558 Engineering Update – April 2024

Write up and images by Connor Sykes

A great day today, we managed to get a lot done. The day began by checking all of the synchronisation bay fuses, making sure that we had power distribution to all four busbars, and 27p and 28p located aft of the bomb bay. Only one 50A fuse had blown, which took all of 2 minutes to replace. 
 
Following this, we ran functional tests – namely the bomb doors and PFCU’s (flying controls I.e. the aircraft’s elevons and rudder). At first, an issue occurred with the two port and outer starboard elevons. Upon inspection, this was due to air getting into the hydraulics over the winter period. A turn of the pressure relief valve and manual exercising solved this however, and they are all in fine working order with the exception of a minor fault on the outer starboard one – an easy fix for next time. 

As winter is now over, we were able to remove the jacks from the back of the aircraft (this prevents it tipping over backwards in heavy snow conditions) and we could then move the fuel from number 2 tank and distribute it to wing tanks 6(stbd) and 7(port). I’ve included a photo of the main refuelling computer located in the main bogey wheel bays below. It’s an incredibly clever system… maybe that’s something for another post however. There are a couple of checks we would like to do on this system just to make sure that it is functioning as efficiently as possible, but again, nothing major, only the standard maintenance checks for this system. 

To end the day, we started up the Palouste, and dry ran engines 1, 2, 3 and 4 – this re-distributes the oil around the engine to keep them lubricated and prevent seals from frying up and corroding. Not a single hiccup here and all went incredibly smoothly. 

As well as this, the team were able to give 558 a really good clean, so she’s now gleaming ready for public visits again in the coming summer months. 

So in summary, all is well, engineering wise she’s absolutely sound and only has a couple of minor issues (which is to be expected after a long hard winter), and now she’s got the looks too – she’s got her shine back!