March 2008...

Again its been a little slow this month but at least I have finished the electric gear and am very happy with the results. Last month I mentioned I was going to make some new brackets for the retraction bars to not only get more over centre, but to make sure that in the event of a microswitch failure, the retraction bars don't get pushed through the lower bulkheads. This has finally been achieved by making new brackets and repositioning them on the retraction bar as shown in the below photo...
Click photo to enlarge
You can see that there is now enough over centre and that when the actuator is fully retracted, the upper bars fit snugly on the spacer pad.

The photo below shows the position when the actuator is fully extended. Note that the retraction bar cannot now be forced through the lower bulkhead if a microswitch fails.
Click photo to enlarge
I am very happy with the end result however it has taken me 25.5 hours to get to this point. Time will tell if it was worth it!

Also this month I did a preliminary fitting of the fuel tank. It is quite a unique way that they have devised to fit it. The all aluminium fuel tank is actually designed and made in Australia by the Searey Distributor. Rob Loneragan. Apparently the original tank made by the manufacturer was made of plastic, was smaller capacity, and had issues with deformation and leaking.

Hope to get a lot done in April.