# Mosquito RS700 Restoration



## Crimea_River (Sep 1, 2013)

I've decided to start this new thread as a continuation of the one here http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/warbird-displays/calgarys-mosquito-sale-23846.html.

We left off in the last thread with a series of pictures taken last year at the opening ceremony to kick off this Mosquito's restoration work. Since then, we spent many sessions over the winter cataloging and crating a lot of the parts, documenting parts to be removed, and building display stands for fund-raising exhibits for various shows that we attended. We also got our hands on a set of structural drawings that should help us a lot.

As this project is partly funded with public funds, our society has had to submit detailed execution plans and progress reports to pass various stage gates. Stage 1 was the aforementioned cataloging and planning work. This summer, we received approval to proceed with actual restoration work so we are now well into building lifting jigs and a permanent steel stand for the fuselage. I'll post on the following pages a series of photos summarizing some of the the work done over the last year. This will give me a good starting point to keep those interested in this project posted with more regular progress pictures.

For more info o this project, please visit the home page for the Calgary Mosquito Society here:
The Calgary Mosquito Society

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## Crimea_River (Sep 1, 2013)

February 23, 2013. Adding oil to the Merlin cylinders through the plug openings:







March 23, 2013 Arrival of the plans:






Dismantling the prop:

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## Crimea_River (Sep 1, 2013)

Various crating activities:














April 6, 2013, loading crates into a 40 ft trailer for storage:


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## Crimea_River (Sep 1, 2013)

August 17, 2013

Bracing across the canopy opening to prepare for future lifts:






Measuring placement of hydraulics on Bulkhead 3.


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## Crimea_River (Sep 1, 2013)

August 31, 2013. Removal of Canopy onto a frame that I built for this purpose:














The fuselage sans canopy:






The mass of tubing at bulkhead 2.

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## herman1rg (Sep 1, 2013)

Keep the pics coming.


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## Crimea_River (Sep 1, 2013)

Will do, now that we're caught up.


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## FLYBOYJ (Sep 1, 2013)




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## Gnomey (Sep 1, 2013)

Great shots Andy!


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## michaelmaltby (Sep 1, 2013)

Great sequence. Thanks.


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## Airframes (Sep 1, 2013)

Great stuff Andy, and enough to keep you all occupied for some time ! 
I wish I was a) fit enough and b) close enough to a restoration facility, to help out. If I ever win the Lottery, I think I'll move to Duxford !


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## nuuumannn (Sep 2, 2013)

Neat Andy, keep us posted on this. Love those big hydromatic props.


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## Crimea_River (Sep 7, 2013)

Today's work saw us finish the bracing in the cockpit area. With the canopy removed, this area is very weak and I suspect our bracing is stronger than the canopy now. The rear connections of the braces have been connected to the wing attachment point. All this is in preparation for lifting the entire fuselage section out of its present shipping cradle into a new custom-fabricated steel one. This will be a few weeks off yet.











In the background can be seen the two Rolls Royce-built Merlins as well as the wing.

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## vikingBerserker (Sep 7, 2013)

Dam, that fricken rocks! I am so jealous!!! I do not know if this will help you guys out or not, but in Nov of this year Hayes is publishing their 
*De Havilland Mosquito Manual: 1940 onwards (all marks) - An insight into developing, flying, servicing and restoring Britain's 'Wooden Wonder' fighter-bomber (Owners' Workshop Manual)*


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## Crimea_River (Sep 7, 2013)

I'll see David. We have two full manuals but they are for different marks than we have.


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## Wayne Little (Sep 8, 2013)

Simply awesome Andy!

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## s1chris (Sep 8, 2013)

Great stuff and I wish you the best of luck with the restoration. 
Is the plan for it to be made airworthy?

Cheers Chris


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## Crimea_River (Sep 8, 2013)

Alas no. It will be a museum piece with as much original structure and equipment as possible but we hope to have it in taxiing condition. To get a Mossie to flying condition is essentially a complete rebuild.


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## meatloaf109 (Sep 8, 2013)

Still, it will be great to see it done.
Any decision on markings?


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## Crimea_River (Sep 8, 2013)

For sure. As much as I'd like it to look like the original PR version it was built as, it will be restored to its post-war Spartan Air Services scheme.

Here's a model:


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## fubar57 (Sep 8, 2013)

Hmmmm.....however, a great job you guys are doing.

Geo


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## vikingBerserker (Sep 8, 2013)

I totally agree!


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## s1chris (Sep 9, 2013)

Taxing condition is still cool, atleast you can generate cash by offering taxi rides. Even though your restoring to the post war scheme, I suppose when you have a good solid base there could be scope to have a repaint in the future to WW2 scheme to mark a certain occasion etc. Even so, a great job you are all doing. 

Cheers Chris


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## Airframes (Sep 10, 2013)

Great stuff Andy. I'm guessing there'll be a few fingers crossed when the lift commences.


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## Crimea_River (Sep 10, 2013)

Yes, I've been around a few big lifts in my days and this one makes me a bit nervous.


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## Crimea_River (Oct 6, 2013)

Yesterday, I had the task of resupporting bulkhead 7 (the one to which the tail assembly is attached) and removing the shipping supports so that some work can begin on this area. We're creating scale replicas of the bulkheads to which the various attachments will be assembled both for restoration and location of the parts to be remounted and for display until until such time as that happens. The pictures below show the bulkhead and views from the tail to the nose which, with apologies, are a bit shaky.















A example of one of the assembly displays is the below the fire extinguisher system, here partly assembled. The bottles were still charged and the contents had to be disposed of at the fire department before we could start working on them.






Next, I had the pleasure of sorting through a couple of boxes looking for cockpit parts. Horizontal surfaces com at a premium for this, as you can see here. In this first pic, you can see the main wing on the left. 






Looking in the other direction, the control column can be seen in the foreground as well as a trim wheel to its left and the instrument panels to its right. 






Oxygen panel and gear/flap indicator panel:










..and some of the instruments.


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## Airframes (Oct 7, 2013)

Looks like a heck of a lot of work just sorting the stuff! Must be good to have the opportunity to help out though.


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## vikingBerserker (Oct 7, 2013)

Dam, the only way this thread could get any better for me is if Kate Beckinsale was reading it to me.

Andy, you have no idea how jealous I am of you my friend.


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## Crimea_River (Oct 7, 2013)




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## Gnomey (Oct 8, 2013)

Hell of a job, sorting all that out. Thanks for keeping us updated Andy!


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## s1chris (Oct 12, 2013)

What an immense task this looks to be. Great job 

Have you ever come across any of these in your search through parts? - 






I have four of them in total from a crashed Mosquito (RAF serial - MM150) and don't have a clue what they could be? 

Cheers Chris


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## Crimea_River (Oct 12, 2013)

Have not yet come across these Chris but we're just starting. Is there a number stamped on them? I have a set of plans with part numbers and we have a full parts manual back at the museum.


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## s1chris (Oct 13, 2013)

Thanks Andy, I'll have a look next weekend when I'm back over where they are stored. 
I'm thinking engine related as there are purpose cast in lines that I think would be used for reference (could be location though) almost like timing marks on a car engine crank case for example. It would make sense to me to be engine related as in the same batch of parts I received either an inlet or exhaust valve, still with valve spring under compression! Any idea on the diameter of either valve?

Sorry to hijack your thread a little.

Cheers Chris


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## Crimea_River (Oct 13, 2013)

No problem Chris. If these are engine related then I won't have access to a parts list here at home but can ask down in Nanton next time I'm there. I don't know the valve diameter off hand but would possibly be able to get that info for you as well.


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## vinnye (Oct 18, 2013)

S1chris, do you know what they are made of?
May help in finding what they were used for?


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## s1chris (Oct 18, 2013)

Hello, looks to me like they are machined from aluminium. 
Will have another look tomorrow and confirm.

Cheers Chris


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## mikec1 (Oct 18, 2013)

.
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...........................


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## Crimea_River (Oct 18, 2013)

Waddaya mean?


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## Crimea_River (Oct 24, 2013)

Ahem, yes, well, on with the show.

This week I made it down to Nanton twice. Our restoration team is currently busy with building mock-ups of the main bulkheads and interiors so that the actual parts can be mounted temporarily and to therefore have the electrics and pneumatics recreated on sub assemblies. My assignment now is to recreate a full scale mockup of the cockpit floor and partial walls from Bulkhead No2 (just behind the pilot seat, to the nose) so that we can mount the instrument panel, control yoke, and pedals.

These first few pics are taken looking back from bulkhead 4 (the back of the bomb bay) to the rear of the aircraft. The area in the foreground on this particular aircraft actually was a cramped crew compartment for a mapping camera operator. The poor devil had only one small porthole window and only intercom communication with the pilot. 


















Below are pictures of the cockpit floor area that I'll need to replicate. My measurement sketch and tape measure rest in the clutter. 






In the center of this pic can be seen the box that mounted the rudder pedals which hung form the top of the box. The mount on the wall at top left is for the magnetic compass.






This is the view from the nose. Bulkhead 2 is the half wall in the background and the rudder pedal box is to the right. You can see that I spotted the centerline on a length of masking tape in order to take grid measurements of the floor to duplicate it.






The frame in the first pic below was under the pilot seat. To the right can be seen the elevator trim wheel and the floor has a mess of control cables still in place. 














I spent 4 hours Tuesday night creating just 2 templates to get the wall curvature at the grid lines I measured. The angled box was used to kee the template square and perpendicular as I scribed and adjusted the cut line. 










I'll post some pics of the mockup when I get going on that. In the meantime, there are many more measurements that I need to get.

By the way Chris, I now have a scanned copy of the complete parts manual for an FBVI so the search may begin for your parts. However, if these are engine-related, then I'll not likely be able to identify them.

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## Wildcat (Oct 25, 2013)

Good stuff Andy!


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## Airframes (Oct 25, 2013)

Great stuff Andy. That poor MCO wouldn't even have room to eat a bacon sandwich ...... must have been worse than lying on a 'stretcher' in the bomb bay.


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## Wayne Little (Oct 25, 2013)

Very Cool Andy!


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## Crimea_River (Oct 25, 2013)

Thanks guys. Wish I was as close to the Hurricane that we're also doing but that's at a facility 3 hours north of me.

Terry, jokes aside, it's quit possible there were more than a few bacon sandwiches consumed back there.


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## lancasterman (Oct 25, 2013)

A huge project, but she will look stunning when completed!


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## Crimea_River (Oct 25, 2013)

Hope I live to see it!


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## mikec1 (Oct 25, 2013)

.
.
.
Greetings Andy;



Very nice photographs ...................... 





Thanks, for sharing them with us,



Mike
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.


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## Crimea_River (Jan 12, 2014)

Work continues on our restoration though it slowed down over the holidays for obvious reasons. I'll pick up where I left off last October.

The canopy is being slowly stripped down to is fundamental parts for cleaning, painting and reassembly. During the course of disassembly, it was discovered that some of the framing is bent, probable as a result of an impact during handling some time in the past.







The myriad hydraulic and pneumatic tubing is being removed after tagging them and documenting the locations and termination points. Mockups are being built at termination points to fasten the various fittings and valve headers so that we can both display these areas and keep track of the parts. Each tube in the below picture can be seen to have been tagged.






My project was to build a mockup of the cockpit floor. The measurements taken since my last post in October were used to create a frame which you can see partially assembled at the Nanton shop below. 






Once the sides were installed, we began transferring some of the parts to the mockup. Here's a picture of yours truly sorting out the elevator control cables. If the seat were installed, the backrest/armour plate would be right in front of me with the seat being mounted to the vertical bulkhead that you see here. The unit mounted under my right elbow is the emergency hydraulic hand pump.






Another angle showing the elevator control assembly. The control cables have now been unfurled and pulled through the bulkhead and the elevator trim wheel can clearly be seen. This whole assembly, when properly installed, will be fastened to the bulkhead and floor and fits under the pilot's seat.






Last week, we decided that before going any further, we would paint the mockup so we did that yesterday. I took a cockpit part to the paint store and had the colour analyzed and they mixed up a batch of paint that we then applied to the mockup. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so will post some pics next time.


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## vikingBerserker (Jan 12, 2014)

Excellent!


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## Airframes (Jan 12, 2014)

Great stuff Andy. I'm not quit clear on the purpose of the mock-up, using parts from the actual aircraft.


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## Crimea_River (Jan 12, 2014)

Terry, the mockups serve a couple of purposes. They are helping us to keep all our parts organized by providing a means to store all the bits and pieces once they are removed from the actual aircraft without having to disassemble them completely and throwing them in boxes. The mockups also provide for some nice displays for our travelling road shows where we set up booths with information on our project. 

A good example of the usefulness of the mockup is in helping with storing the copper grounding strips that extend all over the interior surfaces. These strips of copper are less than 1mm in thickness and maybe 7 or 8mm wide and are very long and delicate. They were fastened with copper nails to the interior of the fuselage and wings and, when removed, can be easily damaged. Transferring these strips straight from the aircraft to the mockup clearly minimizes the risk of damage to these items and avoids the complex storage needs that would be required in the absence of such a mockup. Everything inside the fuselage is being pulled out so that the paint can be stripped down, damage repaired and then systems put back in once they are cleaned and restored off the aircraft.


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## Gnomey (Jan 12, 2014)

Looks like it is coming along great so far! Can't wait to see her finished.


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## Crimea_River (Jan 12, 2014)

Gonna be a long wait Hugh!


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## fubar57 (Jan 12, 2014)

Nice working 1:1, no tweezers or magnifying glasses.

Geo


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## Airframes (Jan 13, 2014)

Thanks Andy, perfectly clear (and sensible) now. Quick question - visible in part of the cockpit and nose, particularly on starboard side of 'bomber' versions, are a number of small discs.Do you know what these are?


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## Crimea_River (Jan 13, 2014)

Those are attachment points Terry. Each disc is glued to the interior surface of the fuselage and comes with an embedded metal socket with a thread in it. If you want to attach a junction box or wire harness, anything really, to the fuselage wall, it's done by screwing the items to these strategically placed attachment points. This avoids drilling fasteners into the wooden structure and causing a potential weak point.


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## Airframes (Jan 14, 2014)

Ah Ha! Thanks Andy.


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## Wayne Little (Jan 14, 2014)

Top stuff Andy.


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## Crimea_River (Jan 26, 2014)

Some more update shots for you.

Here are a couple of the the other mockups to show you. This first one is bulkhead 2 which is at the front of the bomb bay. 






I'm not sure which bulkhead this second one is, though it is labeled #4. Bulkhead 4 is a bit of an illusive animal, and is labeled differently on drawings and manuals in our possession. The dark line going across the bulkhead is one of the copper grounding strips. In the foreground is the pneumatic and hydraulic panel that mounts on the starboard side of the fuselage interior at about the wing trailing edge location. In the background can be seen the upper surface of the wing. 






We decided to paint the cockpit mockup as it will look better for displaying. I took a sample of a cockpit part to the local hardware store and had them scan the sample and match the paint exactly. After painting, the various controls were reinstalled.






The above pic was taken last Saturday. The large unit is a the elevator bell crank and trim wheel and is an awkward affair to install. After mounting it, I had to remove it again today to hasten a pillow block bracket to the cockpit wall. The below pics are from today, starting with the reinstalled elevator control. The guard that's against the wall hides the bell crank. In the foreground is the mount for the control column. 






The next pics show the control column installation which we managed to get done before calling it a day. The rod attaching the control column to the elevator actuator is in a box somewhere so did not get installed. 


















That's it for this session guys. Hope you enjoy.


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## Wayne Little (Jan 26, 2014)

Sweet Andy!


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## Airframes (Jan 26, 2014)

Excellent !


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## Gnomey (Jan 26, 2014)

Looks like it is coming along great!


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## vikingBerserker (Jan 26, 2014)

I really appreciate you taking the time to post these, outstanding!

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## wheelsup_cavu (Jan 27, 2014)

Looking really nice. 8)


Wheels


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## Crimea_River (Jan 27, 2014)

Thanks guys.


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## Catch22 (Jan 28, 2014)

I see some nice stuff has been done since I saw it!


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## Crimea_River (Mar 31, 2014)

Time for an update on this. Since last time, our focus continued to be on clean-out of all loose fuselage parts and on building a new, more permanent frame into which the fuselage would be lifted for continued restoration work. 

This is the cockpit mockup with more of the parts installed. Since last time, some of the hydraulic tubing was installed from underneath and the trim indicator was installed. I also reinforced the curved sidewalls for a better appearance and for the possible future addition of the instrument panel. Also visible are some of the copper grounding strips. The one below the trim indicator ultimately attaches to the throttle quadrant.















The frame in which the fuselage had been placed is inadequate in that it is too low for practical use and there is inadequate support to enable the removal of temporary bracing across the bomb bay. We therefore set about producing a steel tubular frame with more robust supports. Here you can see a series of pics showing the frame being assembled.














Once assembled, we set about getting the various pieces of kit ready for lifting the fuselage into the new frame.














Last Saturday, the team successfully lifted the fuselage out of the old frame into the new one. Unfortunately I wasn't present for the lift, which may have been a contributing factor to its success  The empty fuselage is a surprisingly light 700 lbs so, with the 400 or so pounds of additional rigging, the lift was easily handled with a forklift.























And you are now up to date. Now that April is upon is, our first public display events will soon be upon is so the work achieved over the winter has put us in a great position to show off our work so far.

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## Wayne Little (Apr 1, 2014)

This is gonna be AWESOME..!


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## vikingBerserker (Apr 1, 2014)

I so agree!


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## Jeff Hunt (Apr 1, 2014)

I have a Mossie in the modelling queue so I will no doubt refer back to this post. Thanks for the updates, give the team a double thumbs up from me.

Cheers,

Jeff


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## Airframes (Apr 1, 2014)

Great stuff Andy, and congratulations to the team - must have been big sighs of relief once the fuselage settled into it's new frame.
Thanks for the up-date.


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## Maximowitz (Apr 1, 2014)

Very very impressive.


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## Wurger (Apr 1, 2014)

Yep..


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## Gnomey (Apr 1, 2014)

She looks great so far! Thanks for the update.


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## Crimea_River (Apr 1, 2014)

Thanks for your interest everyone. Jeff, let me know if you need any reference material for your build. I should have lots of techy stuff if you need it.

By the way, word has it the world's second flying Mossie in Victoria BC will have its engine runs happen in 11 days.


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## Crimea_River (Apr 1, 2014)

Double post.


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## Crimea_River (Apr 15, 2014)

Herewith, a short video of our project and progress to about mid March 2014. The speaker at the beginning is Richard, who, after say there are "non-skilled" volunteers working on the project, is followed by yours truly working on the cockpit mockup.


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V52axt4hMUc_

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## Airframes (Apr 16, 2014)

Excellent! Thanks for posting that Andy, and I hope it will be shown across Canada at some time. Interesting '109 in the background too.


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## Wayne Little (Apr 16, 2014)

You didn't comb your hair Andy....

Thanks for posting this mate, great stuff!


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## Crimea_River (Apr 16, 2014)

You're welcome guys.

Terry the 109 is actually a 1:1 replica that a guy built in his garage. After an ultimatum from his wife, he made a deal with the museum and sold it for display. Part of the deal was to give the guy a wrecked Allison engine bloc that was stored at the museum, which he duly carted off to Edmonton to start on a 1:1 P-39!!! I'll post some further pics of the 109 on my Nanton Museum thread later.


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## Gnomey (Apr 17, 2014)

Great stuff Andy! Good to see her coming along well.


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## Crimea_River (Jul 29, 2015)

Wow, over a year since I updated this. We've still been working on the Mossie and the Hurricane. Here's a link to the 2Q15 quarterly report on both aircraft showing what we've been up to.

The Calgary Mosquito Society

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## Gnomey (Jul 30, 2015)

Coming along nicely, thanks for the update!


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## Wayne Little (Aug 5, 2015)

Thanks for sharing that Andy!


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## Crimea_River (Apr 20, 2016)

I've been extremely delinquent in keeping you guys abreast of what's going on with our Mosquito. Fact is, we are chasing a lot of poorly done repairs through the fuselage and reskinning these areas from the inside out - a time-consuming and manhour intensive process. The example below shows what's going on behind the canopy in the dinghy box area. The new skin that you see is the inner face of the inside sheet of 2mm plywood. The new skin is lapped and glued onto the existing inner skin and over that will be a layer of 7/16 inch balsa, followed by the outer skin.







I will try to do better and post some more progress shots, and also get you up to speed on our Hurricane. In the meantime, we have created a You-tube channel of videos related to our project and the use of post-war Mosquitos by Spartan Air Services to map northern Canada using aerial photography. Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMvwQfjhUSYDt7v9r-64q1g


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## nuuumannn (Apr 21, 2016)

Great stuff. Power to your collective elbows, Andy.


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## Wurger (Apr 21, 2016)




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## Wayne Little (Apr 21, 2016)

NICE!


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## Airframes (Apr 21, 2016)

Good stuff Andy, and thanks for the up-date and the link to the Spartan operations.
The pic of the re-skinning, being virtually an empty shell, really shows just how tight the Mosquito cockpit area is, more so than a shot of a complete, 'furnished' cockpit. 
If I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity of a ride in a 'Mossie', I'd need to be coated in grease and forced in through the hatch, as there's no way I could manage to get in (or out!) these days !!


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## Crimea_River (Apr 21, 2016)

Yes, it is very tight and I can only imaging what it must have been like for the observer to get from his "seat" to the bomb-aiming position. Fold and stow maps, pencils, parallel squares, fold and stow map table, unbuckle harness, unhook O2, squeeze around pilot and crouch into the narrow passage to the nose (careful you don't accidentally grab the landing gear actuator levers!), reconnect O2 and start the bomb run procedure, all that while going 300 knots and being buffeted by flak!

I had the fortune of being able to climb into Bob Jens' F for Freddy out in BC last year, so long as I promised not to sit anywhere, touch anything, nor post any of the many pictures I took while inside.


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## Airframes (Apr 21, 2016)

Yep, it's tight alright. I was fortunate to sit in the BAe Mosquito T.III back in the early 1980's, before it was tragically lost at Barton, Manchester, in 1996. More or less the same layout as the FB.VI, and a contortionist's act to get in and out off - and that was when wearing jeans and shirt, so it must have been a real squeeze when wearing Irvin jacket, 'Mae West; and parachute harness.
No wonder 'Mossie' pilots could be identified by the wear to the left sleeve of their tunic or flying jacket, caused by rubbing against the cockpit rim !!


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## Gnomey (Apr 21, 2016)

Looks great so far! Thanks for the update.


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## Micdrow (May 15, 2016)

Looking good!!!


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## Crimea_River (Jan 19, 2017)

The following update is copied from our 4Q16 Progress Report.

Starting from the nose of the aircraft and working aft with the progress on the fuselage:

The ring supporting the [clear] nose blister had a large amount of distortion and delamination on the right side from roughly the 7 o’clock to 11 o’clock position. The old glue was removed by picking out the old material with dental equipment. The gaps and depths are large enough that the gluing is being done in stages, with filler being added to eliminate sagging. The first layer is complete. The bottom bulkhead of the ring was badly chewed up so a new piece was constructed and fitted to the ring.





The center line split was removed; new parts were made and installed. This eliminated an antenna hole that was badly damaged as well as allowing us to re-bond the center line forward of the door area. The original glue joint had crystallized and dental picks
were used again to clear the joint.






We continue to go over the inside of the fuselage inch by inch starting at the area below the floor boards. Depending on the type of damage, delamination, holes, gouges or just plain rot will dictate the repair method. A variety of methods from pressing glue into the joint or applying .025 inch veneer patches to the top layer of plywood appear to do the trick. Dick has been working with rare earth magnets, which work very well to hold smaller pieces in place as the glue dries.

The bonding of the internal skin to the balsa core is an issue, as large areas are delaminated. We will switch from T88 to less viscous epoxies to re-bond certain areas of the skin. Both a general epoxy and cold cure will be injected under the plywood depending on the individual requirements. Tech support at System Three, the makers of T88 epoxy, have suggested we also add some silica to the general epoxy while injecting it as fill. There is a higher clamping pressure required for the cold cure so we will make telescoping supports to push out on the skins. A large number of the injection points will be areas were the ferrules containing the anchor nuts are missing or require re-gluing.

The bulkhead under the floor on the right side with the crew ladder access door has been replaced. The original plywood was broken in multiple pieces, but the rib was intact.






You will recall the rib had worn grooves from the crew ladder being installed. The new plywood was bonded to the rib, sanded to match the wear marks of the rib. We are very happy with Gary’s installation as we can still see the exact path of the ladder each time it was slid into place.





The left side was exactly the opposite, as the plywood survived but the rib was falling apart. A new rib has been fitted but will be installed after more cleaning is completed in the area of the crew door sill. Components of the crew door sill have been removed for repair; the sill itself is still firmly attached at the center line. Delamination on 50 per cent of the outboard section of the sill requires us to gently lift it to remove all the years of debris and crystallized glue.

The cockpit floor repairs are complete and Andy [yours truly] has reassembled the primary structure with the floor boards now ready for paint. Paint matches are done and the first gallon of interior paint is ready to be applied. We will run some tests on the paint to check how it covers on both the new wood and the old. It is a self-priming paint but we have yet to discover how many coats will be needed.






Various metal parts for the floor board are now being painted so they can be re assembled on the floor. The armour plates are ready for paint and will be installed as soon as possible to reinforce bulkhead two as it is rather flimsy without them.
Some of the plumbing from beneath the floor is being cleaned internally and inspected for damage. The lines will be pressure tested as well, given that their location under the floor means that once installed they are all but inaccessible.

Moving aft of the cockpit, the internal structure is basically cleaned out and inspection of the structure is continuing. Large brass screws which hold the main wing attach points together are being worked on, with some of the screw, having the heads missing, backed out or broken off. Once this area has been satisfactorily inspected and repaired, new skins will be installed on the outside.






Repairs on the left side of the fuselage around the two windows are now complete. A slightly different approach was used on the skin around the windows. Instead of removing the skin and splicing in new skin, a new sheet of plywood was bonded to the inside of the old skin. This worked faster than splicing but wasn’t without its problems. The massive number of staple holes [previously botched repairs] throughout the inside made the old skin look somewhat like an art display. After removing the new glue excreting through all the holes it has left us with a large number of indentations from the old staples that now need filling.

The de-ice tank has been repaired by a local machine shop that took it as a challenge. Trillion Industries welded the corrosion holes then pressurized the tank with water, doing a very nice job of cleaning up the bent filler neck. The tank was then strapped to a vibrating tumbler and filled with corn to clean the inside of the tank. The tank now requires just an acid wash inside, resurfacing with a sealant and painting.

We continue cleaning the inside of the fuselage with it now showing signs of progress, but also exposing more areas of damage. A method of cleaning the original brass screws has now worked very well and a large number are ready for reinstallation. Soaking them in a vinegar and salt solution, then tumbling them in green corn has them looking like new.

Member Rick F. continues to work on restoring the cockpit instrument panels for both the Mosquito and Hurricane. Period instruments and controls are great souvenir and collectable pieces and almost all have had to be sourced as the originals are no longer with the airplanes.


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## Wurger (Jan 19, 2017)




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## Crimea_River (Jan 19, 2017)

Some additional pics:

This is the damage around the portholes on the port side mentioned in the above reports. These were added for the camera operator who sat being the bomb bay.






This is me poking my head through the crew hatch and checking the fit of a newly fabricated bulkhead.






Your's truly working on the cockpit floor. Fortunately we have a drawing!


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## Wurger (Jan 19, 2017)




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## Airframes (Jan 19, 2017)

Excellent report Andy, and good to see a 'Yankee' in operation again - one of my favourite tools, handed down to me by my Dad.
Some great work going on there, by all the team, and it's fortunate, you have a drawing - but have you a colour picture for a Mossie you're building ................. I've got me coat !


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## Jeff Hunt (Jan 19, 2017)

Simply superb and what a great experience for you Andy. I have to admit I am jealous.

Jeff


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## Old Wizard (Jan 19, 2017)




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## A4K (Jan 20, 2017)

Terry!... :Lol:

Andy, great update and pics mate, thanks for posting! Well done to you and the team for the work done so far.


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## Crimea_River (Jan 20, 2017)

Thanks all. Glad you enjoyed the update.


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## fubar57 (Jan 20, 2017)

Love the updates, many thanks


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## vikingBerserker (Jan 20, 2017)

I am so fricken jealous you lucky son of a ...............Canadian!

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## Crimea_River (Jan 20, 2017)

Thanks Geo, David.


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## nuuumannn (Jan 20, 2017)

Great stuff, Andy; a true 'restoration'. Keep us informed.


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## Crimea_River (Jan 20, 2017)

Indeed it is. The work we are doing on the fuselage is actually to repair damage that, according to the repair manual, would actually warrant the aircraft being removed from service. A we have chosen a true restoration, this aircraft will never fly.


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## nuuumannn (Jan 20, 2017)

Good to hear. Although it's always nice to see a Mossie fly, having earth bound survivors restored to original condition helps preserve them as they were, which is just as important in the scheme of things.


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## Crimea_River (Jan 20, 2017)

Agree!


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## Gnomey (Jan 21, 2017)

Excellent stuff Andy!


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## Crimea_River (Feb 3, 2017)

Posted on our Facebook page, a nice colour detail of our bird CF-HMS (RAF serial RS700) taken at Burnaston in July 1955 prior to its ferry flight to Canada. RS700 was the first B,35 to be converted to a PR.35, hence the colour. We still have a scrap of fabric on the fuselage showing this colour under the Spartan silver.


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## vikingBerserker (Feb 3, 2017)

Very cool!


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## Airframes (Feb 3, 2017)

Great pic.


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## Old Wizard (Feb 3, 2017)




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## Gnomey (Feb 3, 2017)

Cool shots Andy!


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## Crimea_River (Feb 6, 2017)

Taken last week, essentially a "dry fit" of the cockpit floor and rudder box. The fit-up was necessary to rebuild or tweak some original parts around the crew hatch to ensure proper fit. The rudder box is mostly new as the original plywood was in pretty bad shape. However, we did re-use original parts where we could, sen in green.

The floor comes in 3 pieces. It will be spliced together once the inaccessible spaces and floor underside are painted and the various sub-floor pneumatic and hydraulic lines are reintroduced. The seal between the floor and cockpit walls consists of several pieces of approx 2mm plywood screwed on to fill the gap, followed by some doped fabric.


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## Wurger (Feb 6, 2017)




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## Airframes (Feb 6, 2017)

Good stuff. Must be a big job just remembering where everything goes, even though it's all recorded.


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## Crimea_River (Feb 6, 2017)

Bagging and tagging Terry. Plus we have crated the larger items with pictures of contents. Smaller items are in wooden boxes with a picture of the contents on the outside. We are creating an electronic database of all the parts and where they are stored as well for added additional reference.


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## fubar57 (Feb 6, 2017)

Nice


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## Old Wizard (Feb 6, 2017)




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## Crimea_River (Mar 9, 2017)

A nice photo of our aircraft, CF-HMS taken at Mould Bay, NWT circa 1959

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## Crimea_River (Mar 9, 2017)

Sister ship CF-HMK at Yellowknife, July 1956:

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## Crimea_River (Mar 9, 2017)

My assignment over the last month or so has been to fix water damage at the port side window. Water had infiltrated the plywood and balsa layers at the bottom of the window opening necessitating injection of T-88 epoxy between the layers and clamping them. At the bottom, the layers were rotten and had to be replaced. I cut out the rotten plies, leveled the balsa, installed new plywood layers and then reattached the inner bolting strip whose glue had crystallized causing the ring to fall off.

This first pic shows the finished repair and build-up of the lower sill. The new wood can be clearly seen and does not yet have the holes for the glazing drilled. Please pardon the arm in the picture - another busy volunteer.






With the repair done on the opening, the bolting ring was reglued and clamped using temporary machine bolts inserted into the existing and newly drilled holes. The red stuff is vinyl packing tape and is used to protect the aircraft skin from excess epoxy that may ooze from the joints. The epoxy, we discovered, will not stick to this tape so it makes a handy mask.

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## Airframes (Mar 10, 2017)

Great stuff Andy, and wonderful work.
On the outside of these windows, is there a rubber sealing strip around the edge ?
Not sure whether to add one to my models.


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## Gnomey (Mar 10, 2017)

Lovely stuff Andy!


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## vikingBerserker (Mar 10, 2017)

What a fantastic job!

When you saw Balsa wood, are you referring to the really soft light weight wood?


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## Wurger (Mar 10, 2017)




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## Old Wizard (Mar 10, 2017)




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## Crimea_River (Mar 10, 2017)

Thanks everyone.



Airframes said:


> Great stuff Andy, and wonderful work.
> On the outside of these windows, is there a rubber sealing strip around the edge ?
> Not sure whether to add one to my models.



There is definitely another ring on the outside Terry but it's not rubber. Rather, it's thinn aluminum. See the detail below, parts A98191 and A98192




.





vikingBerserker said:


> What a fantastic job!
> 
> When you saw Balsa wood, are you referring to the really soft light weight wood?



Yes David. The fuselage as made up of an inner and outer sheet of 1.5mm to 3mm birch plywood sandwiching 7/16" thick balsa wood, the same stuff used for R/C planes.

In the below pic, the outer plywood skin has been removed and I have labeled the sandwiched woods:

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## Airframes (Mar 11, 2017)

Thanks very much for that Andy, it's clarified everything.

Interesting that the plywood for the Mosquito was imported from America - darn, the Mosquito was American after all !!!


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## Crimea_River (Mar 11, 2017)

We could no longer get the replacement plywood here. A mill in Austria supplied it to the specified thicknesses and number of plies, all per the original British standard!


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## Airframes (Mar 11, 2017)

So it's an Anglo-American-Austrian-Canadian Mosquito !
I've got the documentary on the building of the Mosquito, which includes the production of the plywood, and its import, by sea, to the UK. Unfortunately, it's on a VHS tape, along with original footage from the Shell House raid, and I really must get it transferred to DVD.


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## pbehn (Mar 11, 2017)

The bulk of the Mosquito was made of plywood. Stronger and lighter than most grades of plywood, this special plywood was produced by a combination of 3/8" sheets of Ecuadorean balsawood sandwiched between sheets of Canadian birch plywood. Like a deck of cards, sheets of wood alternated with sheets of a special casein-based (Later formaldehyde) wood glue.

The specialized wood veneer used in the construction of the Mosquito was made by Roddis Manufacturing in Marshfield, Wisconsin, United States. Hamilton Roddis had teams of dexterous young women ironing the (Unusually thin) strong wood veneer product before shipping to the UK.

RAF Wyton - De Haviland Mosquito

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## Old Wizard (Mar 11, 2017)




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## A4K (Mar 12, 2017)

De Havilland Australia produced the Mosquito for the RAAF during the war, the first (A52-1) taking to the air at Bankstown, Sydney (NSW), on 23 July 1943.
This from 'Aeroplane Monthly' (January 2017) on the wood used in DHA manufacture:

All spruce and balsa for the primary structure was imported, but Australian timber was employed in many elements of the secondary structure. Initially, it was planned to use local coachwood ply in the wing skins and spar webs. This decision was later reversed, as related by Merv Waghorn, an engineer seconded from Hatfield who was delegated to make design changes: "The shear strength and shear (modulus) tests I did on coachwood demonstrated that, although it met the same specifications as (4 x 3) birch ply, it could not match (the) results achieved on birch ply at Hatfield using identical test conditions. I therefore made the decision to increase the spar web thickness for coachwood, the first major modification to the Mosquito developed in Australia.
"This proved to cause problems because it reduced the chordwise dimensions of the space into which the wing tanks were fitted and required reduction of the chordwise dimension of the tank doors, so that they were not interchangable with those on English and Canadian Mosquitos and made them hard to install. Before production was under way, the plan of using coachwood was abandoned and we used imported birch ply throughout, so the whole modification was unnecessary".

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## Old Wizard (Mar 14, 2017)




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## Crimea_River (Mar 15, 2017)

Big job done tonight. The outer skin plywood has delaminated at the middle seam due to water intrusion. The fix was done tonight by injecting epoxy between the layers and clamping with wedges between a precut 2x6 and the skin surface.

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## Jeff Hunt (Mar 15, 2017)

Great reporting Andy. Super informative and kudos to everyone else for their informative posts.

Jeff


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## fubar57 (Mar 15, 2017)

Great stuff. A wee bit more finicky than replacing metal panels


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## pbehn (Mar 15, 2017)

Crimea_River said:


> A nice photo of our aircraft, CF-HMS taken at Mould Bay, NWT circa 1959
> 
> View attachment 368139




No wonder Mossies are rare, they've cut down all the trees to build just one.

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## Old Wizard (Mar 15, 2017)




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## Shinpachi (Mar 17, 2017)

Good job goes on !


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## Gnomey (Mar 17, 2017)

Looks great Andy! Thanks for the update.


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## Crimea_River (Mar 24, 2017)

Thanks all. Here's a little teaser for a documentary we are putting together about our project. You can see the top of my shiny head working on the Merlin engine, which is in fact the one for our Hurricane.


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## Wurger (Mar 25, 2017)




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## Airframes (Mar 25, 2017)

Great preview Andy, and fantastic work being done by all.


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## Old Wizard (Mar 25, 2017)




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## Gnomey (Mar 25, 2017)

Cool!


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## Crimea_River (Apr 8, 2018)

My, my, a year already! Time for an update methinks.

First off, I'd like to beg you patience for a minute so that I can post the following pics so that I can link them for someone looking for help on another forum. The following pics have to do with the the aileron attachment points and aileron trim mechanism. This first pic shows the starboard access panel for the aileron servo on the upper wing surface at the aileron/flap junction. There's a lot missing here as the area behind the rear spar on the wing is pretty much destroyed. This is where the rib extensions should be that pick up the upper skin just forward of the aileron and flap. Aft is up. Aileron would be to the left and flap to the right.







Diagram of the wing access panels.






Mechanism for the aileron servo and trim mechanism.






Back soon with progress pics


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## Crimea_River (Apr 8, 2018)

Picking up from where we left off showing the fuselage closure seam to the nose, this is from our 2Q17 Report:

Starting from the front of the fuselage and working aft, work continues on the following areas. The center line of the fuselage forward of the cockpit windscreen has been re-bonded. A new strip was added once the joint was cleaned and re-glued. There are two strips on the internal side, both of which are reinstalled originals. These were reinstalled after the skins were re-glued on both sides of the joint.






*Jack, Andy, Cam and Michael all focused on the centerline of the upper fuselage from the windscreen to the nose.*


The ferrules are the round inserts used to attach the anchor nuts to the structure. The ferrules are in various conditions from requiring cleaning to missing completely. The ferrules around the center strip are missing completely with more on the way (see above). Andy is focused on repairing and installing all the ferrules in the cockpit area. When reinstalling the ferrules we also have the chance to re-bond the internal skins to the balsa core. Most of the rest of the crew is focused on other areas to leave Andy unencumbered in the cockpit.

Gary is reworking the canopy opening, with the intent of streamlining the canopy frame installation through rebuild of damaged internal structure and the installation of new material missing around the opening. Gary's talents will be concentrated here until we can get back under the floor in the cockpit to complete the installation of floor support structures. These parts are ready for install but at the moment, the temporary floor covers this area.





*Gary’s efforts have focused on the area circled in red; the rear canopy frame area. [That's me working on the ferrules in the nose]*

Cam is nearing completion of rebuilding the openings for the wing attach brackets. These two openings are a tapered opening for the fittings to slide through. We have built the area up with multiple plys of veneer which has added considerable stability to the area. The left side is essentially completed and the right side maybe a day or two from complete.






*Everyone busy at their stations as described above: Cam on the wing attach bracket area, Gary on the rear canopy edge, Davey on bulkhead #3 and Roger replacing balsa.*

Michael has been moving around the area between bulkhead 2 and 3 repairing various loose or damaged components. We are focused on finishing any repairs in this area so we can commence installation of some of the outer skins.

Roger has been working on the outside of the same area, installing or repairing the balsa which seems to be a constant problem. Very little of the balsa has remained bonded to the internal skin and where exposed, it is easily damaged. Roger has all but a few areas left for repair of the balsa between bulkheads 2 and 3 with re-gluing starting soon.

Wade has completed repairs on areas around bulkhead 3 were he has installed patches, as we could quite literally see through the fuselage. Wade has also been working up through the camera bay. When he is not present, other volunteers have been removing components for cleaning and repair where the camera mounts behind the bulkhead.

We have been bouncing around between bulkhead 2 and 3, cleaning, gluing and yes painting. Don Y., Don H. and Davey have been working every corner we can find to ensure the glue joints are tight and the debris removed.

Paul, Don and Jack have been preparing metal components and repainting them for reinstallation once the wood structure is ready. Things like the oxygen fill box and the structure into which it fits have been rebuilt though it still looks rough and crude as Spartan's standards of design and workmanship were not high when this installation occurred, circa 1956.





*The Spartan designed and built oxygen fill port ready to be reinstalled into the starboard side rear fuselage. Both the box and the hole were crudely modified for the task.*


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## Crimea_River (Apr 8, 2018)

3Q17 Report:

As opportunities present themselves we continue to acquire parts and resources to assist in the restoration. In June we were contacted by a couple in Nova Scotia who spotted at a garage sale what they thought was a Mosquito nose blister. Through some misunderstandings they acquired it for us and in turn one of our members purchased and donated it to the society. It is not the right style for our aircraft, but it is great trade material.





*Newly acquired Mosquito nose blister. Many Canadian built Mosquitoes were posted in the Maritimes during the war in Operational Training Units.*

The component shop of Sunwest Aviation in Calgary was good enough to disassemble and inspect two spare tail wheels for us as we were looking for a potential serviceable unit to trade to the Mosquito Bomber group in Windsor, ON.

Making international news in August was the incredible discovery of 22,300 drawings and plans for the Mosquito in an Airbus plant in England that was slated for demolition. The Peoples Mosquito organization, with whom we have had an affiliation for some years, gained worldwide attention with this find. They have begun the process of indexing and cataloguing the find, which contains many one of a kind technical drawings for repairs and modifications, many of which were considered but never developed. It also includes repair schemes for the prototype Mosquito.





*One of the drawings from The Peoples Mosquito group showing the modifications required to convert a B.35 model Mosquito into a PR.35.*

The organization contacted us when they discovered the drawings, developed in 1950 by Marshall's Flying Club of Cambridge, to convert the B.35 Mosquito model into the PR.35 model at the request of the Royal Air Force. Our airplane was the very first to undergo these modifications, thus becoming the prototype PR.35. The chief engineer for The People's Mosquito group took time from his indexing work to copy two sheets and send them to us, making us the first organization to benefit from this historic find.

Progress on RS700:

We will start from the tail of the aircraft and move forward. We have started to build work stands around the aft left side of the fuselage to facilitate access to the top side area. Externally there are two skins that require removal, one small and one large. From past experience we are confident they are very poorly bonded to the internal structure.

It is my opinion we have lost about 70 to 75 % of the adhesion and worse still was where the birch contacts the balsa. This has been consistent throughout the aircraft at this point. As well, the inner skin is suffering from the hundreds of staple holes which were used to clamp the skins together in some earlier crude restoration attempt. At this point I am hoping we can lay a new skin over the old structure as we had previously done in other areas.

On the inside rear of the fuselage, Don Y. has been cleaning and removing components so we can determine the level of damage around the tail wheel attach points. The area between the two aft bulkheads has a different issue than the rest of the fuselage. The area, which had large amounts of dirt and oil, was simply varnished over at some time and now has the texture of 60 grit sandpaper.

Down the left side of the fuselage all the balsa that was damaged has been replaced. There remains a small section on the right side which will be completed within a week. Andy and Cam have about one days' work left to finish the balsa on the right side so they can move on to other areas.





*Andy and Cam applying T88 epoxy glue to the new strips of balsa wood on the port side of the fuselage. [Andy EDIT: In the area surrounded by red vinyl tape (used to protect areas from epoxy) you can see epoxy glue being applied by yours truly to the exposed INNER SKIN. Below that can be seen strips of NEW BALSA, about 9/16" thick. Once the new balsa is set, it will need to be planed and sanded smooth to the contour of the aircraft.]*

Michael, Don and Davey have moved aft to bulkhead 3 were work has commenced on the structure which contains the lower wing attach points. It seems a normal thing for aircraft; all but one bolt has been removed from the left side. There is a large amount of rust and we will look closely at the bolts with the thought of installing new hardware in those positions since they are crucial to securing the wing.

In the same area, the lower forward skin on the bulkhead has been removed with very little trouble thanks to poor bonding. The skin has been cleaned, the ribs are cleaned and the area is masked off for painting. It did not have paint originally but in the interest of protecting the area we have decided to cover it over. As well, it will be caulked on the aft side with epoxy to reinforce the back side without removal.











*The Spartan modified lower half of bulkhead 3 with the front face removed. To the right are the mounting brackets that seem to defy logic in how they were installed. As per the text below, we pioneered a new technique to clean them.*

The removal of the skin has given us a couple of benefits, one being the removal of the steel nails that were rusting and exposure to the inner structure. This area is not original to the aircraft at build, but was redesigned and modified by Spartan Air Services as an add-on for the Wild camera mounts, making it unique to our aircraft. We are still trying to figure out how it was put together as the attach brackets overlap. We have theories, but not a conclusive answer.

A new method for paint removal on those attach points has yielded success; Wayne had suggested using an airbrush eraser. The process is slow but we achieved the results we need using a media of baking soda, both cheap and user friendly as opposed to the more conventional aluminum oxide. [Andy EDIT: Baking soda blown through an airbrush removes paint!]

The canopy frame installation work has stopped as we require the external skins to be fitted before the rest of the material can be installed. We continue to go over the cockpit area looking for loose corners and bad joints before paint is applied. Various small gussets and spacers are being removed cleared and reinstalled there again because of the poor bonding issues. Andy has all the original ferrules installed with a small number of missing to go.






*Gary and Dick concentrate on the canopy frame area while Davey continues to work on the crew entry hatch area.*

The structural repair work in the cockpit area is slowly coming to completion with small areas being glued following close inspection. The last remaining large job is to complete the tunnel from the main crew entry door to the floor boards. Gary has the components done and he flips between that and the canopy frame work depending on whom else is working where.

Paul and Jack are currently cleaning and painting various metal parts with Davey putting them back on templates.

Two areas that are holding us up are the tap and dies, as well as gaskets. The tap and dies have been ordered from a tool manufacturer in eastern Canada with scheduled delivery early in October. We have to go down the road of British Association, British Standard fine and British standard Whitworth so one set of each is on its way. Remembering that the British method of safety is to hit the end of a bolt with a hammer (calibrated size) rather than use a split pin with the result that all the bolts are galled on removal and require the threads to be cleaned before reuse.

On the gasket side, a local company has volunteered to make gaskets for us but we need to supply them with templates which we have yet to make. The gaskets are required for where metal parts are mounted inside the wood fuselage.

With the summer season complete we will get back to physically spreading out a little with a few more projects on the go. The side panels will likely be brought over before the snow flies so we can start on the components attached to the sides. We have been busy fixing some of the tooling as well, such as the bead blaster to get up to speed with cleaning things like the wing attach components.

The crew are now taking some satisfaction in the discernible progress in many areas; we can now see a lot of the little things that have been accomplished. The cockpit is approaching the point where we will start painting, much to the chagrin of most involved as we are the only ones that appreciate the long hours that have gone into repairing, cleaning, and preparing the beautiful wood surfaces, only to have to cover it all with paint.





*After hundreds of hours invested in paint stripping, cleaning, and restoring the wood of the cockpit area, there is some reluctance to paint this area and hide all of the good work and beautiful wood.*

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## Airframes (Apr 8, 2018)

Great up-date Andy, and some fine work going on there.


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## Crimea_River (Apr 8, 2018)

From the 4Q17 Report:

We continue to work with and support the Windsor Mosquito Bomber Group in their efforts to build a flying Mosquito. We loaned them two fairings which they will use to manufacture replicas. VP Jack McWilliam was able to fly a small crate to Ontario for one of their people to pick up. The crate also contained a spare tail wheel which we donated to their cause in exchange for a crew access ladder that we will gain in the trade.





*Jack from the Windsor Mosquito group used our rudder fairing to first create a mold and then manufacture a new piece in carbon fibre.*

CMS member Rick F. continues to keep an eye open for Mosquito parts on eBay and with his extensive network of contacts around the world. As with the nose blister acquired last quarter, a member purchased and donated these new items, which we will use as trade material.











*A minor electrical panel and an undercarriage/flap/bomb door hydraulic selector unit which we have added to our collection of potential trade materials. The bomb door selector lever is not present indicating that this particular unit was for the fighter version of the Mosquito.*

RS700 Progress:

For this report we will start at the front of the aircraft and move toward the tail. Inside the very front of the aircraft, various quadrants in the cockpit are now being painted as are several of the forward bulkheads; all of which require a number of coats of paint. As with most jobs on the airplane, it is time consuming work, using small brushes to get into all the corners. As well, we have to plug all of the threaded holes in the ferrules to prevent the paint from clogging them.

In the cockpit area as well, Andy has taken the time to map the location and keep track of all the grounding straps and he has temporarily installed small nails in each nail hole so the original locations and paths can be followed. Once the painting is completed we will start restoring the grounding straps which are badly wrinkled and cracked.

[Andy EDIT: the below pic shows location of some of the original grounding straps and temporary nails used to locate where these were attached to the inner skin]






..end of EDIT] 










*Upper: We reached a significant milestone in starting to paint the interior of the nose and cockpit area which means all the structural repairs in this area are complete, all damaged ferrules replaced and we can now start to reinstall restored components. Lower: Not quite the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but Michelangelo (Don H.) takes similar pride in his work.*

Gary has finished with the crew entrance area bulkhead and the temporary floor is reinstalled to protect the bulkheads. Painting beneath the floor has started in small areas and will expand shortly. We have gone over bulkhead 2 as much as possible to ensure that cracks and delamination have been repaired. The aft side of this bulkhead has been painted with one coat. More of the metal components for this area have been painted, with repair work for the hydraulic tubing to start once tooling is acquired.

Davey has been hard at work cleaning threads on all the fasteners for the armour plates and reattaching them to the template. Material used to protect the wood and armour from fretting now needs to be sourced and cut for fit.

We are near completion for repairing the damage to the fuselage between bulkhead 2 and the stress fracture on the right side of the fuselage with only holes to be drilled.

The 'ceiling' area between bulkhead 2 and 3 has been inspected with most areas repaired. One more final inspection for any loose ends and it too will be ready for paint. From the cockpit back to this area is a uniform green colour so we will endeavor to complete this to avoid mix ups in paint colours.





*The Master and his young apprentice: Here Davey D. shows one of our newer and younger volunteers, Geoffrey C. the finer points of thread cleaning on hardware used to attach the armour plate to bulkhead 1.*

On the top side, Andy and Cam have completed most repairs to the structure like cracks, voids and balsa replacement. Andy is now roughing the contours on the outside left to get ready to install new skins. Gary has invented a sander which appears to work well for scarfing areas on the aircraft, eliminating one more technical problem.

In the area of the camera mount, a shelf was added by Spartan which is still firmly attached, making it one of the few areas that are completely intact and original. That said it also happens to be an area we need to access in order to remove bolts that held the lower wing attach points together. Michael and Don have worked to clean the hardware and remove debris to help gain access to these critical bolts.






*Andy W. has installed all new balsa wood in the area aft of the cockpit canopy. Once glued in place the balsa has to be sanded to create a smooth curved surface prior to covering with new birch plywood skin.*





*Although the new balsa wood will be completely covered by the outer skin, we use a permanent ink stamp which reads "Calgary Mosquito Society 2009" on all new material added to the airplane. This is in alignment with best practices, which for future reference will identify and distinguish from original all of the work done and new materials used by our organization in the restoration process.*

[Andy EDIT: an additional pic showing the above area after initials shaping:






..end of EDIT]

During inspection some of the joints appeared to require bonding, for which there was no easy fix. Dick came up with the idea of cutting lightening holes parallel to the fasteners so we could get wrenches on them. Of course the most difficult fasteners were the worst to remove and it was no surprise to find them badly corroded. Once repaired, this area will be caulked with epoxy, using fasteners to squeeze it down. Various other locations have also been caulked since we have no access to the joint area. Once the area has been bonded, plugs will be cut to fill the lightening holes.

A lot of work is going into this area, but it is critical to the structure and safety of the aircraft as these are two of only four areas to which the wing attaches. Some injection bonding will likely take place on the skins in this area as well.

Moving aft on the port side of the fuselage, our last piece of bogus skin patching has been removed. Again, this is work that was done after the airplane arrived in Calgary and was in the care of the Air Museum of Canada. It represents the largest patch on the aircraft and the last piece to be removed from the left side of the fuselage. The damage was similar to other areas we have worked on, with poor bonding resulting in delamination, more staple holes, small areas of rot, missing material and last but not least, more cedar below the skin where balsa should have been used.





*'The sins of the fathers': Here Jack supervises Cam and Don as they remove a large section of skin that was stapled in place by volunteers with the Air Museum of Canada back in the mid 1960s. Under the bogus skin we found an abundance of non-standard cedar in place of the balsa, as well as a badly damaged inner skin section.*

Roger and Peter have worked this area building an internal frame to support the skin shape, cutting out the bad material and preparing the new insert. The new skin will be bonded underneath the existing stringer and will be spliced to the old material.

Gary is scarfing the aft area getting ready for the first external patch, after which we will move forward from this point working back to bulkhead 3.






*After the bogus skin was removed Peter and Roger went to work removing the cedar and cutting out a section of damaged inner skin.*





*Not a job for the large or claustrophobic. Deep in the rear fuselage, Roger installs the temporary structure built to support the new inner skin. Because of the taper of the fuselage and its compound curves, every skin replacement requires a new custom build structure.*

Don is busy removing varnish painted over all the dirt in the tail end of the aircraft. This is a very confined space requiring patience and short bursts of work. The aft sheet of plywood on bulkhead six probably has a nail every 1/4 inch.

Inside, Janelle has installed a patch on bulkhead 5, Cam is repairing the internal skin damage on the hell hole door where the aft door striker plate was ripped out.

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## Gnomey (Apr 8, 2018)

Great stuff Andy!


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## Crimea_River (Apr 8, 2018)

Thanks Hugh. Attaching a diagram of the fuel relief valve needed by someone who needs the link:


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## turbo (Apr 8, 2018)

COOL!!!!


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## fubar57 (Apr 11, 2018)

Great update


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## Crimea_River (Apr 30, 2018)

From our 1Q18 Report:

The work accomplished in the first quarter of 2018 is very similar to that in the fourth quarter of 2017. The cockpit area is being painted with a second coat. After the first coat of paint, which was thinned to help penetrate the dry wood, we took a look for any defects that the paint exposed. This included any areas where additional sanding, filling and gluing were done to facilitate repairs. The 'finished' (to this point) product looks quite clean at this point and is in sharp contrast to the days when we first started on the fuselage.

The hardware for the armour plate below the crew positions is almost complete, with only the gasket between the bulkhead and plate remaining to be cut before the plate is reinstalled.










*Then and Now: 2012 and 2018. Standing in the bomb bay looking forward into the cockpit and nose area.*

The rubberized cork has arrived so discussions are underway to determine the best way to cut the sizeable gasket. We look forward to attaching the armour plate to the bulkhead as it will provide some significant structural integrity for this area of the fuselage. Even Spartan Air Services learned the importance of the plating, which they had removed at one point because of its weight, only to reinstall it after recognizing that it served a structural purpose.





*Davey D. working on the bulkhead prior to reinstalling the armour plate which protected the crew’s lower legs and provided significant structural strength to the fuselage.*

The structure around the aft lower wing attach points has been opened, with a great deal of old glue removed were possible with the joints being re-glued. Wooden plugs were made to fill holes cut in the camera operator's shelf in order to gain access to the hardware that bolted the structure together. New hardware will be sourced and installed as corrosion in this area was extensive.

Work is progressing from the 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock position aft of bulkhead 2 with work around the attach brackets for the hydraulic tanks. The skins have already been patched or repaired in the area so work is progressing rapidly with Dave D. putting the final touch to the area.

Bouncing around a little, the rearmost area of the fuselage interior has been cleaned and stripped from outside the last bulkhead, which now requires us to enter the tail area from the hell hole in order to complete the cleaning, paint stripping and repairs. The coating that had covered the grime in the tail has been quite difficult to remove, especially given the limited and awkward access to this area. Don Y. and Don H. have been taking turns cleaning the area as it is quite physically demanding.










*Don Y. reaching in the back door to clean out and paint strip the rearmost area of the fuselage.*

Roger D. has completed the structural repairs to the port side of the rear fuselage including the balsa installation. This leaves only the exterior skins to be installed.

We continue to experiment with and learn about vacuum bagging to facilitate installing the exterior skins, with a few challenges yet to be resolved. Equipment should be in place to move forward with this by the end of the week.





*Roger examines the inner skin of the rear port side fuselage to determine how much will have to be replaced due to water damage that has rotted the wood and weakened the structure.*

Gary T. is handling the vacuum bagging work and is now working on a patch on the starboard side of the fuselage which is slightly larger than the first patch on which this process was first used. The starboard side of the fuselage has significantly less damage than does the port, so there will more patching and far less full skin panel replacement.





*Gary T. experimenting with vacuum bagging new skin to the fuselage. Michael H. looks on as SAIT students Janelle and Kerona take some instruction from Dick S. above.*

Andy W. is working to repair a stringer on the starboard rear side of the fuselage. It appears that impact damage has given the stringer a concave shape and that a scarf joint in the area has separated, complicating the repair efforts. Roger W. is working his carpenter's magic building forms to hold the stringer in position for gluing and repair. Patch locations have been drawn out on the outside of the starboard fuselage where we will move in increments to keep the patches as small as possible.





*Andy W. working to repair a stringer on the rear starboard side of the fuselage. It has bowed inward and split at a scarf point.*

We have begun to build a list of hardware necessary to start bolting some of the structure back together. The original metal hardware on this aircraft is both peened over and corroded beyond belief in some areas as it is embedded in the wood, much of which has held a great deal of water for years. Andy W. has located a company that may supply us with copper strips that we can use to replace any of the iconic bonding straps that crisscross the interior of the fuselage.

I am optimistic we should be well on our way to getting the exterior skins installed before the summer season. We will continue to get some of the mechanical pieces ready for installation once the painting is complete. The job of painting small metal bits and pieces is a surprisingly time consuming task.

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## fubar57 (Apr 30, 2018)

Thanks for the update


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## turbo (Apr 30, 2018)




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## Gnomey (May 1, 2018)

Excellent stuff Andy!


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## Airframes (May 2, 2018)

Great stuff.


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## Crimea_River (May 2, 2018)

Thanks guys.


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## Crimea_River (Apr 5, 2021)

For those interested, here's an update of our progress over the last two years as presented at our AGM two weeks ago.

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## Capt. Vick (Apr 5, 2021)

Beautiful


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## Airframes (Apr 6, 2021)

Great presentation, and good to see you mentioned. Thanks for posting Andy.


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## Wurger (Apr 6, 2021)




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## Gnomey (Apr 6, 2021)

Good stuff Andy!


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## SaparotRob (Apr 6, 2021)

Great work. I love seeing aviation history preserved. The amount of dedication to see it through is impressive. I imagine volunteers dropping out regularly from frustration. 
Way to go!


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## Crimea_River (Apr 6, 2021)

SaparotRob said:


> Great work. I love seeing aviation history preserved. The amount of dedication to see it through is impressive. I imagine volunteers dropping out regularly from frustration.
> Way to go!



That has not been a problem for us. We have a good cross section of people that has actually grown over the years, including a couple of young teens which I really like to see. We've lost a few to natural causes and only one to disagreement that I recall.

Right now at home, I have completed the elevator control balance and am starting on the main fuel valve, throttle control links and the radiator flap control assembly.

Completed Elevator Control Balance:







Throttle control (note corrosion and the bent arms): 






Radiator Flap Control:






This is how the latter looks in the real airplane:

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## Airframes (Apr 7, 2021)

Some nice work there Andy, and a bit different from 1/48th scale !!

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## Gnomey (Apr 12, 2021)

Good stuff Andy!


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## rochie (Apr 14, 2021)

Great videos Andy, thanks for sharing it

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