Completed control panel ready for mounting in to the HiJet. From the top and left to right:-
EGT Gauge, Fail to light cut out time relay, Oil Pressure Gauge, %RPM, Master Power, Starter, Igniter, Starting Fuel, Fuel Reset, Aux and Start and Stop Press Switch's.
All controls have a manual override/ test facility.

At this point I received an email form a sound effect company who had an interest in recording the Viper at various stages of running for a project that unfortunately I can not currently name. I was more than happy to oblige, Ian Bennett also came along and brought his Solar T62 as a secondary engine for them to record. Some pictures and stuff can be found here. A video can be found here.

Thanks to Derek at Alumacraft.co.uk for making me another fine fuel tank. The capacity is only 5 gallons, quite a small volume really, but at the end of the day I am trying to keep weight down, it should still give me a couple of minutes at idle and a good blast down what ever runway that we happen to be on.

As you can see its quite slim, only 4 inch's wide in fact, necessary to fit underneath the right hand side of the bodywork. The original insulation template can be seen to the right.

After the few starts I had whilst running the engine for the sound effects company, it became apparent that the battery's had a limited starting capacity and were only capable of maybe 3 to 4 starts before a recharge was needed. You have to bear in mind that each start could take up to 30 seconds, so that's a lot of electricity, but none the less I would like to have more starts per charge, so the battery's are being replaced with a genuine 24volt NiCad aircraft battery, courtesy of Paul & Ian.

Aircraft battery fitted in to new support frame and existing wiring modified. There were a few moments of concern as to whether the battery was too deep and might interfere with the HiJet's prop shaft, but even though its close, I think it will be ok.