Morph and Gadget's EPH rebuild

[Boet]

Ek was laas Donderdag Dokter toe. Die het my afgeboek. Bronchitis. Hoes soos n Texan plain -roker, dat my 2 longe omtrent soos 2 vinkneste by my ore uithang. Dit het met n baie swaar verkoue begin, laas Maandag. So siek soos ek nou voel kan ek dit nie naby n vliegtuig waag nie. Nie maklik nie, want ons het die mees fantastiese vliegweer hier die laaste paar dae.......

[Koevoet]

Boet die foto 101_1810.jpg - is dit blomme tyd al of wat is die oranje teen die berg.

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Nice, but wish it were mine...

[Boet]

Blomme tyd. Net jammer ek voel te bleddie siek om dit te gaan geniet.

[John Young]

Net jammer ek voel te bleddie siek om dit te gaan geniet.

Hi Boet,

Hoopelik is jy nou weer gesond.

Waar is die blerrie aerie nou?

Hoe lees dit vir 'n stukkie dubble de-clutch van hierdie vervlakste engelman?

Groete
John ZU-sEXY

[John Boucher]

Flowers... missing it again!

Next year it shall be for certain. I'll even get Jet Ranger and his softness to come with.....

[Boet]

Eph is sleeping at home tonight. Morph, Gadget, Grumpy and Skidmarks came to fetch. Last night we had a braai under the stars and an eclipse of the Moon. Good stuff, but they can tell you about that themselves!!

[Wargames]

It was a lovely day to fly her back. Well done!!

[John Boucher]

You guys must be elated.....

I can't wait to get CXO in the air again. The aerial view of the countryside must be looking great!

[Morph]

Magic Carpet Ride. So much so that my co-pilot forgot to take pictures.

The story starts on saturday morning, 7am, Morning Star, Gadget and I met up with Skid and Grumpy. We drove up to Loeries in Skid's softness' Mahindra. The idea was to fly back same day. We arrived at about 12h00 and met Boet, at the airfield. Out came EPH and it was time for a test flight. I haven't flown for 8 months and was a bit apprehensive to say the least. Fortunately one of my mates, CFD from Morning Star was there and him being a BB pilot as well took me up for a checkride. That went well and I was quickly confident about my ability to fly and land the plane. By this time it was 2pm and the thermal activity was building. I was not keen on being bounced around the sky for 3 hours on the way back. Then we discovered that the radio/intecom was not working. So out that came and eventually I made the decision that it was too late to return to Morning Star so a stay over was required

Boet graciously offered to put us up in his house and laid on the most amazing braai, including hoender for Skid. Hoender it appears is rare, in Loeries, as all these corn fed boys are pure lamb and mutton carnivores. Anyway, Boet's softness managed to drag the owner of the Spar out of the bar to unlock and supply us with some feathered fare and some tooth brushes. Small towns

In the meantime Gadget and I tried to sort out the intercom, that eventually solved, we discovered that plug from the intercom to the radio had a wire broken inside it and we could not key the radio. Boet came to the rescue by lending me a handheld that I plugged my headset into.

A lekker braai followed, lots of kak praat, the odd liquid refreshment was consumed and Grumpy, myself and Boet tickled the strings on a guitar for a while as well

Sunday morning bright and very breezy we arrived at the airfield. Plane was checked out, prop had been repitched the afternoon before and I took her for a test flight. We fueled her, loaded up Gadget with a headset to protect against the noise and me with the handheld and headset combo. I was very nervous, 240 Miles ahead of me over serious klippe. We discussed it and opted to head for the coast and fly via Saldanha. 5 minutes after take off all the nerves had dissapeard and we had a nice 20mph tailwind carrying us along at 105mph ground speed. We climbed to 6500 and headed for Lamberts bay. Once at the coast we routed south to Saldanha where we landed for coffee and to take on some fuel. flying time 1h40

I checked out the engine compartment and noticed a bracket for the radiator had cracked. We spent an hour making another bracket. I also saw I had lost a screw on the spinner, so removed it just in case. 1pm we took off and routed for Morning Star. 40 min later we landed safely. Needless to say Gadget and I punished the beer supply in the bar for a few hours unil Skid and Grumpy arrived by car.

Man it was absolutely lekker

I have attached a Google Earth file showing the route. I am trying to work out how to get te flight path in full 3D

[Morph]

More pics

[Grumpy]

Great time was had by all. Thanks to Boet and sweetness for putting up with us.
Thanks Morph, Gadget and Skidmark.
Lets do it again soon!!

[Wargames]

I am a bit disappointed in you guys.

Couldn't you get Boet to do a "flatty" or didn't you even try to convince him??

Glad she's home morph!! It's about time!

[slysi]

Cheers Morph and Gadget, you must be thrilled to have your baby back. I wish you many happy, safe hours in her.

[Tailspin]

Well done guys.

Glad to see all made it Home ok.