Last Modified June 30th 2002.

June 2002, A Distinct Case of Deja Vu!

1st - 2nd June No building. I had been waiting for a weekend like this for some time. The wind was gusty enough and from the right direction for some serious (and entertaining) crosswind work at Ardmore airport so I spent both mornings of the weekend amassing a total of 28 landings in ZK-UBD. 

3rd June I decided that it was time for the seat back covering to come out of the aircraft as I wasn't happy with the way it looked in the sun. I carefully pulled it off the tape so that it could be used as a pattern for the new cloth and then replaced the double sided tape.

With Stefan's help I bolted the air plenum in place then fitted the wastegate cable. This was a bit of a challenge as I had placed a cablesafe on the firewall for the wastegate cable to pass through. I discovered that the ferrule on the end of the cable wouldn't pass through the cablesafe so had to remove it to open up the hole. In order to do this I had to remove the bracket supporting the cabin air vent control so what was going to be an easy job took about an hour to be completed.

The rest of the build time today was taken up with fitting the cowling nutplates. I clecoed every one of the 1/8" holes that I had drilled and then, one at a time, opened these up to 3/16" and inserted a screw before going onto the next. Once the nutplates were fitted I opened each of the holes on the nutplated surfaces to 5mm.

4th - 8th June Sewing time! I spent my evenings sewing up the pilot's seat back cushion.

9th June Replaced the cloth over the seat back bulkhead and started sewing up the pilot's headrest cloth.

10th June Made up the two seat cushions and the backrest support pads - no sewing, lots of glue!

12th June Continued with the pilot's headrest sewing.

13th June Made the two cover plates for the seat base. These are simple 3mm wooden ply panels supported by the control tunnel and the layups I did on the side.

14th - 18th June No building, lots of work to do.

19th - 30th June No building, in the UK.