25 November 2011
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Our progress has slowed a little this past month due to necessary glider maintenance we had to carry out as well as my work commitments which was annoying.November marks the start of the gliding season in our club with the guys headed north to the Bendigo Gliding Club for the Melbourne Cup long weekend.
It was great to get away and do some flying and meet the guys from the Bendigo Club again. As the summer builds I expect our progress to reduce but I am hopeful of still making some headway.
It is very important that we all still do some flying.
Chris has done a great job on the new wingtips and fuel tank access covers. He also had a go at reworking the horizontal tailplane end caps as he felt he could get a slightly better fit.
Chris also was able to incorporate a wingtip light mount which enabled the light assembly to be installed easily.
It ended up being a bigger job than he thought and I dont think he will be rushing to volunteer his services again for a similar job.
Anyway the finished products look great as the pictures below show.
At Oles visit last August he indicated the engine mount needed to be reworked as the angle for the thrust line was too low.
We discussed various options but decided to send to the engine back to Ole in Taree for him to realign the engine to the correct position.
As the aircraft designer he knows better than anyone else what is required. This work has been completed and the engine was refitted to the airframe again last week.
The GA propeller was fitted and the adapter Slava sent with the prop fitted perfectly. It was great to see the engine and propeller fitted to the airframe.
Another committee has been formed to discuss engine cowl design and installation. This is going to be the fun part of the build
Other progress has been on the fuel system on the aft side of the firewall with this almost completed now.
The fairings around the tailplane have commenced fabrication and the photos Ole recently sent helped sort some misunderstandings we had.
This is coming together nicely now.
I was able to have one of the cockpit seats upholstered and the finished result is better than I expected. Rodney who is one of the aircraft trimmers at work did the job for us.
He used automotive grade vinyl which has a fire retardant rating. We discussed various cushion options but the need to cater for long and short pilots is the intended goal.
We came up with a thin cushion permanently secured in place as well as a drop in thicker cushion for shorter pilots like myself which is secured by Velcro.
Gordon has also progressed the instrument panel layout and this is coming along nicely.
Another popular topic for discussion with the build team has been the location to mount the radiator.
Found some articles on the internet that mounting the radiator behind the propeller was inefficient for cooling. The more aft the better.
You only have to look back at some WW2 aircraft like the Junkers 87 Stuka. The prototype had a large radiator directly behind the propeller.
Later versions had a smaller one positioned further aft. Me109 is another example, look at some changes in the early prototypes compared to the later versions.
Factors affecting our position include the exhaust system, radiator hose position and how to attach it to the airframe. We have a basic plan which we will try for now.
All for now.
Regards Jack
- Man hours to date:
- 825 hrs
