The Aeroplane Collection Ltd |
G-AHUI Cockpit 
G-AHUI Port Outer Wing
G-AHUI Stbd Outer Wing 
G-AIIL Centre section
EI-AGB Rear Fuselage 
Tailplane
September Update - Dave and Stewart have been working on the Goblin engine and have been helped by Terry and Phil. The components on the inner cone of the engine have largely been refitted and the diffuser has been painted satin black. Various items from the engine have been cleaned ready for refitting.
October Update - Dave and Stewart have also done some work on the Goblin engine. Corrosion pits on the magnesium alloy air ducts have been filled with P38 filler and eight out of fifteen ducts have been primed and painted inside and out. These are ready for installation on the engine.
September Update - Martin and Kevin continued work on the Vampire. Now that the inside of the nose section has been repainted various items of equipment have been replaced. Martin has done some fine work in the restoration of two air valves and the bracket which holds them.
October Update -Martin and Kevin have continued with the Vampire project. Half of the cockpit rear bulkhead has now been painted in a very professional manner and some of the equipment has been replaced in the nose section of the aircraft.
September Update - Sam has done sterling service fabricating a throttle box for the Messenger. The job is not finished yet, she is currently cutting a ratchet quadrant from 6mm steel. Ian continues with the Messenger rebuild, which he is mainly doing at home. Ian has taken some photographs of his work on the cockpit section of the fuselage, which showed one side expertly re-sheeted with plywood which we hope to publish shortly. Ian is doing a top quality job.
October Update - Following the last meeting Ian has provided the following update on current progress.
The project so far has been very difficult due to no drawings of fuselage parts / no dimensions / and very little info now available for the Messenger. Most of the parts of the fuselage have had to be made from patterns from scrap messenger parts we had (G-AKIO bits and unfortunately I have just about deleted it from existence now as I have used lots of it) and pictures / dimensions taken from existing Messengers which are all different.) I had contact from an aircraft owner in NZ last week that is restoring a Messenger 2a to airworthy standards and he provided me with some very useful photos of the cockpit floor (which I really struggled to get any info of from anyone ) and this has helped me reconstruct ours this week as I have been totally stuck over the last few months as to how it was constructed. It has taken me just over 21 hours of work this week to construct the inter spar cockpit lattice floor (69 separate pieces of wood so lots of circular saw work and sanding – sawdust everywhere! – Mrs M isn’t at all happy...) Tomorrow it will be skinned with a birch ply on the top (very kindly sourced by Stewart) and at the end of the month hopefully underneath so wont be seen again.... At the next meeting JH should be giving me the starboard door for a trial fitting so even more progress will be shown then . Sam is making excellent progress on the throttle / brake unit for G- AHUI again with very few details to make it from and it should be fitted to the cockpit in the next few months 10 months into the project I think were are pretty much on track.
Sam has been busy with the Messenger throttle box and is doing a really great job on it. Sam also organised and served the refreshments for the visitors on 26th October, which was a most successful event.
Bill Turnbull has been working on the Messenger main wheels at home. Bill also has two tailwheels one of which is from a Messenger or Spitfire (the same tailwheel was used on both aircraft) and the other from a Magister or Chipmunk.
June 2018 Update - Following the last meeting Ian has provided the following update on current progress.
Ian has been busy at home working on the Messenger. Currently, he is trying to find a suitable Direction Indicator to complete the instrument panel. Ian has made a compass surround, which needs a final trimming and painting, before being fitted to the panel. Ian says he has most of the instruments for the lower panel including the clock and will be starting work on this shortly. The instrument overpanel needs a final trim and alignment, which Ian will do once the DI has been fitted. Ian has fitted the fuel selector in the cockpit. He has rebuilt fuselage frame 13, which came from EI-AGB. All the glued joints of this frame had failed. The frame has been returned to HP, and, with the help of Dave Arkle, Ian has removed a further three frames from EI-AGB, which he has taken home to rebuild.
September Update - Building 42 is ready for occupation by TAC. All the windows have been painted inside, latterly by Dave and Stewart. However, there are still two doors to paint inside, various panes of glass to replace and outside window painting to do. The plan for this building is that three large steel shelving units are to be installed before any projects are moved into the building. One of the shelving units is already in the building, but in pieces.
October Update - John Matthews has been working on racking in B42, as have Dave and Stewart. The job has been held up because of the lack of two horizontal steel bearers. Mike Davey has spare bearers and has now brought them to HP so that the job can be completed.
Terry has been painting the wall of B28 and B42 with a red section to show where the fire extinguishers are. He has fitted wooden battens on the wall to carry the two extinguishers in each of the buildings. He has also helped out with cleaning components for the Goblin engine and helped to fit shelving slats to the racks in B42. Terry has printed the AP for the Meteor and has left two tomes in the Community Cabin. These will be invaluable when the Meteor is being restored.
Bill Turnbull says that there has been no further progress on the Auster doors and has taken a collection of Gipsy Major engine parts home to clean and catalogue.
Paul Gilling has continued to sort out the morse taper drill bits and has set duplicates aside for future sale. He has also managed to sell an unwanted drill chuck on eBay.
June 2018 Update - A summary of the work that has taken place at Hooton Park since the last Meeting.
Martin has continued work on the Vampire and is making a first-class job. Kevin has made a fine job of cleaning up the taps, dies and other tools, which have been generously donated to TAC. He has sorted the tools into labelled boxes so it is now very easy to find the tool needed for a job. Anthony Boote has joined TAC and has been helping Kevin with the tool restoration and Dave with building racking in the annexe. He also gave Stewart hand on the Goblin engine project. John Matthews, Dave, Phil and Stewart went to collect a modern lathe from a house in Bromborough donated by a friend of John's. The lathe is now in storage in B18 awaiting a final position to be designated.
Dave has been working on the Parker, FIU and has completed the application of a seal coat to the whole of the outside of the aircraft. Dave has nearly completed installing wooden slats in the racking in the annexe. John Matthews has been working on the Chipax and now has the aircraft sitting on its support stand, rather than on its nose. John has been working on the storage compartment behind the rear cockpit and stripping paint from the aircraft. John has obtained six padlocks, each one being operated by the same key. The padlocks will be used as follows: two on B42 door, one on B42 outside barrier, two on B28 door and one on the container. (See Treasurer's report) John plans to obtain a seventh padlock as the container is secured with two padlocks. Paul G has continued his work on the Meteor nose undercarriage leg. This now fully primed and is awaiting finishing with silver paint. Peter is also working on the Meteor nose undercarriage leg and has prepared the operating jack and another component ready for painting. Both Paul and Peter have been working to de-rust the support structure for the nose undercarriage leg. This structure bolts to the front bulkhead of the aircraft. Stewart has prepared and fitted three more combustion chambers to the Goblin engine. Eight are now in place.
June Update - A potted summary of other activity.
Terry has continued to fit out the instruments in the two cockpits of the Chipax which look excellent. Bill has sorted out some of his aircraft components at home and has very kindly donated a selection of fine items to TAC for sale (see photograph in the Appendix). Included are two very unusual rocket tails. Mike has taken all of them and has offered them for sale at Newark Aerojumble. Other than that Bill has been tied up with work at home and has been unable to do any more for TAC. Paul Brown and David Bradley have recently joined TAC, and with the help of John Matthews and Dave Arkle, have moved the Avon engine from B18 into B42. Paul and David are going to restore the engine to static display standard. They have made a start cleaning it up and will, at a later date, strip parts off for further cleaning and painting. Gerry has been helping HPT by cleaning and painting curb stones by the car park. They certainly spruce the area up. Gerry has repainted the outside of the doors on B28 as, now that the wood has shrunk, bare wood is showing where the T&G joints are. Gerry has also prepared and put the first coat of paint on the right hand front window of B28.
John Morris has continued with the development of his very fine 3D video of Hooton Park airfield and Hooton Hall. John has been working to get three computers provided by Dave in working condition. John and Stewart attended a two-day course on 3D printing given by The University of Chester at Thornton Science Park. Contacts made on this course may prove very useful in getting unavailable aircraft components made.
The Parkgate Festival was held on two days, 2nd and 3rd June. Mike and Stewart attended both days and were joined by John Morris on the Saturday and Kevin, Phil and Andrew on the Sunday. The Gannet cockpit was taken to the Festival and Mike took his Double Wasp engine. Ex member Ian Starnes was present both days with his Jet Provost cockpit. During the event there was considerable interest in TAC and what we had to show.
Chippax
Paint has now been stripped from the Chippax engine cowls and the fuselage is now nearly ready for painting. With all of the hard work that has been carried out recently on the Chippax it is looking excellent.
Parker G-AFIU
Both sides of the Parker (Luton Minor) fuselage have now been covered with fabric . There has been considerable progress on the Parker in 2018 and shortly the whole fuselage will be ready for dope / paint.
Work has also commenced on rebuilding one of the wings that was in a poor state using the ribs that were obtained from the part completed Luton Minor project that TAC acquired a month ago.
A Luton Minor seat also included in the above project will be used in the Parker.
DH Vampire XD624
Two members have been completing wood repairs to the Vampire cockpit area . Paint has now also been removed from the canopy metal structure in preparation for painting.
The remaining combustion chambers have been fitted to the Goblin engine. The engine now has 15 of its original 16 combustion chambers fitted. One has been deliberately left off to allow visitors to see inside the sectioned engine when restoration has been completed.
Work has also progressed on the Vampire nose undercarriage leg demonstration rig. The main components have been cleaned and are awaiting repainting.
Meteor
The front and back A frames have been attached to the Meteor cockpit stand and the cockpit has been lifted onto the stand.
Work on restoration of the cockpit can now proceed (Note the Meteor is a HPT airframe)
Miles Messenger G-AHUI
The front fuselage is currently dismantled to allow the interior to be painted. Finishing touches are also been applied to the lower instrument panel and following this the bottom of the cockpit section will be skinned with 1/16" plywood. (obtained from the Luton Minor project purchased recently). The cockpit section will then be covered in fabric and it is anticipated that this will be returned to Hooton Park by Easter 2019.
Although the aileron control rod covers have been made from scratch recently a couple of covers (all one handed and needed modifying) were found in the container of Miles aircraft parts we have and as they were original Miles parts they have been incorporated into the restoration.
Project Update March 2019
Chippax
The Chippax canopy has now been stripped of old paint and is been prepeared for repainting. Work has started on the rear fuselage with plans to remove dents and repaint.
DH Vampire XD624
The inside of the nose section has now been painted and the Oxygen bottles refitted. The restoration of the nose section is now moving promptly forward with more parts refitted every week.
Goblin Engine
Paint has been stripped from the air intakes and fan casing. The front part of the engine is now ready for repainting. We are currently looking for a Cabin supercharger compressor, a fuel control box,and a fuel accumulator which are missing.
Parker G-AFUI
No further progress has been made at this stage on the fuselage covering as we are awaiting warmer weather to continue with the covering.
One of our members is now working on one of G-AFUIs wings which has now had the wing ribs removed to allow the wing ribs obtained from the Luton Minor project to be glued in place (this also requires the spars to be planed down slightly to accomodate the ribs.)
Following this restoration we should have 2 good wings for the Parker project.
Miles Messenger G-AHUI
This has now been returned to Hooton Park and is housed in building 42. Work is continuing on ply skinning the rear fuselage.
Project Update May 2019
Chippax
A closure for the rear fuselage is currently under construction and will be fitted shortly. The fuselage has been stripped of all paint and is now ready for repainting.
DH Vampire XD624
Two radios and both hydraulic oil resevoirs have now been refitted to the nose section and steady progress is been made. The nose section still needs 2 batteries fitting and then it is complete. Great progress has been made on this project in the last 9 months.
Goblin Engine
Stuart has primed and painted the front sections of the Goblin engine to a very high standard. The top accessory gearbox has also been fitted.
Parker G-AFUI
The dismantled Parker wing is currently still been assessed to enable the wing ribs obtained from the Luton Minor project purchased in November 2018 to be fitted.
Miles Messenger G-AHUI
Work is continuing on ply skinning the rear fuselage.
One of our members is continuing working on the Meteor project (owned by Hooton Park Trust) and is making great progress.
Meteor panels 
New blanking plates fitted.
Project Update June 2019
Chippax
John has continued to remove paint from the Chippax front cowling and engine cowls. Jeff R has fitted a plywood blank to the rear fuselage which will seal the aircraft once the front fuselage is mated to the rear fuselage.
Auster
Terry P and his Grandson have done a great job of cleaning the outside of the Auster.
Goblin Engine Stand
Geoff K has made a cranking handle for the Goblin engine stand to make it easier to change the position of the engine.
Goblin Engine
Stuart T has done a great job painting the Goblin engine.The fuel ring has now been painted and lacquered. The individual burners have been fitted to the combustion chambers and the fuel ring has been refitted.