Day: July 23, 2013

Well, the family arrived safely, a bit later than planned after some traffic hold-ups further north in France, so I and the house had time to be well prepared for their arrival. The kitchen and bathroom work has proven to be a god-send and despite some sticky days, with temperatures over 35 degrees Celsius, we’ve had some excellent days out together. And yesterday with a slight lull in our activities, I was able to return to the work to re-assemble the X-Air for the first time for many weeks. All that’s now left for me to do is re-assemble the wings and ailerons, re-attach them together with the strut assemblies and reconnect the aileron cables before being able to take to the skies. So wings it was.

The X-Air wings and ailerons are almost identical to the AX3’s when it comes to assembly, so there’s nothing for me to worry about. My plan is to assemble the wings, move them and the fuselage to the section of field opposite my house that’s owned by my next-door neighbour who has given me permission to take off from there now the hay has been cut and the bales transported away, complete the assembly work and then fly the aircraft from there the few minutes to Galinat. Due to the temperature over the last couple of days, I’ve been doing the wing assembly work on my front lawn in the shade of my lime tree. This is OK as far as it goes, but the tree is shedding huge volumes of seeds and small premature fruit at the moment which get everywhere and can be an enormous nuisance. Here’s a pic showing the framework of the X-Air’s starboard wing.

And here’s a shot of the port wing after assembly and having its cover fitted.

I’ve moved all of the items I’ll be fitting, including the ailerons, onto my front lawn so I can just push on with the job. When Bertrand and Andre dis-assembled the X-Air before I bought it at the end of last Summer, I asked them to leave all of the bolts that they unscrewed in-situ so I could see exactly how things went back together. They did exactly that, which has saved me a lot of time and made things easier than they might have been. They also bundled related items together, like the wing battens and the struts, and here’s a shot showing what I mean.

Things have been going well, except later on this afternoon a squally weather front passed through and I thought it wise to bring assembly activities to a halt just in case there was a thunderstorm. There wasn’t, except the stuff that came out of the lime tree made a real mess. I also had a conversation with my next-door neighbour yesterday and he told me that he was going on holiday today to Brittany, returning on 1st August. That’s a bit of a nuisance because it means that I’ll probably have to postpone my assembly work while he’s away. It’s a pity because I have another friend coming to stay with me a couple days after my family have left and I’d hoped to have the X-Air in the air by then. I’ll have to see if there’s a way of getting round things 😉