Kiss Build Day 22

Saturday, 5th January, 2002

My apologies to all those of you who have been following my build, for the massive gap with no updates. Sadly, the real world kicked in with a massive work overload, plus I just plain got despondent after dropping the plane off the back of the trailer and buggering up the wheel spats. They're fixed now - just needed a bit of bracket straightening.

Thanks to everyone who expressed sympathies - you guys clearly understood exactly how I felt! Thanks also to all of you who emailed me saying how much you've enjoyed the site - that feedback makes the effort worthwhile!

Anyway, enough of my waffle, on with the show!

Hours effort today: 5

	Placarded the tank with the sight gauge. I put a measured 10 litres in the tank, then fixed the placard so it read about 7-8 litres. Just building a wee safety margin in! Apparently, the last 2 litres in the tank are essentially unusable, and only a stupid (or desperate) pilot would keep flying with that little fuel anyway!
	The rear-seat bag has been fitted. This photo is pants, because the beam is folded down. The position the bag is shown in is for when carrying a rear-seat passenger, when it forms a back rest for the passenger. When flying solo, the rear seat can be taken out and that bag unfolded. That gives a huge storage compartment in the rear seat, plus an excellent back rest for the pilot. No need for a 'Boss Bag'!
	Here's that pesky trim strip fitted. If you click the picture to see the full size version, the bit which is highlighted by the flash clearly shows the unevenness of the fibreglass underneath - see Bummer of the Day at the foot of this page.
	The seat frame has been placarded to show maximum seat weight and maximum luggage weight in the pod. I also added a 'Throttle Min' label, as I lost the word 'Min' from the one that came with the kit - it was just to tiny to apply!
	'Sense of Operation' labels added to main switchgear, plus the registration in the phoentic alphabet just above the radio, in case I have a brain-fart on air and can't remember it! I've also fitted the MAUW (Max All Up Weight) placard as you can see. NB MAUW is also referred to as MTOW (Max Take Off Weight) and the two terms are interchangeable.

Bummer of the day

Bloody trim strips! They are self-adhesive, 6mm wide, and go over the joins in the pod. Trouble is, the join is badly filled. Sometimes there are big gaps and sometimes the filler fibreglass protrudes.

If you've read all this site, you'll know that the pod is supplied essentially unfinished in order to keep the required build time up (it must be more then the factory take to prepare the kit, otherwise it cannot qualify as a home build). My problem is that I have non-existent fibreglass skills, and am terrified of going near the join with a Dremmel, as one slip will bugger the gelcoat.

I'd have to say the quality of the gelcoat is fine - it's just the join which is making my head hurt.

Paul Dewhurst at Flylight has said they'll take a look and see what can be done. Apparently, many people at Telford commented on the good finish on the fibreglass after reading my web-site and expecting the finish to be crap! Also, a mate of mine saw the plane today and said it looks fine to him. My point, gentle reader, is that you must remember that this is my baby, and anything less then perfection just won't do.

I've decided that ultimately I want some airbrushed art on the pod, and that will necessitate rubbing all the glass down anyway, so I'll stop banging on about this now. It'll probably be ages before this happens though, as I bet it will be mega-expensive (airbrush artists - please feel free to contact me)

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Last Revised: 28 September, 2004