[MVP] Mugga

I will get the P-Charts.

Not sure what's happened as of the latest update.... the F86F Sabre sounds have reverted to the DCS World default sounds. @Flappie @BIGNEWY Can this be looked into? Also, the performance of the aircraft seems to have changed. Acceleration seems to be stronger and you can now cruise around at like 73% power doing 300kts!

Managed to make up a cockpit left hand sidewall upper panel. This panel houses the Gun Selection controls. More work today fabricating the replacement inspection panels for the cockpit fuselage externals.

@Spitty they're standard issue equipment for black-handers!

@BIGNEWY broken image links again? This can't be right?

The left and right hand side cockpit consoles have received their CAC interior colour coats today. Many thanks to the team at BCS Paints for the supply of the custom colour spray-cans - these are brilliant! The panels will receive another coat of colour, before being painted with two coats of hard-wearing 2-pack matte-clear. As we begin to draw closer to having all of the cockpit panels and consoles restored and ready for re-installation, our focus will begin to shift across to cleaning up the cockpit itself. The following photos give you an idea of what lay in front of us.

The team has rebuilt the right hand cockpit avionics console, to accommodate the GBR Test Plug, ADF, UHF and IFF control unit in the same configuration as the DCS World F86F Sabre. The team started the clean-up of the ADF Control Unit today, including refurbishing the mounting rails, control knobs, and overhead lighting post mounts.

Many thanks to [MVP] Nathan who has supplied replacement inspection panel screws. These will help compliment the new paintwork. Work is continuing to remove all plumbing, electrical harnesses and accessories from the left and right hand side gun-bays. The bays will be cleaned out, painted, and re-purposed to house the simulator computers and their associated hardware. Many thanks to Nathan who has been hard at work. To date, we have removed some +400kgs of parts from the cockpit fuselage section, with possibly a further 2-300kgs to remove.

We have commenced cleaning up one of our Sabre ADF control panels, which will be carefully converted to communicate with the simulator digital control system. The unit will be carefully disassembled and rebuilt to look brand new! Photos below show the unit before a basic clean. What looks like trash, can often be brought back to life.

The team are about to kick off the restoration of the right hand side cockpit avionics consoles that we have in our stores. The consoles will require some light panel beating to remove dents, and will be stripped of paint and given fresh primer and finish coats. In addition, we will need to fabricate a missing sidewall panel and source some avionics install tracks and supporting brackets.

Left hand side cockpit step box assembly riveted together tonight. The fascia plates will be sent off for water cutting, then everything will be primed and assembled. Good to have another part nearing completion!

Managed to the get left hand side cockpit step parts fabricated this evening, hopefully we can get the parts all edge trimmed and reassembled this week. Following which both the left and right hand side steps can be reinstalled.

Many thanks to Nathan who is fabricating the cockpit rolling stand for Sabre 965. The stand will accommodate the 1.5tonne cockpit structure, and will also provide mountings for the ingress/egress ladders and instructor platform. Our challenge is to keep the stair/platform height below 1.5m overall.

Circuit breaker panel all cleaned down and given a first-pass panel beating! This original breaker panel has seen better days and was badly bent/dog-eared, along with having a host of dents across its face. Some light planishing and it already looks much better. Unfortunately, the panel mounting holes have all been badly elongated due to excessive wear and tear. Not much can be done here outside of creating a fresh doubler reinforcement and affixing. Interestingly, the electrical harness exit on the lower left hand side of the panel houses a domed flute, which has been welded to the panel face, which was surprising. All 24 of the circuit breakers will be replaced with simulated breakers, which will be operational to the simulator. This means the breaker labels will be re-done with those in the sim, rather than 100% replicating those from the original cockpit.

@Spitty that plastic covering has been a pain in the backside! I made a mistake of using some scrap metal I had stored without thinking about the plastic alcad cover. Went to remove it and it will not budge. Tried thinners and it kind of melted it, but it gummed up and gave me the middle finger. Have acquired some good old Turco paint-stripper and will attack it with that this weekend. Hopefully that will force it to surrender! The team have started the clean-up and restoration of the cockpit right hand side-wall panels, which include the circuit breaker panel, air-conditioning panel, and gun/missile panel.

Many thanks to [MVP] Nathan who donated this working Canopy Actuator today, this will be installed into the Sabre Sim enabling the canopy assembly to be opened and closed as per the flying aircraft. Nathan was also able to provide us with original electrical diagrams and schematics, which will be of enormous help as we get the system working again.

The team has acquired an additional set of CAC CA27 Sabre Mk32 wings, which will provide a host of non-flying parts for our simulator builds!

Sheetmetal work is underway to replace both missing and damaged inspection panels.

Time to start connecting the left hand console switch panel to the Arduino controller and mapping out DCS BIOS.

Canopy open/close track dismantled for refurbishment. The canopy track contains a toothed spline that runs the full length, with a gearbox that is mounted to the track and driven by a clutched electric motor. The motor is controlled both inside and outside of the cockpit. Our gearbox was seized and has required total disassembly and clean up. Unfortunately the gearbox casing was blowing out with corrosion, but has been salvageable for ground use. Canopy handle from lower centre console has been removed and has been media blasted and primer painted. Interesting to see the handle has been cast in the shape of the Sabre forward windscreen and canopy! A great little Easter-egg from CAC in the 1960’s! This handle will be painted in black and yellow caution stripes with white lettering. Gun boresight inspection panel sourced, but will be used as a template to make up a new unit, due to inter-granular corrosion damage. Left hand side cockpit console switch guards are now all restored and awaiting installation on the switch-panel.

Back in the workshop this evening and the boys gave our new (to us) guillotines some much needed love. Both units are now freely moving and have been given a first-pass clean-up. We tested cutting some .30 thou sheet and both gave a good clean cut. The green unit will need some spring return units fabricated, which we hope to get done this week. Got yet another interior panel cleaned up and refurbished, along with a range of switch covers from the left hand console. These will receive a couple of coats of clear and will then be put on the racking, pending re-installation into the cockpit.

Our team received two second-hand AP Lever Guilotines and a Sheet Roller unit today, which will all be carefully dismantled, media blasted and two-pack painted. These units will be pressed into service as part of our expanding restoration workshop.

Right hand side kick-panel was media blasted today and given primer paint. The panel is now awaiting the arrival of the finish colour paint, which is a British Standard Colour BS2660-7087 Steel Blue, which is extremely close to the original colour used by the RAAF.

Got some time in this evening to make up the replacement forward cockpit floor reinforcement ribs, which support the floor sections under each foot/rudder pedal. The original units had turned into powder due to excessive corrosion. The floor ribs confirm to the curvature of the jet engine intake duct and without existing units to template from, we were stuck making up a two-part rib that was tabbed out to accommodate the curved profile. Once the cockpit floor section has been scrubbed and is free of dirt, we will rivet the new units into place. Have also trial fit the centre cockpit floor panel, which will require a number of new lock-nuts to be installed. Work has also commenced on the cockpit canopy frame with the removal of the cracked and crazed perspex clear and the removal of the air-conditioning, pressurisation and other accessories. Once the frame has been stripped, it will be sent off for soda-blasting. After everything has been primed and painted, we will then go ahead an install our New Old Stock canopy clear.