Redmond and Derek stopped at an Auto store on the way up to get a 5 litre jerry can (and then 5 litres of unleaded fuel) for the fire trailer and a new tail lamp assembly for the 6x4 trailer. When they got to Stonefield, Igor was already there and had the winch out, ready to go and KRO mostly DIed
The fire trailer was loaded with water, fuelled and started. It starts really easily and works well. There were two minor issues though. There was a leak in one of the connectors in the system which was reasonably bad, such that any water left in the tank would empty during the following week. This is just a seal and should be easy to replace. The other problem was that if you move the hoses around to fight a fire, for example, they could easily fall in front of the exhaust of the engine and start to melt, which is what happened. Fortunately, Derek noticed before it had melted all the way through and the hose is still intact. Derek will make a cage that fits around the exhaust area and keeps the hoses away from the exhaust.
We then worked on FQW to get the starter motor back on and the 100 hourly finished (which was simply changing the oil). The starter motor went back on real easy, but starting the motor was a different story. We eventually got the thing started after much mucking around. Turns out the diaphragm in the carburettor wasn’t seating properly and causing the wrong fuel/air mixture and hence the problems running the engine. All sorted now though.
Derek then did Igor’s check flights IN KRO. There were several rope breaks which was annoying.
After KRO was flown for a bit, FQW’s engine was warmed up to do the 100 hourly oil change, Igor worked on the 6x4 trailer to replace the tail lamp assembly and Derek replaced the rope on one of the drogues. After the oil change was done, Redmond took FQW for a quick flight. Whilst Redmond flew FQW, Derek loaded the 6x4 trailer with another load of corrugated sheet metal from the pile near the hangars.
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