Day of pure frustration

Yesterday I had to do a bit of shopping and some clearing up so it wasn’t worth trying to fit in doing anything at Galinat. But today I thought I’d go over there, do a bit of tidying up around 56NE and possibly even get in a short flight. As you can see, I’ve decided to stop referring to just ‘the X-Air’ and use its registration instead as I think that all aircraft have a personality of their own and their own unique identity.

I arrived at the field just after lunch and the strength of the wind ruled out a local ‘familiarity’ flight. Although it was straight down the runway, it wouldn’t have been worth flying in wind that strong as up to now I only have experience of one landing there and with far less wind than was blowing today, the lift, sink and wind shear over the valley on approach were already quite pronounced. So more practice in less demanding conditions will be called for before I start pushing the envelope too far in what is also an aircraft with which I’m still unfamiliar. But in any case, I’d decided that my time would be better spent tidying up around the aircraft to make it easier to prepare for flight and tie down and cover up again afterwards.

Regis and I had secured 56NE on Saturday within the metal framework that is all that remains of his old hangar, but even at the time, it was obvious that it would be far from ideal as a permanent arrangement. The ground inside was very uneven and thick with weeds and due to the slope of the land, the clearance beneath the ‘uphill’ wing was so low that getting around the aircraft was very difficult. There was also another problem. Regis turned over a large balk of old timber that was on the ground and underneath were gozillions of tiny ants. I happened to kneel down close to them in my shorts for a few moments because of the wing clearance problem that I just mentioned and a few got on my leg. In an instant I was being eaten alive! Shortly afterwards, Regis dropped a cover on the ground and when he picked it up, some fell on him, and I can tell you, he won’t be doing that again in a hurry 😆

But seriously, my nightmare was that they’d find their way into the aircraft cabin, so as the old hangar framework was providing absolutely no shelter, I’d already decided before going to Galinat that I’d move 56NE out of it onto a more suitable area. This decision was re-affirmed when I came to move the aircraft because with the downwards slope, it would have been easy to lose control of the aircraft manhandling it by myself and either knock a wing tip on one of the side supports or, even worse, have it roll uncontrollably out and down the hill. Here are a couple of shots that I took showing 56NE inside the hangar framework.

They make things look worse than they actually were because of all the scrubby vegetation that they include, but in all honesty, the true situation wasn’t really a lot better than it looks in them 😐

Here’s a shot I took of 56NE after I’d rolled it out of the hangar and parked it with wheel chocks into the wind.

I decided that for the future, I’d park 56NE with its nose pointing north tied down between Regis’s hangar framework and the other hangar. The ground is fairly level there which would make getting the aircraft ready for flight and storing it away again afterwards pretty easy and by clearing a bit of undergrowth away behind its new position, I’d be able to push it back a bit towards a little bit of overhead shelter provided by a large tree. I’d taken my ‘debrousailleuse’ with me and was just about to get started when Christian, the owner of Galinat, turned up. We exchanged greetings and I told him what I planned to do. He said that that was OK and after a few more minutes conversation, he was off again.

I topped my machine’s fuel tank up, started the engine and got cracking. I’d only managed to clear a small area when in the blink of an eye, a wayward tape from Regis’s old hangar covering got caught round the blade, so I had to stop the engine immediately to untangle it. When I went to restart it, the starter cord pulled through the handle and disappeared into the starter housing. I could hardly believe it, but even worse was to come. I’d brought my tool kit with me, so it was an easy matter to get to the starter pulley, which I gingerly removed to get to the starter cord. But not gingerly enough, apparently, because before I knew it the starter recoil spring shot out of the housing and uncoiled itself like an insane jack-in-thebox 🙁

I tried several times to rewind it and get it back in again, but without luck and only succeeded in getting my hands covered in grease. And I’d not taken anything to wipe them on, naturally, so I was stuck with them. By this time I was beginning to think that retreat was the better part of valour and because I’d cleared just enough to reverse 56NE’s tail into, I decided to cut my losses, re-position the aircraft and tie it back down. I put two concrete blocks under each wing and one each under its nose and tail and I think that that will be more than enough to secure it in the kind of winds that we’ll be getting over the next week or so. Here’s how it looked afterwards.

I popped all the ‘debroussailleuse’ starter bits into an old plastic shopping bag that I happened to have with me and hopefully they’ll be easier to re-assemble in the quieter environment of home. I was really frustrated by the turn of events, but although I came home not feeling that I’d got much done, actually moving 56NE to where it’s now tied down did represent a little bit of progress. Not much, just a little 😉