All good news

You have to make the most of it while it lasts 😀

Ken and I had a super flight in the X’air yesterday. We crossed over the Thames and headed north-east up into Essex, up to Maldon and the Blackwater. It was more or less the next flight I’d planned for MYRO but the accident put the kybosh on that, of course. It was just excellent! Here is the route I’d planned.

The whole flight lasted for 1 hr 20 mins and except for the take off and landing which I did, Ken flew the whole lot. Apart from quite a bit of haze, which made it not worth my while taking any pictures, conditions were just right for him to get some stick time in – low wind, no gusts and not too many bumpy bits! Even so, I think he was quite surprised how tired he felt at the end of it and this is one of the things I found when I restarted my training after my long break away. You think that you could easily cope with a couple of hours every day, but it takes more out of you than you think 😯

I’d wanted to try out my satnav positioned over in front of me on the pilot’s side but as usual, you invariably forget something and that was it. Without it, of course, we had to do the whole flight visually and as Ken was flying, I had that job. I enjoyed it very much, actually, as even though I’d not flown over the area for many years, the features I’d chosen for our turning points were unmissable, even with the bit of haze we had. And fortunately I’d also fully planned the whole flight beforehand, so we had the headings and times for each leg already worked out.

Now onto today. More good news – my new compressor arrived today and thanks again to the Ebay seller for shipping it off promptly. A bit of oil had sloshed out in transit but I’ve already checked it over and run it. Here’s what it looks like.

It’s made by Wolf Power Tools so it should be of reasonable quality. It’s ‘new’ and unused and I understand that this model was sold as a ‘special’ in Lidl some two or three years ago, but I don’t know for sure. It doesn’t have the whole kit that it was originally sold with and just came with an air hose and a tyre inflater kit, which is fine by me as I have no need to do any airbrushing and already have a spray gun. I can’t wait to give it a go.

So things are moving forward quite quickly now. Chris approved my fuselage tubes and forks for use yesterday so I can now go ahead and fit them this week-end when I’ve sorted out the panel repair. That’s if I get the parts I ordered over the phone today from P & M. Unfortunately they phoned back with the total cost figure while I was on the phone, so I didn’t get the message until it was too late for them to get them out today. But hopefully they’ll still arrive in time for the week-end. And as soon as I’ve got my paint which I also ordered today I can get going on respraying the pod. That will definitely arrive by Friday so I hope that the good weather we’re currently enjoying holds up because then even if I don’t have the stuff from P & M, I’ll be able to do my panel repair and also make a good start on the pod. That will leave just the screen and wing and the engine to pick up from Mark, so with a fair wind I will hit my target of having MYRO flyable again in August. Here’s keeping my fingers crossed 😉