Topic: No 22 and UEU move

[Rob Merrylees]

Canadian Chipmunk No 22 restoration project and VH-UEU repair project are to move to Murray Griffith's Precision Aerospace for completion.

After 30 years Tim Becroft has decided to reduce his facility at Tocumwal and discontinue restoration and servicing work.  Tim and his wife Jenny have had some health problems in recent times.  As well Tim's core business, servicing agricultural aircraft, has suffered a serious downturn following the virtual shutdown of the rice growing industry due to the lack of irrigation water , a result of the long running drought in this part of the country.

Tim will continue to operate his fabric repair and recovering workshop.  He will also sub contract to other licensed workshops.



While it has previously been mentioned that No22 is the second oldest Chipmunk in existance, Rod Brown alerted me to the fact that VH-UEU with fuselage Number DHB F 3 was the third CHipmunk produced at Chester.  Numbers one and two were destroyed early in their career leaving F 3 the oldest remaining.

The ident plate is date 16th March 1950
 

[Rob Merrylees]

Ident plate VH-UEU

[Rob Merrylees]

The fuselage photograph is of No22

Some decisions have been made since my last post under "repair project".  The rudder and elevators will be reverted to fabric covering, possibly also the ailerons and sections of the wings will be recovered in fabric.  The rear fuselage will receive a complete new metal skin.

It seems that we have drifted away from the "strictly a repair" concept!

Another Chipmunk remains in Tim's workshop . No decision as to where it will be going for completion has been made at this time.

[Rod Blievers]

Hi Rob:

I didn't think there was such a thing as "just a repair" in the Chipmunk world!

Glad to hear that you and the syndicate have found a new home for your projects. I too was sad to hear Tim's news; another era has finished.

Trust Rod Brown tro come up with that little snippet. I have a personal link with UEU - having learnt to fly on Chipmunks with the Royal Aero Club of WA, I flew the then privately owned (and ex Royal Aero Club of South Australia) UEU out of Jandakot and Busselton in 1968/9. I was not to fly a Chipmunk again until I was re-introduced to the breed in 1995, this was in SSJ and started the entire "I want my own" episode which - eventually -led to me being the very proud owner of MMS.

Attached a photo of UEU at Jandakot in 1969. The RAClub of SA colour scheme is readily apparent.

Cheers.
Rod.

[Rob Merrylees]

Repairs to VH-UEU are now back on track and rapid progress is being made on the construction of a virtually new rear fuselage.  All new skins and stringers have been manufactured and these are being pinned to the old bulkhead and formers.   The rear fuselage will then be pinned to the front fuselage, rigged for correct alignment  and  fitted with sufficient rivets to lock it up.  Later the old rear bulkhead and two damaged formers are to be replaced with new items.


 

The first photograph was taken early during the process and the second a few hours later when most of the stringers have been pinned in place.

 


Father and son have been carrying out some less skilled operations in the meantime, principally paint stripping and cleaning.




John Merrylees  cleaning up the front fuselage
 

John again, cleaning the battery box

[Fitzy]

Rob,

It is great to see such rapid progress being made.  Hopefully we will get to see the finished product at Parkes.  I am hoping to get down in a month or so to check on progress with the relocation of all of our bits and paperwork from Toc to Wangaratta.  I look forward to catching up on your project then.  The way things are shaping up we may well be ready to start again on our project once yours is complete. 

Regards

Mark Fitzgerald

[Rob Merrylees]

Hi Fitzy,

Yes we are delighted to see our project moving forward after having been stalled for months.  Sean, the metal worker building our rear fuselage is only working on it part time. After spending 8 hours a day building World War 11 Kittyhawk wings he puts in a couple of hours each evening on the Chipmunk.  Each day we can see progress. The photograph shows the battery box in place and a start on the top skins.  Still there is a long way to go. After it is all pinned together it will be pulled apart to anodise and prime before final riveting.  We have decided to use universal rivets to replace the spot welds on the fuselage rather than flush rivets as it is thought that the dimple die would leave sixpenny flats along the rounded surface. 



  The tailplane is not yet finished and we have to either locate two ailerons or “repair” the some damaged  ones.  Repairing will require the manufacture of new spars and leading edges.

John and I have spent days paint stripping and cleaning and still have much left to do.  It is a nice thought that we might fly UEU to the  Parkes fly-in, but I doubt it will be ready in time.  Margaret and I intend to go there in any case.
 
On our most recent trip to Wangaratta  we went via Tocumwal to collect the cowls and canopy for UEU.  I took the liberty of putting your undercarriage legs on the truck too as I knew Precision Aerospace were wanting them.  They have run the control cables in your wings and in the fuselage.  They requred the legs in order to bolt the wings on and get on with the next steps.

[Nigel Stevens]

Hi Rob,
Where are the spot welds that you refer to on the fuselage located. When we reskinned C1-0942 in this area we found that the stringers had been asembled to the edges of skins with contersunk rivets, before the skins were assembled to the fuselage frame and other skins. We found no spot welds. Admittedly mine is a very late air frame.
regards
Nigel Stevens
 

[Rob Merrylees]

I understand from Tim Becroft that some rear fuselages have flush rivets while others have spot welds.  Yet others use universal rivets.  Spot welds were used along the stringers between the formers on this particular aircraft and also on all Chipmunks I have examined closely, not that I have taken that much notice before.  The Canadian Chipmunk No22 now residing in the same workshop as VH-UEU has universal rivets.

As you suggest perhaps it depends upon the production run date or sub contractor used as to the type of fastening employed. 

[Rob Merrylees]

Following on from Nigel Stevens question, “where are the spot welds”, one might ask, “where are the rivets” after viewing these two photographs.  After a coat of paint all trace of the fastenings to the stringers disappears where there are welds between the formers.  Viewed from inside, the vestiges of the spot welds are visible, but where the stringer is torn away it can be seen that these are not rivets.





These photographs are of a remenant of CI-0091 DHB.f 21, so I imagine it is a fairly early production fuselage.

[Nigel Stevens]

Thanks Rob,
That is very clear. On C1-0942 these stringers are held in place by countersunk rivets with the skin and stringer being dimpled.
Nigel

[Fitzy]

Rob,

Thanks for getting the undercarriage legs across.  Your help is much appreciated.  I'll make a posting once we have been to Toc and Wangaratta and let you know what we will be doing about progressing #22.

[Rob Merrylees]

Just a footnote to advise that Tim Becroft is in better health now, and is still following and involving himself in these projects though from a distance.  For example he is doing some recovering work on control surfaces for VH-UEU.  He also is working on a chipmunks in his own workshop, VH-WCR for the Weaver family.