A few more pics of FMC and VH-EAX ex EC-EVK
Me and Daza discussing something on the L/H engine.
Same view on the R/H engine
The local Land Rover was working hard, not really, just a walk in the park, Cheer up, Carry on!
Norm and tha guys were working hard getting EC-EVK now VH-EAX ready
Roberto sent me these pictures from last weekend.
Beautiful
EAX Coming in for landing at Cuatro Vientos.
The registration VH-EAX was previously held by another catalina operatded by Qantas herre seen "washed ashore & written off at Lord Howe Is - June '45" according to the Qantas foundation homepage they operatded it between Perth and Colombo, a hop of about 28hrs non stop... Check out their home page: www.qfm.org.au
Well we couldnt do much more on this trip. All wrapped up and ready to go. Next time we´ll go when we are positive we will get then engines and props hung as we are running out of things to do except getting everyting running. The web page is beeing worked on and will hopefully be operating in the near future.
Ocana 27/9-1/10
So we got back on a sunday afternoon.Our friends from Austalia had the good taste of spending their time , waiting for spares in our vicinity and showed up just as we arrived. (I suspect thet they had a good look at the bar and only used us as an excuse...:) Anyway we got a helping hand from Norm, Pete and Chris that were preparing EC-EVK for the ferry to Oz on the folowing thursday. FMC or 64064 finally moved from under the olive trees (or something) and positioned herself nicely on the ramp under the power from the local Landrover.
This time my father Hjalmar grabbed the tools and started to prepare the aircraft for some skin repair.
Its now considerable darker than just a few weeks before and the temperature has dropped from a good 30 degreees during the day to a rather cold 18C...
After a rather uncomfortable night in the Cat in the sleeping bag we got up with the sun and got busy.
My friend Niclkas Amren is a very talented man in any aviation trade, Sheetmetal,hydraulics,restoring basketcases that hasen´t flown for 70+years, engines, 737, He is also father to newly rstored T-6 Checkér tail together with Stefan Sandberg, I guess he is the fater too.... Anyway, Igot lots of help from this guy, Thank you N!
Dad trying the avionics trade.
Inspired by the speed we were progressing we decided to powerup the hydraulic system. Armed with 20L of fluid 41 we started to pressurise the system with the handpump. The system made a funny noice and when I opened the connection to the pump quite a few liters of water left the system.... after a few cans of water had been replaced by oil, the system was full and our first hyrdaulic surprice was at hand. The leading edge appeared to be filled with hydraulic fluid and was dripping everywhere.
The return tube in the wing had burst in two places due to water freezing inside...
Fortunately the spare parts weren´t far away and we were still curious what was to come.
Dad thinks the avionic system of my cat is a joke
After reaching about 800psi a tube in the hydraulic corner on the copilotR/H side started spewing fluid everywhere. Armed with new tubes from the parts store we quickly replaced the old-4 hoses that were the weak spot this time and now things seemed to work for us.
The jacks that we borrowed from SAESA didn´t work so we disconnected the MLG actuators just to see them work an d exercise the system.
There is quite a lot of hydraulic fluid to move when exersising the large actuators so we cranked up the electrical system to get the electrical hydraulic pump running and to our surprise most of the electric stuff was working ok.
Well what am I doing in the R/H watertank??? After retracting the actuators we wanted to see if they worked the other way too. One did and the other not. After consulting the manuals we discovered that the MLG uplock did not behave as it should. After unlocking the gear it is supposed to pressurize the upper side of the actuator to get the gear down. There was pressure at the inlet of the acutuator but nothing coming out of it as it should.
Consequently I and Niclas removed the faulty actuator.
And took it apart in the workshop only to find a large spring that had broken and was jamming the uplockactuator, preventing it from moving the extra 5mm necessary to open the bypass valv inside it.
This is how the tank looks inside by the way.
And this i how I look trying to get out of the tank.
Hydraulics makes the tanks work aswell.
And here is how one tank looks from underneath, the scoop thing is where the water comes in.
Well the valve that closes the R/H door didn´t work ofcourse... after trying the foot way to close it we found the manual closing handle in the cabin.
The scoop that pics up 4500L water in 15sec.
Whats EVK doing in Cuatro Vientos?
When they tried to feather the props a day or two before their deoparture to OZ one didn´t come out of feater...
Water does not do good to mechanical stuff like props.
And the second one was maybe worse. I am not very religious but lets pray for cheaper avgas in the future so that we can keep thees aircraft alive, not sitting picking up water, meeting the coorosion death!.
Anyway as you can see there are no engines on 64064 still... ! How come? Well I actually ask the same but Daza was working with EVK and Tony, they said was in the hospital. Anyway No engines no props. Pete asked if they could have my props and if it was Ok if I got theirs after they had paid a visit to the prop shop and gotten a fresh OH, Next trip is in a few weeks just hop that we can get the engies and the props on this time.... Just got an SMS from Norm in Sicilly, plane is working fine! Well done!
The Airforcemuseum a bit closer completion.
...amrén and extremely...
...not dangerous - but skilfull! Nicke, "the plumber from Gotland". By the way, he's not armed, just Amrén...
Next step - get those engines installed...
Pickup probe in action
Place of Birth - "The Black Pelican"
"The "Black Pelican" is of course Catalina EC-FMC. She was manufactured at the Consolidated works at Lake Ponchartrain, New Orleans, in 1945. Here is a picture of the factory from the 1940s.
The U.S. Naval Air Station, 1948 (which would make way in the not too distant future for Louisiana State University at New Orleans, now the University of New Orleans) and, above it, Pontchartrain Beach. During World War II, the long factory building above Pontchartrain Beach at Franklin Avenue housed Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Co., which built seaplanes. By 1948 the facility had been converted to private industrial use. Today, the Levee Board occupies the property.
That was then, this is now...according to google earth.
Five intensive days in September
The goal for this trip was to get the tank hatches back on, and sealed and to have the
fabric covered surfaces made airworty again.
This was easily accoplished by this wonderful team of professional supporters that devoted their time.
By puttin in more than 10 hrs a day we got roughly 400hrs of work done.
Next trip will be 27/9-2/10, hopefully we will get the engines fitted by then and can start the engine runs within an mont or two.
On the picture above is the new hangar for the Swedish Airforce Museum beeing constructed as we pass by on our way home. It will be inagurated on the 12 of June 2010. Our goal is to have our aircrat ready until then.
Screws galore! All fitted before being torqued.
Stoffe adjusting a piece of Ceconite before fiting it.
Norm Mackay and David Short from OZ.
Thanks for passing by lads and good luck on your epic flight!
Mike neraing completion of the tanks
Everybody couldn´t fit in the tent
Fuel filter and water do not go well together
Tank hatches about ready to go back on
Preparing for a day in the heat
View rearward behind the pedals
Instrument panel behind the pilots.
Here Kim, Stoffe,Mike Me, Stone, Markus, Tobias, Roth Norm, Peter and Dave are seen posing.
The sister plane of EC-FMC, EC-EVK has been sold to The Quantas Foundation. The engineering crew on that aircraft paid us a visit for a "barbie" on sunday evening.
Mike is eager to go for a ride!
Roth and Tobias adjusting the Nitrogen pressure in the oleos
Michael Astrom is normally Technician / Engineer on an other Consollidated aircraft, the G4
but i think her prefers vaccuming the tanks on a cat when temperatures reches 50 degrees C
Markus Hoffer, busy cleaning tha tanks
One more additional person on this trip was Chris Soeteman who, when not busy as a captain
flying for a big duch company, flies the Dutch PH-PBY. We also go valuable help from Aneta from Poland that wanted ho give us a helping hand.
The day after our workforce was reinforced by no less than five fresh aircrafttechnicians
from ALG (See link) Here seen relaxing after a hard first day in the Spanish sun.
So, finally back after a lot of struggle to get everything ready for this trip.
Me, Chris, Mike, Markus havig dinner in the warm Spanish night undeer the wing of our Cat-
Shiny, shiny...
"Shiny" rudder, newly covered...
Micke Å looks at his work. The tanks are now in place. Well done!
The Cat-struggle goes on...
Keep the good work up, lads!
Working hard under the burning Spanish sun
Stoffe, Micke, Markus and Alexander are all working hard under the burning Spanish sun. The plan is to get the tanks, fabric and most of the hoses done this time.
I have been promised that the props and engines will be installed and ready to run by the end of the month.
Soon we will start working in Spain again. Hopefully, a lot of things will come together in September
Breaking news!!! (Nothing new really, just to catch your attention)
The engines are ready in Cuatro Vientos and will remain there until the props are ready to be installed.
The props will be overhauled soon, it is just a matter of whee to do it. I consider having the aircraft registred in either Sweden, Spain or USA. Depending on where it will be registred. The props ,aswell as the engines have to be overhauled at shop that is recognised by the authorities in the country of registration. I will need afew more days before I can make the right desicion...
The old hoses together with tools and material to manufacture new ones.
The tools are marked DC.4.
The Seabee SE-AXR was sold new in Sweden 1947 and returned in 2003 after a few years in Norway.
It has the levers in the ceiling, pretty much as the Catalina, but only burns 65Liters/h compared with
about 350L/h to feed the Cat. Beeing a flying boat it is a good basic flyingboat skills trainer.
Hägenäs (Heronpoint) just northeast of Stockholm, was the site where F2 (wing 2) of the Swedeish airforce had its main base. The funny thing about this base was that they only had hard surface during the winters, the other seasons they operated seaplanes.
The entrance:
A salvaged Junkers F13
The Plywood floats on this S5 Hansa were really tough!
A visitor rom far away.
Who can this be?
A real superstar of the time. No one less than Charles Lindbergh.
As you can see, you do not need water to fly a float plane. (Plywood floats again, these are about 6 meters long)
Snow will do just fine aswell!
Mechanics heaven!
A few rare birds also visted Sweden during the war and some ended up at F2, like this Blohm&Voss BV138.
A few DO24´s also came here and even joined the force.
The first aircraft manufactured by SAAB i Linköping, the dive bomber, B17, her in the seaplane version , S17.
T2´s taking off
The Marines in the late 20`s
Is this a rare sight? A Swedish airforce Mosquito as seen from a TP47 Catalina.
Big boys playing with their boat by the beach....
A few nice pics of the Catalina in "action"
There were three Catalinas in the airforce one was shot down by the sovjets, one is preserved at the airforce museum and 47003 was scrapped at F2.....
May 17-21
A new carb for one of the engines.
Butyrate, silver and nitrate dope for the work on the fabric
Borensbergs mekaniska. A local, friendly and very well equipped machine shop where they can do
almost anything you can possibly need,. fast with high prescition at a very competitive price.
R/H engine after refurbishment at the shop
Working in the tanks is a very tiring, slow, and boring work but very necessary. A lot of sealant is loose.
In the ceiling of R/H tank I found this grafitti. D. Pratt, if you read this, write something please.
There are more than 60 hoses that I will have to replace. The oldest I have found so far was
manufactured in january 1962... A bird family had made a nest in the leading edge where the
fuelhoses go to the R/H engine. Hope that they have moved by the time we come back next time.
The hatch where the hoses go to the L/H engine
29" nosewheel going to holland for loan to the Dutch NL-PBY. The original 30" tyre
is getting scarce and the ones available are only good for a few landings before
they get cracks and no new are made.
David Gustafsson, a coming guy in aviation a good mechanic that likes old planes.
Christer Gustafsson. Very handy and nice good friend that had the good taste to make his vacation
in Spain and bring his son to help me. Thanks!
Back to Barkarby where Curt and his family runs Arigo that suppies most of the stuff needed for this project.
Here Stefan and his brother i sorting the hoses that need replacement. 60 something...
As close to a glass cockpit as this aircraft will get. Any body that has a KX155 or two to spare?
Someone seems to have mistaken his radios for mine..
L/H fuel shutoff valve.
Greetings from CampCat 2009!
....and let there be light...
Meanwhile in Cuatro Vientos
Eng #2 in the process of being prepared for installation in a not too distant future.
Nice and clean covlings. Both pics provided by Roberto Yañez who apart from taking beautiful pictures, is a very nice guy and is very knowledgeable in Spanish aviation.
Catalina 47002 taking off. Just a nice picture.
