Trivia Pros and Cons
I'd better post these items now as they don't improve with age as do some wines and seniors.
A few days ago I followed an interestig dialogue in the Forum about the recovery of an intact Merlin engine that now resides in the USA. I am not qualified to comment extensively on the Merlins as I flew the Mk III Lanc only long enough to be checked out.
Over many pints the merits of the Merlin and the Hercules powered aircraft have been discussed at length. The Hally and the Lanc would be two prime examples of this.
The ever present gremlins played many different pranks. With the Bristol Hercules there were two rather regular conditions encountered. They were known as "coring" and "frothing". As I remember they could both be cured by the same remedy. This called for a sharp reduction in revs followed by several bursts of speed. This usually worked.
Coring was indicated by high oil pressure and temperature while frothing was suspected when high temperature and low pressure existed.
High fuel consumption was everyone's concern and
certainly so for the Mk II Lanc. After one lengthy
and active trip I was in a discussion next morning with the Wingco. He pointed out that I had used an excessive amount of His Majesty's petrol and I should be made aware of it.The consumption rate was something like .8 miles per gallon. Instead of a reprimand I was offered a Bristol sponsored course at #10 OTU, Westcott. Interest there was focused on a most remarkable animated cutaway of a Bristol Hercules Mk XVI radial engine. Having worked one time as a mechanics' helper on the Cheetah IX and X powered Ansons I was most impressed with this giant sleeve valved power plant developing 1,650 HP.Shortly after this, again in conversation,I was commended For having achieved a 1.0 mpg average.
Our take-off consumption was 8 gals. per minute.
I believe the Mk II's could slightly outdo our Merlin people at this stage. However as we approched altitudes of 18 to 20'000 feet they could enjoy being able to look down on us from there on.
We had a "through the gate" setting which required forcing the throttles into an emergency position at the very forward end of travel on the throttle quadrant. This area was cordoned off by a length of brass lock wire which had to be broken in order to gain access to Maximum power. I believe the duration at this level of performance was restricted to no more than 8 minutes. I know our ground crew bods performed many extra hours to restore our aircraft to airworthy condition.
Hope some of you can relate to these bits of trivia. Enough for tonight.
Skipper of Lancaster A2 C Cheers Alex Campbell

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