Music: Gerry Cinnamon, Stereophonics, The Libertines
6 months to the day since I took delivery of G-MLSY and it’s coming to the end of the build… but I say that every day to be fair. The next major stage is the testing and lots of paperwork to do and approvals to gain before it can fly.
A few people have dropped by to view how I’m doing and some have sent messages. All I can say is “Thanks”. It’s been a bit like a marathon and the support from those that have taken the time to visit or send messages is very much welcomed and keeps my motivation topped up.
I’ve decided to use the light function on the switches so each switch require an earth lead to be attached to the third contact to enable the function. It required a bit of back tracking but was fairly easy to do. The wings need to come off again so Ian is called to action again helped by Pete Sharpe I need to run the fuel level sensor wiring in, polish the wings and apply the registration before refitting for the final time. When I arrived home the stainless steel ID plate and Radio licence had arrived ticking off another couple of items from the list of Admin that accompanies the build.
Music: Lightening Seeds, The Beautiful South, Gerry Rafferty
Feel like I’m going backward as I need to do some remedial work to the water pump and replace the carburettor floats. But I have a few other things that I’ll do today which will get me back on track. I will o order the registration vinyls (that I have left far too late) and I’ll also be fitting the seatbelts.
The order that I’ve been waiting for was an 18mm x 1 fine pitch die to cut a little more thread on each water pump pipe. Fairly easy to do but I make to make sure that the die went on perfectly straight otherwise it might start cutting a new thread!All done and sealed with Loctite. I’m going to leave it in position for a couple of days to fully cure before touching the pipes. Hopefully this will ensure I won’t have a repeat of the leak.Now onto the floats. I spoke to CFS aero who are the importers for Rotax engines and they sent me a full set of new floats to replace those that were in my carbs. This is really a precautionary measure as I don’t know if the floats fitted are defective or not but I didn’t want to find out on the first flight! To get to the float chambers I have to undo some of the work that I’ve done previously. First off are the carb drip trays……revealing the float bowl retaining clip. This is prised off to allow the bowl to be removed.The flaots sit in the bowl and rise and fall on pins to retain them. Brings back memories when I used to play about with motorcycles when I was younger.When refitting must make sure that I don’t damage this mechanism and ensure that the seal is seated correctly.Then a refit of the carb drip trays before repeating the procedure on the other carb.All done and back to home it was before my intervention.Next on the agenda is to fit the seatbelts. Three bolts and nyloc nuts are used to secure them.The top hole in the retaining mount is opened up to 11mm before the bolts can be fitted.The top retaining strap is fitted first and tightened to pinch the fitting and then just eased off slightly to allow for some movement in operation.The bolts with a ‘shoulder’ are then fitted to to the left and right seatbelt retaining brackets.The top strap is too long to use as is so the seatbelt webbing needs to be modified by cutting and running through the retaining adjusters.To stop the webbing flying in service I’ve sealed the ends with superglue. This may work ok but if it fails after some use I’ll seal with heat instead but this seemed a good solution.With both side now done is was time to try out on a ‘real’ pilot so Pilot Pooh was given first go…
A short day today as I was hoping that the M18 x 1 die would be delivered today so I could do the work in the afternoon. Unfortunately for some reason it was delayed so will have to wait in for it tomorrow now. The leak has caused me a couple of days delay so far which is a little frustrating.
With the water pump dismantled I need to use a M18 x 1 die to cut further down the pipe to provide a better seal than achieved on the first fit. This is a revised method that has worked for others that have had this problem according to Bristell.The wires connecting the lights, strobes, trim motor and pitot in the wings need to be protected so a piece of flexible conduit is used.The elevator trim and lights connectors are secured to prevent them from moving in service.The artwork for the registration has been prepared and I’m obtaining a couple of quotes before ordering.
G-MLSY 