Not a total waste of time

No, not by any means. Yesterday was totally unflyable with continuous low cloud, rain and drizzle, the sort of weather that we’re getting so fed up with now. The field which had been drying up a few days ago was again under squelchy mud and waterlogged so it’ll probably be a few days even when the rain eventually does stop before it’ll be usable again. But that doesn’t mean that the day was wasted – far from it 😉

Instead we got cracking on the X-Air. I gave the carbs a good clean up before Christmas and yesterday I refitted them, along with all new hose clips to replace the ‘orrible tiddly little jubilee clips that someone had previously fitted to the engine coolant hoses that were now all stripping their threads. A little clip like that is just as important as a large one because if it lets coolant escape you’re soon in trouble with the prospect of a forced landing. Peter replaced the pitot tube that had got broken in the hangar and once I’ve sorted out the trim tab cable connections we’ll be well along the way to having it ready for its weighing and permit inspection. I’m going to order up some fuel hose and a new fuel filter to replace the items that are currently fitted as much of the hose is becoming a bit hard. Also, some other sections are of the transparent type which is not now officially approved. The glass fuel filter that’s fitted is the type which I think has been found to give some problems with blocking due to algae growth in the fuel on account of the alcohol that’s now being added. Better to have a ‘cheap and cheerful’ throw-away plastic type that can be replaced every few hours than one that has to be regularly inspected and cleaned, I think.

So we made some good progress – the X-Air is looking pretty complete now. Who knows, with a little bit of luck we might even be able to run it up next week-end. That would be nice 🙂