Nalls Aviation - Home of the Sea Harrier

UPDATE 19
	
A blind man could have seen this coming.  After two months of waiting for our hydraulic lines to be repaired in Washington State, they finally returned.  The mechanics tore open the boxes and eagerly inspected them.  Then, immediately declared the lines unserviceable.   The welds were clearly unacceptable for aviation applications, based upon the visual inspection alone.  What a disappointment.  However, we needed a second opinion.

We consulted with an expert from Pax River, familiar with welds of this type and high-pressure lines for aircraft-grade usage.  He instantly concurred with the mechanic’s recommendation but went further.  He guaranteed the welds would fail and the lines are not salvageable.  They are trash. They may be usable as a template, but not to install on the airframe.  In short, we’ve wasted two months.

So we were back to square one.  We were able to locate spares in the UK and as soon as they arrived, had them installed in the airframe.  The old, worn, out, cracked hydraulic line - - -  the source of all our woes - - - was dated 1979.  It couldn’t have possibly lasted much longer.   So we replaced them with brand-new, fresh, original equipment lines - - -  dated 1980.  When dealing with this vintage of Harriers, “new” is a relative term.

These past several weekends were a tremendous success.  We serviced the hydraulic system and cycled the landing gear manually with a hand pump to check for connectivity and leaks.  Then we applied our hydraulic generator to further exercise the system. We also completed installation of our landing gear emergency extension system.  We replaced the Explosive Start Valve, which we were unable to obtain, with an electrical solenoid valve.  Despite having some minor difficulties fabricating the tight tolerance lines, the valve was installed and ready for testing.  Our “new” system is similar in design to the AV-8B and other modern aircraft.

After numerous cycles of our landing gear under manual and powered hydraulic power, we were ready for the first test of our emergency extension system.  Corry Duffield, one of our mechanics from Cherry Point, had the honor to actually pull the handle and try the system for the very first time.  The rest of the crew elected to watch from a SAFE distance, since we really didn’t know what would happen.  Even when we DO know what to expect, the results are often colorful.  This time could be VERY colorful…

As soon as he actuated the system, the gear came down in locked within a matter of seconds! Boom, boom, boom, boom - all four down and locked!  One small note:  when the Harrier landing gear are extended by emergency means, the aircraft “spits” a small amount of hydraulic fluid overboard, out a side vent.  We were well aware of this, although it could be a shock to the uninitiated.  It’s a mess we are happy to clean.  You can see in one photo that the Sea Harrier has marked its territory on the hangar floor in bright red.  We know exactly where to ask any curious on-lookers to stand for the next exercise of the system.

After extending the landing gear by the emergency system, we need to completely bleed all the air from the hydraulic system.  This is a LOT of work.  Each actuator has two sides - - an up and a down side.  Both sides must be completely free of air, and we just introduced 3,000 psi of dry nitrogen into a closed system.  It’s messy and tedious, but part of the maintenance.  Plus, we’ll need to repeat this entire evolution  (blow the gear down, bleed the system, service the system, and repeat) several times to ensure that we’ve got the system absolutely perfect.  All of our landing gear actuators will probably be ready for overhaul when we’re ready to fly, but we’ll know they work.

The sheet metal work on the SHAR is progressing.  Lots of rivets need to be drilled,  metal straightened, parts realigned, pulled and prodded back into the correct shape, and then re-riveted.  That all takes time and there are LOTS of rivets.  The landing gear doors are new, the radome is new, and the pitot probe is new.  But this is a hand-built aircraft and everything requires careful fitting.  Although I plan to make mostly left-hand turns, the airplane still needs to be perfectly straight, before we fly.

We’ve taken this down time to remove the Head Up Display (HUD).  We were missing a few of the weapons-related boxes that feed into the HUD and the HUD did not work for either of the first flights, except in the Standby Mode.  The HUD alone weighs about 15 pounds and is basically a 1970’s computer (think Commodore 64).  It is heavy and nearly useless for civilian flying.   Instead, we’ve now installed a civilian Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS), which can do what the HUD did, plus more, and weighs little more than a cell phone.  We’ll also clean up some of the other outstanding discrepancies and fix a few minor things.

We also have a plan to augment our spares support  program.  Our original program was simple:  (1) panic, (2) find something that would work, and (3) hope they’d take a check.  Not the most effective means of supporting a Harrier, although it’s what the Marines have been doing for years.

The answer is equally simple:  acquire a spare airplane.  Exactly what every Harrier owner needs, is a spare Harrier.  I now have the pleasure to announce that we have acquired a complete, spare aircraft, plus two engines from a museum in Seattle.  They had two Harriers and wanted to open up some floor space.  It was our good fortune to be in the right place at the right time.

The NEW airplane is a GR-3, ground attack version, built for the Royal Air Force and similar vintage of the Sea Harrier.  It appears complete, plus some.  Even though these airplanes are different models (there were over 45 different Harrier variants) they are 95% common.  We now have a source of spares for just about anything that could go wrong on the SHAR, maybe even a spare engine.  I’m quite sure that our next requirement will be for one of the 5% parts, unique only to the Sea Harrier and we won’t have it.  But for now, we have some comfort of a good source of spares.  Just the source for fasteners alone is worth it to us.