Annual .. final bits

The annual is nearly there … a few things came to light that required completion …

Renewing the fin post leading edge had made the upper rear pair of tail bracing wires slightly slack. These can normally be very easily tightened by removing a washer from under the tang… a really clever and simple way of increasing the distance and so tightening up he brace.

The problem was, that I had no remaining washers and so I would either need to re manufacture new slightly shorter cable or, do 2 turns on the cable to tighten … hey presto and even enough to put a washer back under.

We also located some small cuts and one longer 4” cut in the underside. I have no idea how the longer one got there but some of the smaller ones were from protruding edges on the footwells. I’ve now put doubler tape overlaps on these now.

We also found that some of the tape overlays I’d completed last year had not stuck as well as they should. This was probably due to the cold and damp hangar I applied the glue in. Def NOT ideal situations to apply glue.

Re applied sections and new freshly glued edges with a good use of heat gun to warm the entire area.

The final piece was to increase the amount of up and down elevator which was found to be about 2-3 degrees short of full throw. This is achieved by removing the spacer washers from one side of the stop bolt (located at the bottom of the front joystick) to the other side of the bracket.

With 2-3 degrees more up and down I’m going to have to take it steady the first few flights post the annual.