After thinking it over and over, I’ve been able to unify my hobby for aviations, the history, the clocks and mechanics ... collecting airplane clocks, the ones situated in the cockpit panel, the ones that the pilots look at.
When I started to get interested in airplane clocks, I looked up on the internet web pages that talked about the clock, the airplane, with its age, its time. I found loose pieces of information. To satisfy my uneasiness, I decided to do it myself.
My hobby consists of (not necessarily this order):
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Find the clock and make it work as precisely as it was designed to. This requires taking it apart, cleaning it to take out all the filthiness and the oil that after so many years, it is degraded and seems like glue. To finish, put it together.
Normally, the clocks from the Second World War or earlier, don’t have spare pieces for the broken ones. It is necessary to buy two clocks to make one work. Sometimes, when you can´t find the piece, your only solution is to order it. All this technical labor would be impossible without Gabriel Lobato’s help, master in clockmaker. I admire him and I’ll always be his pupil in his Clock school in Madrid. www.escueladerelojeria.es
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The final evidence about knowing that it was situated in the cockpit is a photograph of the cockpit where you can see it. It is not easy, the clock is the first instrument to disappear, it is what most people are looking for. I’ve seen a lot of airplanes in history museums and planes that are still flying, without the original clocks. Some of the simply show the hole in the cockpit panel, some of them have a different type of clock, and some have modern equipment installed in the hole were the original clock was suppose to be.
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Another part of my hobby consists on collecting photographs, information, what type of airplanes used it, the features of the machine, who and in which circumstances flew and in what battles it participated.
When I finally place the clock on the shelf with its display stand and the picture of the airplane, I enjoy knowing that each piece of the complex machinery is doing its job perfectly. I go even farther, I see the clock transformed into a live witness of history. I see the men who flew the airplanes, the ones who risked their life in the narrow cockpits fighting, the period of time in which they lived, and I feel lucky to own the live witness of history, where I see spend my time, and at the same time feeling sad because I know that the watch will continue showing the time when I go out.
Each clock is unique, I receive it with its history, some carry rust and oxide on all the outside screws, was the plane in a carrier?. Some don´t work because the pieces are deformed, the metal has a bluish tone which means it was over heated, fire onboard? In some occasions, when you open it, the case joint breaks into thousands of pieces (The case joint is the circular piece that assembles the machinery of the clock to the case). There is no doubt that this clock has received a blow, crash landing? Each clock is unique. Feeling sad, I sell some of them (the ones which are repeated) to be able to expand my collection. |
