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Upholstery
I have decided that needle work is just not my thing!
So I am going to contract out the Upholstery.
I have been talking to Howard at
Covertrim (UK) Limited and they have been given the job.
The advantage of using them for me are several fold:-
1) They do excellent work.
2) They are local (about an hour's drive from me).
3) They will come to me to do the fit.
4) They are very nice people to deal with.
More as the project progresses.
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Wednesday August 8th. 2006
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This afternoon Howard from Covertrim came over and delivered the front screen which has been trimmed inside. He also fitted the leather to the top of the fuselage inside the screen area.
While he was here we trial fitted the two side panels and also the rear luggage shelf trim piece. Next he cut all the carpet which will cover the whole of the luggage area and the floor of course. Once he had finished, all the carpet was taken away to have the edges bound.
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Tuesday August 15th. 2006
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The trimmer sent me some pictures of my seats and side panels with map pockets this evening.
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Saturday 2nd. September 2 hours
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May be not exactly upholstery but it's inside the cockpit so this seems like a good place to put the following.
I fitted the sound proofing material to the inside of the firewall, this was after I cut down some bolts that hold the engine mount to the fuselage, they were too long and they need to be the minimum length so the carpet fits. This is a really difficult job purely because its very hard to work within the cockpit when the are no seats fitted.
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Thursday 7th. September 2006 |
Howard from Covertrim came over today to trim most of the cockpit. he was here for most of the day fitting the Vinyl fill-in pieces, carpets and seats. We just have the centre console to finish off, the delay for this is my fault, I have to re-make the glove box top out of thicker material so I can screw the hinge into it. We also have to decide on what to do about the top of the spar box, whether to fit a padded piece or just a mat.
Trim so far...
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Sunday September 24th. 2006 3 hours |
Today I re-fitted the luggage compartment trim pieces. I have been looking at this for several days and I just had to change the way the panels were fitted. This is not the fault of the trimmer as he just covers the pieces supplied by Alpi. The problem was the the rear panel needed to be brought forward of the rear bulkhead so that there was no gap around its edge. I have had to pack out the rear panel by about 10mm and now I am happy with the fit.
The next job was to fit the seat belts as I want to do the final fit of the Canopy and it will be a lot easier to
do before the canopy goes on. It's a shame there was no colour choice for the belts, they would have looked much better in black or blue.
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Friday 6th. October 2006 4 hours |
Howard my trimmer delivered the centre console, front seat pads and glove box to me yesterday so I spent a few hours fitting it. Before it could be fitted I found that a brake pipe had been pinched so I replaced it and also remade the mounting brackets for the brake valve which now fits onto the carbon fibre centre console top.
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How G-LEAH began life |
The end of the first flight, G-LEAH flies as
well as she looks. |
To view the original of this
tribute to the upholstery skills of Covertrim (UK) Ltd, click on the link below:
Building Alpi Pioneer G-LEAH
Well, you've read above how it all began, now, below, how it
has ended.
I had spent a good few months trying to convince my wife (Jackie) to make the
most of my new toy with me and to take the "Wives course" at Andrewsfield, which
involves 5 hours of flying tuition, to teach her how to perform basic control
manoeuvres and land the aircraft.
I eventually managed to convince her to give it a go and to my surprise she did.
She has said since that she did it just to shut me up which I believe :-).
Her instructor was Jon Dyer and to his credit managed to get her to enjoy the
flying so much she decided to do the full PPL course.
In August this year, 2008, Jackie passed her PPL so we are now a two pilot
family.
Along the way she picked up the Jim Heelan Memorial Trophy for outstanding
achievement given by Andrewsfield Flying club and I was so proud of her.
It was a real achievement to go from someone who had a real fear of flying to
not only getting her licence but to overcome that fear and become a good pilot
to boot. Well done Jackie!
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All Done |
Finished Panel |
"Although I thoroughly enjoyed building and flying G-LEAH I found that it was just too small for what I wanted
from a touring aircraft and reluctantly I have decided to sell it. I have bought a
Commander 114B G-JFER.
The new aircraft better suits my needs and is a joy to fly. I am sure that the new owner of G-LEAH will have as much fun in her as we have.
John Ferguson"
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