I've kindly been sent a couple of images of myself, from a high speed run day at Cranfield a couple of weeks ago.
The author conencting the Houchin ground generator, Closing / Opening the cockpit canopy, and standing with John in fornt of the aircraft for the photo!
It was a glorious day, we were very lucky with the weather - 2x high speed runs, faultless aircraft, and some static re-heat performances too!
Another image taken as the sun is on it's way down over the water...
The weather has been great over the last couple of days (almost Caribbean yesterday), sadly yesterday's sunset was amazing, not a cloud in the sky, and very, very red, but my camera was playing up.. hey-ho, can't win them all.
To set the scene.... I'm on a North Sea Oil / Gas platform, so very far from home...
Had an interesting chat earlier with a Scottish engineer, about my video's on YouTube. As soon as I brought up on the computer my video of the Jet Lawnmower, he got all excited, as he'd been watching the very video last week in Aberdeen!!
Does this mean I can qualify as an internet celebrity! Or is it really just a very small world...?
After our massive restoration project, a lot of blood, sweat, tears and cash, the house is now pristine. And of course, just as people said we would, we've now decided it's time to move! Sharnford has been a fun place to live for the last 5 years, seems like yesterday when we moved in!
So our house is for sale with David Robinson estate agent in Broughton Astley.
I've been hearing some odd "grindy" type noises over the last few days, especially when shunting the car around at low speeds - such as parking. During driving, I was hearing a "clickety-clicking" type noise. Strangely enough, I've not heard the typical "worbling" of a worn out wheel bearing.
I did a little investigation... wobbly wheel...
Looking at the disk, the "grindy" noise was the brake disk rubbing against the fixed part of the caliper! the disk metal is quite scratched / marked from this rubbing. The "clickety-click" noise was the cable ties of the CV boot rubbing on the bottom end ball joint!, The hub had moved that far!
Here, the brake disk is tightened to the hub with 2 wheel bolts, just to illustrate the amount of movement against the caliper! it's quite shocking!
Next - got to get the parts and replace the bearing, a friend with a superb workshop is lending a hand, Thanks Brian!
About 2 weeks ago, we were playing about with the camera and this Mk3C helmet down at Cranfield, got a nice reflection of T5 Lightning XS458 in the visor. Luckily some pro photographers were present, who came up with the idea!
During this engine test of Steve's Jet Lawnmower, we had a bit of a catastrophe....
This sit-on Lawnmower has a home-made gas turbine, or jet engine under the seat. made form a lorry turbocharger, and home built combustion chamber. We don't claim to have built it, as Steve bought it off eBay. (This is in the UK)
I'd invited my old man over to see the engine run, as he's also an Engineer by trade and would find it interesting, he'd never been to see it before, so perhaps that may have been a bad omen to begin with! He was videographer for the engine run.
Disaster.....
During the engine run, one of the afterburner fuel hoses had melted due to the heat produced at the back end. This, we didn't know at the time.. so when we came to switch on the Afterburner, or Reheat fuel, the petrol / diesel mix squirted over the outside of the jet pipe with disastrous consequences. Good job it didn't explode!
So once the Lawnmower had turned it'self into a bonfire, we had the challenge of putting it out! As the fuel pumps were still running and pumping fuel into the fire, there was no way of putting it out with water / extinguisher!! It was rescued by pulling the battery lead off, and the fire brigade wasn't called! Never the less, it's made an interesting video:
With the 2011 C'Fest fast approaching, it's a good time to blog about last year's event.....
For the un-acquainted, Cockpitfest (sureley a better name could have been chosen!) is an annual event held atNewark Air Museum, over a weekend in June. The museum invites private cockpit (or "aircraft nose section") owners to display their pride and joy's to the public. This event brings a lot of visitors to the museum, and is great for publicity. These owners restore and rebuild their nose sections just like a classic car owner would, and this show is the classic car show of the aviation world!
Fir the participants, or displayers, it's a fantastic networking event, I've only attended twice (2009 and 2010) and have made some really good friends, and some great contacts within the classic aviation world.
The museum usually organises a small air display or fly-past during the weekend which adds to the interest. For people who display, a Saturday night session is put on, with FREE hog-roast and FREE BEER! - So needless to say Sunday morning can be a bit slow.... We camp the night over within the museum inbetween the exhibits, which is a unique experience in itself! Official event website below:
The weekend had a great turnout, a lot of cockpit owners brought along their cockpit projects in various states of repair, and a lot completed. Around 30 cockpits attended the event, plus a host of non-cockpit displays from private collections of aviation related memorabilia, stuff, etc..
Stacks of visitors through the gates over the weekend, mainly families having a day out. It's great for that, as the kids love sitting in the aircraft cockpits, and get to learn so much.
My contribution to the event, not being a cockpit-owner was my collection of Flight (US term) or Flying (UK term) Helmets. I'd built a special display stand which got named the "Helmet Tree" by FlyPast magazine’s editor Ken Ellis. There were a lot of non-cockpit displays, mainly instrument panels, ejection seats, flight and survival gear. I was really chuffed when the Helmet Tree won the first ever award for Best Non-Cockpit Display, which was a nice collectable bottle of Single Malt Scotch!
Cheers to Newark Air Museum!! And many thanks to my understanding, long suffering wife! ;o)