Loose ends tidied up

Took the opportunity to finish off the week-end’s left-overs and do a bit more this afternoon. I couldn’t get a 1″ tank cutter to drill the hole through the new screen for the lower fuel pump so I bought a pack of three sharp wood bits instead. I’d used a 13mm one of those to make holes in the panel so I knew a 25mm one would do the job fine, which it did. So I got the fuel pump permanently bolted in. I also re-fitted all the cable ties that I’d had to remove on the wiring up to the main tube and I experimented with fitting some pipe insulation as draught excluder in the front tube screen slot but I don’t like the look of it so I’ll try a different approach. As I had MYRO’s original length of rubber tubing that connects to the engine crankcase and runs between the vacuum connections of the upper and lower fuel pumps I connected that as well.

I then decided I’d finish off the cabin by connecting the lower fuel pump to the fuel cock and running the tubing from that to the upper fuel pump. I had almost a complete system of fuel tubing that came from MYME so I thought I’d have a look at that and if it was still in good condition, fit it. It was lucky that I did because I found it was rotten and cracked in lots of places. The tubing is the clear plastic type with braiding and there have been several postings on the BMAA forums warning about those exact problems with it, so I’m glad that I had been fore-warned. Luckily I’d purchased a couple of metres of new 1/4″ rubber tubing so I was able to fit that instead.

I then ran the fuel tubing from the fuel cock out through the screen side tube slot together with the throttle cables and by the end of the afternoon MYRO was really beginning to look the business with the fuel line, vacuum tube and throttle cables neatly cable-tied up the length of the diagonal side tube. All I need to do now is make the two connections to the electric fuel pump and apart from finally adjusting the throttle cable when the carbs are on, the cabin will be finished.

I’m almost ready to fit the engine – I doubt I’ll be ready this week-end but at the pace things are moving, who knows 😉

Oh yes, one last thing. I got hold of a couple of used Comunica headsets and a Comunica powered interface off Ebay yesterday. They weren’t too expensive so I won’t mind too much if things don’t work when I start hacking plugs off and making up new connections to suit my Vertex radio. Paul Lintott showed how to do it on the BMAA forum and it was one of his postings actually that originally persuaded me to go for the Vertex rather than an old Icom. So apart from a new battery, that really is everything I’m going to need for a fully flyable aircraft 😀