Wednesday 21 October 2015

Remembering where the shed is

So, I have, in what I think, found my spine again, and am going to get my act together. Since starting a new job and a few other cards being thrown out on the table, the poor ol Sonex has taken a place on the priorities list somewhere near house cleaning.  I have ordered a few things from the outcome of the TC inspection and they basically arrived today. This mostly was bolts and fuel fittings, but all jobs to be done none the less. One of the big players to arrive in the bolt order however were the prop bolts. SO......... basically one could not resist in fitting that fine specimen that I received in the mail some time ago.









Photos, I hope got it from every angle.........just in case you missed it....  it does look pretty. 



I did do a little work on the fuel lines too tonight. I was never happy with the routing of the lines and after the inspector mentioned it, I sat down and had a good look on how I could improve it, in accordance with the Aerocarb manual. I hope that I have interpreted it right. Uphill from the gascolator, No big curve backs, shortest path possible. I have flown with this exact carb with some serious burps before on the other plane so if I do encounter some on my first flight at least I will know what they are and not freak out.  I also still need to insulate the Gascolator but will do that later.


So anyway, hopefully I can start to get some momentum happening again and get the project back on track. 

Here is a parting shameless selfie from my last flight in the old plane. Was a good local flight over my house.  



Monday 5 October 2015

Cob webs, Cob webs everywhere !!!

So it has certainly been quite some time since my last post. Needless to say, not much has happened in the way of work or finalization. I have however had my plane inspected for the second time during the build and this time I had both the A+P and the TC present. They were both very happy with the work to date and had a few minor ideas to help me along and some tips and advice that was greatly appreciated. Since the inspection however I still have not done one thing on the Sonex unfortunately.

I have a few items I need to sort out before I take it out to the Airfield like painting that lower floor and attaching the wing tips and so on. All small details but mostly I have been holding off as I still need to sell my other plane to make hangar space.

I have been doing an Aerobatics endorsement lately too and that has been taking up some time.

Flying the Super Decathlon has been quite a good learning experience. It has such a docile landing compared to my Aeropup, which makes it a real pleasure to fly and land. It's not that my Aeropup is a nasty plane to handle but I know that it would be much less forgiving for a late rudder input or something like that. I really need to dance on the pedals when doing wheeler landings to make it track nice and pretty. The Decathlon seems to hold its direction with a lot less control inputs... perhaps that would be a better way to explain it. Anyway moving on,,it's been good. Aero's have been progressing well and it sometimes almost looks like I have half an idea :)

So signing off now, I shall hope my other plane moves on soon so I can get cracking on the Sonex. It will be a shame to see it go but that's life!






Thinking seriously about adding a smoke kit now to the Sonex. I think I will enquire with the guys in Oshkosh.