UPDATES CONTINUED

earlier

14 DECEMBER 2002
The four radiators have finally arrived and were fitted yesterday. The workshop temperature now remains above the critical 70 degrees needed for epoxy work. It is also nice to work in shirtsleeves.

The work bench which Ian spent two days constructing last month came in for some less than gentle criticism from Peter. Firstly, it is was too small for Peter, being a big bloke. But also it wasn't level enough. Well it was level at one end, just not at the other! So it had to go and we spent the day building a man sized workbench which is absolutely level all over. We built the new one over the old one, a bit like Aztec temples. Anyway, Peter is happier now, and the PFA inspector makes his first visit on Monday.

The new level workbench with the original underneath

16 DECEMBER 2002
An inspector calls. Barry is our PFA inspector responsible for signing off each stage of our project. We get two stages out of 31 signed off.

Barry having a good laugh when we told him
we expected to finish this plane by Spring 2004

17 DECEMBER 2002
Ian spent two hours making the jig for the tail plane assembly. The manual says this needs to be done very carefully so that two little bushes and a fixing hole are located exactly in the right place.

The jig with the torque tube on it

The two locating bushes

Read the instructions three times, measured twice, cut once, then read the instructions again.......we have bought an accelerated tail kit, and much of the work is already done. So when the tail plane is examined (which we should have done earlier) the bushes have already been fitted and the jig is totally redundant. A complete waste of time, but another lesson learned.

19 DECEMBER 2002
Went to see another builder, Paul, near Guildford who has almost completed his Europa after five years. Great to see the beast nearly ready to fly and we got lots of helpful tips. We then did our first epoxy lay up, the end of one of the flaps. Really fiddly but the result isn't too bad.

The finished Root. Must remember that the flap goes the other way up on the aircraft!

Here is a tip for you

later