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This is a pictorial record of the labour of love to restore Jet Provost XS186 located at Metheringham Airfield Visitors Centre, Lincolnshire. It shows the transition from a collection of parts on the back of a trailer in March 2004 to a ground running aircraft.
Please feel free to comment on any of the shots.
Paul Flynn, the owner, expects it to be a 5 year project but hopes it will be shorter. Every effort is being made to keep the aircraft as near to original as possible.
Volunteers are always welcome, no skills necessary, just a willingness to help. We will find you a job to suit your abilities and desires, or just come along for a chat about aircraft. So long as you don't mind if we carry on working.
Metheringham Airfield was the home of 106 Squadron during WWII and the visitors centre houses a museum to the squadron. It is open from 12:00 to 17:00 from May to October at weekends and Wednesday afternoons. A good site for photos of the visitors centre is http://lincolnshireairfields.fotopic.net/c552469.html |
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 | 1st Mar 2004 | Early days
Historic photos of XS186 up to the delivery to Metheringham airfield in March 2004
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 | 5th Mar 2004 | Progress Overview
An overview of progress in the restoration. It is an abridged pictorial record from the more detailed sets of photos found in the monthly records.
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 | 1st Jun 2005 | June 2005
Photos of work carried out in June 2005 including the etch and final primer on the rear fuselage. Features Paul and Greg in action.
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 | 1st Jul 2005 | July 2005
Photos of work carried out in July 2005, including removal of dummy bombs from engine bay, removal and priming of engine bay covers and wing fairings, removal of cockpit hood. Preparation of the cockpit surround by Lynne. Further etch and final priming of the fuselage up to the cockpit area.
It also features Greg modelling his new bonedome.
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 | 1st Aug 2005 | August 2005
Photos of work carried out in August 2005. The primed engine bay covers are refitted and the nose wheel undercarriage doors are worked on so that they can be closed ready for priming.
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 | 1st Sep 2005 | September 2005
Photos of work carried out in September 2005. The rear fin fairing is refitted and the remainder of the fuselage is treated with etch and final primer so that it is now all one colour.
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 | 1st Oct 2005 | October 2005
Photos of work carried out in October 2005 which included removing the starboard wing tank, removing the cockpit rear windows (a pig of a job as Greg will testify). Paul started on the tailplane refurbishment and the starboard ejector seat was fitted out with harness, backpad and horseshoe parachute pack.
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 | 1st Nov 2005 | November 2005
Photos of work carried out in November 2005. Greg finished cleaning off the Starboard wing, the cockpit rear windows were removed, the tailplane was fully refurbished. A new pitot head was fitted and the new windows made.
Greg refurbished the cockpit rear bulkhead and the drogue parachutes were sorted ready to fit in the port ejector seat.
All in all a very successful month.
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 | 1st Dec 2005 | December 2005
Photos of the work carried out in December 2005 when we had some very bright if cold days. The highlight was the fitting of the new rear windows in the cockpit and refitting the cockpit canopy. Greg started on cleaning off the Port wing and Paul finished the top surface of the tailplane, which was then removed and put in the gymnasium ready for the underside to be started.
So ends 2005 with much visible work completed. Everyone has put in a terrific effort in the last 3 months and it shows.
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 | 1st Jan 2006 | January 2006
The start of a new year and after a rather dismal wet and windy weekend we have had 2 glorious Saturdays. Visible progress has been slow but a lot has been learnt and the main undercarriage has now been raised on both sides with the grateful assistance of Naylan. Greg got a new hat, Paul made the toasties and Ted caught a cold.
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 | 1st Feb 2006 | February 2006
Photos from the last two weekends. It was cold but dry and a lot of small jobs were sorted out. Problems were found with the wing tanks but the tail plane is almost ready for spraying in primer.
The tail fin and rudder was moved from it storage to the gymnasium and fitted to the fuselage.
The month ended with another productive day with the tailplane now ready for fitting back in it's primer coat.
We had another visit from our pet Jodel aircraft from Leasingham which has buzzed us 3 times this month. We also had the remains of a high altitude ballon descend on us like strands of a giant spiders web.
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 | 1st Mar 2006 | March 2006
The good weather continues to hold with another glorious day on the 4th which was appropriate as it is the 2nd anniversary of XS186 arring at Metheringham. The tailplane was refitted on to the fuselage and Greg then worked hard fitting the fairing panels at the rear. These still have to be primed & painted but it was possible to sort out the best of the bunch to use.
Andy turned up with the Personal Survival Packs for the ejector seats which now look more like the real thing.
We were joined at the end of the month by Paul Hulme who started to sort out the cockpit interior.
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 | 1st Apr 2006 | April 2006
A record of some of the work carried out in April 2006.
Yet another helper appeared for the first weekend in April, Rob turned up with a new Tip Tank and put in some hard work cleaning it up. Pauls 1 & 2 had further success with some of the controls linkages while Greg finished off the new panelwork around the tail.
The new Tip tanks have been fitted and Paul H has sorted the aileron & elevator controls.
The month was rounded off by Rob taking some good shots with his new camera and the engine bay finaly being cleared of the last dummy bomb.
At the Bank Holiday there was a WWII open day at the centre and XS186 provided a lot of interest.
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 | 28th Feb 2009 | Engine fit
At last the engine is fitted, thanks to some very accurate manouvering of the Manitou by Andrew and the expertise of Ian the viper was successfully installed into XS186 on Saturday 28th February 2009. This is a real landmark in the restoration process which went remarkably smoothly, although it had been some 40 years since Ian last fitted one in a JP it all came back to him including the skinned knuckles.
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