Thanks Jason - those gaskets look just the ticket. Any excuse to put aeroplane parts on the car. I'll persevere with my leaky ones for now, and buy a set of those next time I'm in the States.
Yes - that's a Cri Cri. Mine is slightly different in that it is painted (Ford Focus ST yellow) and had two German-made Solo 210 engines instead of the French JPX PUL 212 engines that most fly with. As a result of both, it's about 10kg over the design weight. Even with me at 65kg, I'm just about in MTOW with a full tank of fuel.
Lots of people comment about being brave etc, but the reality is that if you crash any light aircraft, it's more than likely going to end badly. Better to think instead about flying it properly.
Regarding licensing, the CAA will let you fly on an SEP so long as you have done an hour of asymmetric thrust training and are then signed off in the Cri Cri by a multi-engine instructor observing a takeoff and landing with one engine at idle. Bit weird, but it does make sense - a (proper) twin engine will pile you into the ground if an engine fails and you don't know how to react to it. This one is less dramatic because the engines are nearer the centre of the aircraft, the asymmetric effect is less pronounced.
This is the thing I did my hour of multi training in. The instructor was an ex-BA Concorde captain with an interesting background. Very intense, but a real no-nonsense precision pilot. I really enjoyed it.
The Rebel in your picture is slightly different to mine. That one has an 80 or 100hp Rotax 912 up front (you can see the slot for the radiator) and bungee gear. Mine has a 150hp Lycoming - old-school large-displacement air-cooled dinosaur that's about twice as thirsty, but gives the aircraft a much nicer cowling profile, faster cruise, better climb. I also have the cleaner-looking spring gear, which would look cool if they weren't in a huge pile of pieces that are currently not attached to the aircraft.
It turned-up on a friend's trailer today and has completely filled my garage. A massive inconvenience, to be honest - will make working on the 912 a bit of a chore. Luckily the car is almost ready to move under it's own power, and the weather is getting better, so perhaps I can finish it off outside in the sun.
Priority is getting the car done.
This evening I fitted bumper end caps (with rubber trim)...
... and did an oil change.
I cut open the filter to check for metal.
I do this on the aeroplane to see if the engine is falling-apart inside. You can buy a £50 tool for this, but these tin-snips were available.
After this, you take a Stanley knife to the paper element and pull it out into a long strip. Luckily it turned out to be pretty clean - just some black specks here and there (not sure what they were), but no big bits of swarf. I think all is good.
Next stop, leaking RH carb.
