October 2021 – Jersey Sherwood Ranger

Over the years you get lots of little bits that mark the surface or don’t quite look as neat as they used to… one area this affects is the inspection rings I originally fitted some 5 years ago …

Over time one of two of these have started to show signs of movement and that in turn has made them slightly slack and the cycle then continues…

Add to that that I added a new inspection hole under the starboard wing when I was doing the annual but managed to make it a smidgen too large

I taped it up temporarily to fly back to Priory Farm but then decided to make a better cleaner fix

The whole underside of the wing is one continous piece of Oratex material .. as is the upper and each side of the aircraft.. this meant that to take out a full ribs worth I would have to make good a new ‘end point’

This turned out to be more successful than I’d thought… cutting out the now unsightly double holes.. I left a good 2″ inner overlap … then cleaned and removed old oratex edging and covering from any rib lower capping strips

Then glued using hot melt the trimmed the ‘new’ Edge piece and ribs and inner leading edge so that I could return the next day with the iron to secure all existing material … worked a treat

Then offered up my pre shaped full panel rib to rib and leading edge to trailing edge and glued, returned 24 hours later and sealed … almost drum tight even before heat shrinking … just a couple of overlap strips to add and then I can recut and reseal the inspection rings … in a sandwich this time .. to prevent movement.

Also … be nice to get all these small things done so it’s good for the winter season of flying ahead …. Ski gear all unpacked and ready ❤️

Sad day this week … Monday 11th was Dads funeral ..

As Dad was THE one who got me so into all things aviation it seemed a fitting thing to have both a ground and airborne tribute to him …

Positioned the ’plane from Priory Farm to Rougham having emailed fhem a few days ago to request permission to land and then return for the funeral fly by.

The day didnt start well as my Trig radio …. that hadnt missed a beat in 5 years of flying … decided to pop a message saying ”No radio” … i tried the usual off and on and even a quick circuit but no luck … i called the boys to catch them to drop by with the Icom handheld … this didnt work too well on readability at Rougham but got me in

later investigation and , in the fading light, i could see that the second radio head, in the front cockpit wasnt illuminated … traced it to a bad connector that probably got disturbed when i did the annual

Returned a couple of days later and stripped each heat sealed cover and re crimped