Laurie wanted to do some spray painting tody, the blue automotive paint he had got the supplier to carefully match with our sample. However, when he opened the tin it was purple! No matter how long it was stirred, it stayed resolutely purple.

Never mind, there are always plenty of other tasks to be done.

We went to the local nuts and bolts shop, Advantage Fasteners in the Morisset industrial area, and bought a swag of screws and bolts for the canopy. Virtually all of the self-tappers around the canopy showed some corrosion so they need replacing. Likewise the self-tappers for the skid and its fabric cover. Altogether there will be in excess of 100 screws that are going to be renewed.

Laurie had taken the canopy frames home and removed the surface rust that was present, followed by a primer coat. They will receive a top coat of the blue.

We also renewed the bolts for the front canopy hinges, and mounted the front microphone to one of them, thereby rescuing it from the self-tappers behind the front seat where the mic arm had been flopping about.

I’ve been having a few email sessions with Wolfgang in Dresden about the repair of the rear canopy rollers. Thanks Wolfgang for all your help with this, much appreciated.

He sent me this photo from one of their canopies (they have 3 Bocians in their club). While ours aren’t quite as bad, it’s obvious they have to be fixed.

That’s the screw they use, which is a factory-approved method. The screw is secured into the tang with Loctite.

Off subject, Wolfgang is an experienced cross country pilot and he regularly tells me about his latest exploits. The other day he informed me that he had a holiday week earmarked to do some serious flying. His description was as follows: “It was a disastrous week weather-wise, terrible all week untill Friday when I could take the LS4 on a 170 km flight and Saturday when I did 450 k” . Disastrous week indeed!