Hawker Nimrod Cockpit

[mgh 89]

Can anyone identify the instruments and switches (apart from the turn & slip gauge, compass, and clock) in the photo of the cockpit on the following site?http://www.historicaircraftcollection.ltd.uk/gallery/Note the location of the cocking levers and breeches of the Vickers machine guns!

[Guest _FSAviator_]

Well the one right and down from the turn and slip is clearly marked rpm so that's a clue. In accordance with British practice it has been rotated to place normal cruise rpm at needle north and in this case 1950 rpm.The one to the left of it is a standard pre war twice round ASI. Left of the compass is a standard pre war single needle altimeter. Both magneto switches are in the single brass surround on the left. The other brass surround appears to contain a pull/push control for priming the engine, but it could just possibly be a starter button.The large gauge under looks like the boost gauge reading zero with the engine off. Since the blue gauge appears to indicate a maximum with everthing off it may be fuel contents which would suggest that yellow may be oil pressure at zero and and green may be oil temperature at about +15C. The switch right of the compass appears to be the fuel selector. Oddly there does not appear to be a coolant temperature gauge though I suppose green might be coolant rather than oil.

[mgh 89]

Thanks for the reply.Do you think the green gauge may have two needles?

[Guest _FSAviator_]

No, I don't think the coloured gauges have more than one needle each. I can almost read the text on the green gauge and I believe it says TEMP below and probably OIL above. I now think that the blue guage has RAD above and TEMP below. On the yellow gauge maybe I can see OIL above and PRESSURE below, so fuel contents must be indicated elsewhere, or perhaps were just timed to exhaustion. I now think that the priming pump is far bottom right of picture and that the brass button on the panel must therefore be a starter.

[Guest Robert Sanderson]

"Note the location of the cocking levers and breeches of the Vickers machine guns!"No worries about clearing all but the most stubborn jams, but breathing the gas buildup from firing those guns would probably cause a prudent pilot to raise his seat until it cleared.I've looked at more than a few vintage RAF aircraft instruments, and the color codes for engine related fuel/oil parameters seem to be:yellow-oil pressurered-fuel pressuregreen/brown-oil tempblue-radiator tempWhen they bothered to paint the instruments, the above color codes were used. I've seen just as many, or perhaps even more instruments that were not color coded though, so this was far from a standard practice, and might even have been a field mod. The green painted oil temp seems to degrade to a murky brown over the decades, and un-restored examples are no longer a nice shade of green; so depending on that, you can see either green, or brown bezels for oil temp.With the above in mind, and from what I can see in the photo of the Nimrod panel, the instrument with the yellow bezel might be oil pressure, although I cannot resolve any face markings to support that, even when zoomed in; the instrument with the green bezel might be oil temperature, and employing a little imagination, it does seem to say that on the face; the instrument with the blue bezel might be radiator temperature, and clearest of all, it does seem to be marked "RAD TEMP" when you zoom in on it.I agree with most of the other identifications made by FSAviator, with the exception of the fuel selector, and one of the switches. The brass switch on the right definitely has a single toggle, it's shown with the throw in the down position, but I won't speculate on what its purpose might be. The black item below the yellow and green instruments might be the fuel selector valve, but there is a gray bracket and handle with red lettering below the aperiodic compass that could also be that item, and to me at least, looks considerably more like it. I don't see a clearly identifiable primer anywhere, but the black item (possible fuel selector valve) below the yellow and green instruments is a likely candidate, and is on the side of the cockpit where the primer was usually located

[mgh 89]

Thanks for both your replies.I have e-mailed HAC but thought it would be an interesting question for the Forum. I'm also a member of the Hawker Association so I'll ask around at the next meeting as well.

[mgh 89]

I haven't heard from the restorers but showed the picture around at a Hawker Association meeting. No one knew the purpose of the brass switch on the port side but the general consensus was that the brass item on the starboard side was the Ki-gas primer and that the rotary switch near it probably was was a fuel tank selector.Hawkers retained a Hart (G-AMBR) until the 1970s. (The Hart was a two-seat light bomber very similar to the Nimrod/Fury.) I spoke to one of the former Hawker test pilots who'd flown it once - he said spent the entire flight looking over the side for a suitable field for the emergencuy landing that he felt was inevitable! It wasn't but he never flew it again, daying he much preferred the Hurricane that Hawkers also kept.Incidentally, it was pointed out that in the photo there seem to be a chain joining the upper fuselage sides, but no one knew if it was connected with the two wheels at the top of the centre console.

[Guest Robert Sanderson]

[mgh 89]

I've had a reply from the restorer's of the Nimrod as follows:"Large circular instrumentsPort

[mgh 89]

For personal reasons I have not been modelling the Hawker Fury lately. However, I've answered my own question about landing flares:This gauge models a pyrotechnic landing flare.This is "one-shot" so once it's been turned on it burns for a linited time (60 sec)and cannot be used again.(L:STATUS1, number) is status: 0 = unburnt, 1 = burning, 2 = burnt(L:START TIME1, seconds) time flare ignited (L:STATUS1, number) 1 == (P:ABSOLUTE TIME, seconds) (L:START TIME1, seconds) - 60 > && if{ 2 (>L:STATUS1, number) (>K:LANDING_LIGHTS_OFF) } Landing Flare 1 (L:STATUS1, number) 0 == 1 (>L:STATUS1, number) (P:ABSOLUTE TIME, seconds) (>L:START TIME1, seconds) (>K:LANDING_LIGHTS_ON) I've also developed the panel further.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/153630.jpgNow all I have to do is texture the model!

[n4gix 4,947]

Clever and unique code! That's a nice looking panel also... ;)