Tuesday Club has started its 31th year with many activities

Suomeksi

In the beginning of the year it is appropriate to summarise the activities of the Tuesday Club in the previous year. In the summer the Tuesday Club team finalized the restoration of the I.V.L. K.1. Kurki aircraft, after three years of work. The Kurki was assembled and placed on display at the Päijänne-Tavastia Aviation Museum in Vesivehmaa. As the Kurki-project had come to an end, a new project could be started: Caudron C.59 (CA-59) will be restored for display. The restoration of the VL Myrsky II (MY-14) was started six years ago and the Tuesday Club team worked on it in 2019 as well. The fourth project in the Tuesday Club was to repair the two broken rotor blades of the SM-1 helicopter. Also some additional minor tasks were given to the Tuesday Club team and the year was rather loaded with work. Over 7 000 work hours were done during the year. The team has continued with the ongoing tasks in the beginning of this year.

Repairs of Caudron’s fabric-covered wings

The main tasks at the moment in the Caudron C.59 advanced trainer plane restoration project are the repairs of the holes and tears in the fabric covering on the lower wings. This is not a minor project, because there were 66 holes to mend on the lower port wing and about 50 on the starboard wing. It is very sad to see how badly the Caudron’s wings have been treated during the 90 years of storage.

The holes and tears on the lower port wing have already been repaired. The edges of the tears were connected with stitches and a fabric patch was glued on the sewn area. Nitrocellulose varnish was used for gluing the patches and it smoothed the repaired fabric when shrinking. Historical values have to be considered when the holes on Caudron’s wings are repaired. If the fabric covering of the wing had been damaged with over 50 holes when the aircraft was still in use, the whole wing would have been covered with new fabric. At the moment the Tuesday Club is working on the lower starboard wing. The fabric surfaces were cleaned and then the repairs of the holes could be started. In addition to the work on the wings, the repair of the horizontal stabilizer is going on. The horizontal stabilizer had to be dismantled to repair the damages and now it is being re-assembled.

SM-1 helicopter’s rotor blades were repaired

The repair work on the PZL SM-1SZ (HK-1) helicopter’s rotor blades was started a year ago. Now all the damaged areas have been repaired, i.e. covered with new fabric and treated with shrinking varnish. The damaged areas were located in the fabric-covered areas of the blades. Now the new fabric areas have been smoothed using nitrocellulose varnish and are waiting to be painted. When the original paint type and colours have been defined, the new fabric areas can be painted. The upper surface of the blade will be painted dark green and the lower side will be pale blue.

Myrsky’s restoration work continues for one more year

The aim is to complete the restoration of Myrsky MY-14 in March 2021 when the aircraft will be placed on display. The schedule is tight, but the restoration teams are working hard in the Tuesday Club and in the Finnish Air Force Museum in Tikkakoski.

In the Tuesday Club the main emphasis is on the restoration of the two wing halves. Both wings are under construction in the restoration space at the Finnish Aviation Museum. The leading edge of the starboard wing has been almost covered with new plywood and the trailing edge area on the upper surface will be covered soon. The starboard wing will soon be ready for the surface preparations, which are needed before painting. The work on the port wing is about one month behind the starboard wing. There is still some work needed on the port wing before the flap compartment on the trailing edge is ready, the flap is completed and the leading edge is covered with new plywood.

Photos: Lassi Karivalo

Translation: Erja Reinikainen.

The repairs of the Caudron’s fabric-covered wings