| day |
notes |
hours |
| 5 |
Peel off peel-ply from inside bottom skin repair on starboard wing. Clamp ali angle onto wing TE, support with adjustable stand to ensure good contact along length, and bond in aileron horn boxes with Redux. |
618.2 |
| 7 |
At Staverton PFA* Roadshow, John Scott mentions that he has fitted taper pins to several Europa torque tubes and that he has the appropriate taper reamer available for loan. He says the pins are available from a supplier near Shoreham whose name he can't remember. Occurs to me afterwards that if the bigger parallel pins are already fitted, taper pins may not be an option. Must ask Keith & Vanessa Summerhill what they did.
* The Popular Flying Association (PFA) became the
Light Aircraft Association
(LAA) on 2008-01-01.
|
|
| 8 |
Drill out both OR1s to letter W size (3/8" was just not big enough and the next size up U (0.377") drill in my el-cheapo set was bent!) Cut stainless steel tube to length and Redux in place. Clamp small pieces of MDF each side with polyethylene sheet interposed, to keep tubes flush with faces of OR1s. |
619.4 |
| 9 |
Unclamp the MDF from the OR1s and put them in the oven for 1 hour at 120C to get full cure. Assemble W21, OR6, OR7 to check spacing. Cut 2 pieces of 4130 tube slightly oversize and face to correct length (38.1mm) in lathe. Drill out AN970-3 washers to 1/4" in the lathe. Can't get 3/8" drill in tailstock chuck so drill out FL11 washers on pillar drill. Need to enlarge again to letter O as wouldn't go onto 4130 tube at first. Mark out, drill and tap OR1s for grease nipples. At Gloster Strut, check with Robin Morton about adaptors for horizon gyro. It's marked "use parallel thread fittings only" but Robin says these are virtually unobtainable (pretty much what I had worked out myself) and it's OK to use tapered pipe thread items as long as you don't force them. He says the item I need is AN840-6D; aluminium 1/4" NPT thread with nipple for 3/8" ID hose. |
621.8 |
| 10 |
Jeremy Davey e-mails to say he's collecting a big order from Aircraft Spruce in Seattle and inviting others to add to it. |
|
| 11 |
 Check Aircraft Spruce catalogue for things wanted. Would like to get a rigid right-angle drill as Harry's snake was a bit of a handful. Check with Aircraft Spruce that the drill head on the cheaper one is small enough to do the W18 holes 13mm from the surface; they say it's 7/8" dia so that is fine. Ask Jeremy to add the AN840-6Ds, a Nicopress go-nogo gauge and a right-angle drill adaptor kit to his order. Find a suitable offcut of aluminium bar and make a split collet to hold FL11 nylon washers. Face 2 of them off to about 1.15mm thick, and that is about perfect when OR1 assembled to W21. Alone, OR1 has enough drag from the washers to not quite move under gravity, but when the OR2/OR3 assembly is added, it works very freely and feels perfect. Check operation of grease nipple with grease-gun, then dis-assemble and degrease to put some Loctite on the grease nipple threads for security. |
624.5 |
| 12 |
Phone Neville at the factory to check about a letter of no technical objection for the tiedown mod. He says they have their own ideas about that and propose a more elegant method using a plate bonded to the spar (thus no chordwise torque) having a tapped hole that an eyebolt screws into (thus nothing hanging out when not in use). Phone David Schofield about gas springs and eventually reach Carol Tompkinson of Draco (Bidford). She takes some details, says they are about £35 each depending on spec, and promises Ian will ring back Monday to discuss. |
|
| 13 |
Tidy up loose parts. Unclamp TE and check aileron travel. Up = +17.0 degrees, neutral = -7.7, down = -34.0, ie 24.7 up & 26.3 down. Up travel required is 25 so if that is correct, the down travel is 26 - well beyond the 22 required. Print instrument sub-panel with all hole centres. Mark out all remaining holes on ali from that, centre-pop and drill 3/32". Holesaw other 5 instrument holes. Fretsaw altimeter & VSI cutouts & file to shape. Offer up instruments and adjust hole sizes as needed. Horizon lower right needs to be a slot as it's not on same PCD as others.
Fit all instruments
and photograph. |
630.8 |
| 15 |
Get out port aileron. 5-minute epoxy lead to horns. Go to Kemble and measure rudder horn & hinge positions on all available Europas with pushrod operated rudders (G-TERN, G-BVVP, G-RICS, G-SYCO). Cut back peel-ply for UNI on port aileron horns. Check UNI already marked out and ready for use. |
631.7 |
| 16 |
Abrade aileron skins top & bottom. Mix 4 strokes epoxy. Decant off about 1 for micro. Wet out and cut UNI to graduated lengths on pre-marked polyethylene sheet. Mix micro slurry. Add more for dry micro and fill top of outboard foam & lead where needed. Drape on layups and peel-ply. Check dimensions of Graham Singleton rudder bellcrank and rivet on BC4W10 bellcrank bearing, using spare AN470-AD4-7 rivets from stock - the AN470-AD4-9 ones Graham supplied were too long. Phone Draco about gas springs. |
635.3 |
| 17 |
Work out rudder bellcrank angles and resultant rudder travel. Harry Hopkins comes to burn disc and brings some anti-tamper lacquer as a gift for my time. |
|
| 26 |
Clean brushes that have been sitting around in vinegar for ages. Remove peel-ply from port aileron horn UNI layups. Cut out flox corners on foam and lead (total 15.2g lead removed). File accumulated samples. Cut 8 off BID 200mm x 50mm from scraps in glass cupboard. Mix 4 strokes epoxy and divide to make micro slurry (hardly needed) and flox. Mix 3 strokes epoxy, apply BID and wet out. Peel-ply. Leave to cure with climate at 23C, 53% RH. |
641.1 |
| 27 |
22C, 42% RH; leave heat on as epoxy in samples seems a bit flexible still - skin on insides of mixing cup bends rather than breaks. Remove peel-ply from BID on horns. Discover (rather late) that getting the peel-ply out of the LE flange vee is helped by carefully easing a scalpel down the side, rather than a blunt tool such as a mixing stick. Make up a test mix of 1 stroke epoxy and spread on BID scraps to check curing. Check rudder pushrod deflection with thinner sleeves on stop bolts - looks perfect. Check CS29 vertical location again, comparing all measured aircraft. Cut rudder LE with hacksaw and carve foam with Dremel. Eventually decide I've gone too far and stick in some foam scraps to restore correct profile. Put anti-tamper lacquer on aileron bellcrank bracket nuts. |
645.8 |
| 28 |
Reply to Jim Butcher's query on CS29 positioning with comments about my own measurements and calculations on rudder throw. |
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