case early…they always are. They soon retreated to their favourite place which seems to be the roof of our containers. They are more resourceful and set up a gazebo up there to protect themselves from the sun. They also had some repairs to do on the electrics as a cable had been accidentally trapped in the locking mechanism of one of our containers recently. It didn’t take long for them to fix it. Their other task which is progressing nicely is our tea bar. My concern is that its looking so good we won’t get anyone on the pan in the winter!
So that takes us to the main task on the aircraft today. We have a few things to do but with the weather forecast to heat up we held back on a few things and focussed on the re installation of our AAPP. With the unit installed in the wing last Saturday it was about connecting all the cables, fuel lines and ensuring anything requiring wire locking was addressed. The team re assembling was not the one that disconnected it a few weeks back so there was plenty of room for a bit of consultancy. However, by around 4pm we were ready to attempt a start, We knew it would take a few attempts as the unit had been drained of fuel. It would take a few attempts to prime the system. Needless to say it did fire up after a few attempts and the good news is that the EGT gauge worked perfectly which was the reason for removal in the first place. The bad news is that the AAPP is there to provide a source of electrical power and that didn’t go quite so well. Actually it didn’t go at all as we had no output. It took bit of head scratching and a spell of looking at the manuals before retracing our steps. The way this aircraft is designed it took a bit of climbing to check terminals located above and behind the stbd undercarriage. Then we spotted our mistake which was a crossed connection. It was quickly resolved and another start proved the alternator was working fine. It was great to see that EGT gauge working once more too. Next week we’ll start on another maintenance task as we intend to replace all the terminals of our alternators. That’ll keep us occupied!
The winch refurb: Our volunteer managed to remove one of the actuators after a bit of a struggle this morning. Although it still took some heat and a bit of percussion I sense it wasn’t the usual battle so at least he never spent the whole day laying on the pan. I think this battle is being more easily won now but it’s taken a lot of effort.
We have an away team at Woodford this weekend at their Wings & Wheels event – They report a good time was had by all on day one, the new merch lines were popular, and lots of people were interested in our work and the partnership we have with the XM603 team at Avro Heritage Museum
Finally I can’t go without thanking our visitors for coming today . There were plenty of you for sure and we thank you for your donations, we couldn’t do it without you.
Saturday 4th July 2026
Another dry and sunny day at Wellesbourne. Although it was overcast first thing it didn’t take long to warm up. The painters arrived early to continue with the port wing but as the wind was blowing I think they remained cool despite the early sunshine.
The building maintenance team were also on site early progressing the build of our new crew room whilst other members of their team took to the roof of our containers applying rust remover to the bad areas. They are talking about replacing one containers roof so they’ll be some welding practice soon for sure but the repair should work out cheaper than replacing the container. I also believe the materials will arrive next week allowing them to put the roof over the outdoor grinding bench.
Work also continued on the Sentinel winch which is looking very nice these days. That tug must have looked great when it was first delivered to the RAF and you get a feel for its appearance now that the refurb is progressing. Most of today’s winch painting took place on the underside of the assy. But I think the heat and hammering has done the trick with all the parts that should move now able to do so with ease. The weather is definitely helping on this task too, particularly as our volunteer has to spend most of his time laying on the pan under the tug.
Work on the aircraft was largely focussed on the refit of AAPP. The team had completed the replacement of the thermocouples last week so we now need to place the unit back into the stbd. Wing. Before we could do that we needed to upgrade our mini hoist. When the team had lowered the AAPP a few weeks back the winch operator was precariously balanced on a chair as the pole between the winch hook and the winding mechanism was a bit short. The team acquired a new longer pole which was then modified to fit. Unfortunately the pole was just a few thou. larger in diameter than the old pole so before we could assemble the winch we had to resort to the use of a file and emery cloth to get the pole to fit. It seemed to take an age but by the end of the morning we were in a position to set the winch up in the AAPP bay and get ready to hoist it into place. Of course nothing is straightforward and it was noticed that the anti vibration mounts of a pressure sensor were perished. There is no way these could be replaced once the AAPP is back in place so a hasty design meeting was called followed by a hunt for suitable parts. A replacement vib. mount was assembled during the lunch hour and fitted straight after lunch. Great teamwork and the lift took place soon afterwards.
Needless to say our frustration never really goes away and the gremlins decided to focus on the AAPP mounting points. There are 3 of them and you have to raise the AAPP to the roof of the bay an then line up 2 bolts and a pip pin to secure the AAPP before detaching and removing the winch. The good news the winch operator was no longer sat precariously whilst winching, the bad news was that having hauled up the winch it took an age to align the AAPP attachment points. Needless to say the team won in the end but it took a number of breaks and a variety of tools and initiatives before we got there.
You might think that having finally got the AAPP fixed in the aircraft this might be a good time to stop but our volunteers are quite inquisitive and someone had mentioned that the cartridge start attachments were possibly stuck and possibly corroded in their mounts. Well they couldn’t resist checking the 2 cartridge assemblies out. They were stuck but with a bit of gentle persuasion they were removed and the 2 fired cartridges were successfully removed. Its been mildly frustrating day but the AAPP is fitted, the winch has worked and the old start cartridges have been taken out. Next Saturday will see the fuel pipes and electrical connections refitted and then we’ll fire up the AAPP to check out then original fault which was the failure of the EGT gauge.
So that ends another full day at the Vulcan. No pre arranged visits today but plenty of drop ins so our visits team were kept fully occupied. Thanks to our visitors for coming, its always good to see you.
Now it’s time to look forward to next Saturday, where we have an away team taking a stall up to the Avro Heritage Museum for the weekend, joining in with their Wings and Wheels event! (If they manage to fit all the goodies into the car!)
More sunshine for us and them, I hope.
Saturday 27th June 2026
Thankfully it was a bit cooler today but not by much.
It was refreshing to be under the wing with a nice breeze to keep you cool, but venture into the storage containers and it was a different story! However, there was a lot going on despite the heat and today’s summary will definitely end on a positive note.
There were no booked visits and I don’t think the Houchin was fired up all day, However we had plenty of ‘drop ins’ and our visits team seemed fully occupied. I bet the cockpit was hot though despite our best efforts with an aircon unit fitted below the P1/P2 floor.
Our early starters were on site around 7am largely to get ahead of the heat build up on the pan. The team included the painters. They made an early start last week but got caught out by the rain. There was definitely no rain today and with a delivery of fresh paint they could have made good progress.
Those of you who are members may well have seen the latest issue of our newsletter. If so you might have seen the pic with the crow on the cockpit roof. Some of our volunteers weren’t happy with the state of the paintwork so they set up some steps to access the windscreen area only to find corrosion on the wiper arms and deterioration of the wiper blades. That occupied a bunch of people removing the arms then removing the corrosion before filling the affected areas. The arms seem re-usable but there’ll be some searching for replacement blades next week.
The next job was to be the wirelocking of the couplings disturbed during the recent refuel valve refurb. If you remember the stbd wing was pretty much completed last Saturday but our willing volunteer wasn’t with us today so the task was passed to a new team. I’m pleased to report that the job was finished today so that’s definitely a big win.
It won’t surprise anyone to learn that there was more heat and hammering be applied to the tug winch. It seems that some parts were victims of water ingress over many years so needless to say they are virtually welded together. Unfortunately everything needs to move freely so there’s been a massive amount of heat applied to the corroded components. I’m sure something will give soon but its been a full day of hammering and banging. Something’s got to give soon!
The AAPP has received a lot of attention today with the installation of the new thermocouples following the manufacture of thread adaptors. The thermocouples were all installed then the cables were fed through a conduit before being cut to length, stripped and installed into a terminal block on the front firewall. Each thermo couple was then heated up with a blowtorch with the outputs successfully tested on a meter. Its all looking good so we may be on for an AAPP install next weekend.
Talking of the AAPP installation, some of our volunteers have been modifying the winch used to remove the AAPP a few weeks back. I hadn’t realised that the winch poles were a bit on the short side. This made it difficult for the winch operator to find a comfortable position to work. They’ve made a new longer pole this week which was no mean feat. It never ceases to amaze me when it comes to the ingenuity of our volunteers and I can’t wait to see the winch in action,
One other piece of ingenuity today concerned a sealed component in our refuelling power supply. It has a sealed vibrator which I guess would have been swapped ‘in the day’. We don’t have that luxury any more so the vibrator was cut open with a Dremmel exposing the corroded contacts. These were thoroughly cleaned and after a few frustrating attempts the vibrator worked once more. I think we were all surprised but this has generated an extra ‘spare’. Great stuff !!
So another successful and satisfying day at Wellesbourne. I hope all our visitors left happy, we did!
Back for more next Saturday. Can’t wait.
Saturday 20th June 2026
One pre booked visit today – Today’s group was Douglas motorcycles who brought some very nice machines with them, some of which I guess could be called ‘vintage.’ They looked in great condition!
Their 13.30 arrival gave us plenty of time to work on site which, as usual, started long before I arrived at around 8am. The usual suspects were busy on site and getting stuck into our facilities modifications. They had set up a couple of gazebos in expectation of working on the roof parts of our external bench but they were thwarted by a lack of stores which would have enabled them to felt the roof today. Undaunted they then set to on the roof of our No3 container which is a bit rusty and has holes in it. They had mixed fortunes up there as we had a spell of unexpected rain first thing. Luckily there’s plenty for them to do and the next time I looked they were working on our ‘tea bar.’ At least it was drier than their other options. Despite the changeable weather I think they managed to apply rust inhibitor to the roof of our container before the end of the day but the roof of the outside bench will have to wait a while longer.
On the aircraft, one of our painters came in early to make an early start on the port wing. Unfortunately he was also a victim of the early rain showers. At least the weather improved as the day progressed and by COP he was asking me if I would acquire some more paint for next weekend. He did look warm as the day heated up!
Other volunteers were completing jobs that had largely been wrapped up last weekend. The refuel valves have all been refurbished but the larger fuel coupling nuts need to be wire locked. With 14 tanks that’s a lot of wire locking but our willing volunteer managed to complete both of our No2 tanks, No4 tanks and Nos 3,5,& 6 tanks on the stbd side. That sounds like a good day’s work to me.
Another team was completing the installation of our replacement fire bottles in the port wing. Needless to say this also involved wire locking with next to no access to the fasteners where they are installed. They were on this job for most of the day and it was finished around 5pm so fair play for their perseverance. The other job in support of the fire extinguishers replacement was the refit of a wing panel which had been removed for inspection purposes after the fire bottles were accidentally discharged. Unfortunately this is a panel which is held in place by at least 100 rivets. The panel was cleaned, painted and re re riveted before we left. Another great job.
It goes without saying that the winch job on our tug was going on in the background. Re assembly is definitely well under way and the parts are looking as though they are aligned now. There are some new bolts to be acquired and the ground anchor is yet to be re attached but its great to see bearings and other component parts looking like new. Its definitely a job that was well overdue but the volunteer involved is clearly doing it justice.
Work continued on the AAPP EGT fault and new thermocouples have been sourced. The guys are working on adaptors to fit the new metric thermocouple fittings into an aircraft which was manufactured in imperial measurements. I’m confident the team will have a solution shortly and the AAPP will be refitted v.soon.
We received some lovely new merch in the shop too – see if you can spot the subtly placed shiny new water bottles in the pics(!) We’re hoping to get them on the webstore this week or you can get one at Wellesbourne next Saturday for just £10 – bargain!
So that just leaves me to thank our visitors for coming to see us today. We had loads of ‘drop in’ visitors as well as our pre arranged group. I hope the guides’ enthusiasm was felt by you all and you enjoyed your time with us. We’ll be back next Saturday for more fun, feel free to pop along. We’d love to see you.
Saturday 13th June 2026
After a wet and blustery week we had a glorious day at Wellesbourne today, with cloud clearing by mid-morning to reveal warm sunshine which lasted for the rest of the day.
Today was what we call an Engineering Day with no booked visits so the engineering crew had unrestricted access to the aircraft. The main task was to remove the AAPP so that we could investigate the failure to indicate jet pipe temperature. Over the last few weeks we have checked everything we could access with the unit in the airframe and haven’t found the fault, so the only remaining option was removal. Much of the disconnecting was done last week, so it only took a couple of hours to lower the unit into our makeshift stand.
Once the covers were removed for access, a very quick test revealed that all four thermocouples had failed. The way the circuit is configured, it is quite possible that three have been defective for some time, and it only became apparent when the last one failed. With considerable use of a blow torch to persuade the nuts to loosen, and some swearing at inaccessible cable clips, we were able to remove the complete thermocouple harness. The task now will be to find suitable replacement thermocouples to allow us to make up a replacement harness.
The final refuelling valve, which had been refurbished last week, was reinstalled in no.4 port tank, and at the end of the afternoon we moved 500 lbs of fuel into the tank and confirmed we had no leaks. That has been an ongoing project for some time and at long last we have all fourteen valves finished, so hopefully we will no longer have fuel migrating from tank to tank.
More progress was also made on the Sentinel winch overhaul with cleaning and painting of some of the winch cable guides and attention to the bearings.
No work today on our kitchen cum crew room which is waiting for materials, but we were able to get the timber sheeting cut for the roof over our outdoor welding and grinding area, so as soon as the water proofing material arrives that can be installed and completed.
Despite no booked visits we still had a steady stream of drop-in visitors, so our guide was kept busy all day. We hope everyone who came enjoyed their visit. We certainly had a great day and we’ll be back to do it all again next Saturday. Maybe you’ll come along and say hello.
Saturday 6th June 2026
D Day! No commemorations here though although the veterans were in our thoughts.
The weather has certainly changed from last week with a strong, cool breeze and plenty of showers. I think that may be reminiscent of 1944!
Our early starters were on parade at dawn again with much of the equipment set up by 8am. They had made a start on removing the access panels to our AAPP so that we could continue with the diagnosis of its engine temp. gauge. That hasn’t worked for a month or 2 but our focus was on the leaks in the rapid start system which was an essential ingredient of our public event a couple of weeks back. We now have a few months in the Summer to focus on other jobs before turning our attention back to our public event preparation in September. The team had checked out the thermocouples on our spare AAPP late last Saturday so this morning was about rechecking our previous diagnostic tests before confirming that the fault lies inside our AAPP. Unfortunately this means the AAPP has to be removed in order to access the cabling inside the AAPP case. We’ve completed the removal prep today and I suspect that next Saturday the unit will be in a frame on the deck, covers removed and volunteers scratching their heads to source replacement parts. I know they already have some ideas but more about that in future bulletins once the AAPP has been pulled apart.
Another of our volunteers volunteered again and offered to remove the last of our tank refuel valves for refurbishment….but not before we had a chance to ensure the tank had been pumped ‘dry’. Well, almost dry! The valve was removed by mid afternoon and following plenty of practice the job went as smoothly as it could have done so by close of play the valve had been refurbed and tested and was back in position. The final fit will take place next Saturday when we should be able to tick that project off the list.
Needless to say we had our usual share of visitors with 2 groups visiting both morning and afternoon. The morning group was from Friends of the Tank Museum who seemed a knowledgeable and enthusiastic bunch and obviously interested in all things mechanical. They certainly had an interesting subject today and, as usual, we hope you enjoyed your time with us. I formed part of the visits team today and I enjoyed talking Vulcan to everyone. We had another visit in the afternoon comprising some youngsters keen to absorb as much aircraft knowledge as possible and I met a retired crew chief who looked after 655 ‘in the day’. It was great to reminisce and I enjoyed looking through his photo album of the aircraft when in service overseas. Hopefully they all enjoyed their time here too.
I can’t finish without a mention of our usual pet subjects. The infrastructure team have pressed on with our site facilities, continuing the build of our ‘T’ bar with its associated plumbing. They’ll be getting called kitchen fitters soon! I’m sure they can live up to their new title. They could be called roofers soon too as the ‘dirty bench’ area is about ready to receive a canopy very shortly.
The Sentinel tug winch has also progressed today with some components being reattached to the winch assembly and others resisting removal for refurb. The volunteer won the battle to remove the parts but his knuckles have taken a beating whilst running a hacksaw close to the vehicle chassis to remove some bolt heads. That’s what you call ‘skin in the game’ …good job!
Finally, I can’t sign off without a shout out for our painters. They’ve battled the heavy showers whilst on the port wing. They set up a very long hose to wash down the dust from the wing but found that made it look dustier. Then before slapping on the paint they had to dry the wing following a heavy shower. Its been pretty wild and windy up there but they’ve definitely made progress. I even saw them painting tent poles at the end of the day to support our public events.
All in all another successful Wellesbourne Saturday. We’ll be back for more next weekend.
Saturday 30th May 2026
2 booked visits today: the Audi RS6 Group in the morning and the Triumph TR Register after lunch. With the weather forecast to be as good as in the week we expected plenty of drop in visitors too.
My day started around 8am and by then many of our volunteers were on on site and getting stuck in to their maintenance activities. Whilst some were examining the roof of our leaking containers other were preparing to attach supports for the roof of external ‘dirty bench’. The refreshment facility is taking shape too and I heard that 2 of our more talented artistic volunteers may be painting something on the walls in the near future. I look forward to seeing what they do but I suspect it will include a Vulcan bomber…..we’ll see!
Needless to say we prepped the aircraft for our usual systems demo which went flawlessly before the RS owners were split into small groups for their tour and presentations. I could overhear some of our visit hosts in full flow and there was plenty of info being imparted….I must take one of these tours, they seem very interesting!!
Whilst the tours were underway the engineering team tackled a few of our recent aircraft issues. The first task was to remove the relay panel from the refuel system located in the port undercarriage bay. One of the relays had a broken part which was causing its contacts to remain closed. Fortunately our volunteers have a wide range of skills and a new part was manufactured using the broken part as a template. It was tested later in the day and works fine.
On the port wing, another member of the engineering team was reinstalling replacement fire extinguishers. There are 6 in a small compartment and they are definitely not easy to fit. All credit to their tenacity, it was pretty warm up there today and the outlet pipes don’t want to line up easily, let alone allow their unions to attach to the manifold. I’m not sure of the result at the end of the day but I do know we won’t be testing the extinguishers on a regular basis.
Another interesting job today was to strip out and examine 2 air conditioning valves located in the nose wheel bay. These appeared to be stuck open and we can feel air leaking out when we attach one of our air start trolleys on an engine start. We stripped the valves down and inspected the position of the attached butterfly valves. They seemed intermittent at first and needless to say the grease in the valve definitely looked 60 years old, which it is! After a bit of exercise they seemed to work fine on the bench so they’ve now been refitted. We’ll reattach our air starter next week and see if we’ve made a difference to the fault…..fingers crossed.
As usual our painters were hard at work on the port wing but not for too long. We have to blame the weather today, it just gets too hot up there. They managed to apply a fair bit of paint before they gave up but I know they’ll be back up there next Saturday.
The Sentinel tug was also have more parts of its winch painted and reassembled. Hopefully there’ll be pics in today’s set. Like the SABT refurb its steadily making progress and its looking great.
I think final job today was the rebuild and test of a pressure switch associated with our rapid start system. Luckily we had a spare which we fitted for our public event last week. It worked fine but this was about generating a spare in case one fails again in the future. The team acquired a microswitch and attached the rebuilt switch to an air supply then calibrated it to approx. 105psi. It took a few attempts to get to the correct setting but it got there in the end……result!
So that ends another Wellesbourne Saturday, busy from beginning to end and hopefully everyone leaving with a smile on their face. Hopefully the pics are Ok and we’ll be back for more in 7 days time.
Weekend 23rd/24th May 2026
Apologies to those regular readers who expected a post last night, but it was our public event this this weekend so here’s a round up of this weekend’s activities…
Let me say that it wasn’t just the weather which excelled over this Bank Holiday weekend. We had a record number of visitors to our event today, not to mention all those drop-ins who came yesterday. Your support is very much appreciated and we definitely couldn’t put on these events without it. I should also give a shout out to our band of volunteers who turn up regularly every Saturday to keep the aircraft in a serviceable state. It always sets us a challenge, which we love, but it delivers on days like this for sure.
So let’s step back to yesterday which was the final prep for today. We had a few issues to deal with following an engine run practice for our aircrew last Sunday. The No1 engine fire detection system decided to play up despite a quick fix between runs. We thought the fault may have reappeared as we slammed the engine doors closed so we stripped the connector in the engine bay in order to examine the wiring. Nothing conclusive was found, but despite slamming the doors closed the system has worked fine since.
Another fault that appeared last weekend was the lack of cockpit comms being broadcast to the crowd. That was also repaired and the culprit was thought to be a pigeon who had managed to pluck a wire from the transmitter housed in the nose wheel bay. The transmission worked fine this morning but not this afternoon maybe that will be down to a low battery, or a sneaky pigeon!……job for next Saturday.
Some members of the team were wire locking a replacement pressure switch attached to the No2 combustor. This forms part of the rapid start system so definitely required for todays activities. Its a fiddly job due to limited access but patience…..and a deadline, won in the end.
Needless to say the painters were fully occupied as usual, making use of the shade provided by the fin to apply paint to the port wing to keep them cool.
The Sentinel winch project made progress too with the components guiding the winch cable onto the drum reassembled and painted.
There was more work around the site but in the end all the team got together late afternoon to place the aircraft on the taxiway before erecting marquees, placing fences and moving Cessna aircraft to create the space for what would be a record crowd attendance for one of our recent events. We can’t forget the volunteer who stayed on site all night as security cover….that’s dedication for you.
So: today. We have an equivalent to range anxiety in electric cars. In our case its pressure values in our rapid start bottles. A comfortable pressure would be around 3000psi but there’s no guarantee so it a case of regularly checking, calculating any leak rate and attaching a compressor to ensure we have sufficient pressure at the time we expect the pilot to press the start button. As it happens the recent work on the system must have paid off as there was little need for our compressor today, so long may that continue. It certainly reduced our anxiety.
The team were turning up on site before 7am this morning and with most of the equipment in place from last night they were ready to go long before our visitors arrived.
The morning starts were to be conventional with our Palouste supplying the air and the crew starting engines one at a time until all 4 were up and running. The visitors may not have noticed the slight glitch as there was a mis-selection of the No4 for No3. A quick correction and the No4 started, as did the others, no problem at all. All our alternators also came on line and the short taxi went without a hitch. Phew!
The next starts would be ripple rapid after lunch but as I said, no top up of air required. I’m pleased to report that the system worked for all rapid starts after lunch too. The No3 engine wound down after a short period which caught out the AEO who had to juggle the alternators to avoid losing power but that all went on behind the scenes. The show went ahead just fine!…….and it even looked as though we had a arranged for a fly past from the BBMF Dakota just as the engines fired up. In reality we can’t take the credit, pure coincidence, but it looked good and I hope someone got some pics!
It just remains for me to thank everyone that came to support us this weekend, including our volunteers. I don’t think it could have gone any better. I hope you all enjoyed it, we did, we always do. Next event in September….mass rapid start we hope….all 4 engines at once. Maybe we’ll see you there.
Saturday 16th May 2026
A busy day on the pan with 2 booked visits from the East Mids Porsche Club and the MG Car Club.
We were expecting better weather which had a promising start but deteriorated slightly later on, bit cool too but not show stopping.
We had a few outstanding jobs from last week so we got stuck in before our first expected visit at 10.30. If you recall this was the refurb of the No4 stbd tank refuel valve. It had new seals fitted last Saturday but it couldn’t be tested because unlike the other refuel valves this one has 2 ports whereas the others only have one. As these need to be blanked during the test we needed to acquire a 2nd blank which fortunately was acquired by a willing volunteer midweek. With both blanks fitted the valve tested serviceable and another volunteer set to fitting the valve into the No4 tank. He made fantastic progress and had the valve fitted before our first visitors arrived, just leaving the 2 pipe connections to be attached. This turned out to be difficult to put it mildly but I’ll refrain from using expletives! Needless to say another volunteer took on the task during the first visit and after a fight managed to align the connection and tighten the offending union…..Job done! Just awaiting some fuel into the tank to prove it’s fuel tight.
Next task was to carry out the aircraft functional demo for our visitors. It went like a dream with no faults reported. Fortunate really we want 655 to stay serviceable for our public event on the 24th.
The pan was then largely given over to our visitors at this point whilst our visits team split the Porsche owners into groups to explain 655’s history etc. We hope you all enjoyed your time with us. Our visits team certainly enjoy your company.
Around the pan, the painters had turned up and were pressing on with the repaint of the Port wing. They were enthusiastic enough but the weather wasn’t playing ball with rain showers interrupting play from time to time. Unfortunately this would be a bugbear for the remainder of the day but they made good progress despite the frustration, they’ve asked me for more paint so it can’t be all bad.
Or facilities team pressed on with our new refreshment facility, levelling the kitchen units and joining them together. Other members of their team made a start on the supports to the roof that will cover our outside ‘dirty bench’. They’ve dug the holes for the posts and the posts are waiting to be dropped in place, it’s all coming together and they’ll soon be a roof too. The facilities just get better.
Our Sentinel tug was being worked on…or more to the point the winch was. Our volunteer spent most of his day heating and hammering the distorted working parts of the winch mechanism. This is hard work but its coming on nicely and it’ll be a great job when its finished.
An interesting issue that occupied quite some time today was down to a fault in the refuel system. It had been noticed that as fuel tanks were selected the system went wrong during the latter stages of the tank selection. There are lots of relays involved in this process and they’re all interconnected. You need to have the patience of a saint and 20/20 vision to follow the complexity of the circuit diagram. After a few attempts at a diagnosis the fault turned out to be a broken part in one of the relays causing some electrical contacts to stick together. The clever bit will come next week as the team manufacture the new part to correct the problem and install it in a way that would never have been done when the a/c was in service. All credit to their ingenuity.
So the afternoon then brought our second group of visitors who received a re-run of the morning programme. All in all another busy day as always. The aircraft behaved and we achieved quite a lot really. Can’t wait for next Saturday when we’ll do it all again.
Saturday 9th May 2026
Well that was a day! Productive too, and it seemed to follow the normal pattern with our early starters preparing the aircraft for engine runs before I arrived at around 8am. They seemed keen to get the engines turning early doors and I reckon we had pulled the aircraft forward to the taxyway by 9am and certainly before anything else was moving on the airfield!
You can’t please everyone though, and our painter arrived to find we had stolen his aircraft from the pan!! He doesn’t like standing around and fortunately he was pacified when he realized he could press on painting our new tea bar. I think he’s finished his bit now and then we gave him the port wing to paint once we brought the a/c back to the pan late morning. He’s asking for more paint now so let’s hope we get similar weather next Saturday so that he can apply it.
Back to the engine runs which didn’t quite go according to plan. The first problem was the No2 alternator which didn’t want to play today. The team shut the engine down shortly after trying to bring it on line. Following a quick check it was found that one of the terminals was about to fail …..same problem as on No1 a few weeks back. The terminal was soon replaced and following another start the alternator worked fine and we have made a decision to start a re termination project soon. These terminals could be over 60 years old now so its not surprising they’re beginning to fail. We’ll wait until after our next public event though, in 2 weeks time.
So the next thing we were hoping to prove was the rapid start on No2 engine. The team had resolved leaks in the system and we had enough pressure in the tanks from last week to achieve a start. Unfortunately the start aborted after approx. 2 secs. We’ve been here before so we had our suspicions regarding the cause….and we have a workaround, which would prove the fault. The workaround was applied, the fault proven and a spare pressure switch fitted to the combustor. It worked like a dream! So another box ticked in preparation for our event.
With the engine objectives achieved we placed the aircraft back on the pan, told the painter he could play with the port wing and handed the no 4 stbd fuel tank to a volunteer…..yes, she really did volunteer. She offered to continue with our programme to refurbish the refuel valves. Needless to say the first hurdle is removing the valve and this one proved to be particularly difficult. It came out in the end ..after a 5 hour struggle. That’ll be the first task on next Saturday’s list then…. A refurbish, test, then refit. Hopefully it will go well but the real lesson has been with regard to volunteering….any ex services personnel will know all about that!
Another job on the list was the removal of our Stbd landing lamp it had a noticeable fault when extending as the lamp either didn’t switch on or else switched on late. After removal an investigation revealed the fault to be in a microswitch which after a tricky strip down was found to be adjustable. They say every day is a learning day and we won’t forget this one in a hurry. Its all back together now following 2 turns of a screwdriver…..in the end.
Our facilities team were back in action today, building units for our T bar and digging holes in preparation for a cover over our outdoor ‘dirty’ workbench. Our facilities are looking so much better and the aircraft will definitely benefit form the improvements.
Another trial today was the addition of an electric hydraulic pump to power our aircraft jacks. This was a simple test using a single jack but it appeared to work very well. I’m sure they’ll scale it up and if it works the real test will be to place the aircraft on top. That’ll be interesting.
Finally, we had a late visit from a group of BMW owners. As always we hope you enjoyed your visit and got some good photos in front of the a/c.
Needless to say we’ll be back next Saturday. Maybe we’ll see you too. Have a good week!
Saturday 2nd May 2026
How quickly time flies! It’s May already and with warmer longer days the team are getting to grips with any issues to ensure we are in good shape for our public event in a few weeks on the 24th May. Before that we needed to convene our AGM which took place today at 10.30. Our chairman continued his recent run of record times for the meeting and this mornings was no exception. I’m not sure if it broke any records but it was soon over having delivered his report on the years efforts along with our financial position, re election of committee members and the selection of our accounts auditor.
We couldn’t afford to hang around as we had a booked visit arranged for early afternoon and as it’s a bank holiday we seemed to have a large number of drop in visitors enjoying their day out in the sunshine. They all gave the visits team a busy day for sure.
Around the a/c some of our volunteers were wrapping up some loose ends wire locking on the no.1 engine. There was also an oil change to be carried out on our Coleman tug. We couldn’t complete it last week as the supplied filter wouldn’t fit between the engine and the chassis. A shorter filter was supplied this week so with the oil warmed up from the run to the AGM venue it was a good time to carry out the oil change. It seems to have done the trick with the oil pressure much improved and the hydraulic tappets much quieter.
Our facilities improvements team continued their good work fitting an outside socket to our ‘dirty’ workbench installed at the end of our containers. They were still carrying out work on our container roofs too.
It goes without saying that the port wing was receiving a fresh coat of paint and with the current mild weather they have to make the most of it. So much so that some of other volunteers were roped in to continue painting our revamped ISO container, It’ll become our new tea bar when its complete so painting it is essential to its success.
Work also continued on the Sentinel winch. Like the refurb of the SABT you can see it steadily improving week on week with paint being applied once its all rust free and free moving. The winches clutch was shown to be working today, I bet that hasn’t happened for years!
Finally, another challenging job was the reinstallation of the port wing fire extinguishers. They are not easy to install as access is so limited as is the lack of flexibility around the connections to the fire system. We had to call a halt to that one at the end of the day but we’ll be back refreshed to continue the fight next Saturday. There will only be one winner!
So it just remains for me to thank our visitors for dropping in today It was great to seem the Aston Martins lining up in front of the a/c and hopefully their owners enjoyed their time here. We’ll definitely be back next Saturday there’s always something new going on, can’t wait. Take care!