Easy fix

Every SZD-55 that I've flown seemed to suffer the same issue - water tank venting. I identified the problem last time I was doing an annual inspection on the glider. I pulled out bits and pieces of the tank venting tube from inside of the tank through the water dump valve. Ooooops ... but at least we knew what the problem was. But how the hell do you fix it? Replacing the venting tube would mean at least 4-5 holes in each wing. This was not an option.

I always thought the the system used in German gliders is ridiculously simple and bullet proof and why couldn't we modify the 55 the same way? After long and painful discussions with the type certificate owner we decided to go for it.

All we needed was a gift from Schleicher (thank you so much Uli!):

and 4 hours of Joe Luciani's precious time (thank you Joe!) ... and the problem is fixed for ever.

Material needed: drawings from the factory, gift from Uli, tape measure, glue and drill. The hardest part was to figure out where exactly our hole is going to be. Luckily we measured one more time before drilling ...

almost all we needed

first position estimate

go for it Joe!

spot on! we're in the tank!

The rest was straight forward and Joe glued in the ASG29 caps. We closed up the previous venting holes on the bottom surface and made two little holes in the plastic filler cap. Done - "D-U-N". I will post photos of the result once we pull the wings out of the trailer but I can tell you - it all looks very fancy...and works!

Less than 2.5 months left to our big European trip and we're finalising last bits. Since we have to provide the organisers with two national flags, I approached the local Member for Parliament and this is what I got today in the mail:

thank you!

We're following Graham and Mark's blog every day.

http://grahamandmark.blogspot.com.au/

XM is so desperate to fly but it's all not that easy in France (deja vu) and Graham is still fighting with the officials to let him fly SOLO. Crazy world. Hopefully we will be spared these things in Poland.