DHAMT

 DH112 Sea Venom FAW.22  XG730

I think the last time I wrote, I was expecting to have the balsa totally repaired on the Fuselage pod, with the exception of “a bit of repair work” on some cracked areas on the Starboard side, as I put it.

How wrong can you be? When I looked in detail at the repaired wood on the Starboard side of the pod, it emerged that none of the balsa had properly adhered to the inner plywood, so it all had to come off again – to have carried on regardless would have caused major problems once the final plywood layer was fitted. This put us about 3 months back in the course of an afternoon, and the process of removing the cracked balsa also destroyed some of the inner plywood skin on the pod.

However it’s an ill wind as they say, and having opened up a gaping hole in the side of the pod made it dead easy to get in and repair half of the cockpit floor! Once this was done, the inner skin was replaced with brand new plywood and the result is a much stronger structure (see photo). We also took the opportunity to add extra Spruce bracing to the outside of the pod: not totally authentic it’s true, but it won’t be seen in the finished restoration and it will considerably improve the strength and durability of the wooden structure. All of this took us well into the winter, and despite the arctic temperatures in the hangar, we struggled on as best we could. Looking at the state of the wood around the canopy frame, I decided to bow to the inevitable and take the frame off altogether, rather than attempt to repair it in situ.

That was an epic struggle ending just after Easter when the canopy frame came off in a single piece, the four original sections having corroded together. During the removal process one or two people enquired if we were finally breaking up the pod for scrap! However the end result was well worth the effort as we have now revealed the last remaining rotted areas of the woodwork and we can also properly repair the badly corroded canopy frame. Work is well under way on both these fronts, and we have now also arrived at the stage where the weather is reliably warm enough to work with the balsa wood and the ‘Aerodux’ resin adhesive.

Thanks as ever to the team, which has seen a few changes over the last months. Sadly Ray Gall passed away last October after a short illness, and is greatly missed by all in the Museum. On a happier note Geoff Follett has joined the team – he’s an experienced DH Museum volunteer and with our combined efforts I’m confident that this summer will see the bulk of the wood restoration on the fuselage pod completed.

Alistair Hodgson

The Sea Venom in it's former glory