Laurie and I participated today and last Tuesday with the Form 2 / 10 Year Survey of our club’s Puchatek VH-GKD under the auspices of Rob Moffat and Laurie Simpkins from Qld.

It was my first activity with the recently gained Maintenance Authority from GFA, the ROC (replacement of components) ticket.

We were involved in dismantling and, following inspection, the re-assembling of the tailplane (ask us what we think of the way the elevator hinge bolts are installed!).

I also was seconded to enlarge the bores of new skid shock absorber donuts on my lathe which worked out quite well, and machining a new Delrin knob for the trim lever – the original one had stripped the M6 thread. It will still have to be painted green.

We also dismantled and cleaned the skid, and subsequently reinstalled it.

A lot of good information was obtained and important lessons learned.