Gathering information for future cabin restoration work

Suomeksi

The members of the Caravelle technical design team visited Turku a few weeks ago (on October 25th) to find information for the future restoration work in the cabin. The visitors were Markku Ahokoski, Kari Nyman and Martti Saarinen and team assistant Erja Reinikainen.

All summer and autumn access to the Caravelle’s cabin has been through the right-hand side service door and aft stairway. During the assembly phase in June also the emergency exits over the wing were used. The passenger door on the left-hand side is damaged and it can’t be opened. Lately also the aft stairway has been out of use as its hydraulic pump and cylinders are under repair. The service door is smaller than the passenger door and this has caused problems when large items (e.g. plywood boards) have been taken inside for repairs in the cabin. The passenger door needs to be repaired in the spring before any major work in the cabin is started.

When the passenger door is opened, it moves first straight inwards and then it is manually lifted along its rails up to the cabin ceiling. The door weighs 53 kilos, so opening and closing is assisted with a counterbalancing system. The system consists of roll chains, steel cables and three bungee cords (rubber ropes), several metres long and located in the cargo space under the cabin floor. The mechanism is damaged, and the door can’t be used before the mechanism is repaired. There are no spare parts available so they will have to be made and this makes the repair work a lengthy process.

During their visit to Turku Markku and Kari opened the cabin floorboards and concentrated on the passenger door’s bungee cord system. They also disassembled the broken roll chains and now their parts can be used as models when making new ones. 

While the others were occupied with the door mechanism, Martti was working on the flight deck installing the latest additions into the instrument panel. The panel on the captain’s side looks quite good already, on the co-pilot’s side there are more still missing. Some instruments have been donated, some have been received in an exchange, some have been bought

While the others were working inside the aircraft, Erja dug herself into the storage container to find the cabin seat covers which were brought from Arlanda. According to Murphy’s law, they had been packed into the far corner of the container, in thoroughly sealed boxes which were under other boxes at the very bottom. It turned out that there is a good number of are dark green seat covers in reasonable condition and they can probably be fitted on the seat frames we have. During the winter we can start planning how to clean and repair the seat covers.

Winter is coming and there will be a break in the restoration work for the coldest months. Along with that there will also be less blogs during the winter. 

Photos by Erja Reinikainen

Translation by Erja Reinikainen