Still a bit to do

This new screen is going to be a bit trickier to place in position than I thought. I wish Victor was around to help, but he’s not and won’t be for some time as he’s still laid up after his accident.

Today I cleaned off all (well nearly all) of the nasty sealant that someone had previously applied around the bottom of the old screen and tried placing the new one in position. As I found when doing MYRO’s screens, it was like wrestling with a boa constrictor because as soon as I got it anywhere near in position and relaxed my grip or pressure, it popped out at the other end because of the tension that was being applied.

It was also made more difficult because I found that I can’t reuse the rubber edging strip that was fitted to the bottom edge of the old screen, because (a) I’d cut it when breaking the sealant joint and (b) it was impossible to get all of the old sealant off it anyway. This means that I’ll have to order a new one which is bound to delay the job.

In the end just to see how it fits, I managed to get the screen more or less in position by placing its bottom edge on a cloth sheet so as not to damage 77ASY’s paintwork and carefully gripping the sides under the closed doors. Here’s how it looked.

And that’s how I had to leave it today, with a large inverted cardboard box over the open cabin top to keep insects, dirt and bird mess out. I then brought the cabin top home with me so I can see about replacing its polycarbonate window and fixing several patches, mainly around the window opening, where paint had been lost.

I’m also finding the more I climb over 77ASY that its white paint has been amazingly forgiving and more and more ‘dodgy’ painted areas that I hadn’t noticed before are coming to light. I’ll therefore have to turn my attention to them in the future, but the priority for now is to get the new screen in and the aircraft fully back together and airworthy.