  
 Anson Restoration Project
By
Colin Ainsworth, Project Leader
30 September 2006
This
past month has seen Ernie Killen, Peter Campagna, Keith Brenson, and
Mike Dandurand finishing installing the last of the plywood skin on the
wings.
Butch
Fleury, Peter Miller and Chuck Calder finished off a few remaining jobs:
on the crew seats and bead blasted the four fuel tanks prior to
them being painted by Mike Dandurand. The fuel tanks are now ready to be
installed in the wings.
 Al
Sheppard and myself finished installing most of the missing
instruments in the pilot’s panel.
Over
the past month we discovered that when the Avro Anson production line
changed from the Mk I to the Mk II some items that were left over
from the Mk I were installed on the first few Mk II aircraft. This was a
great mystery to us as some parts we had would not fit in our
instrument panel.
We
found that by looking at some of photographs that Ernie Killen had taken
while vacationing in Alberta and Chuck Calder had taken while on
vacation in Manitoba were of Mk II aircraft but showed
different instrument locations in the instrument panel.
A
close perusal showed that the early Mk II's had a mixture of British
instruments while the later versions had all Canadian or American style
instruments.
Once
this was determined the aircraft’s instrument panel was cut and a
section removed, and replaced by a panel that had holes cut to suit
Canadian size and style instruments.
Next
month we hope to finish installing the fuel tanks, the wing tip
navigation lights, and install the rest of the instrument panel
electrical wiring.
This
month's "Anson Trivia" is taken from an article "Aircraft
of the BCATP" by Dan Bragg in The Aerospace Museum Of Calgary
flypast Magazine #7
The
Anson Mark II Described
The
Anson Mark II was a twin-engine, low wing monoplane whose fuselage was a
tubular steel braced structure. The totally enclosed cabin had excellent
visibility and positions for the Pilot, Co-Pilot, Navigator and Wireless
Operator. The Bombardier’s station was in the nose and had an opening
in the floor, with a sliding glass panel, to see below. Provision was
made at the rear of the fuselage for mounting a gun turret, access to
which was through a small door at the rear of the cabin. Entrance to the
aircraft was through an outward-opening door on the starboard side of
the fuselage just aft of the wing.
The
wing was covered in plywood with both the front and rear spars composed
of built-up plywood and were continuous from wing tip to wing tip,
passing through the lower section of the fuselage.
To
facilitate shipment the trailing edges of the wing were detachable (the
wings were constructed in Vancouver and sent to Ontario to be mated with
the fuselage). The tail unit consisted of a fabric-covered fin that was
integral with the fuselage while the tail plane was plywood covered in
the same manner as the wing. Two Jacobs L-6MB engines were mounted in
the wing nacelles, the bottoms of which were used to house the
undercarriage.
Next month we
will continue with more stories from "Aircraft Of The
BCATP" by Dan Bragg
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