Kiss Build Day 21

Sunday, 25th November, 2001

So, after the first fortnight of furious activity, during which I'm sure a few people thought I was going for the British Freestyle Plane Builder time trial record, you'll have noticed it's all slowed down quite a bit. This is primarily because I was taking every afternoon off to work on the plane, and my workload was backing up so much that I had to concentrate of the day job, as it were! I toyed with the idea of working on the plane in the evenings, but I just can't face it now winter's on the way.

There are just a few little bits of detail work to finish now to get the plane ready for it's final inspection.

Hours effort: 2

	Here's my mate Steve, doing a very passable impression of an Imperial Stormtrooper. Top helmets, by the way. Integrated headset and noise cancelling microphone bought from Dave at Flycom.
	By contrast, here's Steve's wife Gemma - looking far more fetching, I'm sure you'll agree. Sorry - nothing to do with a plane build, I know, by it's my website and I'll publish what I like, so there! I'll even call light aircraft 'spam-cans' if I want to! (Sorry - you have to be in the BMAA eGroup to understand this reference)
	It looked like it was going to be really hard to get the springs which hold the exhaust together into place, but using this technique with a drill bit and a bit of string, it was a piece of cake!
	Same technique, different bit of the exhaust. You may remember me wittering on about the spring mounts not lining up. Here you can just about see the springs are mounted in a Vee where the exhaust joins the manifold. The link on the left of the picture uses straight connections, but with two springs on each (redundancy!)
	It's astonishing what a mess it looks when the locking wire has been threaded but not fitted. Click the picture for a better idea of what I mean. In the fullness of time, I will have the exhaust metal-sprayed. For now, it's painted with high temperature paint - I just want my baby to fly!
	Finally, a completed exhaust system. Bugger: just noticed I've forgotten to wire lock the big exhaust clamp on the bottom left. The other ones cannot come off, but that one will slip off the end of the exhaust if it comes loose.

Bummer of the Day

This one's a biggie folks. We're talking serious bummer here and no mistake!

I got the plane out of the garage again to adjust the wing rack (which, by the way, fouls the exhaust - but that's not the bummer - oh no!) by moving it further aft. This was to balance the trailer better, and also to allow me to get it into the garage without taking the wing off the rack each time.

While I was pulling the plane out of the garage, I lifted the front of the trailer to get the prop to clear the door, and the nose of the plane lifted as it overbalanced backwards. I slammed the trailer back on the deck again and soiled my trousers as the plane teetered on the balance point, before slamming back down on the trailer. That was waaaaay to close. If it had overbalanced, it would have written off the prop, probably smashed the gearbox, and crashed the top of the pod into the top of the garage door. That is still not the bummer - although it was a disaster narrowly averted! I bungeed the front wheel to the trailer and made a mental note to buy some proper tie-down straps.

Time to put the plane away now, with the wing on the rack. There's a little ramp into my garage and the trailer wheels got stuck. I pulled the trailer forward a foot and took a little run up. The trailer got stuck again, but the plane parted company and sailed off the back. Smashed the wheel spats on the back of the trailer. I have no pictures of this as I was too busy kicking a dustbin and throwing a bicycle across my drive whilst shouting the mantra "Oh sodding buggery bollocks".

I got off lightly. There was enough bounce as the plane came off the trailer that the underslung radiator housing missed the trailer back bar by, ohh, call it three microns. The spats looked worst then they are and will be repairable. I hurt my baby (sob!).

Said it was a serious bummer, didn't I?

Am I downhearted?

Well, yes actually, I am.

Never mind - retail therapy at Telford next week! There's bound to be an aviation-related gadget or two that takes my fancy.

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Last Revised: 28 September, 2004