jasperfforde_com_header


 
The Great Skyranger Weight-loss Adventure #1
left.jpg right.jpg
Rearwin Skyranger

My Trusty Skyranger. When built in 1940, she weighted 780lbs empty. She now weighs 915lbs. Clearly, some weight has to come off if I'm to operate out of a short strip with any sort of payload (weight is your enemy in flying. (It seriously affects performance, especially in something as underpowered as a Skyranger.) Most of the extra weight is in the spats, a wooden luggage box, extra instruments, an oil filter sytem, and about nineteen layers of paint.

I also had to put in diagonal restraint seatbelts to be in compliance with CAA regulations. She still had her 'one belt over both occupants' system, which is far from ideal. The new attachment points had to be welded in, and welding near doped fabric is not a good idea - in the annals of things that blaze easily, fabric-covered wooden aeroplanes win several prizes. It was this that really provoked me into recovering her. To learn how 'GI and I went through our dramatic weight-loss regime, click on the arrows.