This project has had a bit of a setback due to me being diagnosed with bowel cancer a couple of months ago, which involves chemo therapy which is quite inconvenient but hopefully life-saving, so I’ll put up with it.

The last couple of days I felt up to doing some light duty stuff in the shed. Before Laurie went up to Queensland on another grandkids-spoiling task, we started on re-assembling the aileron hinge fittings, of which there are quite a few since there are two aileron sections per wing, each about 2 meters long.

A few of the M4 studs were found to be quite short, so much so that a standard M4 Nyloc nut doesn’t protrude even 1 turn past the stud. The answer was to use a standard M4 nut with Loctite 222, having carefully degreased both stud and nut. For belts and braces safety I also applied a dab of red torque seal laquer.

I also found a small delamination at one of the hinge stations which was epoxied.

I’ll have these fittings ready for Laurie to double-check when he gets back.

Plan A forward: Laurie and Pete will move the fuselage and control surfaces out of my shed and up to Warkworth, where Pete has generously offered a space in his brand new hangar for it. The wings, which are still in the hangar at Mangrove Mountain, will be inspected by Pete and then taken to Warkworth, to be rigged and flown. Choosing WW rather than MVM for the evaluation flying is due to WW having aerotow available while MVM is winch only. KYU will then be taken to Mangrove Mountain and put on line with Central Coast Soaring Club. We will have to discuss with Michael Vince, our CFI, the details of who will be authorised to fly KYU and how this will be carried out, etc.