28AAD… done!

After all this time – I drove all the way to Chartres on 20 September 2015 to bring it home on my trailer – my little French Weedhopper is in one piece at last and to all intents and purposes, ready to fly.

Wim and I met up at Malbec again this afternoon and before he arrived, I first put a little more air in its tyres. Then I took a look at the batten in the right wing tip which had torn through the pocket that holds it in position inside the wing, expecting it to be a tricky job to get its tip over the tear and the batten itself properly seated in the right place.

In fact, it only took a few moments because I found that by twisting the batten and pushing it in slowly, it bypassed the tear to one side and it was then a simple matter to twist the batten back again and push it right in.

But unfortunately, afterwards we had to once again remove all of the battens after fitting them because that was the only way that we could tension the wing fabric sufficiently, it being so cold, to make it pull tight towards the wing roots and clear the aileron attachment holes in the rear wing tubes.

Then it was time to fit the ailerons. We made a false start and had to remove one after attaching it to the wing because after having fitted it, we found a time-saving way to connect the aileron operating cables outside the fuselage before attaching the ailerons, but that didn’t delay us by much.

However, we found another mouse nest in the aileron that had been closest to the ground while being stored in the hangar that we had to clear out before fitting it and although the little horror had done a tiny bit of damage to the fabric, it wasn’t anything to bother about.

After reinserting the wing battens, 28AAD was just about finished. Again, because the wing fabric was so cold and tight, we couldn’t get all of the battens to sit nicely on the wing trailing edge tubes, so I’m hoping that after they’ve been left in situ for a few days, especially as it becomes a bit warmer towards the end of next week, the fabric will stretch a little bit and they will then settle down a bit more neatly.

Here are a few shots that I took at the end of the day.

So after making sure that its wing battens are in as well as possible, fitting a few safety rings to the ailerons that were left off as I didn’t have enough with me and giving it a ruddy good clean to remove 18 months worth of accumulated hangar dust and dirt, 28AAD is ready for taxy trials and test flying. I’ll naturally also give it a thorough inspection before doing so and run the engine for at least a half hour or so as well.

But this is a poignant moment for me given the events of last year and although I’m not yet back up to full speed and strength, it’s a significant milestone for me.