Another set back

All was going so well...

I'd made the electrical changes that the LAA were asking for and then did some more ground running and high speed taxiing, up to 40 knots with the tail up. The Twister seems easy to manage on the ground and this was despite a significant crosswind.

All good. Until I went to clean the mud off afterwards and while cleaning noticed that the exhaust pipe seemed loose.

Sure enough it had cracked completely around the outside of the weld.

So it's cowlings off and all to bits again to get this fixed.

I am using a local guy who is guru. Does welding for Shuttleworth Collection aircraft and is CAA approved. He also repairs and rebuilds old Formula 1 cars.

I think he will be able to come up with a solution for a fix.

As always with these things I see a silver lining. At least it happened on the ground and not on the first flight which would have been bad. Also it gives me an opportunity to slightly change the angle of the pipe to clear it's fairing on the cowl as it was a bit close before (no heat damage to date but it's nice to know it will be 5mm further away in the future).

Well, well, well...

...what have we here?

A Permit to Test?

Surely not?

But before you get too excited dear readers - there are still a few hoops that I need to jump through before flying can begin.

There are a few small changes to my electrical system that the LAA requested. 

Namely:

1. Use a separate fuse and power wire (and both contacts on the switch) for the backup fuel pump. (I already had this initially then at the last minute when wiring up decided to change it to make it simpler, an error on my part as it then became a single source of failure for a backup device).

2. The ability to switch off power to the Main bus (and therefore the Avionics bus at the same time) without switching off the battery (The UL Power engine needs the battery connected when it is running). This function is only for switching off power in the event of an electrical fire.

So I'm working through these changes and finishing off a few other little jobs at the moment.

If the weather gods shine upon us we may see a first flight within 2 weeks.