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 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!
Saturday 25th April 2026
What a fantastic day.
Unbroken sunshine all day. Add in 2 visits and a successful engineering day and you couldn’t ask for more.
We were a bit light on volunteers today but the usual suspects were already well involved by 8am. They are improving our facilities week on week and today was no exception making improvements to the roof of our metal containers. They had a wooden flat roof installed when they were delivered years ago. Needless to say these have rotted as they got older so the team were ripping them off whilst we have the weather to do so. As they were attached with bolts drilled through the metal roof it was necessary to fill the holes. Hence the team made use of a welder to fill them.
Whilst the improvements team were fully occupied others were preparing to recover some of the faults incurred during last Sunday’s engine runs. The most significant was the hydraulic leak from the No2 engine hydraulic pump. One of our volunteers had manufactured some tooling midweek to clean up the hydraulic couplings. It didn’t take long to remove the hydraulic pipe, clean up the coupling then set up for a test around midday and the tooling worked a treat.
Whilst all this was going on the visits team were setting up for the first of our 2 visits today. Both from Aston Martin enthusiasts. Both groups were given our aircraft systems demo followed by presentations from our visits team. We always hope you enjoyed the visits and we hope you acquired some memorable, unique photos parked up in front of XM655.
We had our monthly ATC visit today and they made the most of the weather by washing those parts of the aircraft which had gone green during the winter months. It’s made a big difference guys and the aircraft will look so much better at our public event next month….many thanks for your efforts its much appreciated.
With the morning visit complete it was time to turn the No2 engine over, create some pressure at the hydraulic pump and test the joint. I’m pleased to report that all went well and we can tick that fault off the list. We just need to run No2 engine at some point to confirm the rest of the systems. I’m sure it will be just routine and we will then have confidence in all 4 engines for the public event.
The next job on the list was the leak from the Stbd u/c walking joint which was dripping hydraulic fluid over the tyre last Sunday. One of our volunteers stripped the walking joint and replaced the seals during the afternoon visit. We operated the brakes later and proved that we had no further leaks…that’s another job complete!
Around the pan work continued painting the inside of our ISO container which will shortly become our T Bar. Oddly enough the weather was too good for applying paint to the port wing, it was too hot!
Work also continued on our tug winch with the working parts being further cleaned up, straightened and made to operate more easily. Its steadily improving, much along the lines of our SABT last year so I can’t wait to see the finished product.
All in all another successful day at the pan. There’s always something going on and today was no exception. We were definitely helped by the good weather but the biggest contribution comes from the efforts of our volunteers, good job everyone and thanks to everyone that visited! It’s your interest that makes it all worthwhile!
Sunday 19th April 2026
An extra report this weekend as we carried out engine runs this morning to prove the No.1 & 2 engines following their recent removal/installation. We also ran 3&4 for good measure in order to run all engines prior to our May public event.
As such we have now carried out both normal and rapid starts although we have a few minor issues.
The intention was to carry out 4 normal starts with the aid of the Palouste followed by 4 rapid starts using the compressed air from the on board bottles.
Our ‘early starters’ were on site around 7 this morning so the aircraft was pretty much ready to roll out to the taxiway by 8am. We were scheduled to roll at 9am which we did easily and once again the weather was perfect for our needs, warm too.
So with a couple of ‘guests’ on board we got set up with our plan. There was on one slight niggle. The hydraulic hose fitted yesterday was showing signs of a leak…..and this before pressure was created by a rotating pump. We turned the engine over anyway but our worst fears were realised and it leaked out too much to risk starting the No2. Not to worry we still had 3 more engines to play with. Our plan was modified and we would go with 1, 3 & 4 engines, which started fine. After a quick blast the a/c was shut down and the team were debriefed to give us the big picture.
We had gained a few faults: the No1 engine alternator had failed, the No1 fire warning system showed a fault and aside from the engine runs a walking joint feeding the stbd brakes was dripping hydraulic fluid when under pressure. Not a bad result really and before we carried out the rapid starts the team set to and replaced a broken crimp on the alternator and re-seated a fire warning connector on the engine. They’re fixing these faults before I can raise the paperwork!!
Following a quick discussion it was decided to rapid start the 1,3,& 4 engines which would also prove the new repairs then taxi the a/c onto skid plates and exercise the nose wheel steering system. It went like a dream!
The a/c was moved back on to the pan where we’ll fix the hose and walking joint faults next weekend with luck and at some point we’ll turn over that No2 engine once more.
All in all a productive way to spend a Sunday morning and we’ll be back next Saturday for more fun and games….can’t wait.
Saturday 18th April 2026
What a marvellous drive up this morning with sunshine all the way and quiet roads first thing. The Sun was still shining at 10.00am whilst we awaited our first arranged visit of the day (Milton Keynes Aviation Society) and most of our volunteers were here with the engine team on standby to fit a new hydraulic hose to the No2 engine. We waited for the bomb doors to be opened before draining the fluid then fit the pipe and top up before the afternoon visit from the Westfield Sports Car Club. So that was 2 big visits today and 2 aircraft demos!!
Continuing our facilities enhancements, some of our volunteers were in midweek carrying out further improvements to our ground electrical supplies. In this case they have separated the electrical supply to the pan so that it runs on its own fused circuit. This has also involved the re rerouting of some cables making for a much tidier installation in our refurbished ISO container and it should allow us to run both compressors on the pan at the same time to charge our rapid start system.
On the a/c, work has started on refurbishing the last batch of refuelling valves with a volunteer offering to continue with that work today. They say one volunteer is worth 10 pressed ‘men’ and this proved the case as our female volunteer seemed to remove and refit the valve in double quick time….their enthusiasm has made for a great job! Which included the testing of the valve from a head of fuel created by the height of our giraffe steps.
Work also continued on the Sentinel tug winch with heat being applied to straighten many of its removed parts. We don’t know the complete history of the tug but the winch seems to have been put under strain at some point and without a complete set of manuals we can only assume everything was originally straight when new. Its certainly straight & square now!
Needless to say our painter has been hard at work and was complaining that the weather was too warm to paint the top of our port wing. He was busily rolling paint this afternoon so the cloud cover appearing later in the day is definitely doing some good.
So the next big job will be to prove the operation of our newly installed engines. Fingers crossed that hydraulic pipe installed this morning won’t leak and the team also charged the port and stbd rapid start bottles as a lead up to our public event. The charging seemed to be a lot faster than I recall on previous occasions so with a bit of luck we have a more airtight system than before. We’ll soon find out but I feel confident at present.
It just remains for me to thank all our visitors for coming today. The cars in front of the Vulcan was a sight to behold and I hope that both groups had a great time, we aim to please and we’ll be doing it all again very soon.
Saturday 11th April 2026
Despite the recent clock change its still light during the morning commute to Wellesbourne ….and its also light on the way home….so much easier!
So by the time I arrived at 8am the usual suspects were already well into their day with the usual tasks being progressed. If you read this report every week you will know that we still need to complete the installation of the port engines and the team carrying out our building upgrades are currently prioritizing the improvements to our ISO container which will become our rest room/ T bar in the near future.
Before any of this can get underway we had a quarterly committee meeting to attend and as its important to us to record our MaPS activities we set those not attending the meeting some maintenance tasks to resolve so that once we re emerged we could progress our engineering activities once more.
As I said, we need to get those engines finished and the outstanding task was to resolve a problem with a hydraulic pipe from the pump. The team had been unable to start the thread last week so a die was purchased midweek in order to clean up the thread. Once done the hydraulic fluid would need to be replenished before we turned the engines over so to top the system up whilst we were in the meeting could save a lot of time once we returned. The pipe thread was cut and the fluid topped up but unfortunately the pipe leaked. As it happened we had a spare pipe which was replaced but we had to wait a while before testing it as there was an outstanding task from last week which involved repairing the water pump in our Houchin generating set. I said in last weeks report that some of our volunteers would get involved in manufacturing new parts for it and they didn’t let us down. One repaired the damaged shaft on the pump removed last week (which will become our spare), the other modified the pulley to take a new tapered bushing to fit the pump shaft more securely. Once we all got stuck in it didn’t take too long to reposition the Houchin under the gantry then remove the body, fit the pump, radiator and replenish the anti freeze once more. It all worked fine and the job was complete by lunchtime. We were now ready for some preliminary engine tests after lunch.
Now, the weather wasn’t great with heavy showers, including hail which benefitted the building maintenance guys as they were working indoors anyway. They were busy removing old paint from the ISO and planning the reroute of electrical cables. Our painter was struggling though. He had started by prepping some of the port wing flying controls but the weather had forced him indoors for a spot of painting. I was a shame he couldn’t find a suitable paint to use. As a painter he was bound to have something suitable at home so a quick trip back home produced something acceptable. His kitchen’s going to wait a bit longer though!
After lunch it was back to the port engines which, with the aid of our Palouste (and our repaired Houchin), were ready to be turned over for a wet and dry start cycle. I’m pleased to report it went well with a definite cure to our No1 engine slow start which was one of the reasons for the engine removal. Unfortunately the hydraulic system didn’t fare as well as it needed to be topped up as the hydraulic pressure didn’t come up as expected. The fluid was topped up once more and the test repeated with the same result. As such it was topped up again. It wasn’t much better and it was concluded that as we had removed both engines at the same time we had lost more fluid than we thought. It’ll get resolved next week for sure.
I haven’t mentioned visitors yet but there were loads. From what I could tell they seemed to be enjoying themselves and we had at least 2 experienced volunteers taking care of them so it should have been Ok. Next week we’ve got 2 group visits to host……and a hydraulic fix to accomplish. Looks like it could get busy.
Saturday 4th April 2026
Easter Saturday so who knows how it will go! Will we get lots of visitors and a lack of volunteers? That would be our worst scenario but luckily we got plenty of both and the team were stuck in by 8am. Needless to say the engine team were cracking on with the reinstallation of the port engines. They had been delayed by the jacking exercise that had taken place last Saturday although this doesn’t matter as far as the scheduling goes as our next deadline will be engine runs in support of our public event in May. I am sure they will meet that and resolve any faults that may arise in between.
Our early starters had prepared our ground equipment for use today but unfortunately they had been a bit too thorough and discovered that the cooling fan on the Houchin was extremely loose in its housing and in danger of colliding with the radiator cowl and, at worst colliding with the radiator. As you can imagine the Houchin is a crucial piece of kit and is needed to support most functional demonstrations of the aircraft but as we had no formal visits today this also presented the perfect opportunity to fix it. In order to access the water pump we need to lift the body off, something we’ve done many times but it takes a gantry, a winch and the removal of some tricky bolts. Once the body has been lifted off we need to capture the anti freeze….it’s too good to waste! Then we need to remove the radiator which also needs the winch. Its a bit heavier than I thought for sure. Only then can we get to the loose fan to find out what happened. There was once a woodruff key forming part of the mechanism but not any more so once again our mechanical wizards will take the parts home and machine a repair. I can’t wait to see what they come up with but I am sure we’ll be piecing the Houchin back together next Saturday. We’ll miss the best bits as all the wizardry takes place in garden sheds!
At the back of the pan there is a team that continues to work on our facilities. They’re busy converting an old military truck body into a new refreshment facility for the volunteers. It started by gutting the unit, ripping out the old electrics before removing most of the old doors and sealing them up. I suspect the next phase will be a coat of paint before worktops, a sink and cupboards find their way back in. If its too good we’ll never get our volunteers out to work on the aircraft but it’ll be well received for sure.
We had plenty of visitors today, to be expected on a Bank Holiday. I hope they all enjoyed their time with us, they usually do when there’s plenty going on, our guides know their stuff and are full of enthusiasm so I hope they all had a good time.
Finally, one of our volunteers returned today after a short break so work resumed on the refurbishment of the winch on the Sentinel tug. Its still a case of cleaning up the parts but its moving in the right direction and the weather should be steadily improving each week now so things can only get better.
So next week we should complete the engine installation, then we start testing in preparation for our public event in May, Can’t wait. Thanks to all that came to see us today and thanks to the volunteers for turning out on a Bank Holiday.