N5490

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Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

Coincidentally, here's a story that broke today regarding another father/son or more accurately father/daughter story.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/bbmf/news/index.c ... E3672E22E3

Wonderful piece of Spitfire history saved for posterity. Lest we forget.
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

And to round the year off, I just received an e-mail from Jim Hutchings, aged 85 who learned to fly in N-5490 in 1949 at 21 EFTS, RAF Booker. He was a trainee Army pilot training to be a glider pilot. He went on to Airspeed Horsas. That was 64 years ago and Jim is the only living pilot I have been able to trace who flew N-5490 in its RAF service days. His logbook shows that he flew N-5490 twelve times during his flight training.
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

Spent some time over Christmas continuing research into the pilots who trained on N-5490 as the clouds of war gathered in 1939. N-5490 was issued to 20 ERFTS (Elementary & Reserve Flying Training School), Gravesend in Kent. There were four courses of 30 students each between March and August 1939. I have managed to trace all 30 students on each of the first three of these courses and am now working on the fourth. This last course is a bit more tricky as it started just seven days before the declaration of war on 3rd September. The day before, the school was hastily evacuated to Castle Bromwich in the midlands in order to make way for Hurricanes from nearby Biggin Hill who were deploying across the south of England to face the expected imminent Luftwaffe onslaught.

The results of this research so far can be seen at http://www.n5490.org/Pilots/Pilots2.html

I have forward this list of 90 pilots to the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton who are correlating the names with the 8,000 pilots' logbooks that they have in their archives. So far, I have traced 9 logbooks for these pilots, and of these, 7 flew N-5490 at Gravesend, where the total fleet was 12 Tigers in 1939.

But far more importantly, now I have these names, I am gradually uncovering the flying careers of these pilots and adding hyperlinked biographies to the above web page. This is the best way I know to preserve in our memory the wartime careers of these airmen. Among them are heroes of the Norwegian campaign, the Battle of Britain, the sinking of the Bismarck, the attacks on the Turpitz and a wide variety of other air battles worldwide. Many ended up in PoW camps including Colditz, while others went on to follow distinguished post-war flying careers, while others died tragically in training accidents and mid-air collisions. It is both sobering and humbling to see the heroic exploits of these all-but-forgotten pilots re-emerge through the mists of time.
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

Today was a landmark in the history of Tiger Moth N-5490, being 75 years since she was taken on charge by No. 20 Elementary Flying Training School, Gravesend, Kent to start her long and illustrious flying career.
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

It has been over a year since I posted an update! Much has happened over the last 12 months. Much stripping down has taken place and now the project is at its low point with the fuselage completely dismantled and ready for repairs and the rebuild ready to start. Dozens of visits have been made to the Seattle Museum of Flight's restoration centre where I have spent hours blasting many hundreds of component parts, then inspecting them, priming them and carefully bagging and boxing them along with replacement BSF nuts and bolts replacing all of the American AN stock that has crept into the aircraft over the past couple of Stateside rebuilds.

In addition, a great many parts have been sourced around the world to replace damaged components or to aid in the return to complete originality. There are a couple of tube repairs needed to the main fuselage structure and the new tube sections have been ordered from the UK. Once these have been welded into the structure, it will be time to re-assemble the frame and start to refit with a huge array of controls and other fittings. At that point I will start posting photos showing progress.
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

So here's the control box finally completely stripped and marking the low tide mark in the restoration, with stripping down finally complete.

The top box is the Tiger Moth's control box, with its guts at the top. At right is the front rudder bar assembly with a modern battery box fitted.

The lower box (upside down, showing the guts in place) is the control box of the Queen Bee with various detail differences, mainly since the rear controls were connected to the servos for radio-controlled autoflight. I'll strip this box down next so that I can restore both boxes in parallel. Basically, the woodwork (spruce and ply) will be rubbed down, inspected and various small repairs made. Then the boxes will be repainted in that light green, known as cockpit green, which was universally used in all WWII aircraft interiors. Then all of the metal control components will be dismantled, blasted, painted and then refitted to the box using all new British BSF nuts and bolts, which incidentally have to be sourced from an aircraft-approved supplier - so nothing from Namrick!

Once complete, the control boxes will represent the core of both aircraft and will be the vital first step in their restoration.

Image
Ian Grace
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

Today marks 76 years since the declaration of war and the requisitioning of Gravesend airport by the RAF, the 20 ERFTS Tigers and Harts having been evacuated over the previous two days to Elmdon. Today also marks four years since N5490 was recovered from Harvey Field to start a comprehensive strip down and restoration which is still under way.

As of today, re-assembly has not yet started, but an enormous amount of work has been completed towards this historic aircraft's eventual return to the skies. Here's a very brief list of the tasks undertaken to date:

Aircraft de-rigged and relocated for restoration
Aircraft completely disassembled
N-5490's history researched in depth, along with the pilots who trained in it
Website and forum established to record and disseminate the aircraft's history and to record details of the restoration
All of the pre-war instrumentation sourced, to replace more modern instruments (round oil gauges, P8 compasses, mounts, corrector boxes, corrector cards and plates, MPH ASI's non-sensitive altimeters, two NOS tachos)
All of the Air Ministry night flying equipment sourced (instrument lamps, dimmer switches, ident. lamp, Morse key, navigation lamps and fairings, rudder wiring conduit, fuse boxes, terminal blocks, dummy terminal block for accumulator wires, etc.
First aid box, fire extinguisher and bracket assembly, rear foot step sourced
Blind flying hood and associated hardware sourced
New tail skid assembly sourced to replace tailwheel, main wheel brakes deleted
New engine bearers sourced
New fuel filter assembly sourced
Fuel tank repaired and pressure tested
Virtually every steel component and fitting in the airframe has been stripped, inspected, replaced where necessary and primed ready for final finishing and assembly
Large number of drawings and manuals sourced
Two damaged flying wires replaced, all flying wire celvis pins replaced with stainless items, all steel thin nuts replaced with correct brass items, new acorns and incidence wire separators
New pre-war straight pattern pitot head sourced
Second magneto switch sourced
Altitude control rod assembly sourced
All American AN nut/bolt stock and steel washers stripped from the airframe and replaced with British BSF/BA stock and original DH alloy washers
Missing fuselage frame square washers sourced
New tie rods, nuts and special bolts obtained to the latest spec. from DHS

Currently in work:

Front end of the control box under repair
New ply floor being made to replace the non-original one fitted by Geert Frank, complete with correct front and rear inspection hatches, etc.
Poet sideframe and rear pylon tube repairs

So, even though all I have to show for four years work is a pile of plastic tubs full of bagged up parts in the basement, a vast amount of preparatory work has been carried out - not to mention hundreds of hours of historical research, the result of which you can read at http://www.N5490.org.

In the coming months, the fuselage re-assembly will commence and the fruits of the last four years work will become apparent as the restored fuselage takes shape. Without a doubt this will be the most accurately, authentically restored and historically researched Tiger Moth anywhere in the world.
Ian Grace
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Posts: 5035
Joined: Sun Nov 19, 2006 12:55 am
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Re: N5490

Post by Ian Grace »

I just received this photo via e-mail this week. It shows N-5490 shortly after de-mob at Croydon in 1955 - now doped all over silver, as they all were at this time, to cover the RAF markings and camouflage, and carrying its new French registration F-BHIN. It was flown to France to its new flying club owners (the Aero Club du Bearn at Pau-Idron) on 17th October 1955, so this photo must have been taken in early October 1955, almost sixty years ago to the day.

Image
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