This year we began necessarily with our memories for Bernardino Gonzalez. He passed away after several brain - heart attacks at February 11th of 2003 with only a pair of months left to retire. He was Lathe Teacher at Mechanics Superior Cycle Workshops until the last moment, teacher of all the people who work in the Machines and Motors Laboratory and always enthusiastical collaborator with any necessity that we had with the boiler or the turbojet. Here he is with us and as one more of the group during a starting at 2000.

May these lines reach him with our gratitude by everything he has taught to us and all the good that he has done for us during so many years.

And we continue where we left the previous year. After what was the first (and not very satisfactory...) thrust measurement on the Marboré IIc, we had planned to work this year in two areas:

1] To try to finish the thrust meter (It is in a enough advanced state...).

With regards to this point, there is not much more than we had already wrote.

2] To try to generate a guide for testing the Marboré IIc (Almost nonexistent!).

Over this point would fall 70% of our efforts during this year, and in spite of everything, still we did not count with a suitable one. The content of this guide would be based on the Technical Note of Escuela de Ingeniería Aeronáutica (Aeronautical Engineering School) of Engineer Vidales that we obtained at Biblioteca Nacional de Aeronáutica (National Library of Aeronautics) a pair of years back from now and other things that we have been collecting throughout these last four years.


So the first work that we did was to install an additional valve at the fuel inlet of the turbojet to avoid the draining of the fuel filter whenever we disarmed the feeding line to translate and / or to keep the machine in the Laboratory.
We had already decided that by budget problems we would have to make the old thrust meter to work correctly because there would not be another possibility.
We dedicated good part of the first semester of the 2003 to find the origin of the problems and to solve them, that basically were the pressure leaks of the meter due to the excessive porosity of the aluminum cast alloy of its body.


During this period (May of 2003) we were contacted by means of professor Bianchi of the E.T. N8 Jorge Newbery by two students of 4th year of its Polimodal Cycle (Francisco Erjavec and Hernán Otero) that wished to start a turboshaft Astazou II with aims similar to ours and we made available to them the knowledge acquired by us in the matter from 1999.


Also we received a 48 minutes video from Engineer Jeff Corr at U.S.A. that finally after attempting for two years could start his Marboré IIc.


From the second year's semester we talked with the coordinators of the Final Project II matter (Mr. G. Marchesini and Mr.G. Franco) and the Chief of Workshops (Mr. José Mestrovic) about the possibility of facing the construction of the thrust test stand within the solidary works program for the Establishment. It would be made with 2nd Year students pertaining to the Management Project II Morning Turn matter (in charge of G. Vranjes). It was so that we worked at morning on the Marboré IIc 3 days week (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) with ten students of 2nd year on the loose points that we had found during the last year and over the total lack of documentation with the aim to incorporate the test of a turbojet to the matters Thermodynamic at 5th year and Laboratory of Motors at 6th year of the Mechanical Specialty.
They were dividid basically in two groups: the men dedicating to the normal tasks of fitting, assembly and painting of structures and mechanisms; and the women in the work of information collecting, writing, translating and making simple schemes and drawings for the former's work.


At August 8th we were invited by the E.T. N8 Jorge Newbery to the first attempt of starting its Astazou II that culminated in success in spite of the cold, the wind, rain in two opportunities and the lack of sunlight at the end of the day. The photo illustrates to some test made after that day and although it is seen that is not raining, the cold is there.


We must also remember the collaboration that we received this year from of 5th Year Mechanics' student M. Mehle and his father, who took charge of the making of the molds and the smelting of a piece for the exhaust jet tube under our specifications, and its later machining in the Mechanics' Superior Cycle Workshop; so that we saved six months in our tasks by not having to wait until November 15th (Technical Education's Day) to our Smelting Workshop for doing its work.


Here it is seen the finished work (Exhaust jet tube + new restricted exit) mounted with the aid of the Management Project II's matter students. We must make notice of the enthusiasm put by these new collaborators who although still do not understand (still...) perfectly the operation of the several devices within the set, demonstrated to be almost as fast as the F1 Ferrari's team mechanics at the time of moving the elements from the Laboratory to the starting zone and assembling them. We estimate the fifth part of the time that would be used by only two people at the same task. Wow...


The second result of our efforts: hydraulic meter without leaks mounted on fixed frame painted and with a system for compensating the friction of the joint base / turbojet done with two weights. It should work, but we just see...
Also we made modifications over the command board that were not as extensive as we had liked. We only could reinforce it and make a new wooden cover that we did not install because we believed we would be able to arrage an automatic starting sequence before of install this cover.


At November 6th, we had planed to do the first test of the year to measure thrust. We did it at the end of the morning in our habitual place of the Workshop's yard and we prepared it with the collaboration of the 2nd Year students of the Morning Turn who worked with us during the last months. Also the Astazou II workgroup of the E.T. N8 Jorge Newbery was present.


Once finished the necessary verifications in our systems, we initiated the starting sequence at 11:15AM with Roberto Laterra for the first time at the commands of the Marboré IIc, with José M. Di Iorio at temperature reading and Gustavo Vranjes at the thrust meter. 8 readings were taken at the thrust meter with its corresponding for temperature since 8 000 RPMs at steps of 1 000 RPMs. It was our third attempt of thrust measurement counting those of the previous year, and the first completely successful, in a test that lasted 4min. 54 seg., in which we reached 14 000 RPMs máx. with 80 kgf thrust máx.


In fact it is the longest that we did to date, and it that was not more extensive by lack of fuel. (And it was not bad at all after being waiting for 21 years to do it!)



(The graph's data are corrected by atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature to be able to compare them with the manufacturer's data)


At November 13th we were invited again by the E.T. N8 Jorge Newbery to its Expo - Newbery (From where the videos of Astazou II were taken). It was good to aboard the airplanes of the show to relax a little, because at the following day...


...November 14th, we participated at Technical Education's Day celebration starting 3min. the Marboré IIc for the visitors (Although not in an authentic test, again by lack of fuel...)


At December 5th, with the difficulties we had to obtain JP1 even paying for it (The oil companies only sell JP1 to airplanes' owners, as we verified the fact personally...), the Astazou II workgroup managed the donation to us of 150 liters of JP1 by part of the E.T. N8 Jorge Newbery. And the Association Cooperadora as it always facilitated $64 to pay the transport of the donated JP1. Again our gratefulness towards all of them!.


At December 17th (fourth anniversary of Marboré IIc's first start), after some mishaps we had arranged early in the morning with the Astazou II workgroup to measure in addition to the thrust, the specific consumption of the turbojet at day 18th about 10:00AM.; and thus we would close in a spectacular way the year metering the only fundamental parameter of the manufacturer that still remained not metered.
Nevertheless the things that occured at day 18th made us believe that indeed exists a "history already written", and that in our history, that day the Marboré IIc wouldn't be started.

The first surprise of day 18th occured early in the morning: that day there would not be any activity in the workshops in order to prepare the Jornadas Pedagógicas (Pedagogical Journeys) of day 19th. We should better do not need any adjustment of last moment...

The second surprise ocured when minutes later when modifications of the buidings of the Workshops Yard were started two meters from where we were installed. Unexpected trouble that did not have any way to fix itself other than to wait until 6:00PM. so that the people who were working finished their workday. We must emphasize that they were more than considered towards us, since the rubbish they had generated was located in such form that it did not bother us.


But everything was arranged to be done at 10:00AM!. Meanwhile we took advantage to do a visit with the Astazou II workgroup to the School's Museum and later they prepared the exhaust jet tube to be painted with oil instead of high temperature paint, resource that gave excellent results to them in Astazou II (and costs almost nothing!).


Once done we carried out a pair of maneuverses of the test since the coordination of five people is required with the present state of things to make the necessary readings.
Nothing spectacular up to here, but for the fact that both maneuvers required to drain the fuel tank twice and refill it twice also completely by hand to measure fuel (100 liters approximately...)


The third surprise arrived at 6:30PM. when we tried to start the machine and nothing happened. After reviewing with well-taken care contacts, switches and on and on; we reached the conclusion that the only thing that could be causing the problem were unloaded batteries...


Fourth surprise: after the batteries' load was controlled in the last pair of months with the indicator of the small battery charger, and with three unloaded 80Ah batteries, it is necessary also to reach another only conclusion: that this charger does not work well. Hypothesis that seemed to be reinforced by the continuous changes of fuses that were neccesary to make it in the last pair of months...
Then it was time to use the battery charger / car starter like in other years. But we did not have it. It was in loan in the Mechanics' Superior Cycle Workshop.

Fifth surprise?: if still our beloved reader follows us... The Workshop was closed since the morning and at that hour there was nobody in the School to give us access to it!


In order to make the tale short, in this situation we used all the (few) resources we had to be able to start, but the only thing that we obtained was a two meters flame coming out from the exhaust jet tube (very nice indeed...) without being able to raise the regime of the turbojet far from the 4500 RPMs. And two weeks later, already calmer, we made the revision of the results obtained in the maneuverses, that joined to a pair of additional calculus dictamined that even if the turbojet had started, the readings would have had unacceptable margins of error. (Obviously, errors attributable to the measuring method, not to the reader!)

But no. The wise men tell us that it does not exist such thing called Destiny...

For 2004...

In an extremely troublesome year and perhaps with the fewer resources of all previous years ($136) we obtained something that in the scope of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires no Technical School has:

A turbojet in working conditions and with the possibility of being tested.

In the Buenos Aires Province only three Technical Schools have operative turbojets and only in one thrust was metered (Quilmes).

Since November 6th of 2003 we are the second School where this capacity has been reached; the one that allows us to speak of a test to be able to obtain the operation curves shown in the previous graph, whose values are practically identical to those from the manufacturer.

We cannot forget to mention that the machines used in these experiences (Newbery's Astazou, Quilmes' Marboré and Krause's Marboré) share a record of security and availability of the highest of the aeronautics industry, and it is not a fact that being used correctly outside the airplanes that they power their security and availability diminish. For more than 15 years E.T. Taller Regional Quilmes, from 4 years to date us; and now E.T. Jorge Newbery all have become significant evidence of it.

Also we knew by the people of the E.T. Taller Regional Quilmes that the Marboré IIc does not register accidents in more than 25 years of continuous use by part of Fuerza Aerea Argentina since 1962.

In our test, we requested from the machine only the fifth part of the thrust that it can give at the takeoff (80kgf against 400kgf), still increasing not only the turbojet life, but also the safety margins in its operation.

Nevertheless...

Still we must rebuild (to automate) the command board and decide after the last mishap of the year if we continue using batteries for the start or not. We count with the aid of the Astazou II workgroup and of Professor Gustavo Marín to do it.

We must rebuild the fuel measurement system.

We have to finish the text for the formal test. By the end of 2003 we have written more than 60 pages, of which only 20 have been corrected; and we need to make the illustrations for all the pages... It is not fault of our "document - makers". You really cannot request more to the very good work made by them.

And last but not least: to film the complete startup - test!

We are thankful same as last year to:

Workshops' Headquarters: Mr. José Mestrovic. To allow us to work during the last months of the 2003 Cycle with 2nd year of the mornings' turn during the phase of Integrating Project II.

Technical Office's Teachers: Mr. G. Franco and Mr. G. Marchesini. To allow us to work during the last months of the 2003 Cycle with 2nd year of the mornings' turn during the phase of Integrating Project II.

Teachers of Mechanics Superior Cycle workshops: Mr. A. Seguí and J. D'Agrosa. For be besides us as ever.

Teachers of Smelting workshop: Mr. Acerbi and Mr. Palomino. By elements for the counterbalances of the thrust meter.

Asociación Cooperadora: For asisting us with money to buy elements to go on working. Funds for the JP1 transportation.

Electrical Measurements Laboratory: Mr. Wögerbauer and Álvarez; Gabriel Nóbile, Daniel Robles and Gustavo Tinello. elements for the electrical board, measurement instruments and advice.

Ironsmith workshop: Mr. Carrizo and Mr. Matiazzi. By elements for the fixed frame building and facilities use.

Carpentry workshop: Mr. Allende. elements for the electrical board and fuel meter.

Students: Mr. Mehle and his father by the provision of elements and later machining of the exhaust jet tube. Miss Buceta, Miss Chen and Miss Gutierrez by the work of documentation and translation. Miss Duarte and Miss Gutierrez by schemes and plans to construct and painting works. Mr. Echeverria, Mr. Frasca, Mr. Friederich, Mr. Oh, and Mr. Priszuck by the works of fiting and construction of different devices that we used this year.

Graduated Students: Mr. Roberto Laterra by the collaboration in the starting days. Mr. Martinez, Mr. Aquino and Mr. Campos by the giving of original videos for our Internet page.


We also thank to:

Authorities and Workshop Teachers of E. T. N8 Jorge Newbery: Mr. Jorge Estefanía (Principal), Mr. José Marcos (J.G.T.), Mr. Eduardo Gimenéz (M.E.P.), Prof. Bianchi. By the aid offered during this year and provision of 150 liters of JP1.

Graduated Students of E. T. N8 Jorge Newbery: Mr. Gustavo Donnantuoni, Mr. Francisco Erjavec, Mr. Hernán Otero of ET N8 Jorge Newbery by the management for the donation of 150 liters of JP1, ideas, documentation, graphical material, original videos and collaboration in our last start.