DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

jamie wrote:I enjoy Twitter, but I can't put much of my work on there because most of what I photograph is embargoed till a later date.

So the stuff I can put on there is mostly drivel

I thought it was brilliant and the Norway trip brought me up in goose bumps looking at the terrain you must have flown.
I loved the Red Bull formation hanger flight - insane but inspiring.

I flew from Evennes to Oslo last week - snow as far as you can see in every direction in June!

Jason - Norway was the scariest flying I've ever done. I had a burning smell from the engine on the way up there whilst skirting around Stavanger under a low ceiling of dense cloud, then busted their airspace whilst looking for somewhere to crash. The smell disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived, and I concluded it was from having just flown through a rain cloud. I then ended up doing so much weather-diversion that I ran low on fuel and had to call into a place up in the mountains that only had Jet A1. That was all on one leg of the trip, and was the single worst piece of flying I've ever managed. Total shite, and too close for comfort.

Then on the way home I decided there was really no difference between routing down to Denmark or straight across to the Orkneys, via the Shetlands, since either way there were no engine-failure options other than to go in some very cold water. So I opted to head direct for the Shetlands. It was 1.5 hours over the North Sea - too long in a single-engine aircraft. I was out of my comfort zone by quite a margin, but I figured it was just psychological issue that I had to overcome. The engine has 700 hours on it - 700 hours without a failure, so why would it fail now?

About halfway across, I relaxed a lot and started to enjoy the solitude. There's something quite emotionally powerful about being up there alone, on the edge of nowhere, skirting around the edge of the planet like this. I was out of radio contact with Norway Control, and not close enough to the Shetlands to contact Sumburgh. I had about three minutes of calm and control, and then the engine spluttered. Just briefly, but a very definite splutter. In retrospect I think it was carb ice (melting off the inlet / butterfly and slipping through the engine), but that single second of rough running shite me up good and proper, and I was convinced I was going into the sea. For the next 45 minutes I listed to every cycle of that engine, and it was the longest 45 minutes of my entire life. I coasted in near Sumburgh, without another cough from the engine, so resisted making a pan call and carried onwards. For any non-pilots who have read this far, this isn't what you're supposed to do - I should have stopped to check the engine. But hey, I was nearly there. Then, as I arrived over the Orkney islands, the engine began spluttering again, and on approach into Kirkwall, as I pulled the throttle back, it ran even worse. This is a classic carb-ice situation, but I was concentrating on my approach too much to make that assessment there and then. I did a very tight circuit, expecting my approach might be a deadstick one, but the power held and I made it all the way to the terminal. I went into the terminal in my immersion suit and lifejacket, headed straight to the bogs, and did a very nervous shite.

The rest of the flight was equally as bad - got weathered-in at Wick, then the engine started running rough again. Then it cleared. Some nice guys did a compression check for me. It was fine, and staying fine, so I headed south, got as far as Inverness, had to divert due to terrible weather, spent the night in Tain, which was OK, but I wanted to be home. The next day I flew down the Great Glen as the Cairngorms were weathery, then past Oban. I tried to do the Low Level Corridor at Manchester, but the weather was bad again. Blackpool ATC told me I could get through over the coast, which is what I did, at which point Liverpool let me transit their airspace straight down the Mersey. That was pretty cool. Then a stop for fuel just south of Manchester with another wait for weather to blow through, then straight home into the sunny south. Total flight time - 9.5 hours each way. I should have taken an airliner.

Here's the Liver building from 800ft:

Anyway, I took my 901 box to Mike Bainbridge's place last week.

Tired synchro rings, a disintegrated bearing cage and some rounded dog teeth - standard stuff for a neglected box out of an unloved car. Looks like it's never had an oil change, ever.















Mike described it as 'right shitted up'.

jamie wrote:
Mike described it as 'right shitted up'.

The sign of a true expert, he knows all the terminology...

jamie wrote:...the scariest flying I've ever done... a burning smell from the engine ...looking for somewhere to crash... I ran low on fuel... then the engine spluttered.... the engine began spluttering again...and did a very nervous shite.

Glad you made it Jamie, and it's only small comfort I know, but the pictures were fantastic!

Definitively take the airliner next time

Did you ever find a problem with the engine?

Gary71 wrote:Did you ever find a problem with the engine?

Nope. I'm 95% certain it was carb ice. I checked the float bowls at Falkirk, and as I mentioned got the compressions checked at Wick. RPM drops between the two ignition systems are within limits.

Anyway, I've ordered a carb heat kit for it...

Does it have any hot air pick up from the exhaust? An old Golf of mine used to cut out on the motorway and would de-ice in the time you had stopped stared at the engine for a bit and decided to give it another go. Then repeat every 30 minutes...

I eventually found the paper hose under the carb from the exhaust manifold had fallen off!

jamie wrote:Anyway, I took my 901 box to Mike Bainbridge's place last week.

Tired synchro rings, a disintegrated bearing cage and some rounded dog teeth - standard stuff for a neglected box out of an unloved car. Looks like it's never had an oil change, ever.

Mike described it as 'right shitted up'.

When I met Mike in the Highlands DDK tour he suggested to me that I should change my gearbox oil! Thank goodness I had recently so didn't get sent to the back of the class.

He just laughed at my gearbox when the brgs slipped out of the main case...

"Oh dear..."

Jamie...DUDE! That is a harrowing story! I think the current theory as to the demise of the Norseman Glen Miller was flying in across the Channel was carb icing. I remember a long drive in my Alfa GTV through the wilds of New York State at night...a bit like Dartmoor, but times a few thousand, and being obsessed of my impending doom...because my alternator light was on....utterly silly, I appreciate now...but as I was by myself, the inner voice was saying "you are screwed". (Made it home 300 miles no problem, probably could have driven 1000 miles) I cannot imagine - actually I can, but would prefer not to - how you were feeling up their with "Death as my Co-Pilot"...really rather nightmarish. Hope you didn't tell your Mum! I bet that will wake you from a sound sleep for years to come. John in Connecticut.

Hrrrrghhhhh.

I bought a rotary polisher and started polishing the car. Turns out the bits I just 'blended in', where I had gone through the edges whilst colour-sanding, aren't blended at all - they're very obvious, and there's a dark ring around each patch. Paint guys will probably know what this is called.

The car also still seems quite peely. I know I'm not going to get a perfect finish from painting in a garage, but I feel I can do better than this.

After repeatedly staring at the patches over an hour or two, I concluded the only way I would be happy with the end result would be to sand the thing down and put another single, uniform, coat on top. Or perhaps just get it together, MOT'd, registered, drive the balls off it for a bit, then repaint.

There are other marks too - the engine decklid has some sanding marks where I screwed the paint up, re-sanded and re-sprayed. Not sure why, but they're definitely there.

I haven't particularly enjoyed the bodywork part of this adventure, and right now I don't have the energy to turn the garage back into a spray booth again, so I think what I'm going to do is assemble the car so I can feel I'm making some progress again. Once it's together, minus windows, lights and other external fixings, I'll mask everything up really well and respray it as a whole. I want to do it with more space than I had last time, so I'm going to work on getting all redundant clobber out of the garage - old tinware, the original front running gear, a set of five steel wheels which I like but will never use, plus a tool chest which I have since replaced with a bigger one, and 20m of aluminium guttering which I should have put on the house months ago...

Hmphhh.

Feeling for you mate, sorry its a bit sh*tty right now. How about asking a pro paint spray company to give it a blow over, surely it wouldnt be too expensive as you have done all the hard work and then you can carry on? Maybe someone on DDK is feeling generous....

Keep the faith Jamie.

Jamie,

I have watched your endeavours with interest (and a few laughs - thanks for those!) and having now restored two of these (and nearly finished a third) I would like to suggest you'd be a fool to part assemble it before getting the paint sorted. Any paint job on a part re-built car will result in overspray somewhere, trust me, and it will always mark the car down IMHO. So either man-up (again!) and paint it yourself or take it to a body shop for them to paint. In its current state that shouldn't be too onerous or expensive, especially if you use a local, non specialist place.

Your car, your decision of course ........and my best wishes whatever you do.

Mick