Just ordered the last bits for the 100 hour service and prep for the ferry flight back to the U.K. …

I’m currently stuck at home due to enforced quarantine after a 4 day trip to the U.K. so .. to save me from going mad in 1 room … I’m getting the planning ready … the new Flywheel boats just need torquing up to 39nm Tehran everything can go back in for a ground run and test ….

Mags have been cleaned whilst out and new plugs will be going in

Carburettor has been drained and inspected for any debris in the bottom .. absolutely spotless as I have a micro Andair inline filter

The route I plan won’t be my normal head 360 then 020 to overfly Goodwood … any degree of headwind against such a draggy aircraft would put me on fuel limits before the South coast was reached … so plan is far more interesting

Once we get French landing clearance the route will be Jersey, Caen, Deauville, Abbeville, Le Touquet, Headcorn or Lydd, Southend ..maybe … then onwards to wherever we buy the house

I would like to overnight in Abbeville if lockdown allows … so cool to park your ‘plane next to a low hedge .. hop over to your room and restaurant….

So .. the moment of truth .. after a couple of tentative attempts at removing the flywheel bolts which were stuck super super fast and hard I felt we were facing the inevitable sheared bolt and then engine out and weeks offline

Mike F .. my long standing engineering guru was practicing removing loctite secured bolts in his workshop and a mate of his popped by and said .. you don’t want to do that … you should use the tool ive just got !

Enter Darryl Morris owner of Morris marine and motors at la Collette St Helier .. with his awesome induction heater

We unwound the entire wire extension lead .. or it melts in a could gooey mess if you leave it wound up ! .. the show head was very precise and could easily be placed on a single flywheel bolt head.

The machine is set to 140′ C and touched onto the head and the button pressed …

20 seconds later we removed the probe and eased the 1/4″ socket Allen and lo and behold we had movement… gently and slowly we eased the first one out to check state of thread and washer

All looked fine … now realise the new bolts are shorter by around 6mm or so … we put the first NEW bolt in place with its new nordloc washer … it stiffened at about 75% in so we withdrew to check..

Looks like it would be wise to tap out the hole once each old bolt is removed..

All bolts slackened in about 10 mins !

Awesome machine .. thanks so much Mike AND Darryl !

An old bolt out … about 6mm longer than the new ones … also you can see the old Loctite on the end threads

it’s going to take a while to get the shaft holes cleaned properly … the hole in the back end of the crankshaft is about twice the depth of the bolt .. but getting the new ones in really tighten early because of the residue on the thread … going to tap gently just to clear half turns at a time of the thread