Tuesday Club's autumn season at full swing

Keskiviikko 3.9.2025 - Tuesday Club member

Suomeksi

The autumn season, which started halfway through August for the Tuesday Club, has got on a good start. There’s plenty of work to do. Naturally the Snoopy’s (OH-XEA “Ressu”) restoration will continue with the covering of the fuselage as the main object. The fabric is in place on the fuselage, and the tightening lacquer is being applied. The damaged Continental A 65 engine, which we received to be installed to the Snoopy, is being prepared to be cleaned by glass bead blasting.

With the restoration of the Bristol Blenheim bomber pilot’s seat, we’ll carry on from where we got before the summer break. The seat frame and seat pan surfaces are close to being ready for painting.

The Demo-Myrsky is under construction both at Puusepäntie and at the Finnish Aviation Museum. The Demo-Myrsky consists of the Myrsky MY-14 test wing, built during the restoration project of the MY-14, and the MY-5 fuselage frame. With the aid of the Demo -Myrsky, the inside structure of a mixed construction Finnish fighter will be demonstrated. That’s why, for instance, the fuselage frame won’t be fully covered. At the Puusepäntie workshop the repairs on the horizontal stabilizer, rudder and the damaged original elevator are under way. At the Museum the refurbishing and completion of the MY-5 fuselage frame are being worked on.

We’ve had our work cut out with the two sea containers, bought by Aviation Museum Society Finland, and brought at the yard of the Puusepäntie yard. One of the containers will become a working space for fire work and the other one will serve as a storage container. Both the containers have long since seen their heyday, so they will be refurbished on the outside. Holes in the containers will be patched, and the surfaces will be sanded. The outsides will be painted with the blue colour used by the Aviation Museum Society. One already is of a pretty blue colour.

Photo: Reijo Siirtola

We’ll start with the fuselage the restoration of the PIK 21 Super Chug (OH-XTM), which was donated to Aviation Museum Society. The fuselage was brought from a storage container at the yard of the Finnish Aviation Museum to Puusepäntie. The engine will be detached from the fuselage before we can commence the restoration of the lower part of the badly damaged and plywood-covered fuselage.

The job list for the autumn season also contains the refurbishment and repairs to the ailerons of the DC-3 “the Seagull” (OH-LCD) situated at the yard of the Finnish Aviation Museum. Both the ailerons’ coverings need renewing and the stem of the right-hand aileron is damaged. The Air Veteran lot will detach the ailerons for us to restore.

Photos: Lassi Karivalo, unless otherwise mentioned

Translation to English: Matti Liuskallio

Fashion photography at the Caravelle

Lauantai 16.8.2025 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

On Tuesday, 29 July 2025, there was unusual activity on the Caravelle site at Turku airport when the fashion collection of Konsta Eskola, an Aalto University fashion design student, was being photographed.

This collection is a part of Konsta’s final project in his bachelor’s studies, where he has evaluated airline uniforms and the possibilities for their reuse. Before his studies Konsta worked for several years at Norra as a member of the cabin crew, so he is familiar with the work environment, airline dress codes and wearing a uniform.

All materials of Konsta’s collection – except aluminium and recycled leather – are from parts of Finnair’s and Norra’s used uniforms. He has taken apart the uniform parts he received from the airlines, and from this material he created new clothes. The uniform parts had come to the end of their life cycle in their original use and would have ended up in textile recycling. Utilizing different second-hand materials has been trendy in the fashion business already for some time, but this is presumably the first time when airline uniforms are reused in this way.

Furthermore, Konsta says he likes to play with the impressions the outfits create and to challenge the traditional views of male and female roles as uniform users. Konsta’s final project collection includes six looks.

The photographing day started on the Caravelle site by defining photographing locations and outlines as the photographer evaluated camera angles and illumination. Locations were selected outside the aircraft, on the wing and in the cabin. The Caravelle team volunteers, who were on site to assist in the shoot, moved away tools, exhibition items and all kinds of clutter from the background of the photographing sectors.

Three models, a makeup artist and a hairstylist arrived soon after noon. The first pictures were taken towards the end of the afternoon. There were some heavy rain showers during the afternoon, causing some delay in the activity, but fortunately continuous rain was avoided. The photographing session ended before twilight.

Konsta praised the Caravelle team for the photographing day, everything went smoothly, and he was very pleased with the results. “Doing a fashion shoot like this has been my long-term dream and thanks to you it was possible to make this dream come true today.”

For the Caravelle volunteers the day offered an intriguing glimpse into a different world. None of us present had ever participated in anything like this before.

The photographs taken of the fashion shoot which are published with this blog are taken by the Caravelle team members. We will get some of the actual results of the day, i.e. photos taken by the photographer, and publish them here later.

Photos: Jouko Tarponen

Translation to English: Erja Reinikainen

Airveteran DC-3 OH-LCH visits Caravelle on 12 July, 2025

Tiistai 5.8.2025 - Ismo Matinlauri & Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

This year the iconic DC-3 OH-LCH, owned by Airveteran and maintained and operated by the Finnish DC-3 Society, visited Turku on Saturday 12 July. Fortunately the visit was scheduled for a weekend and our Caravelle was open to visitors. We had invited the Turku Soldiers’ Home Association on site with their van to sell coffee, doughnuts and other refreshments – and there is no summer event in Finland without barbecue sausages! The visitors enjoyed the aviation history event and refreshments in the beautiful and warm but slightly sticky summer weather.

During the day the DC-3 flew three local flights for the public, about 45 minutes each, over the Turku archipelago. Several members of the Caravelle team had booked a flight and enjoyed the piston-engine flight. Unfortunately our Caravelle will never fly again, but a flight on the OH-LCH is always a great experience and the scenery in the Turku archipelago is very beautiful.

In terms of numbers of visitors, the day and the whole weekend were a success. We had almost two hundred visitors on board our Caravelle during the two days. The visitors were interested in the history of the 1960s airliner type and this specific aircraft. The volunteer guides from the Caravelle team were asked many questions during the weekend. Many visitors commented on the great appearance of the aircraft and were amazed to hear the amount of voluntary work done so far (about 7500 hours by May 2025).

In addition to the July weekend, the Caravelle was open to visitors also on Monday, 14 July, to honour Bastille Day. We have created a tradition to open the aircraft for visitors and raise the tricolour on the National Day of France, the country where our beautiful aircraft was manufactured.

DC-3 OH-LCH arriving in Turku. Photo Jouko Tarponen

Photo Jouko Tarponen

DC-3DC-3 pilots visiting Caravelle. Captain Petteri Tarma on the left. Photo Jouko Tarponen

Visitors outside the Caravelle and the Turku Soldiers’ Home Association van. Photo Jouko Tarponen

Flying on the DC-3 over Turku city centre. Photo Erja Reinikainen

The tricolour on Caravelle on Bastille Day. Photo Ismo Matinlauri

Translation to English: Erja Reinikainen

The MY-14 wing has been painted

Torstai 3.7.2025 - Antti Lappalainen & Reino Myllymäki

Suomeksi

The MY-14 wing was transported from Vantaa and the Tuesday Club’s Myrsky group hands to Tikkakoski and Finnish Air Force Museum's restoration group for necessary modifications, painting and joining to the fuselage in September 2024.

The modifications on the wing took the winter period 2024-2025 and the spring 2025. When I visited the Air Force Museum on 12.6.2025 the transportation and painting trestle was being assembled to the wing and after a couple of days on 17.6.2034 the wing was transported to the premises of Haklog Ky for painting.

The painting was mainly done using a high-pressure spray gun. It yields thicker layers of paint, although the quality of the surface is - depending on the type of paint - worse than with a side air brush, which was used to paint the swastika, mid-wing and black areas. The incentive to use the high-pressure spray gun was the fairly large area of the wing where the alkyd paint in use was known to give a smooth surface.

Because of the modifications the wing, which had been primed at Vantaa, had to be puttied and sanded, so the wing was given a once over with the Future-3-primer to the shade of RAL 7005.

After the primer the wing undersides were painted light blue with Teknosynt Combi 50 paint, with a shade that was called DN-blue during the war, and is now called RAL Design 220 60 10.

After the underside, next in line was the upper side green part, painted twice. Between the layers of paint, the surface was sanded. The paint was still the Teknosynt Combi in the shade of Teknos TM-11263/20.

Following the upper wing green area, the black camouflage of the plywood surfaces was painted. According to the instructions of the State Aircraft Factory, only one layer was painted. The borders were painted with low pressure spray gun, in order to make the borders sharp. After that the central parts were painted over.

Next in turn was the painting of the Eastern Front decals to the wingtips for a length of about I/6 or 183 cm. The painting was done with fully glossy Futura 90 using the Teknos TM 11297/20 shade.

For the painting of the national emblem, a circle 1 metre in diameter, was cut from a thick cardboard and a template for the swastika. The emblems were positioned with the help of the templates and using a laser and marked with a pencil. The circles were taped, and the rest of the wing was covered with plastic. There wasn’t enough of anti-glare paint for the emblems, so more had to be mixed using the corresponding paint for the fuselage as reference. The circles were painted with high pressure air gun.

The swastika in the circles was painted with the same method using fully glossy Teknosynt 90-paint. The shade was Teknos TM 11264/20.

The last parts to be painted were the parts in the mid-wing, that are covered by the cockpit and the wing root fairings, with Temalac FD 80-paint in the shade of RAL 7005.

Notice and guide markings and the markings for the service hatches are yet to be painted. Modifications for the aileron push rods are still unfinished and there are still holes in their coverings. But because the national emblems are hard to get identical, if their parts are painted separately, the part of the national emblems was painted now on the ailerons. For their part the yellow and black areas will be painted together with the wing root fairings, elevators and the rest of the missing pieces of covering.

After the painting, the wing was transported by the Defence Forces from the premises of Haklog Ky to the Finnish Air Force Museum on Wednesday 2.7.2025. The wing, with its transportation and painting trestle, was placed in the main display, next to the fuselage of MY-14. There the aircraft will be admired by the visitors and wait for the end of the summer holiday and the beginning of the autumn operations.

Photos: Finnish Air Force Museum

Translation to English: Matti Liuskallio

The first Caravelle exhibition

Tiistai 24.6.2025 - Erja Reinikainen and Ismo Matinlauri

Suomeksi:

The ambitious goal in the Caravelle project for this summer was to finish the cabin interior work in the rear area so that the first exhibition could be assembled in the open area. The four seat rows in the front area were completed already in May.

The most critical work phase for the exhibition area was the carpet installation. The carpet was cut to measure and installed in late May. Now the rear cabin is almost ready, only the ceiling panelling is missing, and we are looking for suitable aluminium mesh, resembling the original material, to cover the air-conditioning terminal units and loudspeakers on the wall. Although the work was in progress in this area, the preparations for the exhibition could be started in early June.

The preparations of the Caravelle exhibition poster material began already in the winter. Fortunately Juha Klemettinen, one of the authors of the “Caravelle in Finland” book, helped us with the photographs and the Caravelle project’s technical team assisted with the texts. Kai Asplund prepared the material lay-out for printing. We needed help from the Aviation Museum Society’s Tuesday Club, too. Poster roll-up frames are normally about 220 cm tall, but we had to cut the frame height to fit the Caravelle’s cabin to about 180 cm. This was done by the Tuesday Club. We had a dressmaker’s dummy for displaying the stewardess’s uniform, but it didn’t have a head. Fortunately a member of the Caravelle Turku team offered to make a papier-mâché head for our stewardess - and it looks great. A warm thank you to all who helped us with the exhibition material!

When all the material was ready and had arrived in Turku, the exhibition was assembled on 12 June 2025. The exhibition was open to the public for the first time already on the following day.

The exhibition describes the early phase of Finnair’s jet age and Caravelle’s role in it. There is also material about the Aviation Museum Society’s Caravelle project and a slideshow presenting how this aircraft was brought to Finland and restored to its present condition. Also the structure and technical systems of a passenger jet are displayed. One of the unique features of the Caravelle III is the brake parachute.

The exhibition is meant for independent visits; there is no guided presentation. However, there is usually a Caravelle team member present to answer questions during the opening hours. The display items have posters with information in Finnish, presenting the item and its history. We will improve the exhibition by adding small items and posters in English. We welcome you to Turku airport to visit the Caravelle and the exhibition!

Photos: Jouko Tarponen

Translation to English: Erja Reinikainen

The Myrsky Wing transported to be painted

Torstai 19.6.2025 - Reino Myllymäki

Suomeksi

The MY-14 wing was transported from Vantaa to Tikkakoski in September 2024. Since then it has undergone modifications with the restoration group at the Finnish Air Force Museum till the spring of 2025. In the wing standard hardware store bolts and new production parts have been replaced with original parts. Original parts of the wing have been conserved, and some parts of the wing have been modified according to the blueprints, for instance by removing and adding service hatches.

Photo: Reino Myllymäki

As I visited Tikkakoski on Thursday 12.6. these modifications were nearly finished and a trestle, made according to the blueprints by the State Aircraft Factory of wooden 2x4 inch beams and bolts, was fastened to the wing. The trestle was attached to the same brackets as the fuselage. The trestle positioned the wing at a steep diving angle, with the leading edge pointing down. This allows the 11 metres long wing lower and upper surfaces to be painted without nearly any obstructions.

On Tuesday 17.6. the trestle and the wing were taken out and hoisted on a low-bed trailer to be transported for painting to the premises of Haklog Ky.

At the Haklog Ky the wing was brought into the same workshop where the MY-14 fuselage had been painted in the autumn 2024.  There was a shortage of the wing lower surface blue paint, but luckily Jorma Laakkonen happened to bring a 9 kg tin of paint from Vantaa. So the Air Force Museum had all the necessary paints at its disposal.

Without any delay, the upper and lower surfaces of the wing were primed grey.

Photos: Jorma Laakkonen

After the wing gets camouflaged on both sides and equipped with the landing gear and ailerons, the joining of the wing and fuselage can be planned. And then the completing of MY-14 will be close. 
Even now it’s worthwhile to visit the Air Force Museum to admire the fuselage, which is waiting for the next operations without some fuselage hatches.

Photos: The Finnish Air Force Museum, unless otherwise mentioned

Translation to English: Matti Liuskallio

Restoration of the Blenheim navigator?s seat

Keskiviikko 18.6.2025 - Tuesday Club member

Suomeksi

We received the Blenheim V-series or “short-nosed” Blenheim’s navigator and pilot seats for restoration at the Tuesday Club.

Both the seat’s steel tubes were badly rusted, but neither seat had suffered significant damages. The navigator’s seat, or rather stool, was significantly more straightforward to restore because of its simple structure and smaller size. It would greatly help restoring the pilot’s seat, if the seat pan could be separated from the seat frame. The aim of the seat restoration is to clean the rust from the surfaces of the supportive tubes and smaller parts, grinding the aluminium surfaces and finally painting them.

We began the restoration with the navigator’s stool. The padding was detached first and the seatbelt as well. The seatbelt was partly torn and needed to see a cobbler.  The seat cover of leather has worn out and lost its colour. It needs to be conserved. We will not do it.

We examined the round shaped seat plate, bent at the edges, for shades of paint found on the surface. Light green colour was visible, under which darker green could be seen. Thus the surface of the seat plate had lastly been painted with light greenish grey paint and under it there was an older darker green paint.

Paint residue could also be found from the surface of the steel tube stem of the seat. This process was helped when the rusty stems of the seat were treated with Industrial ECO Complex Blue-solution. The solution revealed a green shade of paint on the surfaces of the tubes. In addition, some old pigment or paint chaff was scraped from the surfaces of the rusted tubes of the stem. Some of it was placed under a 600 times magnifying microscope. It turned out that there were three different layers of paint on the tubes of the stem. The lowest was brown, then grey and greenish grey on the surface, in other words the same shade that was found on the surface of the seat plate. In consequence we decided to paint the seat with the similar shade of light greenish grey paint.

To start the restoration proper, we detached the aluminium seat plate from the stem. It was fastened to the stem both with bolts and rivets. The bolts were loosened first. After that the rivets attaching a bracket to the edge of the seat in the upper part of the stem were drilled out, after which the seat plate came off the stem.

Then we started to remove the rust from the stem steel tubes. The rust was removed from the tube surfaces, so that a layer of surface paint became visible. The tubes need not be ground to gleaming metal, because we use Isotrol lacquer and paint for the painting. The Isotrol will stop the rusting from spreading, even though rust would have stayed in the rust crevices of the steel tubes.

Rust was ground off first with a coarse sanding paper, wiping the dust off at times. We then moved to finer sanding papers, feeling at the same time with fingers whether the surface of the tube was clean and smooth enough. After the coarse surfaces had become smooth and the old paint became visible, the sanding of the steel tubes was complete.

We moved on to deal with the seat plate. It was an easier task. The aluminium surfaces of the seat plate were lightly sanded with fine sanding paper. We didn’t indulge in any grinding off of the old paint. The main thing was that loose paint was removed from the seat surface and the aluminium surface became smooth.

After both the steel tube stem and the aluminium seat plate had been ground, they were lacquered with clear Isotrol, which leaves a protecting film on the metal surface. For the surface paint it was necessary to define the shade of the seat colour. We ended up with the grey green Temalac ML 90 BS 283 shade for the seat. With this formula the seat’s Isotrol oil paint was shaded.

Two Comprehensive school students, doing their work experience learning period at the Finnish Aviation Museum, painted the stem and seat plate of the navigator’s seat. Well, at first the quality of the work left something to be desired. However, with careful guidance a good result was achieved. That’s just the purpose of this kind of work experience period, isn’t it?

After the painting it was time to reassemble the seat. The glass bead blasted original assembly bolts were fitted, and the seat stem was riveted to the edge of the seat plate. The rivets were finally painted grey green, to avoid eye sore. We had a cobbler repair the seat belt. The restoration of the navigator seat in the Blenheim bomber was ready.

Photos: Lassi Karivalo

Translation to English: Matti Liuskallio

Signposts to the Caravelle "Bluebird"

Sunnuntai 15.6.2025 - Tuesday Club member

Suomeksi

The Tuesday Club received a request from the Aviation Museum Society’s Caravelle team in Turku to make two signposts. The signs would guide the visitors to the Aviation Museum Society’s Caravelle III OH-LEA Bluebird, which is situated by the Turku Airport terminal building. The permit to install signposts had been obtained from Finnavia, the governing authority in the airport area.

We answered in the affirmative to the Turku Team, so on to it. The Tuesday Club was in a good position because we already had a vector model of the word “Caravelle”, in the appropriate font style, after the restoration of two tow bars. We had taped the word Caravelle to both towbars.

On the basis of the sign measurements obtained from Turku, model prints and model images were drawn. The signs will be made of aluminium sheet, painted, and the text will be taped. At the stem of the sign, a looped square symbol (St John’s arms) denoting a place of interest, will be placed. We’ll make the signs to resemble the official signs denoting a place of interest. The background colour of the signs will be brown. The text and the looped squares will be in white.

We acquired 3 mm thick aluminium plate, cut to the measures of the signs, i.e. one 18 cm x 100 and the other 189x150 cm. The aluminium plates were ordered and fetched from Uudenmaan Teräsleikkaus Oy. The end of the shorter sign was cut to arrow shape with an angle grinder, after which the cutting surfaces of the arrow and the edges of both the aluminium signs we ground smooth.

We searched the brown shade for the signs on the internet. The shade was found as a printing code, because the modern way with traffic signs is to print straight on the aluminium. The printing code was changed with a transformation software to respond the commonly used RAL-shades used in paints. We mixed accordingly the Isotrol- paint we used.

Photo: Mårten Juslin

For the painting the aluminium plates were ground with an abrasive pad and fine sanding paper, after which grease was removed from the surfaces.

Photo: Mårten Juslin

Both signs were first painted with adhesive primer on both sides. Priming was done with spray paint. After the primer had dried the signs were lightly sanded and painted with brown Isotrol. After the topcoat paint had dried, the signs were sanded once again and given another coat of paint.

The tapes for texts and the looped St John’s arms were made as outside work in a decal firm. For that purpose, the vector presentations for the Caravelle-text and the looped squares were sent to the firm. When we received the Caravelle and looped square decals, they were fastened on the surfaces of the signs according to the drawings.

Photos: Ismo Matinlauri

Lähettäjän osoite:
helsinki@reservilaisliitto.fiThe Turku Caravelle- team stopped by at Puusepäntie to collect the signs we had made and installed them to guide visitors to see the magnificent Caravelle III, OH-LEA “Bluebird”, owned by Aviation Museum Society Finland, and outstandingly restored by the Turku Caravelle Team.

Photos: Lassi Karivalo, unless otherwise mentioned

Translation to English: Matti Liuskallio

Puusepäntie workshop got an illuminated sign

Keskiviikko 11.6.2025 - Tuesday Club member

Suomeksi

There was a wrecked illuminated sign of aluminium construction on the outside wall of the Puusepäntie workshop, rented by Aviation Museum Society, left there by a former tenant.
We decided to take it down to see if it could be repaired and transformed to an illuminated sign advertising the workshop of our society. So we took the sign down. The aluminium frame of the sign was, however, badly damaged and would have needed considerable repair work. However, our neck was “saved” when we got hold of an old illuminated aluminium sign of the OP cooperative bank’s real estate, 60 cm x 60 cm in size. It was also intact, so we decided to turn it into an outside advertisement for our Puusepäntie workshop.

We dislocated at first the plexiglass plate of the outer cover. the original sticker emblem could be removed from its surface in pieces with a sharp scraper. Finally, the plexiglass surface of the illuminated sign was wiped clean of the sticker glue with Sinol.

The aluminium surfaces of the frames of the illuminated sign had been oxidized and tarnished. We gently ground the surfaces clean using both an abrasive pad and very fine sanding paper. The old fluorescent lights were removed and after cleaning the inside of the sign the old lamps were replaced with LED-lights.

On the surface of the opaque plexiglass of the illuminated sign we designed a presentation of our workshop. The upper part of the illuminated sign will show a picture of the Focke-Wulf FW 44 Stieglitz (SZ-18), owned by Aviation Museum Society, with clouds in the background, and the lower part will hold the logo of the society and the text Aviation Museum Society Finland.
The abovementioned entity will be printed on the surface of the illuminated sign plex by a printing company. The printing required a vector representation to be made.

We fastened the frame of the outwardly cleaned illuminated sign, equipped with LED-lights, onto the wall of our Puusepäntie workshop, above the opening of the overhead door. We fixed a temporary cardboard plate as the outer cover of the sign to prevent the rain from getting inside.

When the front cover was received from the printing company, with its resplendent picture, the plexiglass was installed, replacing the cardboard one. So the splendid, illuminated sign advertising Aviation Museum Society’s Puusepäntie workhop was ready. The sign is yet be connected to the power supply with a pecu (photo electric control unit, “twilight switch”), so that with the darkening autumn nights it will switch on, advertising the Aviation Museum Society’s workshop.

Photos: Lassi Karivalo

Translation: Matti Liuskallio

The passenger seats are ready

Sunnuntai 18.5.2025 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

The interior and assembly work in the Caravelle’s cabin has progressed well during the spring. Finally the hard work is showing results - and about time, too! The passenger seats for the front section of the cabin have been under work for about 18 months, since early 2024.

One of the first tasks for the seats was the inventory of the existing seat covers. There were just enough original seat back covers for about twenty seats, which was the starting point for the cabin lay-out. The seat covers were washed and repaired last summer. The seat belts were cleaned and checked. New plastic foam padding was delivered for the seats during the summer too.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

In August 2024 the actual repair work began on the seat frames and their mechanisms. The seat frames which were in good condition were selected and the remaining seats were stripped of spare parts. The “seat repair team” managed to put together 19 seat frames which were in fair condition and suitable for further assembly. The pre-cut padding material was glued into form to fit the seat frames. When the weather got cold in November, and it wasn’t possible to work outside anymore, the painting work was moved into the office container in the Caravelle area.

Photo: Jouko Tarponen

During the winter months the seat frames were sanded and painted twice. First a base coat of paint and then the top-coat paint, which matched the original colour. Then the seat frames were stored for the winter in the DC-3 fuselage (DO-5) which is located beside our Caravelle.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

When spring 2025 arrived the seat assembly was continued, working outside with the seat fastened on a jig built on cargo pallets. The seat back covers probably had shrunk a little when washed or the new padding on the seat back is slightly thicker than the original, so putting them on caused a lot of huffing and puffing and some broken nails. The years of use and decades of storing have left their mark on the seat covers, and we had to pay attention that the covers with more damage were on the seats by the window. But the overall appearance is nice.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The carpet had been installed in the front cabin section before the seats were brought in and the curtains had been put up, so the surrounding was ready for seat assembly. The seats were easily fastened on the original seat tracks on the floor. The seat assembly was completed by adding the headrest covers we got from the Finnish Aviation Museum.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

Photo: Jouko Tarponen

Translation to English by Matti Liuskallio

Finishing the MY-14 flaps

Maanantai 12.5.2025 - Reino Myllymäki

Suomeksi

The original flaps of the VL-Myrsky fighter were found in the spring of 2014 in the stores of the Finnish Air Force Museum (until the end of 2015, the Aviation Museum of Central Finland). Until then Aviation Museum Society’s Tuesday Club’s Myrsky team had only one flap at its disposal and the building of the other one was being prepared.

Photo: Reino Myllymäki

The Myrsky flaps are panel flaps, mainly made of duralumin, which can be opened to any position between the extreme positions. They are operated by the same electric motor as the landing gear.

The original green colour of the upper surface of the Myrsky flaps has remained and it was decided to preserve it. The lower surface, instead, will be painted along with the wing to the same paint scheme as the rest of the aircraft.

The flaps were returned to Tikkakoski in the same load with the wings in September 2024. When preparing to join the fuselage and the wing, various preliminary finishing touches have been done to the wing. This has included conservation of original parts, replacing parts bought from shops or refabricated with original parts, and preparing the wing to accordance with the blueprints.

The steel hinges of the duralumin flaps were rusty. They were sandblasted at Tikkakoski.

The drive shaft of the flaps is joined at both ends to bearings. For some reason the drive shaft was lacking the part linking the shaft to the bearing bracket. It had to be refabricated by lathing according to the blueprints.

The MY-14 is again a step nearer to completion.

Photos: Finnish Air Force Museum, unless otherwise mentioned.

Translation to English by Matti Liuskallio.

An update from Tikkakoski

Maanantai 28.4.2025 - Reino Myllymäki

Suomeksi

The restoration group from the Finnish Air Force Museum informed us today about the progress on the work with VL Myrsky MY-14. The wing was built at Aviation Museum Society’s Tuesday Club and was transported to Tikkakoski on 18-19 September 2025 for finishing and compatibility purposes. This process has recently been going on to advance the project.

The aim of this work is to eliminate the discrepancies between the wing and the blueprints, to secure the use of original parts, when available, instead of new parts, and also to ensure the conservation of original parts.

The brackets for aileron movement have been relocated according to the blueprints and some bearing brackets of the aileron mechanism have been replaced with original parts.

Some bearing brackets of the flaps and flap mechanisms have also been replaced with original parts. A component for the flap mechanism was missing, it has now been lathed and installed into place. Additionally, some operating rods have been changed to match the blueprints.

One service hatch has been made in the right wing, a limiting switch has been fitted, and missing ribs have been added.

The rib battens have been changed to match the blueprints at the wing root and around the wing tip lights and pitot tube.

A transportation rack for the wing has been made.

As is well known the Myrsky aircraft had four different wings, namely the wings A, B, BI and C. At the time of constructing the MY-14, it was decided that its wings were built like the B and C wings where applicable, in the belief that that a complete set of blueprints wouldn’t be found for any of the wing types. As the restoration project went on, the situation has changed. More blueprints have been found and at this moment there are practically complete sets of blueprints for all wing types. So now it’ll be possible to change the wing of the MY-14 externally similar to what it was actually like at the end of the Continuation War (a strengthened A-wing/early B-wing.) The external measurements of the wigs are identical, the differences are mainly inside the wing.

Photos: Finnish Air Force Museum.

Translation to English by Matti Liuskallio.

Caravelle's cabin got the first refurbished seat and curtains

Maanantai 21.4.2025 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

The interior work in the Caravelle’s cabin has been going on almost since the aircraft left Arlanda, nearly three years ago. The surfaces in the cabin have been cleaned, insulated, refurbished, upholstered and painted. Now we have reached a point where some surfaces are ready, and the hard work is paying off. I am sure this summer the visitors will appreciate the outcome too.

A passenger cabin section has been built in the front part of the cabin, separated from the open rear section with new bulkheads. Four rows of passenger seats will be assembled in the front part, to illustrate what the cabin looked like in the 1960s. The seat frames, brought from Arlanda, were restored and painted last autumn, and the seat covers were washed and repaired. Now it was time to assemble a demo-seat where all restored parts are included.

Each seat has two pieces of padding made of foamed plastic: a section for the seat back, shaped according to an original model, and the thick seat cushion, cut to form. All padding parts had to be made from new material. The original set of seat textiles consists of three parts: the seat back hood, the cover for the backside of the seat back (including the seat pocket), and the seat cushion cover.  The seat back hood is fastened on the seat frame with Velcro tape, the seat pocket part with two screws and Velcro tape. The seat cushion and its cover are fastened on the seat with four snap fasteners, located under the seat. The seat belt halves are fastened on the seat frame with lock hooks.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The seats are assembled outside the aircraft, using a jig built on cargo pallets. The seat frames are fastened on aircraft seat tracks on the pallet, and there is more working space around the seat than in the cabin. This proved to be a good arrangement, the working height was good and even the weather was favourable when the first seat was assembled. Developing the working methods and the correct assembly order required some discussing and testing, so assembling the demo seat took almost the whole day.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The original cabin curtains were removed to be washed and repaired about a year ago. The curtains were mainly in good condition and no major repair was needed. At this point we installed back ten curtains in the front section of the cabin. The curtains are fastened at the top and at the bottom on the roller slides on the curtain track with snap fasteners. There are 28 snap fasteners per curtain and fastening them required some dexterity and patience.

Photos: Erja Reinikainen

When the 3-passenger seat had been brought into the cabin and the curtains were in place, it was time to sit down and relax. A new milestone had been reached in the Caravelle restoration project: the cabin is beginning to look like the interior of an aircraft again. It has taken a while – and it looks good.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

Photo: Jouko Tarponen

Super Sytky OH-XTM to be restored at Tuesday Club

Maanantai 14.4.2025 - Tuesday Club member

Suomeksi

Aviation Museum Society has received PIK-21 OH-XTM Super Sytky (in English unofficially “Super Chug”), a damaged experimental aircraft, as a donation. The OH-XTM was designed, built and owned by M.Sc.Eng. Kai Mellén. The aircraft was completed in 1982 and is a single seat Formula-V-racer of wooden construction, with a VW-1600 powerplant.

Last summer the aircraft was involved in an air accident, serious enough to damage the fuselage beyond repairing to airworthy condition. In consequence the owner of the Super Chug decided - as an alternative to wrecking it - to donate the entire aeroplane to Aviation Museum Society to be restored at the Tuesday Club. The wings of the Super Chug remained relatively undamaged.

The aircraft will not be restored to airworthy status at the Tuesday Club. It will be restored to be a whole, operable display artefact. It’s important that the prototype of the PIK-21 OH-XTM Super Chug, designed and built by Kai Mellén, will remain a display artefact and at the same time an example of the magnificent series of PIK-designed aeroplanes.

On Saturday, 12 April 2025 the delivery of OH-XTM arrived at the yard of the Finnish Aviation Museum. The Super Chug, which had been carefully tied on a trailer, was unloaded. After that the fuselage, supported by a wooden framework, was carried into a sea container for shelter. The wings and other components of the aircraft were also stored in the container.

At the Tuesday Club the restoration of the OH-XTM Super Chug won’t start immediately. We are still in the middle of restoring the OH-XEA Snoopy experimental aircraft at the Puusepäntie workshop. The restoration of OH-XTM Super Chug will commence at some point during this year.

Photos by Lassi Karivalo.

Translation to English by Matti Liuskallio.

Restoration of the Snoopy's fuselage continues

Torstai 10.4.2025 - Tuesday Club member

Suomeksi

The fuselage of the OH-XEA “Snoopy” has been stored at the Finnish Aviation Museum since its restoration was put to hold in December. Now the fuselage has been transferred to the premises rented by the Aviation Museum Society at Puusepäntie in Tuusula, and it is possible to carry on with the restoration work. Although we couldn’t yet fully concentrate on the restoration projects, because the Tuesday Club’s workshop had yet to be fully refurbished. However, we were able to start the restoration work along with finishing the refurbishing of the workshop.

We carried on with restoring the Snoopy with attaching instruments in its empty instrument panel. The lacking instruments have now been installed. The missing instruments could be seen in a photograph of the Snoopy’s instrument panel from 1969. We are grateful to the people at Turku Flying Club, who rustled up most of the instruments in the panel. We also thank the Finnish Aviation Museum for providing us with the rest of the missing instruments.

Kuva: Esko Keskinen

In completing the instrument panel, the one instrument giving us the biggest problems was the Russian air speed indicator, because it lacked the mounting ring fastened on the instrument. Well, we managed to install the instrument with a clamp around it. We were able to fasten the instrument with four angle irons under the clamp.

Because we didn’t want to leave empty the opening at the centre of the lower part of the instrument panel, we stuck temporarily a digital thermometer there. That’s to say, we don’t know which instrument there was originally, because that instrument is lacking from the photo at our disposal. Furthermore we put two switches we bought from Motonet into the two empty holes in the instrument panel. They don’t resemble the earlier ones with longer stems in the Snoopy’s instrument panel, but we’ll let them stay there for the time being. Of course, we’ll be trying to find switches like the original ones to be installed into the instrument panel.

Kuva: Jouni Ripatti

The Snoopy’s metal fuselage frame was completed for covering at the end of 2024. So, we have started covering the fuselage frame with the vertical stabilizer, which is an integral part of the fuselage frame. We made at first a cardboard template of the stabilizer. Cotton fabric was spread over the template and a piece of fabric, a bit larger than the edges of the cardboard template, was cut off.

The fabric was cut to oversize with intention, to leave adjustment allowance, when cutting the fabric to a tight fit.
The cut fabric was laid tentatively on the vertical stabilizer so that the lapels were left outside the trailing edge. We spread NC-Speed nitrocellulose lacquer to the stabilizer’s leading edge and pressed the fabric tightly against it. This way we managed to glue the fabric to the stabilizer’s leading edge, allowing the lapels to be glued with lacquer to the trailing edge of the stabilizer.

All the more, we wanted to check the tightening properties of the fabric we were using. So we attached a piece of fabric with a stapler to a wooden framework and started tightening the fabric with nitrocellulose lacquer. After two layers of 25% lacquer, we spread a layer of 50% nitro lacquer. After applying these layers of lacquer, the fabric began to tighten in a way we’d hoped, i.e. shrink to resemble a drum top. The final tightness will be found out when we’ll get to using the 100% NC Speed nitrocellulose lacquer.

The Snoopy’s fuselage frame came to us without the cockpit plexiglass panes and the windscreen. The new plexiglass panes of the left-hand side of the cockpit and the right-hand side door pane were acquired and cut to form already towards the end of last year. They were made of 3 mm thick polycarbonate plexiglass. A cardboard template was made of the missing cockpit windscreen, and a plexiglass blank will be cut according to the template. The plexiglass sheet will be bent to the right shape by heating, so that both sides of the windscreen nestle tightly to the front sides of the cockpit. So far we haven’t tried this kind of plexiglass shaping by heating, but we are confident of making it a success.

Photos by Lassi Karivalo except if otherwise mentioned.

Translation to English by Matti Liuskallio.

Repairing the flight deck seat covers

Tiistai 1.4.2025 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

There are four seats on the Caravelle’s flight deck: the captain’s and co-pilot’s seats in front, the third crew member’s / observer’s seat at the back on the right-hand side and on the left-hand side an auxiliary seat, without a seatback, located on top of the box containing the manual library. Last autumn all seat textiles and safety belts were dismantled in the cockpit for repair and maintenance. The seat frames and most of the padding material were in surprisingly good condition.

The captain’s seat’s armrest mechanism as well as all the seat position adjustment mechanisms were checked and fixed before the winter break. The padding for the pilots’ seat was all right, but new padding had to be made for the observer’s seat and for the rectangular auxiliary seat. There was plenty of plastic foam sheet, left over from cutting the padding for the passenger seats, to be used for this purpose.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The seat covers on the flight deck, however, were in poor condition. Especially the pilots’ seat cushion covers had worn thin and almost transparent, and the seatback covers had actual holes in their upper part. We discussed the possibilities for repairing the covers, but came to the conclusion that for the seat cushion covers the only alternative was to replace the cover fabric.

Photo: Annya Crowther

New fabric resembling the original seat cover wool-mix fabric in the right colour is quite impossible to find, so we decided to make the new sections from completely different material. The colour of the heavy cotton fabric resembles the faded greenish grey colour of the original seat covers (originally the fabric has obviously been dark grey).

On the pilots’ seats the covers for the seat cushion and the seatback are fastened on the seat frame with snap fasteners. There are 44 snap fasteners per seat. We found out that similar snap fasteners are not easily available, and the top parts of new snaps don’t fit on the original bottom parts, fastened on the seat frame. Therefore we decided to keep the sections of the seat covers, which held the top parts of the snap fasteners. The worn mid-sections of the cushion covers were unstitched from the snap fastener sections and replaced. The new fabric was cut into shape, using the unstitched section as a template, and sewn on to the original snap fastener sections.

Photos: Annya Crowther

The holes on the upper edge of the pilots’ seatback covers were patched with the original fabric, using the better sections from the unstitched seat cushion parts. The patches were sewn on the holes and worn areas.

Only the top side fabric was replaced on the rectangular pillowcase-like cover of the auxiliary seat. The observer’s seat cover was in such good condition that it needed only minor mending.

Last summer we managed to repair the passenger seat covers with an ordinary household sewing machine and very basic sewing skills. This time we got help with the flight deck seat covers from an experienced soft furnishings sewer, who is using a heavy-duty professional sewing machine. A good sewing machine was needed when sewing the seams of old and new fabric.

The back sides of the pilots’ seatbacks have seat pockets and the elastic band at the top had lost its stretch and the pockets were sagging. New elastic bands were put in and the seat pockets got a refreshed look in an industrial pressing machine.

Photo: Annya Crowther

The seat belts from the flight deck were cleaned with a pressure washer and spread to dry. When the belts were dry their leather parts were wiped with colourless shoe polish. No other maintenance was needed for the seat belts. When the photo was taken the belts in the middle had been washed and the ones on the sides were waiting their turn.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The flight deck seat cover repairs were completed just before the work season in 2025 began in Turku. “Caravelle Team Helsinki” travelled to Turku on 25 March to check the counterbalancing mechanism of the passenger door before the door was taken into use and brought also the repaired and refurbished flight deck textiles. The padding material had spent the winter in the storage container and felt slightly damp, so it was put up to dry in the sun against the office container wall for a moment before installation.

Assembling the flight deck seat padding, seat covers, and seat belts required some effort: there isn’t too much space on the flight deck and the covers had slightly shrunk when washed, so fastening all the original snap fasteners wasn’t easy. A good hour later, and after some foul vocabulary, broken nails and scratched fingers, the two pilots’ seats and the observer’s seat were ready. And they looked great. The fastening of the auxiliary seat cover still needs some adjustment.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

When the last missing flight instruments had been installed in the instrument panel, the flight deck was ready for the summer season and visitors.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

Snoopy's fuselage and engine to Puusepäntie

Torstai 27.3.2025 - Tuesday Club member

Suomeksi

Equipping the Aviation Museum Society’s rented premises at Puusepäntie in Tuusula into the workshop for the Tuesday Club has advanced so well that we decided to move the fuselage and engine of the experimental aircraft Snoopy, stored at the Finnish Aviation Museum, to the new workspace.

This means that restoring the Snoopy will continue from the point where we left it at the end of last year. Bringing the Snoopy to Puusepäntie is a kind of milestone in taking the rented workspace into its proper use. Well, the equipping of the Puusepäntie workspace is still not quite finished, but we’ll get there while working on the Snoopy and other restoration projects.

Let it be reminded that restoration work at the Finnish Aviation Museum’s restoration workshop came to a close at the end of last year, because the restoration workshop was changed into a space supporting the oncoming move of the Finnish Aviation Museum. The Tuesday Club will participate these Museum operations and continue restoring museum worthy aircraft at the Aviation Museum Society’s rented workshop at Puusepäntie.

Kuva: Jouni Ripatti.

Kuvat: Reijo Siirtola.

On Tuesday, 25 March 2025 we gathered at the Museum to transport the Snoopy’s fuselage and engine to our new workshop. The Snoopy’s fuselage and engine, situated in a storage container, were pulled out of the container to the Museum yard. The fuselage was hoisted on to a trailer, where it was carefully fastened with cargo straps. A light tarpaulin was spread on the fuselage to protect it during the trip. The Snoopy’s engine, fastened in its mount could be loaded in a minivan.

Kuva: Jouni Ripatti.

Kuva: Reijo Siirtola.

When the loading was ready, we drove the ten or so km from the Museum to the Puusepäntie workshop. There the fuselage and engine were unloaded and pushed into their new home.

Kuva: Reijo Siirtola.

Kuva: Reino Myllymäki.

The Snoopy’s restoration will commence at the beginning of April, simultaneously with giving the workshop the finishing touches.

Translation to English by Matti Liuskallio.

Equipping Tuesday Club's premises at full swing

Maanantai 10.3.2025 - Tuesday Club member

Suomeksi

Aviation Museum Society Finland rented premises at Puusepäntie (Carpenter Road) in Tuusula to secure the continuity of the Tuesday Club’s work. The Club’s restoration operations drew to a close at the Finnish Aviation Museum’s workshop at the end of 2024, because the restoration space was turned into a workshop serving the Museum’s move.

The premises at Puusepäntie were rented for three years, or for the period of time during which the new Museum building would be completed. Well, if that wouldn’t realize, we could continue at Puusepäntie, until restoration work could be continued in the workshop in the new Museum.

Photos by Jukka Köresaari

Equipment and work machines brought along from the Finnish Aviation Museum have been hauled for the last couple of weeks to the empty hall at Puusepäntie. We obtained a laudable amount of work machines and equipment from there, thanks to the Finnish Aviation Museum. The items include band saws, face grinders, circular grinders, a column drilling machine, a compressor and an industrial vacuum cleaner.

Photo by Jukka Köresaari

Smaller articles have been transported from the Finnish Aviation Museum to Puusepäntie in cars and trailers. To transport big and heavy objects like tables and work machines we luckily had at our disposal a lorry equipped with a rear platform lift. Many of the work machines were manually pushed out of the workshop and on to the lift, but we were assisted in the loading by the Museum’s fork lift.

Simultaneously we have been able to obtain, from a long list of needs, furniture and other equipment to furnish the premises. Fortunately these have been available at a low price or even with no cost. We do still need furniture, such as lockers and shelves, and equipment, e.g. a coffee maker and a medicine cabinet.

The premises rented by the Aviation Museum Society isn’t merely the Tuesday Club’s workshop. It will be at the same time a storage for publications by the Aviation Museum Society and Ketterät Kirjat Oy (a publishing company). A space will be therefore reserved separately for these two storages.

When various pieces of equipment have been brought in through the Puusepäntie door, shelves and lockers are being assembled on the walls for restoration material and tools. So far everything looks quite confusing, but day by day the chaos will turn into organization, and beginning restoration activities will be possible.

It will certainly take some time yet to furnish the Puusepäntie workshop. However, we aim to be able to continue restoration work in the new facility of the Tuesday Club at the beginning of April. Then the members will continue work both on the Myrsky Demo Wing and on the restoration of the Snoopy (OH-XEA). Along with these projects also smaller restorations will be done, such as the refurbishing the pilot’s seat of a Bristol Blenheim bomber.

Photos by Lassi Karivalo except if otherwise mentioned.

Translation to English by Matti Liuskallio.

New premises for the Tuesday Club for continuation of restoration work

Maanantai 17.2.2025 - Tuesday Club member

Suomeksi

As was told in the previous blog, restoring aircraft at the Finnish Aviation Museum took a break. Restoration work at the Museum will continue after the new Museum will be completed in approximately three years’ time. For that purpose all the ongoing projects of the Tuesday Club were halted, i.e. stored in sea containers at the Finnish Aviation Museum’s yard.

The Aviation Museum Society has every intention to secure the continuation of the restoration work without interruption till the new Museum is ready. That’s why the Aviation Museum Society has been looking for a temporary facility in the Helsinki metropolitan area where the restoration work of museum worthy aircraft by the Tuesday Club could be continued. There are plenty of empty storage space for rent, but for instance around Ring road III, or south of it, the rents are too high for the Museum Society’s economic situation.

In looking for temporary premises we aimed at a solution, in which the facility wouldn’t be too far from the Finnish Aviation Museum, because co-operation with the Museum would continue close knit. A few months hard work brought a result at last. The Society decided to rent an empty premise, suitable for our purposes, in Tuusula, not far from the Museum. There’s an open 140 m2 space, suitable to be a workshop. There are two consecutive rooms in addition for storage and social purposes.

The rental contract comes into effect at the beginning of March. Before that the owner will do some maintenance and modifications to enhance the suitability of the space from our point of view. Because the rented property is an empty hall, it must be furnished as a workshop. The last weeks have therefore been spent gathering various equipment and other necessities, to be able to start the restoration work. We have luckily succeeded in obtaining what we need from various sources without cost. We even have succeeded in getting along from the Finnish Aviation Museum necessary equipment, work machines and tools.

After the new Tuesday Club workshop has been furnished and adapted to serve the restoration work, the parts of the Snoopy(OH-XEA) and the Demo Myrsky, currently stored in sea containers at  the yard of the Finnish Aviation Museum, can be brought to the Tuusula workshop. This way the restoration can be continued. It’s possible that later this year the refurbishing of the PIK-21 Super Sytky (OH-XTM) will start. It’s been damaged in a forced landing.

Although the Tuesday Club’s restoration activities will move from the Aviation Museum to the Tuusula workshop, the intense co-operation with the Finnish Aviation Museum will continue. First of all, we’ll continue weekly preparation work for the Museum’s move, under the Museum’s guidance. Secondly, we can nip over to the Museum to use for restoration purposes the fire work container, painting tent or to use machines, like the lathe, which remained in the Museum’s workshop. In this sense it’s excellent that the Tuusula workshop is situated only a ten-minute drive from the Museum.

Photo by Reino Myllymäki.

Translation to English by Matti Liuskallio.

Caravelle's flight deck door

Torstai 13.2.2025 - Ismo Matinlauri

Suomeksi

The Caravelle’s flight deck door came from Arlanda dismounted from its hinges and the wall panels around it were mainly missing, so it took us a while to figure out how the door had been installed and what its surroundings looked like. We were surprised to find out that the door opens both ways, which explained the unusual fasteners on the door frame and the double-sided hinges.

The restoration work of the flight deck door followed the same steps which we used earlier when working on both toilet doors. First the edging strips were removed, and the door handle was dismantled, together with other possible elements. The flight deck door has a ventilation grille at the bottom which could be closed from the flight deck side using a small panel.

Then the surfaces were sanded and spackled. A new surfacing material was installed on both sides: on the flight deck side a vinyl wallpaper and on the cabin side a wallpaper which resembles the original surface material.

The following step was to install the edging strips and other elements back into place. The photo below shows how the closing panel on the ventilation grille was installed.

Then the door was mounted into place, to test how it worked. After some adjustments the door was in place in its correct position. As the door has been designed to open both ways, the brackets on the door frame had to be adjusted before the door functioned properly.

Finally the wall panel above the door had to be built because the original had not been preserved. In the photo below the wall panel is preliminarily in place but it requires some adjustment. The edging strips on the door frame are also missing.

In the photo on the left you can see the new electrical board and the lighting switches above it. On the right you see a photo of the original flight deck door on the wall. We used this photo to figure out how the door is installed. A new lighting fixture has already been installed in the ceiling. The ceiling panel on the left side still needs to be resurfaced.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen and Ismo Matinlauri.

Translation to English by Erja Reinikainen.