UPDATES
CONTINUED
earlier
July 2004
We spent most of the month sorting the brakes and
the metal engine firewall. The firewall is a very tricky bit of work.
It required great skill, dexterity and lots of swearing so this was Peter's
job. The finger brakes are a simple assembly job - so Ian did this. As
we couldn't get the fittings we needed from Europa, we bought some nice
lightweight steel mesh tube from a racing car supplier. It looks great,
but no one will ever see it because all the tubing is concealed.
The (almost) finished firewall |
Finger brake assembly |
August 2004
The month started with a success story. A friend of Peter's - Bernie Palumbo
- very kindly donated a fantastic hydraulic engine lift. This made really
easy work of fitting the engine for the first (possibly the last?) time.
The rest of the month was spent rolling
around on the floor. We had loads of problems getting the finger brakes
to work. The cylinders needed stripping, cleaning and modifying. Then
we had a series of leaks. We are sick of bleeding brakes.
We also had a useful visit from Richard
Holder, owner of G-OWWW. He told us how he built his instrument panel
and gave us lots of good ideas. We also went to have a look at the Dynon
EFIS. We think we will instal one.
We kept coming up with reasons why we could
not make progress without the fuselage top being bonded on. So we took
the decicion to do it on 4 September, and Ian and Irene Rickard offerd
to come and help. Before that, we played at being pilots just to get a
feel for it!
September 2004
The 4th September was our Big Day. Bonding the top
on is a milestone and many people have made it sound tricky. So we scuff
sanded everything, made sure it all fitted, removed various loose tools
from the soon to be inaccesible back end then Irene Rickard got out her
icing bag and we'd finished the job within an hour. Here are some pictures:
later
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