{"id":22522,"date":"2024-01-29T22:43:46","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T21:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=22522"},"modified":"2024-01-29T22:45:57","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T21:45:57","slug":"whats-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/whats-this\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s this?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not planning to do any more work inside the house for a short while so after a quick trip that I had to make to Montignac, today was a perfect day to give some attention to my aircraft. I started and ran the Savannah’s engine for a while a couple of weeks or so ago but the Xair’s engine hasn’t been started and run for many months, so that was my main aim today.<\/p>\n

I had to pull the Savannah out first and as usual, was shocked to see how dirty it had become yet again. This year must be the year for seriously getting back into the air after my house-building efforts and before I do that both aircraft will need to be thoroughly cleaned and serviced. After moving the Savannah away from the barn to create a space to move the Xair into, I pulled that out also and removed the canvas engine cover and the cover over the screen so I could open the left hand door and get in.<\/p>\n

When I arrived I’d checked Malbec’s runway and was surprised given how little rain we’ve had lately by how soft it still is. It’s still not flyable and someone’s also driven a vehicle, probably a large SUV, around over the top of the runway creating some quite deep gouge marks. It also wasn’t easy getting the aircraft out of the barn due to the muddy state of the ground in its entrance.<\/p>\n

I checked the Xair’s engine over prior to starting it and was pleasantly surprised to find that despite the amount of time it’s been standing, there was plenty of charge in its battery. Although it hasn’t been started, I have turned the engine over from time to time and it started and ran immediately. This was despite the fuel being over a year old, much easier and more smoothly actually than the Savannah’s had done when I started it a few weeks ago, so I was very pleased with my efforts.<\/p>\n

It was as I was pushing the Xair back into the barn that I noticed something strange. For a few moments I thought it was a round piece of rock or broken concrete and wondered how I’d not noticed previously when I’d pulled the Xair out. But when I looked at it more closely I found that it wasn’t something hard at all, but more like something made out of paper. What on earth was it? <\/p>\n

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I think it was some kind of nest, probably one made painstakingly by wasps or some other wood chewing insect as there was a single hole in its side that would have possibly been used as an entrance and exit. This would certainly figure because if it had somehow been attached to the Xair, somewhere under its covers, there would have been plenty of time for it to have been constructed over the summer as the aircraft has remained undisturbed for months.<\/p>\n

But anyway, I kicked it out of the way around the end of the barn and there were certainly no insects in or around it now, probably a good thing for me. I then started and ran the Savannah’s engine again too for several minutes before pushing that back into its place in the barn.<\/p>\n

My next job must be to pull it out again, give it another thorough wash and clean and a good service including an oil and filter change and maybe new plugs depending on how they look when I take them out. Both aircraft have been neglected for far too long and with Spring just around the corner, I really also need to think about moving the Xair on to a new owner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not planning to do any more work inside the house for a short while so after a quick trip that I had to make to Montignac, today was a perfect day to give some attention to my aircraft. I started and ran the Savannah’s engine for a while a couple of weeks or so … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22522"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22534,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22522\/revisions\/22534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}