Two steps forward, one step back

Having opened up the engine box, I thought I'd better have a go at installing the new engine mount we'd ordered and which came with the engine.  Nice looking piece of work it is, too. But, you guessed it, things didn't pan out as I'd hoped.  Initially I thought the problem was with the vertical distance but a bit of brute force (on the part of a much younger man than me) settled that score.  It was then that I discovered that the horizontal distance was the REAL problem -about 4mm short of the requirement. Lots of thoughts went flooding through various minds but what we've opted to do (at this stage anyway) is to elongate each airframe bracket by 2mm each inwards.  That way the frame won't be able to move and we can keep the mounting properly centred. All we have to do now is elongate the holes -something I strongly suspect will be neither easy to do nor quick to action.  If that fails then Plan B will have to come into operation -fabricate new brackets.  Well, it is winter now so a bit of arm exercise will keep me warm, assuming my round file will fit........

But there is good news on the wing front: Rex has managed to source the necessary metal to fabricate the fittings for the compression ribs and we have a volunteer to build the lower spars for us (we've got the wood and the design -just missing the expertise). There's an expression about "on a wing and a prayer"; I'd like to think that as far as our wings are concerned, prayers won't enter into it.  We don't want to suffer from the original Fokker Triplane syndrome.  If you don't know what that is, the Internet is a good place to start looking!