Had a call from Karen tonight from The Handsome Sam to come round for a pint (or two). On ordering my an ‘Old Hector’ Karen delivered it in this! My very own glass with a picture of G-MLSY engraved on it. Not only that but I have my own hook in the pub to hang it on!
What a lucky man I am to have such a wonderful Fiancée.
With all the paperwork now complete and sent to the LAA it’s now a waiting game. As I’m away for the first couple of weeks in September it looks likely that the first test flight will be around the 3rd week in September. Hopefully there won’t be any queries and it goes through quickly.
For now I can just get it out of the hanger and give it a run up and down the runway to further test the engine and systems and then give it a good clean afterwards.
Today, Tom and his Mum came down to visit so Tom got a ‘fast’ taxi run – my first passenger!
I thought I’d take some pics for the Blog today…
Music: None today – Concentrating!!
Weighing day today! Pete Thomas a good friend from the London Gliding Club offered to come down to weigh G-MLSY and today’s the day!
Music: Karen was in charge of music so played tracks like ‘I can fix you’ and ‘All right now’ Very funny Karen!
As I was packing up last night I noticed a wet patch under the front tyre. When I investigated I found a very small leak from two of the modified water pump pipes. Unfortunately there was no way round it, the pump will have to be removed, the pipes removed and resealed. A call to Tony Palmer revealed that there had been other cases of leaking and was put down to a loose fitting pipe. The solution is to cut the thread slightly further down the pipe so it’s a tight fit when at the correct angle. Karen came along to give me a hand.
Music: Fleetwood Mac – Saw them in concert at Wembley last night. A little treat from Karen – Absolutely fantastic!
The wiring continues, after each circuit is wired up a check to see if it’s working as expected. All good so far!
Music: Elton John who we’re seeing in Prague next week!
Haven’t got a full day today but thought I could install some of the cables that I received yesterday in the post and the tail strobe.
Music: Snow Patrol
A few jobs whilst Andy is still here to help including the internal trim panels, OAT sensor, bleeding the brakes and pitot system installations.
The rear panel in normally riveted into the aircraft and has two access panels cut in with covers. I thought it would be a better idea if it was removable so decided to use 3mm screws and rivnuts to secure it instead. First job drill the 5mm hole for rivnuts.
The install the 37 rivnuts in the rear panel…
and 8 along this panel.
The finished job which looks quite good.
The supplied OAT cable is several metres long but I’ve decided to mount it close to the ADAHRS unit so I shortened it out by cutting some wire out of the the middle of the cable and soldered together which removes the need to crimp new ends on.
The OAT sensor is fitted from below and secured with a nylon nut and washer. I’ve used a bit of silicon to make it even more water tight from below before fitting.
The finished installation needs to be within 2 degrees of level in all planes so once the aircraft is finished I may have to shim the unit.
After bleeding the brakes I have two very small air bubbles left in the brake lines that need to be purged. The normal method didn’t work so thought using an electric pump might work. The whole thing turned into a disaster. The first attempt resulted in the electric pump sucking in air. The second attempt resulted in the pump forcing off the pipe. Then on the third attempt the pump failed after 5 seconds of continuous use. I gave up! will try again another time…
Moving onto the pitot installation. I’ve purchased an electrically headed pitot that needs power to it so I need to run power to the unit. There is conduit in the wing so will use this but it’s difficult to get to.
The only place I can easily mount the heater power unit is on access cover but the unit is just little bit big for the access hole so I had to cut the corners of the mounting bracket.
It’s secured onto the of the access panel with M4 screws, washers and nylocs.
It’s a perfect fit..
The view from the underside.
just needs to be connected and wires run up the conduit.
It’s a very tight fit but need to get my arm into the access panel to get to the conduit.
30/12/2018 – Karen found a nearly new Aldi tool chest for sale. So a quick trip up to Hornchurch to pick it up and now installed, after cleaning, in the workshop. Just the job!
G-MLSY 