UPDATES CONTINUED November 2005 Barry came and inspected the wings. Only nine little snags including a dodgy rivet on the torque tube which we would never have spotted. We fixed all these and the wings are now ready for closing up forever (we hope). We were very lucky to have Ian and Irene over to help and an extra bonus was Terry (builder of G-IRON) which had its maiden flight this month. As an ex panel-beater Terry gave us lots of hints about how to minimise the filling. He also brought round some cream cakes. A potential Europa Builder (Goff Moore) also came round. See his web site here. We spent three hours trying to put him off, but he still seems quite keen.
JANUARY 2006 Text from Peter: As Ian has been
away on holiday yet again (for a month this time!) I have insisted that
he use my own text for the write up of projects undertaken in his absence. I spent the next
couple of weeks filling and sanding, filling and sanding and then a bit
more filling and sanding. The tennis elbow returned but I fought through
the pain! I also did the final lay-ups on the wing roots that used our last remaining supply of uni. I think that is a good sign meaning we are nearing the possibility of finishing the build! I thought the next
good job to tackle was the windows for the doors. The instructions seemed
pretty clear but I could see all sorts of problems. I needed six pairs
of hands and had to keep the glue only in the places I wanted it. I made
a spare hand (see pictures), which worked perfectly. Thank heaven we had
the engine hoist to use as a prop for the hand! The first door I tackled
was the passenger side (good job, as if I cocked it up it wouldn’t
spoil the pilots view). I was quite mean with the glue because I didn’t
want it spewing out over the join and messing up the window. I have now
had to inject some glue into the voids. A particularly difficult and messy
job! So a new year begins and it is the 3rd new year for our Europa. I very much hope it will take to the skies this year. Instrument panel to build next - I bet that will be fun! We've now bought most of our instruments and made a mock up the panel. Picture below. When we are flying, of course, we'll find a more elegant way of securing the panel than just taking it in turns to hold it in place!
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