UPDATES
CONTINUED
earlier
30 MAY 2003
Both returned from
our respective holidays, Peter went golfing in Spain, Ian went to Sicily
to meet the mafia. Spent ages trying to get the flap to fit properly.
It was a very fiddly job and involved about ten pairs of mole grips and
as many swear words. But it was a lovely feeling when it all worked. Here
is the wing (upside down) with the flap and aileron attached.
The port wing, now almost complete |
The calendar girl for May and
June...shame June is a short month. |
1 - 9 JUNE 2003
Lots of preparation and lay ups in the starboard
wing. It seems much easier second time round. We are both also preparing
for London to Brighton Bike Ride next Sunday. We are doing this in aid
of the British Heart Foundation and the Europa Plane Builders Thigh Muscle
Development Fund.
15 JUNE 2003
We completed the London to Brighton Bike Ride. Decided
that we will install additional pedals so if the Rotax engine quits, we'll
just pedal away to the nearest airfield.
17 JUNE 2003
Broke the 500 hours barrier. This is the legal minimum
for a UK home built aircraft. Strangely enough it is also the time quoted
in the Europa promotional video as the estimated total for the build.
Just as well we weren't planning to fly it tomorrow...we still have no
cockpit, tail plane, rudder, canopy, engine, instruments, undercarriage,
lights, seats, electrical system, fuel system, paint, or propeller.
25 JUNE 2003
We've had enough of the wings for the time being
so started working on the tailplanes for a change. We have to fix hinges
on the trim tabs. Peter had a tooth ache, so in order to distract his
attention from the pain Ian messed up the cutting of the hinge wire. This
gave Peter something to do......i.e. thinking up some new names to call
Ian.
3 JULY 2003
Our PFA inspector, Barry called to check our progress.
There were a couple of minor fixes we need to do (small air bubbles) and
he gave us several helpful hints particularly about accessing components
when the plane is completed.
11 JULY 2003
We flew in our Piper Archer to the PFA rally at
Kemble. A glorious day even if the arrival procedure was very manic. We
examined the build quality of 30 or so Europas and found huge variations.
Picked up lots of hints and Peter even forgot about his toothache.
Enjoying the sunshine at
the PFA rally |
A nice line of Europas |
10 August 2003
A rather sporadic few weeks in which the building
rate suffered due to holidays, high humidity and Ian's bout of tennis
elbow. According to peter this injury was not caused by repetitive arm
movements sanding parts of the Europa, but by the repetitive arm movement
needed by hitting the golf club so many times during the course of a round!
Anyway, we managed to complete the wings, and now turn our attention to
the fuselage. We borrowed a very nifty stand to enable us to rotate the
fuselage when we work on the underside - this was given to us courtesy
of Mike Clews and John Cliff ( picture
here).
We also decided to store the top of the
fuselage outside for a few weeks to give us space to work on our bottom,
so to speak. Here it is all wrapped in cling film ready for the oven:
Later
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