Awesome pic. Thank you!

 

Hard at Work...

 

Of course…
1. Green AquaTerra 150
2. Speedy sapphire sandwich (3861)
3. Brand new Seamaster 300 blue dial. (I’m obsessed with this watch).

My grail continues to be a BLRO or BLNR , but all signs point to no. I’d honestly rather have the above three in my collection, plus a nice dress watch as opposed to a single GMT master at gray prices.

 

Nice, I was LAX based for five years but ended up in SFO. I miss SoCal from time to time. I forget everyone has a domicile in LAX. I’ll probably buy a modern 3861, if only because I don’t have a great working knowledge of vintage speedys and would probably make an uninformed decision I would regret. Lol

 

If you ever consider vintage, get your hands on the Moonwatch Only book. It’s 200 bucks but it’s an unbelievable resource and cool to have on its own. It could easily pay for itself many times over if it keeps you from making a mistake. Also, speedmaster101.com is invaluable and the admin is very generous with vintage questions and research. I agree regarding Rolex. Frankly, I’ve had it with them. I’ve been to dozens of AD’s on 5 continents over the last 4 years and it’s the same story everywhere. Nothing in stock, nothing but useless wait lists…on and on. I’d love a blue sky dweller but they’re now over 30k in NYC. No way I’m paying anywhere near gray prices for anything. It’s gotten absurd.

 

That's a nice selection of watches. If I had to settle on just one, I'd go for the Seamaster 300 blue dial. It's the most versatile. Rugged enough to wear deep underwater yet neat enough to wear out to dinner at a nice restaurant. I have a midsize Seamaster Pro and it was my sole "good watch" for many years.
Obligatory wrist shot:

 

"Land-o-matic" landing gear? I can tell you from experience it's not completely foolproof!

Image courtesy of Avgeekery.com

 

Anyone want a Spitfire?

1943 Supermarine Spitfire IX (platinumfighters.com)

How about an F4 Phantom II?

1959 McDonnell F4H-1F Phantom II (platinumfighters.com)

 

Great thread and surprised I didn’t see this before now.

Been working in the aviation industry ever sense post secondary as a Avionics Engineer. Repairing and installing electrical equipment on all sorts of aircraft DHC8, DHC2, DHC6, the terrible BE1900D and even worse SA227.

Photo of Nicad battery shorted out to remove its memory required at every service. When on discharge cells that reach .5 is shorted and above 1v have a shorting resistor clipped to the cell. Dash 8 400


Photo getting ready for a engine change this is the engine coming off pictures of the engine harness so I can remember the routing. Dash 8 300


Photo of wiring diagram helping a out base with a avionics issue with backlighting on indicators. BE1900D



Photo of installing Skytrac system on a DHC6 Twin Otter ceiling panel removed adding just a few wires from the tail to the cockpit. DHC6 Twin Otter.




Photo of a damn indicator pulled apart to replace the backlighting lamps. They are soldered on circuit board that I’m pointing at. Dash 8 300.



Photo of power lever switches in the hell hole of a Dash 8 300. Changing a few that failed.



Just a few photos from a mechanic side.

Cheers
Chad

 

How about some oily bits?

This is an engine from a 1930s fighter, any idea what aircraft and the function of this?

 

Closest I get is this Waltham clock I have fitted in my motorhome,





Sure you will know where this shot is from

 

Concorde cockpit?
And where'd you find the Waltham clock? It goes well in the motorhome.

 

Wow! That Spitfire is a beauty!
Now all I need is £3.5million...

 

Thanks for sharing and welcome. Keep 'em flying!
Just wondering what's so terrible about the BE1900D and SA227? Are they bad to fly or bad to maintain, or both?

 

Doing an autopilot installation for a buddy. Here we see the pitch servo being installed beneath the floor just aft of the rear spar. It is in close proximity to the roll servo which is removed for clutch adjustment (you can see the bracket for it) and immediately adjacent to the flap motor and limit switches. Cool thing about this particular STC is that there is a flap compensator potentiometer to be installed just forward of the rear spar which automatically accounts for the positive pitch tendency when adding the first notch of approach flaps.

This thing is going to be a super slick upgrade to go along with the all glass panel he also wants...guess who's wiring that up...

 

Strange to think that my grandfather probably signed that aircraft off as fit for flight; he may even have done the original flight test, although it is more likely to have been Alex Henshaw.

 

Spot on with Concorde The clock I picked up from a good friend many years ago over on MWR

 

That pic of the sub-floor between the deck and the skin reminded me of an issue I was involved in when serving in 75 Squadron RAAF in Butterworth Malaysia.

The squadron had approx 12 single seat fighters and two twin seat (tandem) trainers, nicknamed "The Duals".



Pilots had consistently complained about one of the trainers having "shit handling". Eventually, after a couple of write-ups of "Rapid Uncommanded Pitch Manoeuvres" the aircraft was hangared and put on jack for a full inspection.
I had to safe and remove all of the crew ejection systems (canopy/seats etc).
While crouching in the fwd cockpit I noticed a lot of moisture/condensation toward the rudder pedals and told the engineering supervisor.

To cut a long story short, a couple of holes were drilled in the skin at the lowest point of the cockpit floor and over 200 litres of rainwater was drained from the sub-floor. It seemed a drastic solution, but at a forward airbase without the facilities to do a complete fwd fuselage disassembly it was the only solution. I think the aircraft was flown back to Australia for a full remedial servicing.

It was concluded that canopy rain covers had blown off in a monsoon one Friday evening after the squadron secured and two days of rain took their toll.

While the Mirage IIIO was a bitch to work on, they were and impressive and beautiful aircraft to see in the sky. It was basically and engine with wings, and a tiny spot for a driver.