Tinworm-wings: March 2011

Monday, 28 March 2011

after-school flying time is here!

I was all set to get off work and go flying today. But felt crap most of the day, so didn't in the end ....but it is now part of the masterplan. With daylight saving and living only 40 mins from the airfield (and working closer to it still), after-work flying is a viable proposition.

:)

Sunday, 27 March 2011

I flew today

I started the day wanting to sell the Dragonfly.

....but the price went up as the day went on; as it started and failed, then started again...and finally, after the intervention of friends, started and kept going. And now I want to keep it and spend the summer enjoying it...

....but regular readers know I will change my mind tomorrow! (still want to do 3-axis, still fancy having something which can fly on windier days, etc)

But at least now I have a plane which will sell!

Incidentally, my problem was caused by the fact that the grub screw which blocks the bottom of the pulse drain was missing, thereby affecting the differential pressure in the fuel lines (I think). Doug, a very experienced engine man at Great Oakley, cut the end off a bolt (to remove the thread) and stuck it up the drain, securing it with a zip-lock! Nice, simple solution...but the genius was in spotting the problem in the first place (as he chatted it over with a fellow Dragonflier on the phone).....sparing me hours of shooting in the dark.

I started the day feeling low but ended it on a high (though not too high, because the viz was awful above 800'!).....I flew for an hour....all in sight of the airfield....taking stock of my new home field and its surroundings.

Many thanks to Doug! It is great to be flying again!

Saturday, 26 March 2011

inching closer

I couldn't get a spark yesterday, so went off to old Harwich, to a motorbike shop, and got one...and a box spanner to fit it. Progress. Got back and still no start...it didn't seem to be drawing fuel, so I did something I have never done before...I blew into the tank ( by reversing my syphon) and that did the trick...filled the carb. But still no joy.

Craig, a heating engineer who flies a Quantum, tested continuity on my magneto with his multi-tester and that and all the other wiring seemed ok, so that we wondered if it might be the ignition unit, which would have been a simple replacement (and hopefully cheap)...but finally we tested the start again and it fired up....but I impatiently killed it by moving the throttle before the automatic choke knocked off. My problem is I hate the vibration at that cold stage.

So we tried again and it fired and held for about 35 seconds before stopping again...and then I was running out of time; I had a date to get showered for!

So I packed up....but am now optimistic for Sunday. I presume the old spark plug was why I got no start at Xmas. All else is just because it has been standing for three months.

Saturday, 19 March 2011

Great Oakley

Yesterday I moved my wing from Sutton Meadows to Great Oakley in my new van (pleased to find that the wing-carrier fit it, being a variant of the same model), and today, having taken two hours stripping the riveted bulkhead out, I did the same with the trike.

At Sutton Meadows Dave Broom wished me well, and I was rather touched when Dave Garrison came out especially, as I tied my hi-viz dishcloth to the back of my wing, to wish me bon voyage. I'd had a rather satisfying afternoon in which the packing of the wing went very well indeed (am really quite skilled at it now; good teaching on Steve Wilson's part), and I met retired Lt Colonel Bryan Smy, now a BMAA inspector. He realised I was ex-TA when I apparently said "Clear; ease springs" when detensioning my tip-wands.

Today I rigged the wing (am getting good at this, too) and put the Dragonfly together. I found that my electrical connections are fine, but the engine did not start, so spark plug and valve clearance checks will be necessary next time I go up...possibly Friday.

If it had started I might have squeezed in a flight...I was rigged by 5pm. Still, I am well on the way to a great Easter and summer..and in good company too. The chap who helped me carry my wing into the field owns the aeroplane behind mine, a Cherokee which was impounded for smuggling guns and drugs. Also chatted to Doug, Craig and Sam this evening, all three of whom were very welcoming - we share the hangar - and very complimentary about the Dragonfly. Flying at Sutton was rather a lonely business to be honest, but this lot are very keen. I have already been promised a back seat next time it is too windy to go up in my Dragonfly.

Wednesday, 9 March 2011

a great Easter, flying

I have bought another van...and after the cambelt went on my old one, I am getting its cambelt changed, as I write. No mean expense, but a wise investment. It is a panel van version of my old "hearse", so will be more secure...and because it is the same type, I have salvaged light units, mirrors, 4 tyres, tow bar and roof bars....

And I know that my ground handling gear will all still be compatible, so I will be able to do my move to the hangars at Great Oakley at the end of this month.

So I am back on track...and getting ready for a great Easter in the air...and a marvellous summer ahead.

Friday, 4 March 2011

then my van's cam-belt went...terminal!

Bugger

Ground handling (how to store an aeroplane at home and get it to the airfield)

A trial flight in a Thruster, when I was 28, c.1991

I have started to learn to fly before...TWICE! First time round I had just graduated and got a job at an aerodrome in Cornwall, where I earned flying hours by fuelling microlights, giving hourly weather reports to the Met office etc. The weather was bad, so there was little flying to be had...and in the end I was paid with broken propellers and bits of crashed fuselage to hang on the wall. The boss was a great bloke called Ian Stokes, who had been a leading light in forming the BMAA and had manufactured Thrusters in the early days . In retirement he moved to The Gambia and became a publican and, shockingly, was murdered this year.

Flying Rogues

ten years on from my first experiences at Moorland Flying School (and now nearly ten years ago) the flying school was under new management and my girlfriend and I booked full courses. We both made good progress initially but never felt we were being moved on and had difficulty pinning the instructor down to signing our logbooks. When another instructor signed himself as P1, we got suspicious, contacted the CAA and were horrified to learn that our instructor did not have a current instructor rating, that we had not been insured and that none of our hours counted towards our licences. We were eventually refunded and the instructors were prosecuted by the CAA.

The very sympathetic CAA investigator spoke to the BMAA on our behalf and my hours have been allowed to count (at the discretion of the school). But in point of fact, I flew way over the minimum number of hours subsequently, so it is really quite academic in the end.

Around 2001 an instructor in Norfolk tried to convince me that if I bought his aeroplane he could teach me at a cut rate, as I'd then be using my own plane. Great idea, I thought, except that it turned out that the aircraft in question had failed a noise test and could not be used from the instructor's field. He later admitted that I would have to learn on his aeroplane at the normal rate. He resisted showing me the paperwork, kept avoiding me and eventually, when it was quite clear I wasn't going to buy without the paperwork, told me to F-off.

So far my experience has been that there are a lot of rogues in flying, which is one reason why I was so very impressed by the professional set-up at Sywell.

by air to Africa

My sister and I were lucky to fly many thousands of miles in the 1960s and '70s in many aircraft types, including BOAC VC-10s, Boeing 707s and even a Nigerian Airways Dakota, as our dad (and later our mum) had teaching posts in Kenya and Nigeria. Those were still the romantic days of flying, when passengers walked across tarmac and up steps, rather than walking down the tubes that have turned passenger flying into a mundane affair. (Mind you, aren't take-offs still incredibly exciting!?)

Back then air hostesses GAVE children the sorts of nick-nacks that their parents have to pay fortunes for from the airline catalogue these days; things like model aeroplanes, keyrings etc. We were also given sweets to help us cope with depressurisation. (And they were hostesses, so nobody give me a hard time)

Mum says that I cracked my first joke when I was small, on a flight out to Kenya, when I said, "Mummy, shouldn't there be a wing on this side of the plane too". Apparently I got her with that one.

At Kano airport I remember standing behind an engine and thinking how hot it still was....and then being told that the engine was cold. The heat was Kano. I got a headache and took several days to aclimatise.

The airport perri-ways at Kano were littered with aircraft that didn't make it, including a burnt-out Mig 15. The Nigerian Airforce flew them and my dad played squash with one of their pilots, Ben, at the Kano Club. I recall a Mig fly-past on my birthday. Was it arranged with Ben over a beer? Was it a pure coincidence?

At Entebbe airport (Uganda) I remember climbing down the steps on to the runway and being encircled by soldiers with machine guns, who then went through all our belongings and confiscated my cherished Swiss Army penknife, purchased on one of numerous European stop-overs. That was in the twitchy time after the Israeli hijacking ...and mum had to stifle my protests.

Before my first flight to Nairobi, as an infant, I was scared stiff. I didn't understand that I wouldn't have to sit astride the fuselage, as I did on my pedalcar! In a funny way, I not only overcame that fear but have come full circle; microlighting is just like sitting on that pedalcar......open to the elements - real flying!