Mon 18 December 2006 |
| Dad finished the axel jack lifts - work well. The idea is use these to lift the fuselage on the gear and then prop up the wings under the tie downs. Another item to add to the maintenance kit. | 
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| We are hoping to get the wings back on (with shop bolts) for Christmas,
people will be round to look a the project and I want to finish up some of the wing tip areas.
One of the pre-tasks is to try and sort the fuel lines / gascolators. Although VANs doesn't normally
recommend gascolator for fuel injected, the local SAA and CAA are very 'keen' - and the advice I've
been given is they should be installed. I'm still a little on fence to the value, but roll with the punches and
I don't think it increases any risks.
We have been avoiding catching the two fuel lines sticking out of the fuselage for the past 12+ months -
today I finally got to the point of having to bend them. I protected the AL pipe using a bending spring and
positioned a round stock to bend round. Smooth pressure whilst Dad held the inner side. | 
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| I thought it had gone ok, but as I removed the spring a real sinking feeling..... The pipe has crushed - scrap. And I know the problems it is going to cause to re-make it - a really bad day..... | 
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| Last hope was to trim the line back and try and re-terminate. Die grinder to cut. | 
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| But the sleeve doesn't go back far enough to be able to get the flaring tool onto the pipe - sunk again. | 
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| I went back to the original plan to use a pipe bender on the LHS - but after more thought I
came back to the conclusion that this is a bad idea.
The clamp that holds the pipe to the bender results in the 1" radius bend being 2"
from the bender edge - this is too far out for the gascolator brackets that I've already made and
is more than I want anyway.
We spent another couple of hours looking at various options,
nothing seems to work neatly - I'm trying to keep the junctions outside the cockpit if at all possible.
I'm probably going to need to remake the whole line on the RHS.
I don't have much stock material, I don't know what the clearance / space issues between the wing
/ skin are yet either.
All rather frustrating and a bit depressing - I posted on VAF see what other can suggest - we will solve it, but
it isn't going to be easy, and at the moment I don't really have a plan. | 
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| I also spent a chunk of the day on the 'net trying to sort a solution for panel labelling. The Pulsar solution looks promising, if difficult to get right, but I can't find a critical component (the spray glue) in New Zealand. Research / problem solving like this just eats time and added to the days frustrations. | |
