Getting there

As I’d hoped, the screen plastic did arrive yesterday so if the weather holds, I’ll be able to make a lot of progress and this will be an excellent week-end. I didn’t get on to the screen today but I did get a lot done, nevertheless. Unfortunately I finished too late to take any pics so they will have to wait until tomorrow.

First job, I routed the cables from the cabin, up the front tube to where the electrical connections will be made up on the main tube. This immediately made the cabin look much tidier and I also cleaned some more muck and grease away that I’d missed originally from under the fuel pump on the pilot’s side of the cabin. It’s surprising the difference little things like that can make. Then I got underneath and secured the rear fuselage cover to the back of the pod. Originally it was done using parachute cord but Mark said that cable ties are just as good if not better nowadays for jobs like that, so that’s what I used. Looked very good and was nice and taught at the end of it.

I also got started on running the fuel system. First I put in an in-line filter just along from the tank and then I routed and secured the fuel line down the back of the passenger seat, across the cabin behind the sets and round to the fuel pump. The fuel system components I bought from Mark included the electric fuel pump and the hand primer bulb. However, there have been some slightly alarming postings on the BMAA forum lately about engine failures as a result of blocked primer bulbs and there have been recommendations that they should be removed. So that’s what I’ve decided to do, especially as I have an electric primer pump anyway. But today I only got as far as fitting the electric pump and connecting it to the lower fuel pump before time ran out.

But I’ve also got one last, excellent bit of news. The final item I need to complete MYRO and make it flyable is a prop. When I last flew MYRO it was fitted with the bog standard two-blade wooden prop. Mark still had the hub and one blade of the three-blade Arplast prop that was fitted to MYME when it had its accident and I dearly wanted to have something like that because as well as being newer and more modern, it’s also more efficient. So you get slightly better performance and/or fuel economy. However, when I checked the cost of acquiring two more new blades, the total cost was well above my budget, so I’d resigned myself to getting hold of a standard wooden one.

But the fantastic news is that I’ve come across another Arplast three-blader at a price I can afford. It was originally fitted to a Rotax 503 like mine on an old Spectrum microlight so I know it is the correct one. I’m absolutely delighted with this development and I’ve arranged to take a trip out tomorrow morning to pick it up.

So now it’s just a matter of putting all the bits I’ve got together and I really am getting there 😀