Managed to get a long overdue Washford today… lots of fresh water and leathered down.

Even went as far as to slot the leather between the aileron leading edge and its frise fitting …

Also lying on your back is a good time to really check all hinges and joints very closely

Another by product of having a smoke system is you get to see, first hand, exactly where your exhaust goes ….

Turns out .. my 2 small slits around the undercarriage legs let wind, exhaust etc into the cockpit areas … ok it’s open topped and whizzes straight through BUT .. not great ….

When smoking … and pulling up in a stall .. like most flights …! The cockpit gets smoke coming through ..

Solution … two small leather patches glued around the gap to make a seal and also look traditional with pinked edges

After 3 years plus of flying in various forms of footwear … i try to use soft soled shoes so you can feel the rudders better … but have sometimes flown in boots ..ive managed to loosen the wooden block that supports the left rudder bar and lets it slide smoothly over the alloy footplate.

Its glued in and I wasn’t convinced it would last but it has stood up to some hefty footwork well …

May get a new fresh softwood block made up and glue and screw fix into position

I was putting the aircraft registration into Google the other evening and found a load of random shots .. some mine but many weren’t… really nice photos that people had taken

Whilst awaiting the return of my leg with a new rubber bungee it’s good to take the time to get the bugs out from inside the wing and grease up parts.

The wing inspection panels come off in about 2 mins and you can then get to the lower aileron bell crank (the bit of metal that turns the latitudinal push pull into a longitudinal push pull and makes the ailerons bank the aircraft so smoothly)

Also .. to get all the old grease removed from the wing and rudder hinges .. cleaned down and fresh grease applied

So … the ongoing checks of my bungee that slipped off …

It turns out that, having sent the whole leg back to the factory, they have checked against a brand new bungee rubber … and ..

The effect of getting soaked in baby oil is that the rubbers have expanded … each strand is now fatter and longer !

The net effect is it simply had room to move …

I’m now going to condemn the other main gear bungee and work out a design to effectively seal the bungee from any moisture ingress but also allow movement

I will also do the same on the tailwheel bungee

No fault of design but a secondary effect of excess lubrication smearing means that the bungees have got a little moist EVEN though they are wrapped in nice leather boots

The net effect was that a bungee slipped over a bobbin and let the leg go slack .. well as far as the bolt stop point..

I created a temporary splint as I didn’t trust leaving the aircraft on a jack and axle stand EVEN with a ratchet strap between the two wheels

This will be really handy in future maintenance