The Aviation History Museum Sola is currently an ongoing and large construction project here. In addition, a major regrouping of the aircraft that we have on display will be done in our old exhibition hall. The high level of activity leads to a great need for voluntary efforts from the museum's members. This also affects the amount of work we are able to do on the Heinkel He 115 project.
Nevertheless, Egil Thomsen managed to make a new pilot's seat during the autumn. When the aircraft was raised in 2012, much of the equipment needed to adjust the pilot's seat height was still intact. In addition, the reinforced plate behind and under the seat was in good condition. The pilot seat itself, with associated frame made of aluminum tubes, however, was completely gone.
Egil has reconstructed the tube frame and then made a new seat pan itself. This is bolted to the tube frame. The result has been very good. To be able to raise and lower the seating height, the seating arrangement was equipped with a separate hydraulic system. A hand pump was mounted on the side of the seat. The hydraulic pump and some of the valves that have been in the system are still in good condition. Egil is now working on finalizing and assembling this entire system. We are not yet ready to be able to reassemble the seat arrangement in the cockpit again. This will therefore be exhibited for a period in the museum's exhibition.
Throughout the winter, we will continue to work on reassembling equipment in the cockpit and Kanzel. This is equipment that we have previously taken out of the sections in order to preserve it
The center section has corrosion damage throughout 8 wing mounts with associated structure. The same applies to all four float mounts. In order to work with these injuries, the center section must be placed in a "crib". In addition to the "crib", we need jigs to ensure that we are able to reassemble the wing mounts in the correct position. The National Antiquities has given us financial support to be able to build a jig with an associated "crib". Work on building these is now well under way. We plan to be able to start work on repairing the corrosion damage to the center section during 2024.
The museum services in Rogaland by conservator Eirik Aarebrot have preserved the aircraft's starter batteries for us. These are two twelve volt acid batteries that we in 2012 found at the back of the tunnel in the center section. The batteries were behind 70 years on the fjord bed still in a usable condition. We have attached some of the content of the reports that Eirik made after the conservation was finished.
Conservation of batteries:
"The batteries had heavy deposits on the surface that resembled rust. There were also some holes and penetrations in the steel boxes. The battery terminals and lead contacts on top of the battery had some white deposits and corrosion. The top, which was made of pitch, had a number of cracks. All the acid meters, which is part of the corks, had broken off and fallen into the batteries.
The caps were removed and the batteries were rinsed out with warm water.
The steel cases were scraped clean of deposits using a scalpel. It turned out that the condition was much better than first thought. Large parts of the steel plate still had their fine original black surface. However, there were some minor holes which means that the batteries are leaking. These were sealed with Cosmoloid 80, which is a microcrystalline wax with a melting temperature of 80°C. The steel plates were preheated with a heat gun and melted wax was poured into the holes.
The battery poles with connection points were cleaned by knocking off the deposits with a small hammer. The battery cells were filled with Fluidfilm Liquid A, which is a thin lanolin oil.
The following materials have been used in connection with the conservation:
Cosmoloid H80 (Microcrystalline wax)
Fluidfilm Liquid A (Thin lanolin oil)
Loctite Repair Extreme ( Glue used on corks and acid meter tubes )»
