The Sling 7 day build is getting along fabulously. Photos below show the team members and the developments to late afternoon on the second day (Sunday). All bets are still on for 7 days, if not 6.
Team members are –
Men : Mike Blyth, Jean d'Assonville, James Pitman, Gareth Bosch, Vince Ntuli
Women: Nomfundo Xulu, Charmaine Blyth, Bronwyn Eyre, Cheri-Lee Matthews, Vega Ebbersten, Dudu Mathebula (6 girls because one is entitled to attend to writing articles, posting photographs etc at any one time – we're lucky to have 2 journalists included).
All of the men are employees of The Airplane Factory and have experience on the Sling. None of the women come from the factory and one look at them leaves no doubt that they were chosen at least in part for glamour. None have any experience on the Sling or any special mechanical skills of any sort for that matter. Nevertheless, excellent progress is being made and at sunset on day two (21h30, actually), both wings are complete, the rear fuselage is 90% done and the centre fuselage, under Vince's control, will be attached to the rear fuselage and the undercarriage fitted before the end of the day today, day 3.
Briefly, the daily program is up at 06.30 for a cup of coffee, start work at 07h00, work til 09h30 and have breakfast, then work until 13h30, to a 45 minute lunch break. Then it's work on until 21h30, before breaking for supper, some drinks and sleep. Right now everyone's too excited to sleep early and we're up until at least 1am, but that's sure to change. There's no question that weariness is setting in and everyone's starting to fade just a little.
Thanks to all the visitors we had yesterday, especially to Elton for the aerobatic show. Your support is much appreciated and all onlookers are welcome.
More tomorrow, at the start of day four.
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