Got the throttle extender arm delivered yesterday (a snip at just over £48 !) ouch …. but as I hope to be using it on a regular basis ! certainly worth having .. will fit it this weekend to complete that part of the engine connect.

Also ordered a full service set (ready for the first service) all bits on it are unused at the moment… so now have 2 rotor arms, 2 distributor caps, 8 spark plugs and a new inline fuel filter.

New steel braided fuel tubing with slightly larger internal bore on order so hope that arrives by the weekend.

After some very supportive work by Mike to get the steel handles into the allow wing tubes, I cut them to size and re fitted the wing pins and then fitted back into each wing.

Workd on the fitting of the oil cooler intake in readiness for getting this set ahead of any planned engine run.

The aim, I believe, is to get it stuck well and truly into the airflow and get a funnel effect going so that it has a form of ram air cooling.

This fitting will let me mount the cooler upright .. put the oil pipes down vertically into the top (so you dont get air locks) and still keep it reasonably accessible

Update 20 Feb –

Now etched and brackets trimmed a little. This will be bolted on vs riveted on in case I need to remove the entire arrangement.

Having got the first fit of upper and lower cowls .. just leaves a bit of fine tuning to round out any square cut edges so I dont get age fractures at any ‘hard’ corners.

Got a presentation at the Jersey Aero Club tomorrow night so needs to look her best !

Reminds me so much of Thomas the Tank engine characters .. that startled look

Late night last night and finally finished the top cowl …

Big relief not to have cocked this one up !! Still, only 3 bits had to be replaced .. two tubes at around £3 each and this 🙂

Can start to finish off and fill any marks, rub down and then plan to get top painted Drab Olive Green

Bob at Channel Island Aero Services has kindly loaned me with Corrosion X treatment equipment. Consists of a pressurised container and a long steel tube wand with a small brass end with slots that ensure a 360 surface coverage

Set this up last Sunday but just not sufficient oil to get it to work properly but certainly looks like it will do the job easily. Tried to obtain Corrsion X oil locally and no joy so got on the net and luckily got hold of a fantastic chap at http://www.corrosion-x.co.uk called Rob Mugglestone. Within minutes of contacting the very helpful secretary at the firm Rob rang and said he would check Jersey based suppliers and sort something. Rang back at 8pm to say none but he would ship 5 litres in 2 days. Now that is service !

18 Feb – 5 litre bottle duly arrived and cranked up the cylinder to pressure (not sure exactly what it should be so tried 2 bar … then 4 bar) At 4 the trigger press gave me a resonable sprey from part of the 180 degree slits and certainly in the confined space of the mainspar this will coat reasonably well.

Now the aircraft is off the trailer nad sitting ‘properly’ ie on her tail .. after about an hour the wing tip ends started dripping .. so its worked its way through. Useful to spray these as we are in such sea based air around here. Aim to give second coat this weekend and also spray inside the drag spar.

Having already pre cut for the Spitfire variometer .. I will plan to add 4 small corner brackets for an iPad fitting in the front

What a pain .. the adaptor that I bought turned out to be incorrect … looked fine on the internet !

So will try Sky Craft to see if they have the correct part and also the female adaptor for the cylinder head temperature lead.

10 Feb 2015 – Sky Craft have one and are shipping it today. so hopefully a weekend of connecting ?