Wet everything with soapy water. Loosely set up total assy. - - - gently, PARTIALLY inflate tube, deflate, tighten up assy., fully inflate.
Exactly the 'correct' [approved?] technique! With one very small correction or suggestion: due to the remote possibility of some sort of adverse chemical incompatibility, instead of water and soap which might cause corrosion &/or deterioration of the rubber - tire/tube - and/or any metals in the area - use a very liberal amount of (baby) talcum powder dusted, poured over 'everything'. Inside both wheel halves, on beads of tire and edges of wheel rims, and ALL over the damned tube! Auto shops use the soapy water 'trick'. OK. If the set-up fails on a car you usually pull over to the side of the road and do a bit of cursing as you get out the jack & spare, or call Trippple A. If part of your landing gear fails on take-off or landing, the odds are you're gonna at least tear up your flying machine and maybe walk away from the mess with tears in your eyes. At worst, we may never see ya at OshKosh or Sun-N-Fun, ever again. . . . . . . . more B.S. from an ol' A&P . . . . . . . s/s _JTWxBY@AOL.com_ (mailto:jtw...@aol.com) ORL/MCO * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * We went to Sun-N-Fun, yesterday ~ ~ ~ was there from before sun-up until after sun-down with a fast lil electric scooter we rented so we got to actually see darn near everything, from one end of the huge turn-out to the other, and back again. Warm, but still . . . . . . . . . . . . Great Day! Fantastic Day! All thanks to my lovely Bride Ginette who found $$$$$ money in our budget so I could go! An aviation 'fix' like that may last for . . . . oh, say, a couple of weeks . . . . . . WOW! Saw a double-breasted bug-crusher [Beech SNB/C-45 "Expediter"] doin' full aerobatics. Took my breath away. I got my advanced instrument flight training @ Pensacola NAS Saufley Field with Capt. Lovell, so I do in fact have experience in the venerable ol' bird. Unreal. Brought back very fond memories of Bob Hoover in the Aero Commander Shrike. Vas you dere, Charlie? Saw a lil bitty black airplane pull the nose up to a pure vertical, and then literally & completely . . . . . simply just hang there on the prop! [Barney Oldfield once quipped, "Give me enough horse power and I can fly a barn door!"] Very, very impressive! Saw a medium-sized, twin-engined helicopter with a "rigid rotor system" doin' full aerobatics. As a Commercial chopper pilot with over 4,000 hrs., the performance took my breath away! Absolutely unreal. I have almost 600 hours in that type of machine so I knew the BO-105C could do it, but . . . . . . . . I've never seen someone else do it! As a (USMC) Designated Naval Aviator and FMF flyer, I have done quite a bit of fixed wing 'close-together!' formation flying and have over 600 hrs. of night operations. But in over fifty years of aviating, I have NEVER combined the two. At S-N-F last night, I saw 3-4 guys doin' just that: Spectacular night show, with lights on the aircraft, pyro! and smoke - - - FLYING THEIR ROUTINE IN-FORMATION! The planes were closer to each other than the day-time USAF Thunderbirds! Unreal. I think I stood there holding my breath for about eleven minutes! And I had the pleasure of meeting Joe Horton and his beautiful KR-2S 'N357CJ'. Fantastic lil machine. The sides of the cockpit even have paneling! Looks like the walnut-trimmed insides of a real expensive European auto! He said he had flown down from Pennsylvania the day before, about 6.5 hours stick-time with a stop for fuel . . . . . . . . what a way to spend a day, eh? BUT THE SADDEST NEWS OF ALL? Take a guess how many of Ken Rand's aeroplanes were at S-N-F yesterday? . . . . . . . only two (2!) . . . . . . . Do any of you know the meaning of the word "travesty"? Out of soooo many KRs flying . . . . . . .all the talk of putting the machines back into "the mainstream of homebuilts"......... Sad, really sad, Folks! Piss-poor turn-out. And please don't waste my time & yours with a bunch of "explanations" why you and your plane weren't there - - they're only excuses! Good Grief - there were at least half a dozen beautifully restored [or, maintained?] mint condition Stinson 108-3s, 'The Flying Station Wagons' from the late 1940s. I saw almost that many Ercoupes! Where the hell were the KRs?! OK, 'nuff for now. For most, flying is a way to make a living. For the rare few, flying becomes a way of life.
