Windsockery

The last job that needed to be done at Malbec while waiting for the runway to dry out was to put up the new windsock. I tried to do it by standing on a ladder on Friday but that was impossible as well as being unsafe and instead we decided to do it today by hoisting me up in the bucket of the chateau’s digger.

That made it much easier but as it was still impossible to detach the old windsock from its mounting ring, we decided to bring the complete rotating top assembly down to ground level to do the change-over from old windsock to new and then raise the top assembly back up again.

And lucky that we did. Even working at ground level using a power tool, it still took well over an hour to do the work as the jubilee clips that Victor had used to attach the old windsock to the mounting ring had weathered somewhat in the three years or so that they had been up there and I hadn’t thought to source replacements. Here’s a shot of the new windsock that I took shortly after being lowered back to ground level.

That was all very well, but one of the reasons apart from UV degradation that had brought about the demise of the old windsock was it getting torn by catching on the top attachments of the four cables that support the pole. The cables are attached using shackles which, together with the nuts that hold them, are perfect for catching on the windsock fabric when the wind drops and then putting small tears into it when the wind picks up again, small tears that eventually become large ones.

I had the idea of fabricating a cone to fit over the cable attachments using scrap Lexan from an old ULM windscreen or door panel and after mounting the windsock I went home to see what I could find in my ‘atelier’. I came across one of 28AAD’s old door panels which wasn’t suitable for any other purpose and cut out a piece from it that would roll up roughly into the shape of a cone using dimensions that I took on Friday and could then be pop riveted together.

Here are shots of the finished cone and the windsock billowing in the wind with the cone now attached. I’m pretty confident that it will do the job.

So that’s it for now and Malbec is ready for use, or at least it will be when its runway is firm enough. We’re expecting little if any rain going into the coming week with a temperature of 17 degrees, less than today tomorrow, but with it rising to the upper mid-20s by the end of the week. I doubt that the runway will be firm enough to use tomorrow, but I’m hoping at least that I’ll get my first flight in for over a year on Tuesday.

Watch this space 😉