Driving to Moorabbin airport this morning it's been about a month since i've seen
echo yankee zulu because i've been doing a bit of traveling i did that trip to Fiji
but mainly because i've been really sick the last week or so not Covid i did a couple
of tests and thankfully it wasn't that but there is a lot of flu going around
Melbourne i caught up on some excellent netflix shows though and i watched the new ghostbusters
which i've been wanting to watch for a long time it was excellent but movie review can wait for
another day because we're going to the airport i'm going to see echo yankee zulu and apparently
something i've been looking forward to seeing for well pretty much since this whole process started
just before we go in and see echo yankee zulu as i make a wrong turn
there is one other update here at Moorabbin airport things are a little bit different
from when i was here last time about a month ago see normally i'd turn right down there
where that car's coming from but there's been a bit of a change at the airport very nice see
blue demon the people who look after my aircraft have gone and got themselves a fancy new hangar
okay well the main changes that you'll notice from when you saw this aircraft last time
ah of course both screens are in this isn't the real dash this isn't the final dash this is just
the temporary wooden one that we've been using for spacing but both g500 txis are in not only that
the comstack is back again as well so the radio panel the two gtn navigation units here they're
in as well the autopilot is back in the g275i the standby instrument that's sitting in there
as well at the moment the good thing is they're all powered as well i can't power them on just
yet i just need to wait for the guys to come back before we turn them on again it's starting to look
like a cockpit again just in terms of the panel itself the actual piece of metal that everything
is mounted on that has now been painted i do have some rather disappointing news for you here on the
channel if you've been following the progress effect yankee zulu so far you'll know that with
the panel we were gonna put that red line around the outside now that is happening but it's not
gonna be there for day one and to be honest i am looking for a detailing company out there you know
the types of guys who work on like car detailing uh painting the exteriors of vehicles that sort of
thing if anyone out there is watching and you can do the very thin painting of the line around the
outside on metal if the dash i'd really appreciate some help so in the meantime we've decided
to leave that for the minute and just focus on getting the panel basically just focus on getting
the plane flying again once it's been flying and we've tested all the avionics then we'll
bring it back down into the hangar again take the panel out and then i'll get the detail put around
the outside so batmobile red stripe is coming it's just not going to be there for phase one
now one big bit of work that has been completed is the wiring that runs along the wing here
that goes to these items which you can just see hanging out down here there's two outside air
temperature probes and two magnetometers all that wiring that has to run through the wing
from what i've heard is one of the fiddliest jobs that had to be done in this whole process
but that's finally been done so there's wiring that's running along the wing now that's what
you can see coming out of this little access port here but getting that wiring done and
getting that finished so we can actually test the equipment was a big milestone apparently it
was an awful job because you have to do each individual wire it's like a group of wires
but each wire had to be done individually you can't just take the cluster of wires
so this is the panel where the standby instrument is going to go into the aircraft
whilst i was down here at the hangar i just thought i would help out get it ready for
it's going to be painted in a second so we're just getting the surface ready cool
so it's not a fail no it's just it's just c minor now we'll mix some paint now some paint
so give it a give it a shake so we're going to do two to one and then thin to consistency
give it a good mix so then we'll chuck about 25 mil in nozzle angle yeah paint feed and air feed
nozzle paint feeders so when you paint you're gonna release pull the trigger yeah keep it nice
and square and then you're gonna just run off at the same distance off the job okay gonna go
you're a natural now you're just gonna pretend this is your part
yeah i want you to just run down it
yeah beautiful do that yep a little bit further away
a little bit further away so one more coach one more coat thanks paul
still wet you are literally watching a youtube video of me watching paint dry
that does look better done i could get a job here now we're looking for a prank
amy i'm really excited about this moment amy this has been like a long time coming
it's like we've had the screens on the floor um we've taken them out the box we've had cables
but this is the first time i'm actually going to see you press that switch and turn everything on
i'm excited are you excited you're not excited because you've been working on this for a while
i'm excited to show you all right i'm ready okay this is all yours big moment
lights are coming on i see garmin logos
that is a lot of garmin logos actually you get a lot of gum in there wow oh amazing okay
they're clear aren't they they're good quite high resolution actually though screaming
yeah i think you've still got the uh and used to but yeah
that is brilliant that looks really good look steven look it's alive
now of course i'm not allowed to drive this actually i don't think they
they really want me to sit in this either
he's always wanted to have a go on a full clip truck never driven one before there's still a
lot of testing to do on the ground before we do get echo yankee zulu flying again not just with
the avionics itself obviously the engine's been sitting idle for a couple of months whilst it's
been here in the hangar getting work done as well so we need to do uh some some proper run-ups once
all those tests are done on the ground it'll still be a little while before we actually get
the wheels up off into the air and then we'll be doing some testing on a really nice blue sky
vfr day just in case anything does fail in the cockpit we can bring the aircraft down again
and make sure we'll find out what's happened my hope is that we'll get the plane airborne
in a couple of weeks time and make sure everything's running okay iron out any issues
and then in the latter half of 2022 that's when i've got some bigger plans for taking
the aircraft a bit further afoot i cannot wait it's actually quite infuriating sitting at an
airport with your aircraft so close to you and not be able to take it flying anywhere
obviously but i know that when the changes come and when the aircraft is flying again
it's going to be so good i cannot wait it's going to be brilliant
stephen i'm assuming you won't let me drive that forklift truck
even if it would make a really good youtube sequence no