 Museum’s
Anson Restoration Project
By Colin
Ainsworth, Project Leader
31 Aug 05
This
past month has seen Ernie Killen, Mike Dandurand, Keith Brenson and
Chuck Calder complete the tailplane section to the stage where all that
remains are the metal fairings to be manufactured for the
elevator hinges and the fabric covering to be applied.
Al
Sheppard installed the main electrical panel and the bomb aimer’s
selector switches. The next stage will be to install the
metal conduit for the wiring harnesses.
Phil
Weeden and Mark Lapointe fitted the collector ring and the exhaust
manifold on the port engine and both sets of engine cowling brackets.
During
the past two days work as started on manufacturing the wooden
frames for the cabin windows. Since we have no drawings this is being
accomplished by utilizing the parts from Avro Anson MK2 #7426 as a
template. These were donated by Paul MacGregor and brought back
from Ontario by Ernie Killen.
Mike
Dandurand has manufactured the radio operator’s table and
started to install the metal supports for navigators table.
Peter
Miller and Jerry Aucoin are still busy keeping the supply section going
and have managed to add extra shelving alongside the aircraft to store
the finished components, before they are fitted on the aircraft.
Next
month hopefully we will see a lot of progress being made in completing
the main cabin, and plans are in the works to start covering
the fuselage with fabric before Christmas.
This
months "Anson Trivia" is a story submitted by one of GMAMS
Directors, Norm Donovan, concerning his "Epic flight in an
Anson". Next month "Anson Trivia” will continue wartime
stories of the Avro Anson.
A
Memorable Anson Flight
By
Norm Donovan
08.30
hours, 7 August 1952, Royal Air Force Anson WJ550 lifts off from RAF Station
Hullavington, England for a three-hour navigation training flight. Aboard were
two RAF Acting Pilot Officers (student navigators), the pilot who was a WW2
Polish NCO and Air Training Corps Flight Sergeant Norm Donovan, along to gain
some air experience, which I surely did.
I
was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat and remember lifting off into the typical
English low overcast. We climbed through the clouds and were soon on top in
the sunlight, skimming along just above the clouds. I was thoroughly enjoying
myself, on top of the world; this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my
life.
The
flight plan called for three legs, each about one hour long, terminating back
at Hullavington. I looked back several times and watched the student
navigators using the sextant to take sun observations. The pilot allowed me to
take control when it did not interfere with the navigators work The clouds
became higher and we were in them soon after making our first turn for the
second leg, it got quite rough and the navigators came forward several times
with their maps, asking the pilot to help them locate our position. After
about three hours and several discussions, it appeared we were lost. The pilot
was on the radio several times and eventually he said to me that we were not
going to land at Hullavington. He gave me a map and said that we should be
over the south coast of Wales, so I was to look straight down and see if I
could identify the coast. Suddenly I saw very heavy seas with white waves
crashing on the beaches and rocks. With some violent manoeuvres we missed the
cliffs and to my amazement, straight ahead of us, through the rain, was a
runway. The approach was very rough due to strong winds but a smooth landing
was accomplished after 3.75 hours airborne. We had arrived at RAF Station
Llandow in Wales. The navigators were very quiet. (Later on I found out that
they had made a navigation error during the second leg and once in cloud were
unable to fix our position). We went to our respective messes for a late
lunch.
Upon
returning from lunch, one of the groundcrew who had refuelled our aircraft
remarked to our pilot: "you cut that one a bit close Skipper, only five
gallons of petrol were left" (about 10 minutes flying time).
It
took us one hour to fly back to Hullavington; we were a long way west in
Wales.
|
