Sea Venom FAW-53 WZ.907 "What does this button do?"

[NAVY870]

WZ.907 after I got her electrics sorted.

Ok its a game of Hangar pilot but what the hell 

 

 

[Graeme H]

What a great job, looks to be all working, was that a starter motor I heard? and the weathering is just so authentic 

[Rabbit Leader]

This Hangar Pilot looks like a 2 Player game - when do I get my go?? 

Impressive 1/1 modelling there Steve, so how's that Matchbox kit coming along?

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

[bentwaters81tfw]

Starter motor? Nah, that was the vacuum cleaner to pick up all the bits he dropped on the cockpit floor!

 

Sounded like the vacuum pump for the instruments?

 

Good work Steve, now let's see you get the other one to work!

[CJP]

Fantastic work on the restoration Steve - nice job

CJP

[Selwyn]

Nice to see it coming alive.

 

Always loved the eternal question about what does a button do.

 

Overheard this in a Sea Eagle missile test facility in a certain Middle East country during a combined test/ training session many years ago:

 

"Err, Mr John, what happens if I press this button?"

"It makes your nose bleed!"

 

Selwyn

[Julien]

Looks a bit "compact" in there! 

 

Good job.

 

Julien

[FAAMAN]

Congrats Steve all your work has paid off now onto engine runs . . . .

[NAVY870]

7 hours ago, FAAMAN said:

Congrats Steve all your work has paid off now onto engine runs . . . .

Not this one, she's the last RAN Sea Venom that's still as she was when she paid off.

Far too valuable to risk damaging (just like our Firebox)

Theres always WZ.897 and WZ.TBA for making smoke and noise with 

[FAAMAN]

What about the 'Tross Sea Venoms Longy?

Isn't one or even both in an "almost fly" condition? At least able to make noise.

You know like the fast "Taxis" with Cecil during the airshows with the "inadvertent" float off the runway?

[Calum]

I wouldn't hold your breath there. The whole historic flight is being disposed of at the moment.

[Britman]

Excellent work there Steve,you must have the patience of the preverbial saint. If I may just take the "what does this do" subject, in my youth (16/17) I was invited by my future engineering mentor to try opening the weapons bay on a S2 Tracker. Needless to say I failed, I checked circuit breakers and such like but to no avail. This Tracker was ex Italian air force on its way to the US but lost all comms and dropped into us at Manston for repairs. We added a new aerial and radio while it was in our hangar. I was offered a flip in it on air test,unfortunately they decided that they would continue their journey if all went well. Good days,I willfind pickies and post. Good luck with the projects. 

[CJP]

43 minutes ago, Calum said:

I wouldn't hold your breath there. The whole historic flight is being disposed of at the moment

I don't feel like this is good news Callum - any more information?

[NAVY870]

1 hour ago, CJP said:

I don't feel like this is good news Callum - any more information?

The Historic Flight isnt being disposed of, lets put that story straight to bed.

The Historic Flight has been disbanded for reasons that I wont go into here, that happened some time ago,

What is happening is all the assets of both the Historic flight and the RANFAA museum have been audited and there will be a disposal process

later this year (if your aren't a bona fide museum you wont get a look in) Some stuff has already found new homes.

Lets just see what happens.

[NAVY870]

5 hours ago, FAAMAN said:

What about the 'Tross Sea Venoms Longy?

Isn't one or even both in an "almost fly" condition? At least able to make noise.

You know like the fast "Taxis" with Cecil during the airshows with the "inadvertent" float off the runway?

Of the 3 that were at Nowra WZ.931 went to the South Australian air museum (she was the stripped one that used to be parked up by the museum)

WZ.937 the "Nirimba Venom" is on display in the museum, its had a "restoration" some years ago and was put back into its 808 squadron colours.

The restoration was not of a high quality (the fabric covering on the pod was replaced with fibreglass, unfortunately they fibtreglassed over everything including

lift points access panels etc) Its missing a pile of bits which CMA is assisting with the replacement of)

WZ.895 NVY 870 Cecil, dont get me started. I wrote a history of her for young Bills thread, nothings changed since then.

 

As for inadvertent floats Ive suddenly forgotten how to speak English.

 

[Calum]

On 13/01/2018 at 10:40 PM, NAVY870 said:

The Historic Flight isnt being disposed of, lets put that story straight to bed.

The Historic Flight has been disbanded for reasons that I wont go into here, that happened some time ago,

What is happening is all the assets of both the Historic flight and the RANFAA museum have been audited and there will be a disposal process

later this year (if your aren't a bona fide museum you wont get a look in) Some stuff has already found new homes.

Lets just see what happens.

Well, from where I sit, it looks some assets are being disposed of already. The RAAF has been here to rescue their Dak . And others are being prepared for it. So whilst the disposal process (to agencies external to defence) may not have started yet, as you elude to in your post, 

 there is going to be one....

 

I don't expect many of the aircraft in the Historic flight will be retained by the RAN FAA museum as they already have many (all?) of them in the collection. Of course they may swap aircraft from the flight and museum if the flight aircraft is more historically significant etc.  But I can't see them (the museum)  retaining both Fury's, both Firefly's, the Navy Dak, three UH-IB's ..

 

Hopefully other organisations in Australia will be able to acquire some of the aircraft and they won't end up overseas. .

 

Note for others: We're talking about the Historic flight not the RANFAA museum which isn't going anywhere

Edited January 16, 2018 by Calum

[pacificmustang]

I had heard this was happening.  I always thought the RAN missed an opportunity to partner with HARS, the same way the RAAF did with Temora to get the sabre flying.   I hope whoever ends up the aircraft from the historic flight continues to operate them as flyers.  It was my understanding that as of a few years ago, the tracker was in flyable condition, just needed certification.

 

Speaking of the RAAF, they really need to inject some money into the expansion of the museum at Point Cook so they can house all their collection.  I imagine they will be getting a classic Hornet sometime in the near future as well

 

Bruce

Edited January 16, 2018 by pacificmustang

[NAVY870]

3 hours ago, Calum said:

Well, from where I sit, it looks some assets are being disposed of already. The RAAF has been here to rescue their Dak . And others are being prepared for it. So whilst the disposal process (to agencies external to defence) may not have started yet, as you elude to in your post, 

 there is going to be one....

 

I don't expect many of the aircraft in the Historic flight will be retained by the RAN FAA museum as they already have many (all?) of them in the collection. Of course they may swap aircraft from the flight and museum if the flight aircraft is more historically significant etc.  But I can't see them (the museum)  retaining both Fury's, both Firefly's, the Navy Dak, three UH-IB's ..

 

Hopefully other organisations in Australia will be able to acquire some of the aircraft and they won't end up overseas. .

 

Note for others: We're talking about the Historic flight not the RANFAA museum which isn't going anywhere

Historic Flight was shut down in 2015, done finished kaput.

The assets belong to RAN Heritage command as does all RAN historical items.

Whats happening at the moment is other Government departments are taking what they want as is normal practice for disposal process.

Nobody wanted the ex RAAF Dak, it was another of those idiotic ideas somebody had years ago. Had they looked after their own Dak they wouldnt

have needed that POS.

A couple of aircraft have already found new homes (CMA is assisting with technical support) Others will be moved around.

A lot of museums are waiting for the disposal process (us included) but the paperwork is still sitting on a desk in Canberra so we'll just have to wait.

2 hours ago, pacificmustang said:

I had heard this was happening.  I always thought the RAN missed an opportunity to partner with HARS, the same way the RAAF did with Temora to get the sabre flying.   I hope whoever ends up the aircraft from the historic flight continues to operate them as flyers.  It was my understanding that as of a few years ago, the tracker was in flyable condition, just needed certification.

 

Speaking of the RAAF, they really need to inject some money into the expansion of the museum at Point Cook so they can house all their collection.  I imagine they will be getting a classic Hornet sometime in the near future as well

 

Bruce

The Trackers been in preservation for at least 2 years, the story was it was waiting on certification but there was a bit more to it than that.

I dont think HARS would have been a good idea, there were a few people at Nowra who were uncomfortable with it.

I've chatted to a few people from Albion park who have said their biggest issue is a lack of qualified bods (LAME's) 

Adding a couple of high performance warbirds into the mix may have been an issue.

 

The worst part of this whole sorry saga is the demise of the RANHF after so many people put so much time into building it up to what it was.

When we kicked off in 1985 we were doing an airshow nearly every second week and still holding an in house day once a month.

What I saw at the end was one solitary Huey waltzing round while the rest of the collection gathered dust or was left to rot.

[pacificmustang]

1 hour ago, NAVY870 said:

 

 

The worst part of this whole sorry saga is the demise of the RANHF after so many people put so much time into building it up to what it was.

When we kicked off in 1985 we were doing an airshow nearly every second week and still holding an in house day once a month.

What I saw at the end was one solitary Huey waltzing round while the rest of the collection gathered dust or was left to rot.

"sorry saga" sums it up nicely, I think Steve

[Calum]

3 hours ago, NAVY870 said:

 

Nobody wanted the ex RAAF Dak, it was another of those idiotic ideas somebody had years ago. Had they looked after their own Dak they wouldnt

have needed that POS.

The RAAF Dak has been partially packed up, and IIRC the RAAF were doing it so I assume it's going back to them. I don't know if it will be a flyer, I expect not. The RAN Dak has no wings and is looking sad. 

3 hours ago, NAVY870 said:

 

The Trackers been in preservation for at least 2 years, the story was it was waiting on certification but there was a bit more to it than that.

I dont think HARS would have been a good idea, there were a few people at Nowra who were uncomfortable with it.

I've chatted to a few people from Albion park who have said their biggest issue is a lack of qualified bods (LAME's) 

Adding a couple of high performance warbirds into the mix may have been an issue.

Getting enough LAME's would always be an issue for an organisation like HARS. Interestingly though they intend to fly their Orion, and they manage with the other large aircraft they have

3 hours ago, NAVY870 said:

The worst part of this whole sorry saga is the demise of the RANHF after so many people put so much time into building it up to what it was.

When we kicked off in 1985 we were doing an airshow nearly every second week and still holding an in house day once a month.

What I saw at the end was one solitary Huey waltzing round while the rest of the collection gathered dust or was left to rot.

Totally agree Steve. When I arrived in early 1991 there was still regular Air Days , I'm sure it was every 2 months or so. I even remember seeing the Firefly fly. 

 

And sadly there wasn't an a token air show for the recent FAA (75th?) anniversary.. I don't think we'll ever see another at Nowra.