UPDATES CONTINUED

earlier

8 FEBRUARY 2003
A rare golf-free Saturday and we both spent the day building. After discussing the fuel tank problem with Neville at Europa, we are sending the fuel guage back to the factory for them to test it in one of their tanks. If their's doesn't pass the bubble test, then we know we've got some fault in the assembly. So today we concentrated on finishing the autopilot. Here is the finished bay before installing the autopilot servo. Believe it or not this was 12 man hours' work.

The autopilot bay

This assembly would have taken much longer if Peter hadn't got out his favourite tool for gentle encouragement:

Peter looking for Ian's head

13 FEBRUARY 2003
After much measuring, adjusting, sanding and swearing we finally fitted all the control links. We also tried the joy sticks for the first time. Fantastic. All we need now is a fuselage, wings, tail, engine and we're in business!

This took hours to get right

Take a seat and we'll go flying!

13 MARCH 2003
Ian spent two weeks on holiday while Peter soldiered on with the project. Peter sorted out the autopilot and fuel tank. Then he claimed there was nothing else he could do single handed because the next step is a two man job, so he had a few days catching up with the rest of his life. We now have to align both wings together into the cockpit module to set a couple of important bushes in place. This means one wing will be in the workshop and the other out in the drive overnight. We are praying for calm weather at the weekend because high winds will send the starboard wing across the Surrey countryside!

14 MARCH 2003
Spent ages trying to set up the wings together using workmates and Peter's dining chairs as supports. It was totally impossible to get the wings to stay still and remain level. One fell off and broke one of Peter's chairs. He was well pissed off. Decided to borrow Ian Rickard's specially made trestles and start again tomorrow.

15 MARCH 2003
Success! Using the right trestles made the job very straightforward. We bonded the bushes in place with Redux. Here are the wings, inside and outside the workshop:

The wing sticking out of the garage. Hope the milkman sees it in time.

We agreed to meet later that evening, after the Redux had set, to dismantle the wings and put them away. Peter invited us for dinner with the ladies. Ian said he would bring a starter along, then went home to do some cooking, returned later with his wife, Anne, but left the starter in the fridge at home! Needless to say, the Redux still hadn't set even after dinner and several bottles of Tempranillo. So Peter pulled it all apart the next morning aided by Lyn, but hampered by his hangover.

22 MARCH 2003
We had to set the wings up again so we could fix the brackets for the aileron quick release system. This all seemed to work out OK. It was a lovely day so Peter left the bulk of the work to Ian while he went to play Golf.

23 MARCH 2003
The Redux was dry and we pulled the assembly apart.

26 MARCH 2003
Started working on fitting the fuel tank. Ian had a heavy cold and couldn't even smell the acetone. Peter displayed his usual sympathy and just turned the radio up to drown the sound of sniffing.

later