The Main Rotors recovered with WG718 from Stratford on Avon were, as mentioned earlier, full of water and almost beyond repair, but unable to trace any blades in the UK, enquiries were made in Florida while Mac was on holiday.

Success came with a visit to Kissimmee Airport where Aviation Blade Services could lay hands on several.

On return from Florida enquiries were made with the Regional Navy Office who could “probably” arrange for the West Indies Station Ship to pick them up while on their next visit.

After two years it had not happened and there was a possibility of problems with US Customs, A.B.S. meanwhile had found some obsolete S 51 repair pockets and donated them to the project, their scrap value being estimated at 16 Cents per lb (10p), each weighed half a pound each, so with £1.60 worth of pockets in a cardboard box Mac returned off holiday with the task of repairing the blades he had at Elvington.

A start was made by stripping out all the corroded and damaged blade pockets, removing all the old adhesive, old paint and rubbing down to bare metal.

To Previous Section|Return to Index|To Next Section