Europa #435 G-RODO Build Journal - 2023 03
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Europa #435 G-RODO Build Journal - 2023 03 |
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Navigation & Acknowledgements |
| day | notes | hours |
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| 2 | Nothing further from Europa Aircraft so send a reminder e-mail. No response by close of play today. Post a message on the Europa Club WhatsApp group asking if anyone might have some spare OR9 lying around. | |
| 3 | Frank Xuereb on WhatsApp offers me some OR9 spacers and reports them posted today! | |
| 4 | 2-off OR9 received from Frank Xuereb. Still no response from Europa factory! Message received from Mike Gregory about the angle of my exhaust tailpipe being potentially dangerous (overheating fuselage skin, and directing CO to cockpit). Reply with pictures from my edition of the build manual indicating that I followed what little advice there was. Copy reply to Andy Draper at LAA Engineering for comment. Rick Moss on the Europa Club WhatsApp group offers to 3-D print shoot-bolt stops from a better material than those supplied by LAA Engineering. Despite having just installed my originals, request a set (as insurance in case mine suffer the break-up observed by others). |
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| 6 | Andy Draper replies to my message about the exhaust tailpipe angle. Apparently my installation may be OK, but angling the outlet further downwards could be a good idea. Andy advises the need for a self-tapping screw through tailpipe and silencer outlet to prevent rotation of the tailpipe, and a separate clamp on the joint to retain said screw - this is all news to me! Andy also says the CO detector would be better placed on the overhead panel (nearer to where people are breathing), but Mike Gregory cites research supporting a panel location. Reply to Andy & Mike with thanks for advice. | |
| 7 | With pipe pliers, squeeze the DL09 spring on the starboard DL05 guide and hold the pliers in place with mole grips. Tie 60 lb nylon line around the spring to keep it compressed and make it easy to fit onto the stud on the DL02 plate. Fit OR9 to stud. Position DL05 on stud and fit MS21042-3 stiffnut. Fit the temporary bush, screw, washers and Nyloc nut to hold DL03 inner handle in place. Offer up one EURO07 roll pin to a pushrod but can't easily hold it and push it in. On the lathe, turn down about 6mm of a short length of 4mm round steel bar to fit into the roll pin. That makes it much easier to position, but still can't apply enough pressure to insert the roll pin while sitting in the cockpit. Remove door and now have better access. Hold the positioning tool in the Mole grips and use it to start the roll pin in one pushrod. Once started, tap it home using the positioning tool and a 4oz tack hammer. Repeat for 2nd roll pin. Cut off the nylon line from the spring. Operation looks firm and crisp. Fit guard plate. Unlock trailer and about to drop tailgate when I notice that the aft end of the starboard gas spring is lying on the ground under the bracket. It looks as though the bracket would foul the gas spring if I try to open the tailgate. Undo the stiffnut on the bracket and the broken part of the gas spring drops out, but can't get the bolts out of the aluminium spacers which centre the gas spring in the bracket. Lower the hitching jack to raise the tail of the trailer slightly for access underneath. Undo, without too much difficulty, the 13mm AF nut & bolt from the forward end of the gas spring and remove the gas spring. Now safe to open the tailgate, which is noticeably heavier than usual as it gets near the ground. Take storage boxes and lower cowl out of trailer for access. Take out windscreen and position on fuselage aperture. Take starboard door from garage to trailer. Lay it on the floor, covered by the polyethylene sheet that the door glazing came in, for protection from condensation drips and spider droppings etc. Take windscreen off again. Roll fuselage out onto drive. Remove port door and repeat installation of mechanism as for starboard. Store port door in trailer, covered with polyethylene. Close up trailer (with considerable effort to lift the tailgate, now that only 1 gas spring is operating). Roll fuselage back into garage. |
3722.8 |
| 8 | Phone Draco (01789 490030) to see if they can either fix the broken eye or supply a replacement gas spring for the trailer tailgate. No answer so leave a message. Get suitable stainless hose clips and self-tappers for securing the exhaust outlet pipe to the silencer, as advised by Andy Draper. |
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| 10 | Shoot-bolt stops from Rick Moss delivered today. Store in bottom drawer of the electrical terminations drawer unit. | |
| 20 | Try again to phone Draco; the person answering has not heard of the Tompkinsons nor of Draco so I guess the firm must have disappeared. Do some online research for other suppliers and try the configuration tool on the gasspringshop.co.uk website. Cannot make up the required 864mm length between fixings with the M8 eye end fittings, so phone their customer service and discuss possibilities. A custom spring would be quite expensive and would take several weeks notice. However, they suggest using a different end fitting (such as M10 fork instead of M8 eye) to get nearer the required length. Thinking on, realise that I may be able to replace the broken end fitting on the existing gas spring rather than buying a new one. The casing end fitting unscrews quite readily revealing a male M10 thread but the one on the rod end is reluctant to budge. | |
| 21 | Grip the rod of the gas spring in the aluminium soft jaws of the bench vise and manage to unscrew the end fitting. Think more about how to get the right length with various combinations of end fittings. Consider using the existing eye (34mm extension) and turning 6mm off the end of the M10 fork (40mm extension) for the other end to make it 34mm, but that might not leave enough meat on the fitting. Then the obvious answer occurs - add a 1mm washer under the M10 fork to make 41mm extension and use a new M8 eye (27mm extension) at the other end for a total of 68mm. Order 2 each of the M8 eyes and M10 forks from gasspringshop.co.uk. Order a new registration plate for the trailer from Karparts. Check cost of making up cushion covers. I think I will need 6-off cushions about 500mm square and 100mm - 150mm deep. A local firm quotes £60 for labour and £30 for fabric per cushion. Search online for local supplier of fabric offcuts and find some stuff that looks suitable by JustFabrics, at under £12 per metre. Look for sewing machines on eBay. |
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| 22 | Make successful bid for a Jones Model 942 heavy duty semi-industrial sewing machine on eBay. Now need to confirm how much fabric to order. | |
| 23 | Gas spring end fittings delivered from gasspringshop.co.uk. Check length of the new fittings against the old ones and decide that a M10 heavy washer under each fitting will get them to matching length. Consider how to make spacers to centre the M10 fork in the channel; could drill out and face down the old aluminium spacers, but instead decide to use a combination of nuts and washers on a full-thread M10 bolt. Drill out the holes in the tailgate bracket channel to 10mm with step drill. Fit case end of gas spring to underside of trailer as before. Swing rod end up to position fork in the channel and it looks OK - will need a very slight push on the spring to get the holes perfectly aligned. Insert bolt into channel and fit, washers, nuts and fork onto it in sequence. Fit M10 Nyloc nut and tighten. Tighten the inner nuts against the inner faces of the channel to ensure fork is not gripped between them. Rain starts almost as soon as I have finished to no chance to check operation right away. | |
| 24 | Open trailer (tailgate gas springs working OK) and get out the 4 blocks of TemperFoam in box 15. Measure the piece of memory foam donated by David Joyce; it is just over a metre each way and 70mm thick. The Temper Foam blocks are 405mm x 455mm x 50mm. In the seatwells, on top of the blue foam, I also have 4 blocks of reconstituted foam, 200mm x 300mm x 50mm. A quick check of how the cushion covers might fit on 1.42m wide fabric suggests something over 4m will be needed, so I will get 6m to be safe. Collect trailer registration plate from Karparts. Collect sewing machine from Argos. Buy 6m of Livingstone Check fire-retardant fabric from a remnant roll 1440mm wide, listed as suitable for upholstery, from Just Fabrics. Alas, when I get the sewing machine home and unbox it, it has been very loosely packed with a mixture of bubble-wrap and crumpled cardboard; both spool pins have been broken off and the support bracket for them has been badly bent. Can't face sending it back for a refund and then seeking another machine online, so send message to eBay vendor asking for a part-refund to cover the cost of repairs. |
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| 27 | Refund received from eBay sewing machine vendor. |
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