From Scrapyard to Simulator

The "heavy-engineering" process is well underway, and the cockpit has been under sustained attack by cutting disc today.

When 'OB was scrapped the cut was made about two inches in the wrong place which deformed the avionics bay on the starboard side. So we decided to remove the bay entirely and trim back closer to the cockpit bulkhead. The end result is really good, it's cleaner and makes the whole cockpit section look much shorter, even though only a foot-wide strip has been taken off the fuselage.

Once the back is tidied up the frame will be visible, which looks neat and Derrick is fabricating an aluminium back-plate to the circuit breaker panel. The remaining part of the cargo door mechanism is now gone too, I'm surprised just how light the two-foot long screw-jack actually is. In fact the whole structure itself is very light and its strength really comes from how the various components are combined. Most people who've seen the cockpit are questioning their faith in aircraft construction when they see just how relatively flimsy it is, especially the outer skin. What do weigh a tonne are all the copper wiring looms which we are removing by the metre. Someone no doubt put a lot of love and care into the wiring when 'OB was built, and we're just ripping it out in seconds.

The battery brackets on the forward bulkhead are also removed leaving just a few sections of pneumatic pipe to go and the front end will be ready for painting in due course. The tubing and wheels are ready for fabrication of the trolley and once that's in place the "major" jobs are done and it'll be on to cosmetic tasks, before giving the whole thing a good clean inside and out.

The other "heavy engineering" is building the garage. The foundations are in place, but Ireland is going through a really wet spell, 3 month's rain has fallen just a couple of weeks, so the damp course, radon shield and base are waiting for a few days of forecasted dry weather. At least that's the only inconvenience we have here, unlike the folks out west along the Shannon under a few feet of flooding.



Looks like a moat for a mini-castle with a couple of feet of water in the excavations 2 weeks ago.



At least it's safe again for the kids out in the back. The fog hasn't cleared all day. Once we get a couple of days dry weather the base can be finished, and work above ground should be less weather dependent.