Feels a bit odd but as the covering stage begins you have to start dismantling the aircraft that you have taken so long to lovingly put together !

First the rudder came off, keeping all the washers and bits in sequence, in fact I used a very small marker pen to not position and number of washers on the aircraft frame to make re-assembly a bit more positive !

Then, the elevator came off, decided to remove it in one piece for now (so had to take a rigging wire off the tail) as I am getting some photographs taken to see if we can get some wrap to take on top of the Oratex. The guy from a local Company called SignTech was very switched on an enthusiastic about shading the photo so that it will give the impression of the elevator or tail rib standing on top of the covering … hope it works !

Getting all the pieces in the car was fun and now in town for photos.

Tied up the now loose rudder and elevator cables so they won’t trail.

Hasn’t looked rudder and tail less for a long long time !

In preparation for painting I am making sure the front panel cut outs for various gauges is reflected in the top decking. That way the paint doesn’t have to be tampered with once the panel is leather covered and then fitted.

The wing supports are here … great .. means we can crack on and get the trailer tweaked and then off to the paint shop for the body painting.

The wing support dolly’s weigh next to nothing and the carbon fibre wrap support will mean that the wing is really well cushioned during transportation as it spans just over two ribs AND provides leading edge wrap around support

The red end pegs, Kev said, means that I will be able to see from the car if the pegs have moved !

We spent an interesting trial and see exercise with Mike last night and a trolley jack balancing the trailer now the aircraft is pretty much at all up weight (minus covering and fuel). Turns out the axle is pretty much in the right place if we manufacture a tool chest support in the rear of the trailer as that will allow everything I ever needed to stay in situ. Must get some good tool trays and cut out foam packs ordered.

Mike, who has seemingly endless brilliant contacts called me the other day, having seen the ariel location post …. call me now .. was the message ….

Duly called and arranegd to meet Mike and mystery guest at the barn at lunchtime …

Mystery guest turned out to be a very nice chap called Chris who is the wiz at Jersey Airport for all things electronic … well, what he didnt know about groundplanes was definately not worth knowing ….

Both Mike and I had a 45 minute lesson, overview, revelation on what groundplanes are, how they work, how they work better ! and whats more Chris delivered in easy to digest language …

So – Plan 2 –

Scrap the metal bar across the cabin – so two small rivets will be drilled out and then the bar removed. It WILL work and probably absolutely fine around the circuit … but as pretty much every single flight I do involves filling tanks, filing a couple of flight plans and submitting gendecs to whichever police force decide they need them as well as the local authorities … anyway .. suffice to say I need a radio that will still work around 50N as I cross the Channel ….

The new plan is to use the aluminium sheet base plate roll that Chris very kindly provided and cover the entire top of the cabane with it to provide a continuous sheet that effectively maps a circle (the radius of which matches or exceeds the length of the steel whip Ariel.

Chris also provided a link to a PDF that has a whole chapter dedicated to JUST this topic. So the aim will be to lay the alloy sheet and then top it (to create a sandwich and smooth surface for covering) with 1.5mm sheet ply.

Did you know you can calculate the load on an Ariel by using the formula below !

D=0.000327 AV2

(The formula includes a 90 percent reduction factor for the streamline shape of the antenna.)
D is the drag load on the antenna in lbs.
A is the frontal area of the antenna in sq. ft.
V is the VNE of the aircraft in mph.
Example: Antenna manufacturer specification frontal area = 0.135 sq. ft. and VNE of aircraft is 250 mph.
D=0.000327 x .135 x (250)2
=0.000327 x .135 x 62,500
= 2.75 lbs

OK – If the Sherwood is doing 250 mph – the reception of the antenna is pretty academic as I would have already lost all 4 wings !!! 🙂

Been thinking about where best to locate this and almost settled on rear body somewhere with the ground plane bend to the inside curvature of the body when Mike (my wizard engineer) popped around yesterday.

I took the chance to get some other ideas and he suggested on top of the centre section. This could be handy when pulling loops (once LAA approved of course !) as it would give you a nice straight line to line your reference point on 🙂

A quick text to Adrian (my electronics guru, who very kindly answered my Sunday text) as I thought the ground plane may need to be curved but he assured me flat was OK.

Slot cut to accept the ground plane.

Secured with a small rivet and support washer each end.

The plan now is to get some countersunk steel bolts to go through the 3 Ariel mounting holes and into rivnuts so they can be fitted ‘blind’ and also aid any future servicing.

The rake of the Ariel means I will see about 50% of it from the pilot seat I guess.

The TLAC battery support kit supplies all you need to build a neat little very secure battery container. It consists of a few pieces of pre cut pilot drilled alloy which, once folded together and riveted makes a nice tight fit for the battery.

This was my first use of solid rivets but pretty easy to use and quite neat.

I finished the unit off with etch prime then added some thin sticky back flashing material that would further prevent chafing.

Well .. after my low … I managed to get a good long session last night at the barn …

Keith – the barn owner – was superb and helped me get the ‘plane out and completely cleaned down .. ladders, pressure hose jetting of all the little nooks and crannies and then a really good sweep down of the barn.

Then carried on with securing the front lower wood longerons that I had missed from the plan (thanks Danny B for advising !). I used a slightly thicker piece of wood so needed to get some longer rivets and make up the alloy brackets to fit snugly against the inside cheek of the cowl. These will be riveted once all set.

Then moved on to drill the panel positions for the headset sockets (front and rear). Stupidly made the first pairing too close, aesthetically it looked good on the panel BUT I should have realised that the rear fittings on these are relatively large and so should have had a slightly larger gap between them ! No probs, re-drilled and then filled the hole – extra weight saving eh with a drilled panel !!

Anyway, both pairs drilled and fitted. Just need a Trig unit now !

I also got some alloy strip 1m x 35mm x 2mm to act as my Ariel under mount. This will be fitted this week once I decide final resting place for the Ariel… feels likes it’s getting serious now 🙂

All the tail end paint, glue, iron and covering was delivered to my son at Williams yesterday .. just a couple of days too late for me to pick it up following my Oxford puppy pick up on Sunday ! ah well – best laid plans ….

Plan is to now ship this to our London office and I will fly it back next time I’m over. Future ones I may ship through to mainland France and then hop over there to get it. The wonders of living on an island !

This morning – pulled the pitot cable through the drag spar hole I had made.. presenting it forward of the wing joint.

Just checking with SmokinAirplanes to see if I can position the oil valve at the rear (so easy access behind P1 seat) running the oil pipe to the pump mounted at the bulkhead. Scott is great there as he usually gets back in under 24 hours.

TLAC made a superb job of their oil access pop up on G-TLAC and I wasn’t convinced mine would look as neat and, having gone through the pain of over trimming one top cowl, I opted for a slightly different approach.

This involved drilling a pilot hole to check that I was directly over the top of the dip stick and then widen this to take account of the larger diameter alloy petrol cap.

The dremel came into its own as the hole was neatened to accept the fitting.

Although I knew the flat nature of the alloy cap would require a small amount of filler to make up the slope of the cowl it all turned out very well. The filler will be smoothed down to ensure a streamlined finish then paint with the top.

Made up a supporting alloy ring for the underside – The fitting comes with a cork ring but no metal backing as I guess it assumes you are fitting it to a car.

I now simply pull the flap, half turn and out pops the access. Simple and easy to get.

Completed the brackets and support bolts for this.

The bolts fitted are left over from the build but will be changed to slightly shorted ones and also will fit rivnuts as rear access (once covered) wont be quite so easy !

The shelf has been designed to be removable post build in case the tank needs to be removed but also to facilitate regular / scheduled maintenance. The idea being, that you simply remove the two leading bolts and the whole shelf tilts to allow ready access to all tubes, joints, breathers etc

The tank brackets supplied need to be mounted at opposing ends to ensure rigidity. These have pre drilled holes that match the presunken threads in the tank in various locations to provide a variety of securing options.

Looking at the location of the forward bracket I should still have ample room to secure a small alloy lip to allow the Two Trig base units (Radio and Transponder) to sit safely and with easy access behind the seat.