Spitfire Break-in

Today was a busy day. I put the markings on. I took her out back and ran the first and second full tanks, using the rules set in the manual. I did some minor tuning of the needles. There is still a little lag in run up from idle to full throttle. Even during the break-in runs I could hear the engine becoming more efficient.

This is one sweet engine.

I had tried the muffler extension to see if it would deflect the exhaust oil. It points up and out. It deflected it alright. Sucker is soft silicone so if flutters and sprayed the entire side. I removed it. Without it I get a patch across the wing and less on the fuse. I can deal with that. I have since put a piece of duct tape just on the leading edge where the heat and oil collect on the leading edge to about mid way along the chord.

The new flat profile fuel dot came in. I installed it replacing the red one. This looks so much better.

My Master Airscrew 12x8x3 prop arrived. The gloss is new, these used to come matte. Nice, I like.

The cut-outs to allow the cowl to fit. 

The landing gear have always been twisty and today I had had enough. Past attemps to fix have failed. I removed them and cleaned up the JB Weld of my last attempt, and let some super thin CA fill in around the posts. I then used 15 min epoxy and reinstalled the gear. Hopefullu that will be thw ned of that!