Back from Bathurst were I attended a Form 2 course. I’m now authorised to conduct annual inspections on fibreglass sailplanes. As the GFA system requires specific endorsements for metal (e.g. Pilatus B4) and wood & fabric gliders (e.g. Bocian, ASK 13), I will have to do some futher training before I can sign off these…

We re-fitted the undercarriage fork this morning. Hopefully the new rubber bumpers for the fork tracks will arrive soon to enable us to install the new bungees. The rest of the day was spent fitting the canopies and metal skirts back onto the frames. The rear canopy was first, there were about 50 odd self-tapping…

Repair of the roller on the rear canopy turned out quite well, it followed the standard procedure advised from the factory in Poland via Wolfgang, our “agent” in Dresden. We trial fitted the rear conopy and measured the amount of bending it is subject to when opened fully – there is a 70mm reduction in…

Too humid for painting this morning so Plan B into action. Laurie re-fitted the tailwheel, having replaced the bearings with new ones – old ones were a bit lumpy (I think that’s the correct technical term). When we took that tailwheel and its mounting brackets off, I found that all the bolts are AN standard,…

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 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…

Laurie couldn’t do the blue paint details as planned due to rainy, humid weather. Doesn’t look much better for the coming week either. We disassembled the canopies and generated quite a bit of work for ourselves. In particular, the guide rollers for the rear canopy frame are in a sorry state, The bearings on a…

Liz and I have been away on a short holiday, up to Armidale via Thunderbolt Way, across to Dorrigo, Bellingen and Urunga via Waterfall Way, then back home via Port Macquarie, all very pleasant. Yesterday Ed and I finished the drum brake installation on our club’s PW 6, turned out well and was signed off…

About time I posted again, have been too busy with club PW-6, changing the (useless) disc brake wheel back to a Tost drum brake per original certification. Numerous attempts to obtain original equipment like brake handles either from local sources or from Jezow in Poland proved unsuccessful, although we did get an offer from Jezow…

Thought I just do a little painting jobthis afternoon, coating the canopy rails and aluminium cockpit surrounds. As always, by the time I sanded the surface rust and masked the surrounds, a couple of hours had whizzed by – I don’t think Laurie took much longer to spray the entire fuselage! So after two coats…