waterbomber

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 after a few cans of water had been replaced by oil, the system was full and our first hyrdaulic surprice was at hand.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.