Here is the September 2010 report on our work on the Mosquito.

We have continued work on the rebuild of the main gear doors.  The left hand doors are now complete and we have moved onto the right hand pair.  The outboard door is one we acquired from John Smith and as it was in relatively good condition we have been able to use the skins on this one and have left the ribs attached to the outer skin.  It did require a small patch to some damage in the front top corner, but this will be barely noticeable after the paint is applied. It is now complete and we have started on the inboard door.  Sadly this one is not so good and has quite extensive corrosion throughout.

We have continued with the canopy glazing and have completed the rear main section with the right rear corner the last piece to be fitted.   We have also made good progress on the overhaul of the escape hatch and it is now complete with its new Perspex and small escape panel which allows access from outside. Basically rescuers would punch the small round panel inwards and grab the main handle to open the hatch. We have had the front screen delivered from the glass shop and have polished the edges where the sliding windows seal and are working on the closing strips and the armour plate detailing on the upper nose section.

We have continued with the plumbing of the flap actuating lines and the emergency gear extension line and have completed these with the installation of the flexible hose end blocks on the spar. We have moved our attention to the bomb door opening ram plumbing.  There are four hydraulic rams used to open the bomb doors and we have fabricated the junction blocks, run the pipework and installed the hose mounting blocks into the bomb bay.

We have replicated then original style flexible cold air ducting hose used in the cockpit ventilation system by wrapping modern hose in cloth tape and then coating with black Acrylic paint. We have done some work on the original radio mounting trays and boxes and installed the trays onto the top of the wing to allow us to install the original boxes.  We will be fitting the new radios into these boxes to keep them out of sight.  We could only borrow one of the boxes so have replicated that one, but can use originals in all the other positions.  The Bendix Radio tuner rack which mounts to the left cockpit wall behind the pilot has been completed and fitted.  We have also fitted the small white forward facing nav light to the nose and overhauled the gun camera mount.

The main gear legs have been disassembled and all the corrosion treated and any dents knocked out. We have purchased a number of new old stock oil tanks and started to clean up a pair. 

Work has continued on the fuel tanks also, and the components are mostly finished for the assembly of # 5. One tank has been welded up and is ready to leak test.

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