Last Modified July 28th 2002.

July 2002, Still remodelling

1st - 6th July No building.

7th July Back to the sewing. The pain in my finger tips attests to the fact that I spent five hours sewing most of the seams on the seat backs.

8th - 13th July Slowly progressed with the sewing to the point where the fuel tank bulkhead and seat bases were covered.

14th July Sand and polish day. I got the stabilators and their trim tabs to the point where they are finished. I then tidied up the front windscreen which had 'developed' a few scratches during the build. It didn't take long with a micromesh polishing kit to get it looking like new.

15th - 20th July No building, working in Hawkes Bay.

21st July I fitted the new cloth to the seat fronts and then glued liner material to the pilot and passenger side walls. The new cloth that I am using is thinner than the original material and without the liner it's possible to see light through the wall of the aircraft. I felt that this might be disconcerting for passengers hence the use of a dark liner material.

22nd July No building but I did have an excuse. I took Carol for here very first flight in a Europa! It's taken a long time to get here into ZK-UBD but she finally had a reason to want to go in the plane. She found getting in and out to be a bit awkward but other than that she enjoyed the flight.

23rd July Another landmark day in NZ Europa history. N13NM was imported into New Zealand several years ago in monowheel configuration. It was subsequently rebuilt as a trike but has languished in a hangar for some time with engine problems. An extensive rebuild of the 914 engine has been undertaken over the past three months and today it took to the air under my command as the first NZ registered trike Europa flying as ZK-NWM. I am flying it under a test pilots permit at the present time and once I am happy with the aircraft and familiar with its operation it'll be put onto the full register so that I can get a type rating on the aircraft.

I plumbed in the drain pipes from the engine. With four on the the starboard side and two on the port side there are lots of opportunities for fluids to dribble out onto the underside of the aircraft. I used clear 5mm inside diameter polyurethane tubing for the drains and bunched them together into two sets exiting the aircraft either side of the main air duct.

Following flying experiences in ZK-UBD, ZK-NWM, G-KITZ and G-GBXS I have come to the conclusion that the placement of the choke control on the side of the centre tunnel is just not going to work. The choke needs quite a bit of muscle to operate and I can't get enough leverage in its current position. As a result I am going to relocate it to the radio panel between my two air vents. This will mean I have to relocate my fuel indicator and also come up with a means of sealing off the air vent where the cable comes through. I'll relocate the air vent shutoff cable at the same time to bring it over to where I had the choke button.

24th July Seat cushion making.

25tb July No building, SAA meeting.

26th July Seat cushion making.

27th July Only a bit of work today as we went out for the day. I did manage to fit the lining on the port side wall. Having a template to hand makes this a really quick job and I was able to cut and  fit the lining to both sections in under 40 minutes.

28th July Fitted the starboard side lining and finished off the cushions. I refitted the seat belt harnesses and added a bit of trim to the seat heads to tidy up the binnacle hole edges. The aircraft upholstery is now complete.

The air scoop on the lower cowling has a lower flange which does nothing to encourage the air to flow towards the radiators. To fix this I reduced the lower flange and side flanges in depth by about half. On the lower flange I made a ramp leading backwards out of foam and then filled the area with Superfil. Once it's set I'll sand the ramp to a good profile and then layup two plies of bid to cover the shape.

29th - 31st July No building