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From Failure to Failure


06/24

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33 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Barracudacast also make a full-spectrum set for the Blenheim, including those dorky-looking trumpet intakes.

Check this thread for discussion on Blenheim oil cooler inlets & outlets plus carb inlets. The configurations changed pre/post 1940 and some changes were theatre dependant.

Good work so far guys, must get round to building my VC Blenheims.

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25 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:

Check this thread for discussion on Blenheim oil cooler inlets & outlets plus carb inlets. The configurations changed pre/post 1940 and some changes were theatre dependant.

Good work so far guys, must get round to building my VC Blenheims.

Good resource, thanks! I have the Norman Franks Valiant Wings book on the aircraft, which also goes into some detail on all the various permutations.

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14 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Good resource, thanks! I have the Norman Franks Valiant Wings book on the aircraft, which also goes into some detail on all the various permutations.

Just for clarity, is that

Valiant Wings: Battle and Blenheim Squadrons Over France, 1940 by Norman Franks

or

Airframe Album No.5: The Bristol Blenheim – A Detailed Guide to The RAF’s First Modern Monoplane Bomber by Richard A. Franks (published by Valiant Wings)

I've got the latter and whilst it does illustrate the different styles it doesn't explain or date them. The former looks to be more of a service history book which wouldn't go into such minute details, though I stand to be corrected if this is the one you have?

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8 hours ago, Dave Swindell said:

Just for clarity, is that

Valiant Wings: Battle and Blenheim Squadrons Over France, 1940 by Norman Franks

or

Airframe Album No.5: The Bristol Blenheim – A Detailed Guide to The RAF’s First Modern Monoplane Bomber by Richard A. Franks (published by Valiant Wings)

I've got the latter and whilst it does illustrate the different styles it doesn't explain or date them. The former looks to be more of a service history book which wouldn't go into such minute details, though I stand to be corrected if this is the one you have?

I meant the latter, though I do own the former as well. 

 

9 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Geeze, the loss of those two restored Blenheims..."To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Procopius said:

I meant the latter, though I do own the former as well. 

 

Geeze, the loss of those two restored Blenheims..."To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." 

 

 

But doesn't it warm your heart that they persevered, and that we were there that day in 2015 to see it.

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22 minutes ago, 06/24 said:

But doesn't it warm your heart that they persevered, and that we were there that day in 2015 to see it.

Oh yes, quite so.

 

I hope you never have cause to know what this cost me, on the insides, to do.

 

24663767807_8b2e05682d_b.jpg20180106_004517 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I still have the turret, but getting closer on the masking. Mad respect to those who DIY this on the regular; I will never be like you.

 

Test fit:

 

39531509301_344b2f211a_b.jpg20180106_004600 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Ehhhhh...it will do, I suppose. 

 

 

Anyway, I picked up Mrs P and the children (we have two, I gather) from the airport this morning, arriving just in the nick of time despite badly oversleeping and waking up ten minutes after I planned to leave. As always on these occasions, Mrs P was as surly and uncommunicative as she was beautiful, and she is very beautiful. Not unlike Winston, who takes a good hour or so to become fully human after his nap (until then he has to be carried around like a tiny potentate, unless you care to experience a screaming fit), she gradually warmed or resigned herself to the sight of me and choked out a few terse pleasantries. We went out for brunch, and I think I'm pretty much done with eating out with Winston, as he mercilessly drove a toy tractor through my pancakes. Great to have them back! 

 

Winston was very excited to see I'd finished the Wellington ("Big one all done! Wanna touch it!") and then said "are you buildin' any more?" and pushed the chair up to my bench, clambered up it, and lunged for an uncapped hobby scalpel. Father of the year I am not, but he survived, as did the models (easy to make another child, too easy, some might say, or think, least their wife hear them, but tough to find another MPM Bisley). 

 

 

 

 

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The John Romain article also clears up why the topside passes in the display routine are so far from the crowd line - something that had frustrated me on both occasions I have seen the hybrid flying. As a result, my own photos of it are disappointing, this perhaps the least bad of the bunch:

 

24663861127_797574111c_c.jpgimage by jongwinnett, on Flickr

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That was taken at East Fortune, the following were at Duxford 

 

21690819581_65236d1495_c.jpgBlenheim IF by jongwinnett, on Flickr

 

21691597551_6ae2621ed6_c.jpgUntitled by jongwinnett, on Flickr

 

21060337514_7efb64c93a_c.jpgUntitled by jongwinnett, on Flickr

 

21692691291_9bdbee61cb_c.jpgUntitled by jongwinnett, on Flickr

 

21672777332_2b29de4365_c.jpgBlenheim by jongwinnett, on Flickr

 

21061335744_6461962d9d_c.jpgBlenheim by jongwinnett, on Flickr

 

We were in a good spot, weren't we B)

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40 minutes ago, 06/24 said:

...the topside passes in the display routine are so far from the crowd line...

 

Sounds to me like a valid reason to mortgage the house, kids, missus and dog, sell the car and washing machine and... buy bigger glass. 600mm is what you need (you can tell your good lady that I approved the purchase if you think that it will help!) unless you have a particularly fine house and car, in which case 800mm may be achievable.

 

:D

 

 

I jest, of course - those photos are pretty darn fine.

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Great masking PC - lovely job. I think that a well masked 'manual' job is often more satisfying than a poorly fitting purchased one. But that maybe just me :)

 

16 minutes ago, 06/24 said:

We were in a good spot, weren't we

Indeed, a memorable day for many reasons :D

 

At the risk of boring people who've heard this story before, twin engined aircraft were often built with an extra engine(s) for performance and not, as some might think, safety.

When I got my PPL (no, NOT on a Bleriot, cheeky, on Cessna 150s) the mostly sullen CFI asked what I would do to achieve my required 6 hours per year to maintain the licence. Most people do a night flying course but I didn't fancy that - birds don't fly at night so I thought why risk it.

Old Sarum club was the then home of G-ASYK, a beautiful Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche. "Yankee Kilo" was one of the CFIs favourites and his little face lit up when I said I'd like to do a multi-engined rating. Only six hours, a lot of which was flying asymmetric (on one engine). He sold me a multi-engine Pilots Manual and said "You'd better read this - the first chapter at least, before we start".

I took the book with me and read it on the train to London in the mornings. "Loss of power in one engine results in loss of lateral stability" it said, or words to that effect. Hmmm, I thought, loss of anything isn't good but that sounds ominous. I mentioned it to the CFI when I went for my first lesson. "We'll cover that today" he said.

Off we went, into the wood and leather cockpit with LOTS more knobs and levers than I was used to but the same instrument layout, at least the basic set. I noticed an extra (white) mark on the airspeed indicator and CFI said "We'll cover that soon".

Power checks. Crikey, POWER! Haven't had that before.

Off we went, me learning about variable pitch props and uppy-downy undercarriages and soon (very soon) we were at an 'appropriate height' for standard 'effect of controls' exercises. Nice.

Stall avoidance was unusual for me. The Twin Com doesn't warn you like a 150 does. Sure, the stall warner goes off and there's a bit of wobble, but little else. You just drop like a leaf. A very heavy leaf. Still level with the horizon but 'descending'. A lot.

"Now let's see what this 'lateral stability' is all about" says the CFI. "On reduced power I'll cut one engine and you'll need to apply rudder to correct the other engine from pulling us to one side. Now pull up the nose and watch the airspeed indicator. If she's set up correctly, when the needle hits that white line, the rudder pedal should hit the stop and we'll drift off in that direction". Sure enough we did, gently turning as the engine under power pulled us around. "Is that 'loss of lateral' stability then?" I asked. "Yes" he replied, "but it's a lot worse under power".

Some time later we covered Engine Failure After Takeoff (EFATO). We'd practised engine failure in flight, 'Dead Leg, Dead Engine' and gone through prop feathering and shutdown / restart. "With EFATO the first thing to do is identify and shut down the failed engine". I know, you're all screaming 'Get the nose down!' but hey, my first time and all that.

Suffice it to say, when under takeoff power 'loss of lateral stability' is very scary. Things happen very quickly. When you hit the whilte line with one engine under power, you don't gently drift off, you go 'green side up' - not good. Luckily we developed extra sets of hands and together got everything going again in time to miss the tree tops. Just.

 

I've not flown much multi-engine other than the Twin Com but, suffice it to say, I know when you lose an engine under power things get very nasty, very quickly. I can only imagine what happens in something as powerful and slippery as a Blenheim. I just don't want to imagine it for very long...

 

Sorry for the thread drift chaps. I'm having a brief interlude from custom decal woes... :)

 

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Confused reaction because that story sounds just a little too close for comfort! 

 

I’ll join you in the woes, since my newly acquired airbrush does not fit my compressor hose...

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Rats! A quick trip to modellingtools should cure your woes - I suggest you give Paul a call and get an adaptor or, even better, some 'quick release' fittings for when you buy your next airbrush :)

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Undaunted, I have bodged up a hose and to my amazement it works. 

 

Following Jamie’s advice as best I could, I mixed up a 50/50 batch of paint and had a go. Not perfect but good enough for a first attempt with the new brush. Photos later!

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4 hours ago, 06/24 said:

True, but it’s a major mojo killer to look forward to being brave only to then discover you’ll have to wait a week to try it out :(

Amazon usually have things delivered a couple of minutes after you click ‘purchase’ these days so might be worth trying there for an adapter!

 

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Meanwhile parcelfarce continue to demonstrate that the time vortex is not restricted to the tardis but influences red vans as well. Despite the lovely people at Sovereign letting me know my paint was on its way on Wednesday, the intricacies of Parcelforce mean that it’s 48 hr service will deliver to me next Monday! 

 

:dalek:

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 Great Thread you two. I haven’t followed a multi person build before. So here’s one with two Blenheim’s x 2 what’s not to like? I had to check the stash and I do have an Airfix one so I’ll have to watch and learn until it’s time comes. Keep up the great work.

 

John. :giles:

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Ok I'm confused. (What's new I hear you ask.) The compressor seems to have a 1/4" male connector. So does the airbrush. Yet all the hoses I can find are either 1/8" both ends , or 1/8" one end, 1/4" the other. Why? 

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5 minutes ago, 06/24 said:

Ok I'm confused. (What's new I hear you ask.) The compressor seems to have a 1/4" male connector. So does the airbrush. Yet all the hoses I can find are either 1/8" both ends , or 1/8" one end, 1/4" the other. Why? 

Sounds like those might be Badger hoses? I just use an adapter for my airbrush to connect it to a 1/8" hose. All of my other airbrushes are by Badger and have the 1/8" male connector.

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