Will started his PPL just after we moved back to the U.K. and rattled through it … far quicker than I did all those years ago when juggling a small family .. a new (very old 1642) house and commuting from Suffolk to London every day on a motorbike, train and walk … the reverse each evening.

If the weather was good at the weekend .. I was lucky … if not … I’d just moan and do stuff around the house ticking off a never ending list of things that you have to do to old houses !

Fast forward … and back in the U.K. and one of the ‘babies’ now WhatsApp’s me at 5pm when he leaves work and states …”Meet you at the strip for circuits then ?”

I remember that, just before I went away for the weekend (a trial 3 day campervan excursion to sunny – and wet – Shropshire) I’d completed an oil change after just 4.5 hours of flying with the new engine… and left the cowls off (deliberately) to remind me to check levels and leaks before the next flight.

Nipped up to Priory Farm strip and checked levels .. all good to go .. so popped the cowls on and opened the hangar doors. I’m really fortunate here in that I’m either right behind the doors or next one in … and both are easy to pull out (compared to the Cirrus, PA32 and surprisingly heavy Cub I used to have to shift in Jersey before wheeling mine out)

Tonight, I’m pole position … so open the doors and she is already facing 01 … runway heading 01 😊 there’s a smidgen of a tailwind but, even with full fuel and a not so light pax load ..we should be off by half way

No sign of son, so walk around check and strap in … then startup to get her warm as it’s cooling now as the sun sets towards Old Buckenham

The new gauges really do show up in this light and all CHTs are reading sensible values around 14 and spring to life as the engine bursts into life first turn of the prop .. those 2 inline batteries put in 7 years ago really don’t miss a beat.

Will turns up smack on the oil temp reaching 50’ ..how does he do it ! … comes over and clambers in .. the slightly non standard way …goes to ease himself in but then pushes backward with his bum a shade too early … crack … the ply seat back cracks slightly but the 2 stiffener bars (running vertically) are fine .. just break the original glue joint that has lasted 7 years !

We shut down to check status and it’s not going anywhere with braces and his back supported on coving ..and it’s an easy fix which we both agreed could be done in situ .. probably using the super strong glue vs the epoxy I used originally

The slight downwind departure is off at about 50% of the way down the grass strip into pretty still cool air … handing over control to Will .. that’s my flying for the evening … we climb fully laden and, in these conditions, it ain’t sparkling but we circle up to around 1,100’ then idle large circle back to pick up an approach

The first approach is ok but a bit rapid as I don’t want him to get caught in any sink over the hangars … the second is way way too high but I leave him to realise .. which he does … so he sticks in a load of slide slip to try to recover to a more reasonable approach path … we duly arrive over the house, trees and hangar at around 73 KTS ..about 84 mph in old money

I suggest we make this one a fly by … so he goes for full burn up of the field (at about 10′) and pull up and away to the left (Priory has a preferred dog leg departure to avoid farms and houses)

He settles the next downwind way better … turns base and eases the the throttle back ..the height is much better .. again a slight dog leg to avoid some noise sensitive houses .. nice side slip to get her onto final and a lovely greaser

We pull away .. firewalling the throttle is giving us about 3,290 .. a smidgen short of the listed 3,300 the Jabiru manual lists .. i have my colour RPM guages going from Green to Yellow at 2,900 (to visually remind me if I leave it too fast in the crhise) and then Yellow to Red at 3,100

We make this the last landing and pull around in a large easy teardrop back to land on the Southerly direction which means we roll out at the end at the hangar doors for a shutdown… its pretty dusky now as the engine ticks down .. lift the tail and pull her in in about 20 seconds

This ‘training’ lark is quite exhausting but lovely when you get results

Back safe and warm in the hangar … seat back will be glued and clamped tomorrow …

Engine refit and rewire all complete and signed off today and first test flight

I don’t often fly in just shorts ..but it was around 30 degrees ..very close and hot … engine was already warm from a ground run .. so oil temp was already up to 50 in no time …

10 mins from startup .. to taxi out ..take off .. a couple of orbits and back to land ..admittedly a little too fast .. (you can see her skip up slightly) ..but first biplane landing in some months

Great news is that the new colour gauge is reading perfectly

I’ve configured it so that , instead of split 2 x EGT and 2 x CHT.. I’ve got all 4 x CHT on this gauge reading vertically .. much easier to glance

The old MGL multi gauge now has 4 x EGT reading concurrently

I think this was from around the 2017 Jersey air Display … the pre practice for the display was on the Wednesday and it was pretty awful weather … low cloud and rain persisted most of the morning .. so getting up in the Sherwood to do my approval runs was going to be fun..

Eventually got airborne and managed to get about 5 minutes of 250’ passes in front of the Squadron Leader checking and approving displays ahead of the Thursday display

Pulled out of the display box as the base came down to around 600’ ..but areas were starting to look like 500’ which would make it below IMC limits

Just as I completed the downwind leg I was told to hold at Corbiere (lighthouse) .. at least the runway threshold was (mostly) visible from there … if not .. the beach was an easy ‘base leg’ visual

Then .. the reason for the hold became obvious … “Red 1…clear to land .. runway 08 … wet wet wet … “ … oh dear .. I was going to probably be no 11 to land !

As it was pretty claggy all around the CI zone the Reds were coming in in 2’s and 3’s anyway …. So … mid group .. I was cleared to roll out .. having now got pretty wet in the open cockpit .. to land after the first wave

‘Nipped’ to final … mustering my full 60 or so against the wind and drizzle …and flared out to touch part way down the runway for a quick turn off vs a long slow (wet) taxy

The first wave of Reds were taxying back up from the end to park around at Gama aviation on the South side of the airfield and one of them said … “is that a Ranger I see just taxying in?” … Wow … a Red actually not only talking to me BUT recognises the type …

It turned out to be the one and only Mike Ling .. probably one of the most prolific Red pilots in terms of tours

It’s traditional the evening after the flying display on the Thursday to have a meeting of support teams, groups and pilots at the Governors house in town .. and Mike was very kind to have a long chat about the home built and say just how much the whole team are interested in all types of aviation

Now the engine is back and running beautifully I’ve run into some annoying snags related to the wiring ..

The majority of the working was prepared and fitted around 7 years ago … it consisted of a number of looms with the bizarre but obligatory all white cabling … for every single device !

Slightly bucking the trend of aviation wiring I made a few of the connections colour coded .. so Red for power, Black for earth ..so, at a glance you pretty much knew what a wire was serving … then added the odd colour into the predominantly white looms. Yellow was oil pressure, Orange was oil temp, RPM was Blue….

The 3 looms were to provide a degree of separation for the primary engine monitoring instruments …. The mags … and the radio, the aim being to keep any ‘noise’ (a black art in itself) away from things like radio

Due to the very small panel space of the Ranger, I opted for a number of 2 1/4” dials, the main one being the engine monitor … serving up 2 x CHT, 2 x EGT, Oil pressure, Oil Temp and RPM as well as Hobbs.

This unit has 2 D plugs in the back …and even the instruction manual says you ‘may’ be provided with a male or female D Plug for the Thermocouples … the manual is also pretty unclear as to which way you are looking at the numbered pins … so is it Male or Female .. and is it viewed from the plug as you hold it in your hand ‘facing you’ or .. even more bizarrely … with the plug covers off .. facing away .. as if you were soldering the plug together !

Anyway, having had the engine in and out more than a few times over recent months AND taken the opportunity to rip out the old connector block .. that worked fine…just looked like the B and Q part it was ! .. I’ve got a misreading CHT and EGT a and going round and around to try to resolve the issue

Having roped in 2 sons to run through my recursive sequence and confirm I’m not going mad …. We have asked another friend to give his input …

Having reviewed and removed the question arises of WHY did I put quite so many handshake connectors in ! I loved the flexibility doing this on first fit .. being easily able to connect and disconnect things BUT … for each thermocouple and each earth and each live and each oil and pressure sensors … I have multiple ‘interrupts’ in the supply lead

Each of these points, over time, can become a bad joint … can get corrosion … suffer from my initial bad crimping (documented elsewhere .. using the wrong tool) … or just simple not like being pulled apart after years … I think st this latter part that has UPSET things the most !

Looking to simplify this setup … I’ve worked out that from PiN D plug to thermocouple end point … my ‘current’ setup has joints, as follows , PIN, a handshake at around 10” .. so 2 joints, a Ring connector at the firewall side connecter block - so 2 joints, and now, double ALL that for the positive and the negative ..so 10 connection point’s in all …. NOW plan is to reduce to 2 !

Now, extrapolate that up … 4 thermocouples … 40 connection points, reduced to 8 … will now slowly work back through the system to refresh AND reduce the connections