Posted on Sunday 3 December 2006
What an exiting day. After having trouble accessing the right oil for run in we finally got it Friday night by a great effort from fellow Aero Club member John Nichols. Thanks John. An early fly is in the books.We finished attaching the spinner as accurately as possible for centring, then removed a spark plug from each cylinder to blow out the inhibitor.
Before start we used the opportunity to mark on the fuel gauges zero fuel, so we had to add unusable fuel. With the Navigators help we also flushed the whole fuel system to pick up stray dust etc. The photos show the work to this stage, photos of the actual start and first taxi will have to come later as the Navigator / photographer was in the right seat. We had help by this stage by our trusty helpers and co-enthusiasts Jim and Frank. I will be relying on them for photos of the important parts (maybe also some video, if I can work out how to include it – help! Glen & Shane). The start both surprised and impressed me. After sitting idle for so long and being filled with inhibitor I expected the first start to a bit slow and smoky. Not so, after filling the carby with the aux. fuel pump, we hit the starter with choke of course. The motor immediately responded into action. It was dying to go!
It was good to have Jim and Frank as they helped solve a problem with the Tacho (that did not work at first). Their IT knowledge came into play as we had to program the tacho to tell it what type of signal it was receiving. Also a bit of adjustment with the Tacho sender was required. It now works fine. I will have to change the wiring for the instruments though. I had a switch to turn off all Radios and instruments, but now realise that we need some instruments on at start (oil pressure and Tacho etc.) therefore will make the switch only turn off radios, GPS and A.H..
More after more photos.
