Managed to clip my rear screen with my knee last weekend getting out of the Sherwood to refuel

Called Paul and Ivor on Saturday evening and added a few things to the list that I’ve been meaning to sort … cable .. pegs .. front instrument and repeat radio head for the Trig

Expected I would then plan to sort in a few weeks time …

Paul turns up less 7 days later (at the a Williams open day with us as a thank you for all his sterling support) with absolutely everything .. amazing service and all with such a friendly way

Well done guys and many thanks

One of the slight (hidden) problems of an elongated build profile – mine was around 4 years build due to pressures of work and the like plus a similarly elongated test flying period – min was around 9 months – again mostly due to work and family commitments means that you feel you are always working on the aircraft doing something .. a little tweak here a fix / update there BUT …

… you sort of think you MUST be doing everything that is good and needed … but, as I took the rudder off for its decals I noted that the  bolts (that I visually check EVERY pre flight for security and split pins etc) were very dry

When I put her together they were greased with some special stuff that I gather the US military use … looked great .. didn’t run .. was fine and easy to apply but it looks like the sea air has pretty much completely dried it out .. having only washed the aircraft fully down a few times and it used any harsh solvents I can only put it down to salty air

So – it’s going to be a session when I get back from a short break away slipping every rudder, elevator, aileron bolt out in turn .. cleaning the shaft and then putting longer lasting more resilient film of grease on – maybe coppperslip like I use on the motorbikes

Will create a laminated checklist for weekly, monthly, quarterly routine checks to add a re greasing section in

… until I decided what colour or style would blend in .. nothing too sharp and angled but something that might reflect say a 20’s era

Picked diamonds

A local company (Signcraft) asked for a paper template and I mocked up a diamond design based on a model that TLAC had kindly provided …

slightly enlarged the diamonds as my wife said they would look squitty at a distance !

.. and hey presto .. 72 hours later they had colour matched decals .. paper thin for weight and then added a UV protection film over each diamond ! Amazing quick professional job

Having been asked if I would show the Sherwood at the Jersey Air Display I thought it  would be good to have a pre practice in the general display area

The display team have advised that there is a general practice day the day before ! But as I am a newbie I thought it wise to at least get some orientation in advance

Called up Jersey ATC on a lovely clear Sunday morning and asked for two circuits and then a possibility to run at 700′ between Elizabeth Castle and the Grand Hotel – pseudo display line

The chap queried it but the ATC team granted it straight away – so helpful !

This was also post the first 25 hour oil change on the engine .. kept 100 oil in for now …

The footage below shows some of the tight turns simulating keeping well within any crowd lines and the like

The beauty is the Sherwood turns on a sixpence

Continue reading “Pre display practising” →

Well .. it’s just got to 24 hours engine run time .. a whole ‘day’ of engine running ! And about 18 hours of actual flying

I’m getting comfortable with the engine as I get to know it’s handling .. when something is brand new and you have no experience of it you vary between instinctive confidence – IE it’s brand new so what can possibly go wrong to an element of mistrust – cos it’s brand new ! And lots can go wrong with it !

You end up .. hopefully with a healthy mis of BOTH and so each flight you learn and pick up the sounds and handling bits

Last Sunday I flew her around the island for 58 minutes .. mostly over a beautiful blue but deep sea .. still focuses the mind and ears on all those noises .. and she sounded fantastic .. didn’t miss a beat

Anyway … time to change the tyres .. I’ve been running them at a low pressure to prevent too much bounce on the tarmac at Jersey – so about 10-12 psi – they do slow me down quite quickly on the surface but it’s all becoming reasonably predictable

Getting the tyre off however wasn’t !

I thought it would be a quick job having watched my sons factory (Williams F1) do 4 in 2.1 seconds last week !

After 2 hours of sweating and heaving using a proper tyre remover kindly leant by CIAS it still refused to pop off the bead at the hub

After cutting it off and eventually cutting the rim wires it parted company

I realised afterwards it was the first thing I did over 4 years ago so they have probably age hardened AND I didn’t use talc or anything when putting them on ! Now rectified

I had left the rudder and fin plain or is that ‘plane’ yellow on the basis that I wanted to settle on a design once I had got used to how she looked

Im quite happy with the nose colour and lines as this had the effect of making her look quite sleek at the front .. but the mass of yellow at the back could lend itself to some sort of rudder or fin design

Remebering the old biplane decor applied back in the 20’s where you had ‘art’ of some form either on the rear fuselage or on the tail I opted for a tail pattern

A call to Paul HS and he kindly cut a template to my draft on PowerPoint !

Just trialling on a test panel I have made up before committing to full rudder job

Thanks

I had the pleasure a couple of weeks ago of popping over to the UK in the car with my wife … This time on the overnight boat .. This takes a snip at around 11 hours from Jersey to Portsmouth ! But pretty much always runs come rain or shine or gales or whatever

Paul HS had kindly put my in contact with another builder during my ‘hot oil’ period and it was this chap along with another in Holland who kindly sent me pictures of intakes and oil cooler sizes that delivered the knowledge I needed to fix the problem

Charles (Blount) is a fantastic character and kindly arranged to meet up with us at a very small grass strip just North of Andover.

G-YELP has flown many more hours than mine so it’s good to share experiences and ideas on little tweaks that have been made.

I particularly liked the fitting of the top wing roots to the wing vs fitting them to the cabane .. I had found that mine were catching as the wing swung through its arc to seat and this easy change means there won’t be that catch .. And it looks like I can trim down the width as well using this method which I think will be neater .. I will add pictures later when I have switched their fittings

Charles had also put a small rubber edge on the lower wing fittings to soften the joint between alloy edged root and the side covering of the body… Will get on line and source some of that.

Charles cockpit seemed much roomier but I think that’s because his panel is the square type which gives much better leg access .. Mine is still very F1 type access and I was watching last weeks F1 from Azerbaijan where the drivers support their upper half whilst sliding their legs in then bum down but have to raise both arms skyward to then bring them down into the the cockpit 😄

I also spotted a 12v socket mounted on the left with wires running under the seat … Under and rear seat back heating ! How ‘cool’ is that ! !

We had  great chat about loads of other bits before departing … Many thanks Charles and look forward to flying mine over sometime