I wrote to the LAA sometime ago requesting that I be allowed, offering my 80 plus hours in the Stampe SV4 and around 12 on the Chipmunk (ex Air Atlantique – Mike Collette – local Jersey resident)

The LAA quite rightly asked how ‘recent’ my time was and on checking it’s over 7 years ago … I know it all comes back very quickly .. BUT I do t want it coming back during my FIRST take off roll !

I called Paul at TLAC and he kindly arranged for Howard (Barbour) instructor, to sit with me through some circuit bashing. Three dates came and went as the weather earlier this year confounded every attempt. Then, in April we finally cracked it .. The grass strip was waterlogged on the Thursday but dried ok for the Friday BUT we then had around 20m viz and a base of about the same !

On driving up to Little Snoring you just felt it would lift … And sure enough by 10 am it did to reveal lovely fluffy white clouds

Howard kindly let me do it all from the P1 seat and we took off a lovely grass strip in G-TLAC for some initial upper air work. Such a benign stall … Then back into the circuit for some classic lovely tight right base approaches … What an unbelievable wonderful fantastic aircraft this is to fly … You strap the ‘plane onto you ! not you into it ! you just think of the turn and she goes …. My second approach below

The first approach takes your breath away .. Then you get into the groove and happily wing over and roll her out into a very short final .. Flaring out for my second attempt and so so close to 3 pointer … Then I got slightly excited and pushed a little too far forward on lifting the tail on take off .. Howard gently reminded me of the angle I should be looking for …

We had around an hour then landed for a breather then up again … Normal circuits in Jersey involve longish straight in approaches so we tried a couple of those which makes you realise that seeing over the nose is tricky so you side slip … We tried a couple of long  ones of these with a nice little kick straight at the bottom of the roundout …decide I hate long straight in and prefer the much sportier tighter approaches !!

After some amazing approaches Howard ‘kindly’ chopped the engine and said “power failure” .. Cheers mate !!  I hauled her around and kept the nose down to keep the speed up but it was going to be tight …. Landed part on the taxiway and part on the grass strip … Nice and gentle .. Howard advised I could have pulled harder and she would have carried in turning to make the taxiway !

Howard then left but Paul was happy for me to do a few more with my son Sam who quite rightly had a go … Loved the responsiveness !

LAA have indicated that this will be fine for allowing me to test fly her out of Jersey… Happy days

My (probably too) early submission to the LAA noted that they required me to have more recent tail dragger experience before they would approve me test flying my own creation !

I definitely wouldn’t want anyone else test flying her so called Paul (H S) to see what could be worked out.

He kindly contacted Howard Barbour, a local instructor at Little Smoring, and we made several attempts to coordinate with me being in the UK, Howard and G-TLAC being available AND the weather behaving … It was the latter that made us abandon every attempt since the tail end of 2015.

Then we were over for a family get together this week and Thursday saw a very soggy runway being effectively closed. Friday brought about 500m viz but we were all sure it was going to lift and lift it did !

Stunning clear day with just a little crosswind to start with to add to the fun.

Howard kindly said that I should sit in the back from the off and let me have the controls the entire time …

Climb out to around 1,500 for some general handling and turns then back into the circuit for some classic Sherwood approaches .. Real Spitfire stuff .. Absolutely awe inspiring .. This aircraft is simply unbeleiveable .. What a machine … You think .. And she goes exactly where you want her to …

After hundreds of recent hours on Pipers the first approach feels somewhat scary but as long as you keep an eye on the numbers .. Speed, revs and height …. In for a first wheeled landing .. Followed by a near three pointer… Followed by me touching the heel brakes in landing and getting the nose a little low ! Howard quickly picked me up on these things … And also on my take off attitude … Nothing personal ! Just don’t don’t get the nose too low …

Howard was so accommodating and we discussed what might form a typical Jersey runway approach ie straight in which can often happen … So we setup a 2 mile plus straight in and of course had to sideslip pretty much the whole way in so that you could see over the nose … The Sherwood is a breeze to do this and behaves amazingly well.

Prep work as I hope to cover the Port side this week … Wasn’t hey with the original beech ties so new fresh whipping chord and doubled up to be nice and secure …

Also, as the 50+ wind whipped up outside the hangers I brought up all the aileron bolts and hinge joints to the correct setting with my ‘Rigging – De rigging’ checklist !

One thing we did spot on initial testing was very slight seepage from the oil cooler pipes. I put these together with Aeroquip parts and braided cable with jubilee clips tying it all in. Nothing wrong with any of the equipment but probably me being timid about cranking down a chunky jubilee on the nice looking but not too strong alloy Aeroquip fittings.

Found a local guy at the harbour who puts together hoses for all sorts of things … Martin … What a brilliant bloke .. So helpful and diligent

I took my whole setup off the ‘plane in about 10 minutes … Went down to him to discuss and I now have a fantastic pair of braided professionally swaged pipes with the benefit of 45’ fittings for the cooler matrix to allow it to mount flush in its housing.

martin also pressure tested the fittings by filling each tube with oil, blocking the end off and then pumping up to around 500 psi !!  Amazing stuff and the swaging machine looked like something off Thunderbirds !! beats my hand held nico press

Having rigged and de rigged so any times it’s now time to lock down !

Graham kindly loaned me some engineering ‘bibles’ which are timeless in the information they hold .. If only you could instantly absorb all this stuff !

They are laid out so easily with sections on every build or repair that you may ever come across.

The section on how to wire a turnbuckle is really helpful and sounds like it will make a really neat solution

Having had three successful but short engine runs it was disappointing to see that the small smear of oil I noticed just near the base of the oil filler hadn’t disappeared after I had thoroughly cleaned all around it.
This means it can’t just down to a careless dribble whilst topping up ;(

Contacted Jabiru in Australia as, although this is around 6 years old it’s brand new out of the box ! A chap called Michael got back to me and suggested undoing the grub screw that holds the dipstick / fill tube in place and checking it was seated ok …

Oh dear ….

Tube duly removed and yes I can just see the O ring indent about 2mm down from the nicely machined face on the lower sump …. The inlet pipes are just above this so it’s tricky to see too closely but my nail could fit nicely into the machine groove ….. Which of course it SHOULDN’T ! … A rubber O ring should prevent that ! But it’s missing !

That leaves me with the challenge of

A) it’s missing and was never put in … Not good practice .. But better for me … 95p from SkyCraft or

B) it WAS put in but was pushed inside by the tube when fitted ! … So it’s in the sump somewhere

I have mixed feelings ….

I suddenly feel a little more like an engineer as I have looked into a problem and found the actual issue but angry that this is slowing the critical engine testing now ….

Graham from CIAS has a couple of scopes that we will try to see if we can see anything … Have asked SkyCraft if they stock sump gaskets and looking how easy it is to drop the sump … Looks like all the exhaust and inlet manifolds off and then a rectangle of Allen bolts …. May be safer in the long run