Finally after weeks and weeks of rain we get some sunshine … only to be replaced by a stinking crosswind 😔
Even getting up to the strip early and the wind was already up to 12 from the East .. 90’ off runway heading … first circuit Northerly and coming in over the houses and trees made for some lively turbulence .. so switched to Southerly runway .. much better ..but wind now picking up .. so 4 landings was good to keep the hand in and get the oil moving in the engine …and the blood moving in me ❤️
Popped up to Priory one day last year to tweak a bit on the aircraft .. and all this was going on .. a large balloon being test inflated with a lovely local Stearman behind …
We have some exciting events planned for this year .. including the hugely successful Fathers Day event ..over 100 movements on the day last year
Continuing with the prep work for the new panel as the downpours of recent weeks have waterlogged the runway so temporarily grounded
All the holes have been realigned and drilled and smoothed but .. the MGL instruments are fractionally larger than the standard hole.. so each needed teasing out.
The Trigs .. which haven’t been out of my original panel in 8 years were removed in turn to allow an accurate new hole alignment in the new panel.
Having drilled standard circular holes .. I realised my original were the flat top and bottomed version that Trig offer. This meant that I needed to use the original crescent cheek brackets that make up the full circle.
I had one pair but needed 2 .. Algy another local Kub pilot very kindly gave me his as he had mounted his without.
Just need to complete the black paint prep before the big switchover
Its really handy being based at such a busy small strip like Priory Farm as many people pop by and we have a wealth of great knowledge across all sorts or skills around light aircraft.
One such ‘pop in’ is Clive who has great experience of Jabirus and spotted that one of my cooling ducts had a gap at the back that you could just squeeze your fingers through.
This would mean that the air, being squeezed through the front cowl ducts would effectively whizz through..and, having got a ‘shiny’ new multiple 4 way CHT monitor .. I can see that Rear Left Cylinder Head (number 4) is running colder that the others
Clive.. very kindly said he would drop some heat resistant padding next time he was passing .. fast forward to last weekend and in zooms a lovely slick RV .. and touches down at Priory .. out steps Clive with 4 pieces of this rubber of varying sizes! What a gentleman !
Duly secured .. will monitor the difference before adding more… small steps and check each step 😉
So ..you know that time .. when the kids say .. can I borrow the car ..and your 1st and 2nd thought is Nooooo .. then you think ok .. but don’t go far .. let me know when you get there… pull over if it gets too hard …
.. Brown house .. can I borrow the ‘plane … 2nd solo flight in it for Will Brown .. 1 hour 45 later .. after travelling around East Anglia … ❤️
Not really heard it from the ground… sounds quite nice 👍
Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th January saw a great fly out to Norwich airport and a visit of the Air Traffic Control centre there .
Norwich Aviation Centre had worked with the Priory Farm group to arrange 2 groups of 5-6 light aircraft to fly the short hop North and land at Norwich. Rob from NAC had managed all the planning on the meet and greet..making it super easy for us visiting aircraft to land, and be marshalled safely to the light aircraft parking and then through the security gate to NAC offices for a nice warming coffee ..it WAS a cold day .. especially in an open topped aircraft .. I had 6 layers on top that day !
Ian McDowell had very kindly arranged to handle 2 sets of visitors to the excellent tower facilities where we had a chance to meet and chat with the voices behind the radio calls we often make in the region.
Being a fully active airfield ..vs a small grass strip made for some different approaches and procedures but all went off very well.
Short video of me landing long … at over 1,800m there was no point in landing on the piano keys to vacate at the far end … the hold off was quite interesting for about 1/2 mile before chopping the throttle to land and pull off at Delta
It’s been a busy time with work and also a lot going on around home so great to finally get signoff from the annual anda short flight back to base.
With some fresh locking wire on the turnbuckles … James not liking my slightly’limp’ efforts … it’s time to see if the batteries are still up to giving a good start …
Started first couple of turns and settled into a nice rhythmic hum in the ever cooling (and darkening !) Norfolk skyline
The departure had been slightly delayed by getting 4 other aircraft out of the hangar.. and then carefully putting them back .. thanks Will for the hand 😊
The wind looked to be picking up its strength from the South meaning a headwind all the way home .. also, with a mainly E, W runway .. it was going to be a pain to taxy all the way down to the upwind end, backtrack and then line up. The taxiway is pretty short but has the advantage of a tree line on the S side so slightly sheltering the breeze.
Oil up to 48 so started to pull forward past the line of parked cars and then brake .. final check of wind, oil 50, into wind aileron and full power .. tail up almost immediately, followed by main .. always a joy to open up post some down time … just past the sheltering tree line before crabbing to take account of the side breeze … and climb away.
Settling into the now well setting sun at around 1200’ to maintain a listening watch on Norwich and spot that the ground speed is a mere 42 ! Windier than I thought
Decided not to thrash her but just cruise at 12-1500’ at 2,700 RPM … and feel glad I’ve started wearing gloves ❤️👏
Overhead turn back at Priory to check field condition as so waterlogged in surrounding fields … happy with the descending right turn and power coming back all the way to an almost 3 pointer in a quite dark, soft, strip …
The annual is nearly there … a few things came to light that required completion …
Renewing the fin post leading edge had made the upper rear pair of tail bracing wires slightly slack. These can normally be very easily tightened by removing a washer from under the tang… a really clever and simple way of increasing the distance and so tightening up he brace.
The problem was, that I had no remaining washers and so I would either need to re manufacture new slightly shorter cable or, do 2 turns on the cable to tighten … hey presto and even enough to put a washer back under.
We also located some small cuts and one longer 4” cut in the underside. I have no idea how the longer one got there but some of the smaller ones were from protruding edges on the footwells. I’ve now put doubler tape overlaps on these now.
We also found that some of the tape overlays I’d completed last year had not stuck as well as they should. This was probably due to the cold and damp hangar I applied the glue in. Def NOT ideal situations to apply glue.
Re applied sections and new freshly glued edges with a good use of heat gun to warm the entire area.
The final piece was to increase the amount of up and down elevator which was found to be about 2-3 degrees short of full throw. This is achieved by removing the spacer washers from one side of the stop bolt (located at the bottom of the front joystick) to the other side of the bracket.
With 2-3 degrees more up and down I’m going to have to take it steady the first few flights post the annual.
Just checked and its over 8 years ago when I first glued the fin and turtle deck covering on… not an easy task as it was 1 long piece per side.
My old post shows the details and (quite handily) the exact temperatures I used at the time.
I wasn’t expecting to undo it … ever .. but, needs must and with some judicious use of the heat gun and easing it off at around 160′ to remove the top pinked doubler strip
Then, similarly ease the overlaps off that were put on so long ago ..
Once the rib had been replaced I cleaned down the previously glued areas of overlap and applied fresh hotmelt glue
Some of the overlap had doubled over at the edge and stuck fast so trimmed a couple of mm off to neaten the edge.
Then, using the heat gun, heat the material overlap and new fin glue edge and press down with the heat matting.. making sure I was pulling it as taught as I could.
The bond was super strong.. and the remainder of the fin started to tighten.
I then left it to cool … overheating at this stage could pull the ‘just bonded’ overlaps.
Pleasantly surprised that the Oratex was so forgiving to a fairly major movement and return !
It’s always good to get the annual test done and dusted but it’s also a time where things might crop up .. it might be recent or it might not …
A few things came up and one particular one was a bit of a pain ..
A while back I wanted to fit a go pro mount and had seen some really good ‘tail looking forward footage.. so drilled a mount and all was well
Unfortunately this is a ‘non standard’ mod so I can either somehow do all the official stress test analysis and load testing and submit to the LAA for approval or … remove and replace it !
As approvals are not the fastest thing to go for I opted to remove and replace the single bar fin leading edge
I’ve not undone the Oratex much before and it was stuck like rock .. judicial use of the heat gun to remove the wide pinked cut band overlay and then start to get the edge of the material loose
An earlier post in this blog shows how I feathered the overlap on each side of the fin to ease the complex curves .. this all needed releasing now
All the time I was thinking I didn’t want to over stress the removal as I was intending to put it back and re tape the join cover
The factory had the replacement material in stock but NOT a trimmed and pilot holed part.
TLACs Emma raised a works order for part T53 .. the final leading edge and 20 minutes later I was in front of the cutting tool with the amazing Chris
Part duly cut .. 2 pilot holes .. and lined up in the now open fin area.. clecos applied and drill through the 6 x M62 large rivets and 6 M41s
Just need to get the 2 new lower brackets paired and shaped and aligned for pilot hole marking and drilling
Jersey Sherwood Ranger 