Have as merry a socially distanced Christmas as you can, and look forward to a very happy new year!!!

In this month’s edition:

 

CAA Consultation: UK General Aviation opportunities after leaving EASA

You have until 18th December to have your say at: consultations.caa.co.uk/ga/uk-general-aviation-opportunities-after-easa/

 

Down on the farm 29 this month 11.20

There will be no club nights for the foreseeable future; we will inform you once the restrictions are lifted. Might be possible soon but not everyone will feel comfortable coming for quite a while.

Klemm L25C G-ACXE

We have had to stop building the Klemm over the last few weeks but in the last 2 weeks that we were working on it we progressed well with the engine cowl. We have been planning how to style and fix the cowl as we had none at all and there is no British Klemm L25C in existence. We have looked at what photos we have and the BA Swallow cowl (the successor), the problem is that the oil tank location is totally different and the BA plane has a double curvature top section whereas the photo we have of the BK Swallow indicates it is a straight line. We have used a set of Tiger Moth catches that I had spare and designed fixings that bolt to the engine mount to carry the catches. We have a top section which is single curvature and a hinged flat panel either side with strategic cut outs to miss the mags etc. The oil tank on ours is in front of the firewall, whereas the BA version is behind the firewall and there is a fairing on the BA where our oil tank is. We are at the present thinking to let the oil tank be exposed in the airflow for cooling purposes and it also looks interesting and these planes are not the slipperiest around.

Klemm Cowling in construction

Bristell NG5 G-NGBB

This is the new Bristell Demo plane that I am building to replace the Green machine. It’s white at the moment, not sure yet about extra colours yet and the art work but we might go the wrap route.

It’s a Rotax 912ULS powered version and it has the latest canopy locking system which addresses one of the things that I did not rate very highly on the earlier models. It is having a Kaspar KA4/3 PA prop with APC (automatic prop controller) sense airspeed and then controls pitch with a programmable computer. Dynon Skyview (full synthetic vision) with a Dynon transponder which operated from the touch screen and the radio frequencies can be changed on screen as well and 2 axis Dynon autopilot.

Rotax plumbing in build

Triumph T110 1958

I just acquired the above as a lockdown-02 project. It has not been used for many years and had been sold at an auction in 2019 in big chunks. The new owner then had a go at renovation, painting the fuel tank and mudguards not very well and put it together in one lump so that it was a rolling bike but still a none runner, but it had a valuable number plate. The bike was then sold to the motorcycle shop in Hastings where the plate was removed for sale and the bike sold on to me. I took the carburettor off and put into the ultrasonic bath, drained the rotten fuel from the tank and filled it with new UL91. Magneto pickups were removed and the brushes freed off and lubricated, cleaned the slip ring. Points removed and cleaned. The leads were around the wrong way ie LH pickup to RH plug. It fired up and I rode it, all gears working but oil pumping from the breather and lots of bolts loose and some missing, so some of the rings are probably stuck so it’s an engine rebuild! I am painting the tin ware first before I tear the motor apart.

The 1958 Triumph Tiger 110

Tony Palmer

Something to Look Forward To!

The LAA is organising a ten-day flying tour of the UK in May as a celebration of our 75th anniversary.  Shoreham, as the LAA’s former HQ, is on the itinerary.  You can join in all or just part of the route – and even sleep under the wing!  Look out for full details in the next Light Aviation magazine.

 

For the Aeromodellers Amongst Us

From Mick Welch:  A friend in Spain has recently died of cancer. His widow asked if I would help disposing some of his toys. I had no idea he was a model maker until we went into his Hobbies room where there were over 30 models ranging from a 2m long “Bismark” to small cars. There were also a pile of boxes that were new and not yet started and amongst them a number of non-flying very detailed Spitfire models. I agreed to take them back to the UK, which as we had travelled by car I was able to do, and raise some much needed funds for her.

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They are all different marques of Spitfire from two different makers. The smaller at 1/32 but more detailed and over £100 retail and larger at 1/24 and cheaper at approx £50.

For more info contact Mick on 07774 157095

And if you are wondering what to do with your model once you have made it, this video may be an inspiration:

 

Latest CHIRP

With me the paper version of this publication arriving by post always got read.  The electronic version has the same though provoking material, but I seem to have to make an extra effort to read it, submerged as it is amongst the deluge of on-line stuff.  Well, if you haven’t seen it yet, here it is: CHIRP GA Feedback Edition 86 (downloads as a pdf).

Events

Corona Virus Restrictions  There will be no club nights for the foreseeable future; we will inform you once the restrictions are lifted.

For the latest list of events, go to the Events page on the Strut website.