UPDATES CONTINUED

earlier

Sunday 18 AUGUST 2003 - The Feast of St Redux
A Big Day- bonding the cockpit module into the bottom fuselage. A job where you only get one chance to get it right because once the Redux glue sets nothing will move it. Ian and Irene Rickard kindly agreed to come and help in return for a few sausages from the barbecue. It went exactly according to plan, helped by Irene and her icing bags.

The floor marked out for the glue	Irene decorating the floor with Redux icing
Ian & Irene having great fun replenishing the icing bag with goop	The finished module weighted down

Thursday 21 AUGUST 2003
A day we shall remember because after weeks of pain - Peter with toothache and Ian with tennis elbow, we were simultaneously cured - at separate venues. Peter's root canal treatment and Ian's cortisone injection meant that we had a painless time today. So we got back into the swing of being rude to each other, then went out for a curry at very nice new place in Chobham.

Saturday 30 AUGUST 2003
Peter spent most of the day making two beautiful floor panels from ply wood. The are very tricky and follow the contours of the fuselage. They need to have glassfibre lay ups on the underside. This is a simple lay up and Ian was volunteered to do this. Left them overnight to cure so they would be really solid.

Sunday 31 AUGUST 2003
Peter's language over the phone was not at all appropriate for a Sunday morning after he discovered that Ian had laid up the glassfibre on the TOP of one of the floors instead of the bottom! It was Peter's fault for not marking the top and bottom. At least we have a perfect template for the next attempt.

14 SEPTEMBER 2003
After Ian returned from yet another well earned holiday, Peter had finished the rudder floors and made an excellent job of them (photo soon). We are now focusing our attention on the undercarriage and first we need to strengthen the baggage bays which will take the strain. this is really in case of a heavy landing so it is entirely academic for two experienced and competent pilots like us ( we wish!). The lay up over the inside is a nightmare and tests the flexibility of the fabric to its limits, along with out patience.

End of SEPTEMBER 2003
Worked on the back end for a couple of weeks. The tailplane torque tube was a bit of a fiddle to get right, but nothing that our nice new plastic hammer could not sort out.

	The tailplane torque tube
The rear bulkhead with hammers still to hand		The trim motor all installed and wired in

3 OCTOBER 2003
A big day for us. We ordered our engine. a nice Rotax 912s with a variable pitch propeller. We should get it by the end of December, so that's our Christmas presents sorted.

9 OCTOBER 2003
Last night Peter broke through the 800 hours total. His modesty and humility shone through today when he pointed out that each hour he spends on the plane is worth at least 1.5 hours of Ian's time. Funny how accountants manage to ratchet up their bills so quickly!

16 OCTOBER 2003
We made a horrible discovery. We thought we had just about finished the wings, but we were alerted to the fact that the wing roots were protected by an unusual type of peel ply. This should have been removed before covering the area with glass cloth and epoxy. We didn't do this and the whole area now has to be carefully ground out so we can start again. This will take weeks of hard work. So we are going down the pub.

later