Bristol Freighter ZK-CPT startup

[allyn]

I stumbled onto this interesting video on Youtube. It features a Bristol Hercules starting up on a Bristol Freighter being restored down in NZ:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pXDw_670JJk

More information about the project can be found on the Youtube page.

[kluge]

The plan is to have it taxi along the flight line in next years Classic Fighters airshow at Omaka.

I have been inside it. Its a lovely old leviathan.

[merlinxx]

It would be bloody magic to see a 'Frightener' flying again, well done chaps.:ok:

[DHfan]

There's an interesting thread here

Wings Over Cambridge - Omaka's Bristol Freighter to run again (http://rnzaf.proboards43.com/index.cgi?board=Airshows&action=display&thread=2581)

about the trials and tribulations of persuading the beast to run again.

I'm a dummy, I didn't test it. Fixed now.

[The Flying Pram]

That link doesn't seem to work, but try this. (http://rnzaf.proboards43.com/index.cgi?board=Airshows&action=display&thread=2581&page=1#)
I remember seeing the UK example flying at the PFA rally many years back, sadly it was written off in a groundloop not long afterwards. I also saw the very dilapidated example at Ardmore when I was on holiday in NZ during '97. Would be lovely to see one flying again....

[gas path]

That'll be this one then at Enstone!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v462/gaspath/Img_1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v462/gaspath/Img_11.jpg
Interesting view of the prop from the inside:ooh:

[By George]

I flew those things in the 70's with Air Express out of Melbourne (EN) on the Bass Strait runs. Odd machine, very British with electrical tailwheel lock, auto mixture, carby shut-off valves, ECB and auto feather. Very good load, 4 tons compared to the DC3 at 3 tons for a little less speed. Taught me how to use my feet and looking back,fun, in alot of ways. With solid rubber blocks in the oleo's it would bounce like a beach ball if you let it. My best and worst landings have been in Bristols. If you missed it during the flare it got very exciting very quickly.

[Redbeck]

Have flown ZK CPT.
Great work Alistair.
Now get it flying!:ok:

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Here are a couple of video clips of ZK-CPT taken four weeks ago at Classic Fighters 2015 at Omaka Aerodrome, Blenheim, NZ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wp81pkD6HY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP7JqSyZDdk

They're a little bit rough & ready and haven't been edited in any way. The focus is a bit out in a couple of places, but you've gotta love that Bristol thunder, eh?

[joy ride]

I saw the start-up video several years ago before I joined PPRuNE, but did not follow the project. Great to see those videos, ktj, many thanks. Whatever their good and bad points, it is hard not to like these Freighters.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Fantastic. Looks much better than when we saw it at Omaka in 2007.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

My Mum's cousin used to have an aviation radio & avionics business in Wellington and we often used to stay at his place during school holidays in the 1960s. Allan Macaulay was one of the RNZAF's top radar boffins installing and maintaining radar installations in NZ and around the Pacific during WWII, then set himself up in business after the war and designed, built and installed all of the first-generation radar installations around NZ. The original radar setup on Hawkins Hill was made by him. Allan also used to carry out most of the emergency avionics repair work for TEAL, QANTAS, NAC, SAFE Air and the RNZAF in Wellington. Consequently, while staying with him during school holidays, I got to go to all sorts of interesting places at Wellington Airport when he was called-out after hours, including into the cockpits of TEAL and QANTAS L.188 Electras, various NAC airliners (Viscounts, Friendships and DC-3s), SAFE Air Bristol Freighters, and once out to a RNZAF Sunderland moored in Evans Bay. On a few occasions, I went to work with Allan and spent the day watching the comings and goings at Wellington Airport from his workshop, which was on the Rongotai side of the field. That was naturally before the days of over-the-top security at airports. I have vivid memories of SAFE Air's Bristol Freighters coming and going. At times it was like a virtual conveyor-belt of Freighters operating between Wellington and Woodbourne; sometimes there was literally a Bristol Freighter at the traverser swapping loads, another Freighter taxiing in, one taxiing out, a Freighter on approach, and a Freighter in the distance flying out from Wellington. And that was all day long, day after day. And even when I wasn't at the airport I got to watch the comings and goings of the Bristol Freighters, because Allan's house was in Strathmore Park up on the hill overlooking Wellington Airport.

However, an interesting tale about ZK-CPT. The starboard engine has always been a little bit dodgy since Al Marshall got the engines up and running again for Classic Fighters 2009. Over the past 2-3 years, they have been finding small bits of metal in the oil filter after running the starboard engine, and by late last year it got to the point where they could almost identify the metal bits, so they came to the conclusion the the engine was basically stuffed and needed some major work. There are a couple of spare engines (one of which could be turned over), but because they didn't know if there was any corrosion on the sleeves or cylinder walls without stripping the engine down, it wasn't really advisable to simply swap that engine for the dodgy one on the Freighter. So Al Marshall came up with a cunning plan to temporarily mount his Bristol Hercules engine that he has mounted on a trailer onto the Freighter for Classic Fighters 2015 so they could taxy the Freighter in front of the crowd, as you saw in those two video clips. Sometime soon, they are going to overhaul one of the spare engines and put that on the starboard wing of the Freighter, but in the meantime, Al has claimed his engine back. Here is a video clip of Al's engine being run during Classic Fighters 2013....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvO_Ag0jJr8