Dropped a colleague off in Oxford on Saturday morning – one of those crisp clear Autumn days you seem to get occasionally nowadays !

Viz was great as we climbed out of Jersey and headed for ORTAC then SAM then CPT skirting the Brize zone and into Oxford. My son Sam was along for the company and flying experience which was nice.

Oxford were quite busy with ‘Grand Prix 1’ taking off just before we landed .. love the call sign !

We landed on 01 but weren’t allowed a straight in from the South due to other traffic. Nice tight left turn onto right base then onto finals. Quick ‘show of the face’ to clear customs and landing fee and MORE IMPORTANTLY pick up the 3 sheets of Balsa that my other son Benjamin had left. (£9 for the balsa and £30 to ship to Jersey ! – so had opted to pick it up next time in).

Oxford Ops were there usual brilliant courteous helpful team.

Then back in .. find the Duxford maps in the ‘plane and take off for the 25 min hop to Duxford. Mist had started to settle on this leg which made the sky look amazing even if straight ahead went down to around 5k !

Duxford were fantastic… so so helpful .. we had a ‘plane load of Christmas presents to drop off AND pick up for Jersey and my Dad and Sister had driven over from Cavendish to meet us. Instead of paying the entrance fee for a short pickup Duxford Tower kindly called the gate and said let them through to park near the tower … actually at the foot of the tower !

They then took the trouble to go to the car and suggest they move to the warm room under the tower. They even then asked me to report 5 miles and 2 miles out so they could go down and point out to the West and say ‘There he is” !

Duxford announced “Welcome to Duxford …. continue to the end and taxi to park right in front of the tower where your visitors are ready and waiting”
 

Nipped into Hanger 5 to see what was being worked on … paint job on the F15 makes my decking look tame ! also the split Mustang cradle was neat

The whole departure “service” was repeated on Sunday morning when we left… Sam did the take off from Duxford so he could say he had actually taken off from where Douglas Bader did … grass was a bit wet so we used paved … zero wind and luckily the thick fog lifted just in time

What service …. cant wait to bring the Sherwood into there

The last few rivets went into the fuselage late last night. The cross supports that go over the torque tube .Bit fiddley to get the rivet gun in but all 8 x 2 went in. Then completed the riveting by securing the passenger front bar that suppports the front of the turtledeck .

The duralac just about managed to stay liquid to the final one !

On a roll last night so drilled the holes to locate the airspeed indicator pickup pitot tubes. I purchased the very nicely turned alloy blocks from TLAC to mount these through. My earlier slots cut a few months ago have been filled as they were far too big and looked pretty ugly if i’m honest !

The new holes are still a little tight – but easier to start under and work up. The Pitot tubing will route down the inner for the strut and then be fed into the trailing spar to re-surface at the lower wing rear hing point to then be routed and cable tied to the fuselage frame to the rear of the panel.

The pitot tubes have been left oversized at the moment and require trimming dow, the extended dowel pin in the from of the top tube provides the static block and will be smoothed to bullet shape.

Finally got around to completing these. Each has to be made in situ to ensure a close fit to the 3 posts that provide the wing strut support.

Having cut the primary shape there is a fair bit of filing to ensure a smooth contour around the posts…

The final piece being to pein over the ends and file round any square edges to ensure that you get a smooth finished for the material to drap around.

Just need to double check rivet size and rivet these in place.

Started adding some more pieces to the panel. I don’t want to rush ahead and simply add everything , mainly because I havent got ALL the parts yet ! but also because you need to start thinking things 2 or 3 steps ahead (as always with the build). The placing of all items in the cockpit needs to be planned around the fact that you are probably flying the ‘plane with one hand whilst needing to adjust, flick switches etc with the other.

The Stampe was a lovely ‘plane to fly with its nicely setup and easy to reach controls and the very small radio and dials neatly set out in front of you.

The Chipmunk, with its throttle on the left and flaps on the right means you very soon run out of hands on approach when you are tweaking the throttle back and wanting to select flaps and probably still keep at least one digit on the stick 🙂

So last night, the turn and slip went centre panel. The first few warning lights also started to go in. Some of these will be on quite frequently – I plan to have two for the two stage carburetor heat – pretty moist around here so will probably have at least one on all the time if not two.

I also started to mount the switches for the Carb heat – these going on the lower panel.

This just leaves a suitable location for the related (and other fuses). Holding off on this whilst I plan radio and transponders – not a cheap step !

I was planning on the Icom and perhaps one front one rear but with a fairly limited range (and I do intend to fly to France and UK) I really need something with more grunt and 8.33 Mhz of course.

So it looks like a Trig setup for both radio and transponder. They do offer the significant advantage of a small head mount and a remote location for the box (perhaps behind the pilot seat ?).

Good evening last night when Will came along to drill a larger (12 mm) hole in the bulkhead to get the throttle cable through – cant separate the nuts so need to take those through. And Sam came along to prepare the brackets for another wing tip to get this mounted .. only two more tips and 12 brackets to go

As I was over in the UK seeing my very ill Mum I took the opportunity to run through weight and balance calculations with my Dad. At least I could ask dumb (some really dumb) questions in the privacy of our living room at home in Cavendish, deepest Suffolk .. about how you actaully come up with a C of G when you can’t do what you do with models and supportthe ‘plane on the spar with a finger each side and say .. whooo its tail heavy !!

The brilliant picture above shows how we talked through moments and weights and significant loads … all seemed perfectly understandable at the time .. just need to plan 3 suitable scales to get the basic weights

Another easy one last night .. the engine air filter arrived from LAS, along with the second joystick top.

The joysticks will need reaming out to take the alloy cap that holds the PTT switch.

Started to trim the top cowl and get the basic outline first fit. As the guide from TLAC states – measure 3 times and then cut once.

The dremel came in very handy although with a wrap around mouth guard and protective glasses it all steamed up very quickly which made following the cut guide line quite tricky.

The first fit showed I had a slight varaition on the rear seating omn the top decking. Seconds trim took a couple of mm further off to level that up.

Still a little I’m not happy on so will sand now as the dremel can easily run off meaning a reach for the filler !

The problem I now have is howmuch to take out of the top for the engine cylinder heads that protrude and how much to take fom top and how much from bottom. As the guide say, be prepared to take these off and on many many many times !

Made up another bracket for the choke cable – this will be added to the port side of the cockpit to keep it away from the primary Fuel On/Off valve.

Have opted for a stiff wire cable and run it through the stringer support brackets before drilling through the bulkhead.