Cleaned up the fuel tanks and made them real shiny, almost like new. I also painted the fuel tanks mounting straps.
Apr 9, 2008 – Fuel Tanks
April 2nd, 2008Feb 26, 2008 – Problems with Main Rotor Shaft Mount
February 26th, 2008Today we fired up the engine and almost ripped the Main RotorShaft out of its mounts. It turned out the we hadn’t tighten up all the mounting bolts. It was one of those things where a second check was not done.
I thought Mike tighten them up and he thought I had. So it was a good reminder that every things need to be checked and rechecked when dealing with high powered objects like an engine.
Feb 18, 2008 – Engine Prep for Starting
February 18th, 2008Today, we connected a temporary water cooling system for the engine start tests.
Feb 15, 2008 – Engine Starter Problems
February 15th, 2008Tried to start the engine today, but the starter was not able to spin the engine. We ended up taking the starter apart and cleaning it up.
We also had some water thermostat problems. So ended up cleaning some of them up too.
Feb 9, 2008 – Shaft
February 9th, 2008Today, We mounted the Main Rotor Shaft in the main drive sprocket. This is all in preperation to installing the shaft in the helicopters frame.
Sprocket
Feb 5, 2008 – Painted Frame
February 5th, 2008Today we painted the frame with a glossy white color.
Jan 29, 2008 – Painting of the skids
January 29th, 2008The first challenge was to get the skids off the frame. The main problem is that the engine needed to be supported as to not bend any part of the frame.
The second challenge was re-installing the skids after paintings. The problem was that none of the mounting hole lined up. So we ended up having to drill new mounting holes on the skids.
Jan 22, 2008 – Body parts fitting
January 22nd, 2008Do to many years of lying in my home attic; the body panels took a real warping. In order to get them to fit together properly required a lot of cutting on the panels. But by the end of the day, all fit will.
Jan 10, 2008 – Tub Fitting
January 10th, 2008Today Mike and I attached the tub to the rest of the panels. The tub required a lot of cutting to get it to fit properly.
Nov 18, 2007 – Engine Componets
November 18th, 2007Cleaned up and prepped the engine for starting