Sprong Season for Tuesday Club has started

After Holiday season our members returned to the restoration hall of Finnish Aviation Museum to continue work from where it was left before Christmas. Ongoing main projects are reconstructing of cockpit area from Valmet Vihuri (VH-25), restoration of Focke-Wulf Fw 44J Stieglitz fuselage, restoration of VL Myrsky II MY-14) and as latest project restoration of all-metal Valmet Tuuli III (TL-1 / OH-TLX).

Work on Tuuli III was started shortly before Christmas. Restoration of Tuuli means finishing the whole aircraft into its original scheme as it was in Finnish Air Force with register TL-1. While doing so it will be rebuilt and equipped to have its original functionality. The minimum level is to make it ready to be later finished as a flying aircraft again.

Tuuli III project continues with preparing the airframe for painting. Firstly it means dismantling all parts needed to make painting easier. Ailerons and flaps were already removed before Christmas. Also elevators were disconnected from horizontal stabilizers. Wednesday Club took care of removing Tuuli’s Continental engine from its nose ready to wait for overhaul.

Spring season started on 12th of January. First we had Tuuli’s right wing in the works. It was raised to lay firmly on used car tires. All parts which could be removed were taken off to make handling and painting at paint shop as easy as possible.

Tuuli’s main landing gear is installed in wings. So it had to come off as well. Undercarriage was made in England by Dowty Equipment Ltd. which meant we couldn´t use our normal metric tools but had to go for inch-sized tools.

While we didn’t have a manual for dismantling the landing gear, we were able go on part by part and function by function as needed to remove it from its well. It will be later dismantled fully for inspection and overhaul. Mostly spanners were used but they were not always usable. Eg. wheel bearing had to be pulled out with the help of a puller.

Telescopic arm of landing gear has paint coat on it. We plan to use CTC Eco Complex Blue cleaner to remove dirt. It should preserve the original paint while removing dirt. Most other metal parts of landing gear are unpainted steel and they have gathered rust. They will be rubbed out and coated with anti-rust varnish.

Landing gear and most of its mechanism was jammed as it has not been used since late 1980’s. Antirust solvents did a good job in getting mechanisms again moveable to enable them to be dismantled for proper cleaning. There is a huge difference between how a part looks like as just removed and when it is dismantled and cleaned.

Removed parts included wing tip with navigation light, landing light from leading edge and all inspection and maintenance hatches. Wing tip had a dent on its aluminium surface.  It was straightened.

Tuuli III’s left wing will be handled just like this one. Thereafter both wings are ready to be transported for painting at the Tavastia Vocational College in Hämeenlinna, roughly 100 kms from our museum. Other wing parts, like landing gear, will be restored by the Tuesday Club.