More on the instrument panel and another cable
Without the time to make another cable, well taking into consideration the time it took me to do the last one my thoughts turned to mounting the instrument panel. Now while I was still in the dismantling stage Jim Romain gave me the original instrument panel which I’d placed, duly labelled on a shelf in the best heated part of the workshop.
My idea, as the build manual gives little clue how it is done is to mount the panel from the frame tubes “E” & “F” using padded “P” clip linking them with anti vibration mounts. Difficult to offer it up with the instruments in place as it is a bit cumbersome, they have to come out anyway to check them as best as I can and to re-varnish the panel itself. It turned out that all the instruments were held in by different sizes bolts and all of them the, rather uncommon BA type that I had to burrow into my tool kit to find the relevant spanners.
On removal the rather fine looking altimeter proved to bear the broad arrow mark to declare its military origin while the VSI was marked with a crown and A M, presumably standing for Air Ministry, the ASI bore none of these distinguished marks but was of much the same vintage. Nice kit, I only hope that they prove in good working order
Next time into the workshop produced another length of rudder cable: once complete, I connect it up with its turnbuckle and fit it. Ok fitting involved going into the small access panel at the rear, just in front of the pulleys with my arm fully inserted up to the elbow I felt a bit like a vet delivering a calf but it all worked alright. I need a better cutter though, this worked fine on the lighter wire of the simulator but this was the next size up and ragged ends were the order of the day.
Meantime the check on the altimeter was not looking promising with widely varying readings I was a bit disappointed as it is a fine looking instrument. Then the wife had an idea, “when I was gliding” she said “we used to have to tap the altimeter to get the correct reading but the vibration of power flying makes it unnecessary”. Then she smartly rapped the instrument with a finger and the needle moved significantly and my hopes rose again. So tearing up the record of readings that I’d gathered I started again and this time there was a satisfying sameness, it seems I have a working altimeter after all. Next check will be the VSI, the only way I can think of doing that is to take it along next time I go flying, still I’m feeling more optimistic than I was a day ago.
(Written in March 2015)
Hedy and the Tiger Cub 