IBob

For smooth idling etc, first check the throttle stop and idle jet settings as per the manual. These are static adjustments and about 5mins 'work'. One of mine was out on a new 912 (can't now recall which one), so worth checking regardless. After that, synchronise the two throttle actions.

Thanks, red. I continue to enjoy seeing them. And I continue to be astonished at the sheer number there have been........

Nothing wrong with capitalising on your assets.........)

Unfortunately, birds seem to habituate to any static deterrent if there is food and/or nesting space. They are a perennial problem in vineyards. Netting of the vines has greatly improved in recent years, but prior to that vintners tried all manner of things: kites, balloons with big fierce eyes, gas guns, hawk cries. And this: An engineer in Hawkes Bay had a bright idea, persuaded a local vintner to let him try it. They erected posts with pulleys on top round a vineyard. An endless motor driven cable ran round the pulleys, and the idea was that various scare devices (balloons, kites, flashers and noise devices) could be attached to the cable and would move constantly round the vineyard. A couple of weeks after all this went in, the vintner called the engineer and said 'We have a problem, you're not going to believe this'. The birds, and there were many, had taken to sitting on the wire, and were happily riding round the vineyard, diving down occasionally whenever an especially juicy bunch of grapes hove into view...............

Ah, you're a week early, flymate: next week end 13/14 Dec is the monthly fly of the Vintage Aviator machines at Hood airfield, Masterton. They wheel out about 20 WW1 aircraft, crank them up and fly them.......

That'll be this one:

I thought this was a pretty good watch:

It's not unusual for pilots of jump planes to wear a parachute......I would say because there are very occasional incidents where a departing jumper damages the aircraft. Perhaps he was wearing a parachute and attempting to exit.

Hi Marty......all sounds like progress! FWIW: My front CHT always read lower than the other one: probably inevitable given the position of the sensors. I think Rotax now recommend initial warmup at 2200RPM, dropping back to 2000 after a few minutes. And my 912 always felt better at 2200 when cold. And I'm not sure about 1800 as the min setting. Mine went lower than that, which was kinder to the engine/gearbox when finally stopping (no big clunk). I set my idle jet and throttle stop as per the Rotax manual, it's quick and easy and one of them was out on a new engine, so worth checking.

I didn't, Skippy. I know MEK is just about instantaneous compared with thinners. Is isopropanol similar?

Other things keep coming back to me: The manufacturer's printing on the 6061 needs to come off, or it will bleed through. Thinners will do this, but MEK does it far quicker and cleaner. However, MEK is nasty stuff, so needs handling with care.

Also this: the polycarbonate in my doors still had it's protective peel-off coating. I then added a thick layer of paper, fastened round the edge with masking tape. This turned out to be totally inadequate, as when I removed those, the surface of the poly was lightly fogged. Presumably paint solvents had made their way through. I believe what the professionals do is mask this stuff with some sort of metal foil and tape. No doubt someone here can tell us? It gave me a bit of a scare: the door is basically two poly panels with a huge number of rivets round the edges and across the middle. But I was lucky (that time): the fogging was 'only' surface and I was able to remove it using a Meguires smooth surface clay kit and a great deal of elbow grease.

Some other bits and pieces for those coming at it for the first time, as I did: My assembly priming was done with a cheap gun, but when it came to the final job, I bought a good quality gun. They just do work better. The wing side I had to wash back and repaint went on too dry, and the reason was too much air. I bought an air pressure gauge that goes on the gun, as the pressure at the compressor is not the same as at the gun once you start spraying. This allowed me to set the pressure at the gun correctly. I had a mixing table in the booth, with a DIY stand for the gun. For mixing I used straight sided pots and a measuring stick to get precise mixing ratios. The measuring sticks are available at spray shops. I then used fine mesh disposable filters (also from spray shop) to filter the mix. I wore a (disposable) lightweight suit, with hood, and neoprene (?) gloves. My mask was 3M full face with Organic Vapour cartridges. This has a neat setup whereby incoming air comes via the face, but outgoing air does not, so there is no misting up. I also bought disposable particulate filters: these go on the outside of the cartridges and catch the overspray, which will otherwise quickly block the (expensive) cartridges. Also from the the spray shop: Tack cloths. Masking sheets (for masking off big areas). These come in a dispenser with adhesive tape attached to one edge and are far quicker and neater to use than DIY solutions.

Hi Marty, I have very limited spray painting experience and set about it with real trepidation. I managed to get a good finish, though I did have to wash off one wing side that went on too dry. My setup was as follows: A Supercheap car parking tent set up inside my workshop, with the bottom edges duct taped to the floor. At the far end, two 150mm domestic extractors (as used in kitchens and bathrooms). These had no ducting, went straight out through the tent and (ply) workshop wall. The pilot who donated these had used them with a long length of ducting and said they were useless like that. I had no trouble, so I think it's worth noting that spiral ducting may greatly reduce airflow over any distance. I painted in winter, so at the near end I had a hole in the tent where I placed an oil filled radiator. I would turn on the fans, which provided a very gentle airflow, turn on the radiator and watch the temp rise in the tent where I had a cheap thermometer. When the temp rose to about 23' I would suit up, turn off the radiator, go in and mix the paint and spray. The temp would continue to rise a bit due to the residual heat in the radiator. For lights I had fluoro strip lights all down one side , with DIY foil reflectors behind them. I thought this would be more than enough in a white tent, but it wasn't. The only way you can see how you are doing is from the reflection of bright light in the surface, and to get that without having to walk round the job and view it at various angles, you need lights on all sides. Simply put, you can't have too much light. I made simple tilting mounts for the wings so that the surface was angled towards me at about 45'. This is a big area to spray, and I found it far easier to work the gun with the job tilted towards me that way. I did not have the confidence to spray both sides , so the wings were each done in two sessions, one side then the other. I partly rotated the fuselage for the same reason, and that was painted in 4 sessions. I found with the colour on the fuse it was really easy to see the finish, compared to the white on the wings etc, where I had to paint then walk round the job squinting at odd angles to get a good reflection. You haven't got much time to be doing this, and the less you move around the less dust you disturb. For all the smaller parts, empennage etc, I also went to some trouble to set them up so I wasn't trying to use the gun at odd angles.

At a BBQ in town some 40yrs ago, we got a lovely low fast banked pass from a Spitfire. We were all amazed and delighted, most of us had never even seen one. About an hour later we heard he was down in a paddock. Apparently he ran out of fuel....or ran out of accessible fuel: had more in wing tank/s (?) but the engine has to be running to pump it across. So once the music stopped, that was it.....