Still going.. Slow Going..

Still going...

　
It's been a while since I last updated my blog, Things have really changed in my life in the past few months, Dee and I had a baby boy, Alex. He is growing so fast, last week I was away for a Hang Gliding comp down behind the Gold Coast, I was home every second night, the changes during the week were amazing, Alex was born on the 3rd October, just 2 days after my 38th birthday, what an awesome late present..

I had an awesome comp, great flying through the week with 3 lost days due to rain and low cloud, we did get 5 challenging tasks set, the most memorable was landing at Boonah Airstrip finishing 3rd for the day and Dee and Alex being there, Alex's first experience with Hang Gliding, definately not his last either. Thanks Trev and Regie for another fun filled comp. Results http://highcloud.net/xc/comp_result.php?comPk=66
I finished 8th overall, took out the Best of the Rest as well as most improved, my best comp performance yet, Looking back I was very happy with my flying and decision making through the week..

My Boy.. Alex.

Landing at Goal last day of the Classic

My sail after a Wedgie had a go at me.

I looked all over Brisbane for a plastic bead blasting cabinet that would be large enough for my canopy frame to fit in, In the end I had to make a outdoor blasting area, I used crushed glass as the medium to remove the old paint and glue, The glue took a bit to get off, all up it took 2 days to get all the hard to budge glue and paint, Dee was a big help keeping the blasting medium from clogging in the feeder tube, in the end I was very happy with the result, the canopy frame is now primed ready for new mat black for the dash area and I'm still deciding on the colour for the interior.

First day's effort before I had to head off to work.

Make shift blasting area.

Hard at work

Landing gear and Fairings
　
　
I've been plugging away with the wheel and landing gear fairings while I've been waiting for my engine to be finished and tested, I spoke to the Engine shop the other day and I've been told that my engine is finished, they are just waiting for a run down to Brisbane to drop it off. It is taking a while to get the wheel and leg fairings sorted, Leading up to the comp I had 5 orders for instrument fairings for hang glider pilots, When I wasn't busy working on pods I managed to get little bits done on the fairings, I've lost track of how many times I've removed the wheel fairings, checked something, made a small trim then fitted them again, today I started painting the wheel fairings with high fill primer, there are so many pin holes I still had to give the wheel fairings a coat of filler for the bad spots. I can see that I'm going to be doing a lot of sanding over the next few weeks just to remove all the pin holes, fun, fun, fun but well worth it in the end with an awesome looking paint job.
　

Setting up the wheen fairings, Checking the alignment and position



More glass work



Intersection fairings glassed in position

Starting to look good

I'm not in a rush to get the engine, the longer its at the engine shop the more room I'll have in my shed, when I get the fairings sorted I might chase the engine, I'll probably be tackling the new empennage in the next few weeks, yes it's finally in Australia after being held up in the US while another aircraft was found to fill the rest of the container, I should be able to get the emp kit in the coming weeks, stay tuned..