Day: October 1, 2015

I was browsing the internet a few days ago looking at images of AX3s and Weedhoppers when I came across a couple more shots of 28AAD that were taken when Chris, who I bought it off, still owned it. At the time, it still had its original Rotax 582 engine and Arplast 4-blade prop which, unfortunately, I’ll be replacing during its refurbishment.

It has changed little, if it all, since then and is still a pretty tidy little aircraft. It’s a pity about the hangar rash that it has suffered necessitating quite a few little patches on its wing coverings. I now see from its paperwork that it first entered service in 2000, making it a full 5 years younger than MYRO and 2 years younger even than MZEL, the aircraft that Rosie acquired to replace MYRO and was one of the last AX3s registered in the UK. Seeing how MYRO turned out, I have high hopes for 28AAD 😉

I laid about a tonne of concrete yesterday for the base of my new garden tool store. The weather was just about perfect, dry and bright with temperature of around 23 degrees but with a nice breeze, so it was just a matter of slogging on until the job was finished.

It came out pretty well, if anything better than the base of my wood store, which was worse to work on as it had the complication of the two uprights for my grenier stairs being in it and also butting straight up against my house wall. Here are a couple of shots that I took early yesterday evening after I’d cleaned and put away all of my tools.

Looking back, I see that I was at the same stage with my wood store on 26 September a year ago, so only 4 days different this year. However, last year I lost more than that amount of time through bad weather. With a bit of luck, things are looking a bit more settled this year so I’m hoping that after having a bit of a break to recover today, I’ll be able to continue tomorrow and start making faster progress than I did on the wood store.

Victor, Olivier and I went out for a well-earned meal last night to celebrate the arrival at long last of Victor’s ULM ‘brevet et licence’. So congratulations Captain Victor, with the papers to prove it, and here’s to you enjoying many hours of safe and happy flying in the Rans.