Since last Friday the canopy blank has been fully prepared, two female canopy moulds cast, two foam canopy door frame cores routed, numerous centre fuselage components drawn, punched out and bent and re-assembly of the wings has commenced following tank seal testing.
While good progress is being made across the board, all substantial projects require both blind faith (to get them started and keep them moving) and also application of dispassionate decision making (to ensure they succeed rather than ending in catastrophe). While it was out plan to depart for the US from the Virginia Airshow in Durban on 16 July, we now believe that it’s too soon and we’ve decided to delay until Wednesday 20 July. With only 5 legs all the way to Oshkosh Mike and Jean still plan to arrive there on 27 July, but of course it is going to mean quite serious hours of flying. And notwithstanding that, if all goes according to plan the Sling 4 will still appear at the Virginia show en route one of its proving flights.
The route to the US is now as follows – Tedderfield to Pilanesberg to clear customs and then direct to Pointe Noire. That’s a 15.5 hour flight. Then the flight to Dakar is a long one, 4 200km around the coast (to avoid politics) which, due to a massive fuel load, will take 24 hours flying. The three remaining legs, to the Azores, New Foundland and Oshkosh come in at only 15 hours each, so that shouldn’t prove too much of a problem. A substantial benefit of the route is that it has only 4 stops en route. Our previous travels in the Sling have demonstrated again and again that the flying is easy and relaxing, it’s the stopping that’s time consuming, stressful and frustrating. So few, long legs really is the way to go. It also costs less because one doesn’t have to pay landing and approach fees as often, one sleeps in the plane, not in a hotel room and so on. Hhhmmm, anyhow, that’s still quite far away yet!
Meanwhile, the launch of the Sling 4 by the Director of Civil Aviation has also been delayed until 10h00 on Tuesday 19 July, the day before we leave. Please any interested parties feel free to attend. Finally, see below the most recent rendering of what the Sling 4 will look like when completed.
