How to change the nose wheel on a DH Vampire?
 

I posted this on the engineering and ground ops section but maybe it would be better here?

Our little aviation museum has a couple of DH Vampires and the two seater (T11?) needs a new tube in the nose wheel but we are at a loss as to how to get the wheel off as we cannot see how to take the hollow axle out of the fork.


Is there anyone out there old enough to remember how to do this?


Thanks very much.. you can see a bit about our museum at
Ashburton Activity - Ashburton Aviation Museum

Go and ask any one who operates a DH104 dove, they used the same hard centre groved nose wheel tyre. Perhaps the guys that do the flights over to battle fields

Thats a good idea, thanks, I think I know someone who operates a Dove here in New Zealand. We do have a Devon in another hangar, I will take a close look at that and see if it is the same arrangement as the Vampire.

John,

There's an airworthy Devon at the Tauranga museum.

Simon

PS See PM

Thanks Simon, I am not sure if the Devon is the same or not..

If all else fails.......

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...W8EKp1EQ2dKVHA

Another hint: if you haven't done so already, try posting on the Keypulishing forum about this: Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums - Powered by vBulletin under 'Historic Aviation'.
There are a lot of people on that forum who tinker with Vampires/Venoms/Doves etc.

Edit: It seems that someone else has copied your message to that forum already: Help needed Vampire nose legs.. - Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums

Thanks, I have registered at that site.

Vampire Nose wheel
 

Hello John, I am in the archive at Solent Sky Museum in Southampton, UK and we have a T11 as well as a Sea Vixen in the main building. We also have some Maintenance Manuals for a number of D.H. aircraft so I will see what I can find out on Friday when I next go to the Museum.
David

Thanks for the help everyone. http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...ies/thumbs.gif

I made a simple puller today and easily moved the axle. In a few days we will have the necessary trestle etc to hold her up while taking the axle out.

Three blokes on each boom. Lift the nose into the air, sit on the booms, change the nosewheel, let it down again.

Or; how you got the picture of what it was like landing in an FB5 before you took one up for the first time.

Happy days - Swinderby 1956.

Errrr, I am not going to recommend that in our situation......:)

Three blokes on each boom:

That was the standard procedure if you had a wet start. Tilting it on its backside allowed the excess fuel to run out of the jet pipe.

Some of us never over primed it Jock :)

Over-priming ?
 

Whoever primed a Goblin before start-up? Or a Ghost for that matter - "LP and HP cocks on, throttle closed, press button" and off yer goes (or not if it don't light or if the Ghost starter cartridge only gives off foul-smelling clouds of greeny-grey, calling for a rapid (ie QUICK) winding shut of the canopy and possibly some deep breaths of 100% oxygen) ...

Only joking JP :ok: I must admit I never experienced a wet start in a Vampire.

@ Brakedwell
 

Thought you might have been doing a "have-on" - I think I did have one on a Vamp 5, but it was "in a far-off land, a long time ago" ...
Regards,
JP

Just to clear the record, I have often had wet finishes but never a wet start!

However, I have witnessed several Vampire wet-start procedures as previously described when I was at Valley

With Nottingham so near Swinderby bucks were never bothered by wet dreams! :E

Even after draining the jet pipe an asbestos blanket was thrown over the horizontal stabiliser to protect it from the ensuing conflagation when the excess fuel plus that on the ground caught fire. This was in the AVtag days.

Venom 1 start
 

When the Venom FB1 came into service (the ones after other units bent theirs through pulling too much 'g' and the aircraft had to have red lines painted on) on every start an asbestos blanket was put over the tailplane to protect the tailplane. Before taxying out, our doughty groundcrew showed us the blanket ...
When our Venoms eventually arrived (non-red line), Pilots' Notes included the nots "These aircraft are not 'g'-limited", and 'g' meters were fitted well in the pilot's line of sight ... Lots of fun for those strong of biceps, though it was considered cheating to trim hard back before pulling and so record a super-high 'g' reading. "Sir" soon stopped all that when airframes twisted.

Sorry, all this doesn't help in getting a Vampire's nosewheel off ... BTW - Vamp 10 or a "real" one with the slim cokpit?

After several fatal crashes in 1957 all the Swinderby Vampire FB5 & 9's were grounded for a month after they were found to be twisted beyond safe limits. Badly dented bullet fairings around the tailplanes/fins were also blamed for the loss of control during high speed/mach dives. When our then senior course was extended by two weeks they made us fill the time in cleaning and polishing all the Vampires chosen to be re-rigged and de-dented.

We had Vampires with all sorts of Red Line Entries.
Not to be spun solo,
No aerobatics above 20,000 ft,
Nose wheel door keeps opening,
plus others.

Do any of you youngsters remember the joys of changing the voltage regulator under the flap nearest to the engine on the vampire and trimming the voltge with the exhaust of the jet pipe about 3 ft behind you (no ear muffs1949/50)screaming its head off and being deaf as a post for at least 20 mins afterwards, happy days.sorry about thread drift

Swinderby was issued with half a dozen brand new T11's to fill the gap caused by grounding the single seaters. Naturally us students were very keen to get out hands on these pristine flying machine. i drew a long straw and was allocated a shiny new T11 for a solo medium altitude aerobatic sortie. After conscientiouly completing the required exercises over north Lincolnshire I headed south towards Swinderby, diving and rolling as I played with the cumulus clouds. During a tight turn there was loud bang and out of the corner of my eye I saw green and silver peices of the left wing flying upwards. The T11 ficked on to it's back, I reduced the power and extended the airbrakes. The Vampire was controllable with a generous dose of right aileron down to 100 kts if I remember rightly and landing it was not a big problem. An enquiry established that the port wing had been built at Chester and was at least half an inch thinner than the starboard Hatfield wing. To make up the difference a generous layer of filler had been applied! My last high G turn had been enough to flex the wing and shed all the filler on the top of the port wing.