The Canadian HM-8 Replica Project
by
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2004 July 21 (continued)
Gerry
hand props the Praga, helped by Paul Fournier and Yvon Clément, who hold in
turn a provisional tank on their head (the real tank is embedded in the wing's
leading edge)
Jean-Pierre Gagnon sits in the fuselage and takes over the controls.
The classical ceremony of the engine hand propping starts.
In
the beginning, the engine shows his disapproval to be awaken bluntly, but he
soon acknowledges Gerry as his master and after less than half an hour, the
Praga coughs up and finally runs
smoothly enough for a 65 years old engine. Jean-Pierre's engine's expertise
helps finding the best tuning. The mixture is still rich, but Gerry, who
should fly the HM-8 in Brodhead, is optimistic to get a smooth running.
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André
Saint-Pierre who is dealing with old engines for years, and always finds what
the other people don't, discovers that the oil piping system, which should
lubricate the valves, is missing. That could have caused a problem after a
certain time of running. Gerry will remedy this situation before the flight
tests.
Thank
you, André!
Gerry
shows Paul Fournier some oil leakage in the carb and air inlet and asks him to
modify the air inlet.
They
also decide to shorten the exhaust pipes to prevent vibrations which could be
excessive.
All
these modifications should be made for Wednesday August 4th. (Meanwhile, some
members of the group will go to
-
2004 July 26
After seeing the photographs of the day, one of the HMS members sends us an
email:
"HM-8
is beautiful, tail paint job especially".
It is great to be so kindly and warmly supported by our HMS colleagues.
Their
support all along the passed year helped keeping the spirits of the team high
during the construction period of time.
I
receive a phone call from the History channel. They should come to see the
HM-8 and interview us next Tuesday.
Another
call from Patrick Campbell who is building from scratch a replica of the Blériot
XI in the workshop of the Heritage Museum of Ste-Anne de Bellevue, West of
Montreal. He will come on Wednesday, August 4, to visit the HM-8 before it
leaves for the States.
The
museum team plans to bring their Blériot to
Passing
through the airport for a flight with the Balerit,
I meet Maurice Mc Duff, a fellow member of our club, owner of a beautiful
Cessna 140. Maurice is a professional truck driver and he confirms a previous
discussion: He accepts with pleasure and has his boss' agreement to drive the
HM-8 to Brodhead in August.
The
other solution would be to tow the HM-8 in a glider trailer, but, so far, my
investigations to find a trailer which I could borrowed or rent have been
negative in spite of the active and friendly help of Neill Graham from our
club who is also involved in a glider club organization in Hawksbury.
Another call of the History
channel: The interview is again postponed to Tuesday, August 10.
If the truck solution is chosen,
the loading and transportation of the HM-8 would consequently occur on Tuesday
August 10, right after the TV interview.
Jean-Pierre Gagnon and Paul
Fournier would load the "avionnette" in the trailer (helped, of
course, by the rest of the team), would drive to Brodhead and would unload and
assemble the HM-8 at its final destination.
Gerry should also be in Brodhead
to put the finishing touch to the engine tune-up, especially to the valves
lubrication system (he already collected the tubing links commonly called
banjos)
- 2004
July 28
André is back from
He visited the soaring club. No
way to use one of their trailers for the HM-8. They are not wide enough for
the chord of the HM-8 wing.
Too bad, in one way, but we also
feel relieved, as we know that the truck will be much safer for the
plane.
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