Angle brackets, hinged clasp assembly, battery and assorted rubber strips ready for mocking up the fit. First mock-up Paint and rubber pads applied Hinged cover attached and the over-centre clasp installed. Next step, having made two battery mounting kits, was to pass the bits onto our resident Fixed-Wing-Aircraft Avionic-Systems-Installation and Modification Team (FWAASIMT) – Guy Musgrove.  Guy is constructing and…

In 1942 when our Auster Mk1 was manufactured, there was only one aim and that was to fully support the war effort. The aircraft were simple, the mission straightforward and back then, technology only had a small part to play in operating safely and effectively. The cockpit dashboard pictured below shows there was just enough instrumentation for the pilot to…

With apologies (again) for a terrible pun-title, behold the latest update from the Auster maintenance team regarding progress on the reconditioning of our 1942 Auster Mk1. With the mantra “There shall be no play in the control system”, the team have been inspecting every aspect of the Auster’s flying controls – including the horizontal flying trim system. This trim control…

With apologies for the terrible pun in the Blog title……….time for a brief update on progress for our Auster Mk1 reconditioning project. We have replaced the undercarriage suspension rubber bands (a tricky job and not for the faint-hearted) so we just need to recondition the wheels and brakes and we can pop the aircraft back onto the ground. The brakes…

Our Auster Mk1 (LB 321) joined the flight late 2020, flying into Middle Wallop from Netheravon via the services of a Light Aircraft Association Pilot. Since then, having completed an initial inspection, we decided to ground the aircraft pending a full technical review and associated reconditioning of the whole aircraft. Reconditioning an aircraft that first saw Service in 1942 is…