DH Heron's
Worked on the Doves and Heron major overhauls at DH's SDCR at Leavesden in the 1950's
Herons that spring to mind were the two BEA ones ,the Queens flight (stripping that Dayglow off them was a lousy job) plus many more for modifications.
On moving on to McAlpines 1965 found me as the engineer bringing back ex Jordainian Herons, registration G-APPD and G-APRI from Amman to McAlpines in the company of three Doves for Riley conversion . Four weeks later we went back to Amman for one Dove we left behind.
It is a credit to the reliability of the the DH aircraft that I did not have one problem with any of the aircraft and have written a story of both trips
Leavesden was a great place to work to obtain skills on the components of Herons . Corrosion was the number one enemy,(as was the Doves) and all flying control hinges had to be replaced and if my memory serves me right, they were of magnesium alloy and steel alloy ones replaced them.
Herons had Bag fuel tanks, unlike the Dove that had metal . and they could cause a few problems,pressure testing etc.
Power plant removal and fit was not bad and great compared to the Queen 70's .
One little story goes that the Duke of Edinburgh was in the cockpit of his Heron and was fiddling around and moving the elevators . A fitter was working on the elevators at the rear, and pig sick of people fiddling with the controls, lost it and and ran up to the cockpit from the outside and his language was choice and the Duke apologised to him.
The same aircraft had to have the Dayglow removed and when stripped covered in brown paper for spraying . As it was around Xmas, someone had put a large stamp on the paper with the words, POST EARLY FOR XMAS. The Bosses were not amused.
Lots of memories for both me and my wife because I married the girl in the office at DH's Leavesden , 51 years ago.
Merv