We have arrived at the happy stage where bits are being put back onto the fuselage as opposed to taken off. Laurie made a start with replacing the tail wheel brackets. When checking the bearings on the tailwheel, we decided to replace them as the existing ones feel a bit lumpy (at least we think that’s the technical term).

The front panel cowl had a bit of a gap between its front edge and the fuselage rim, due to a small wood support which had lost its adhesion at the edges, allowing the cowl to sag. A minor wood repair using an original bit of timber from the luggage shelf shaved into a slightly convex curve attached with West epoxy 105/206 was carried out to fix this.

We tested the bungee stretching turnbuckle which Laurie had modified for that purpose, and it works quite well. We’ll have to make a more ergonomic turning lever and apply grease to the turnbuckle screws to make this task a bit smoother.

Laurie has taken the canopy frames home for sanding and re-spraying.