Awww - lovely pics of one of the nicest places I have ever been. The Chipmunk is lovely to fly in, lovely to fly, and lovely to watch, whether live or on youtube, some of the best aerobatic displays are careful energy management in Chippies, and that engine sound is a glorious reminder of hot summer days on grassy airfields.

My recollection of interior cockpit colour is all black in RAF aircraft of the 1957-61 era. I guess this might be linked with daytime night-flying practice, using orange cockpit panels combined with blue goggles.

The green colour mentioned would be zinc chromate primer which protected the aluminium airframe from corrosion. This is nominally a pale green but was often modified by additives, as here:
Everything You Need To Know About Zinc Chromate
There is quite a lot of information about zinc chromate colour on model-makers' sites.

Is that the 8-track stereo bottom/left of the main instrument panel?

When I used to take our ground crew for air experience flights the rear cockpit was black with patches of white, green and yellow.

...and blobs of dried-on diced carrot and tomato skins.

My God man ... 8-track ... just how old are you? Next you'll be telling us about the fantastic new Betamax VCR you bought last week!

And your point is?

Courtney,

Nothing but banter, but as they say, if you have to explain then it didn't work.

Hello WIWOC. My top tips:

1) Find the person who originally told you there was a possibility they were green and ask them if they can show an example.

2) As your concern is visibility, ensure the lighting is sufficient in/on the cockpit.

All the Chipmunks I've seen have been black. The colours the engine casings are painted have been both black and green. Maybe that's where the memory is from.

WIWOC

Try this link WWW for black and white pictures for an original cockpit - in these the dial rings look a different colour but look at the colour picture and you'll see why the black and white looks different but actually isn't. So from this I expect the T10s to come straight from DHC with black cockpits.

All of the Chippies I've ever been in have black cockpits. If you want to see some of the finest preserved ones there are no less than 4 on Halton's airfield (1 being a Supermunk) - give the Airfield Manager a call to come and have a look. He can also contact their owners if you want to take detailed photographs.

All the best

LJ

Hi aviate1138 ...

Interesting picture you have there ... A Mk22 Chipmunk whose airframe number is, I believe, C1/0902 which never served with the RAF. Note the Turn-and-Slip is reversed with the VSI compared to the RAF instrument configuration seen in my pic and yes ... modern accouterments have been added. I believe this example still lives in Denmark :ok:

I'll get my anorak ...

Best regards ...

Coff.

I think his point is that it is obviously the CD player, with a pull out (released by red button) cup holder to its LHS. 8 track stereo is so very 70's...
I agree with everyone else that Chippies' cockpits (well in the early 60's) were finished in matt black. The OP's use of the phrase cockpit green is beguiling though. Were not Tiger Moth cockpits so finished, with any necessary signage in white on a black background? Would that green have been merely primer or a finish coat?

Nerd alert...:8

It's a Bendix-King KY-96a...

http://av-avionics.co.uk/en/images/a...96a-ky-97a.jpg

Ah, well done Wilson. I wondered who'd be first to spot that!
WIWOC, please check your PMs

The green was the zinc-chromate primer. Black on top of that.

As for the authenrtic comms fit, the original aircraft had a basket for carrier pigeons.

And it's a nice picture aviate, but not the original AH or DI. Coffman's pic has the authenic instruments. The AH shopuld be a Mk1B or Mk1E (Cof's pic in the latter). Although I can see the benfits of fitting a caging gyro. The Mk1s toppled quickly and then required 15 minutes to re-errect - which invariably meant a letdown on the T and S and the DI if aerobatting above cloud.

DW
"And it's a nice picture aviate, but not the original AH or DI. Coffman's pic has the authenic instruments."

Agreed about the pic - I sent it as it was in colour - [ for Coff] the Danish Reg is visible and I looked for ages for an RAF version [in colour] and drew a blank. :)

Dan Winterland is correct (as usual) on both counts. All UK-built Chipmunks had black cockpits (the "coal hole" black was painted over zinc-chromate green primer) plus, apart from the oil temp gauge and the taco, all the instruments in Aviate1138's cockpit are distinctly non-standard, whereas Coffman Starter's cockpit is close to bog-standard.

As an aside, I'm told that the MoD supplied DH with the instruments to be fitted in the Chipmunk.

There, MB in Hong Kong, will that do?

Dora-9 ...

Yep "Bog Standard" VHF Front Seat RAF config ... Without the clutter of the boxes associated with the UHF variant ... :ok:

Best ...

Coff.

Hi just spoken to father he only ever remembers black and his first Chipmunk flight in his log book dates from 1950 last Chipmunk flight 1994

Ours (G-BCSL which I flew for well over 30 years) dates from 1951 and is black (it's black outside these days, too).

Most engines we've had in SL over the years have been black, but we've had green, and even a red one once (that didn't last long as one of our members - not me! - taxied her into a hangar and shock-loaded the engine).