With a flat battery there was only one thing for it – hook up the jump leads and see if she’ll start! She did, bless her, but there was still no sign of life on the ammeter and the low voltage light shone on, with what I can only describe as real malice.

We let her run a while to warm the oil and circulate it round the engine and kept the jump leads connected to charge the battery from my car. The evil winking eye eventually extinguished but the generator just isn’t doing its thing.

Jim had a go tweaking the regulator voltage coil but without effect. He thinks the new brushes need to be reshaped and bedded in ( they’re not strictly the correct brushes, but, as Jim says. ‘a brush is a brush is a brush!’ ). So, we’ll see if that makes a difference, but I think the best thing now, is just to ditch the whole lot and replace it with an alternator – that’ll sort it for good.

With a charged battery, we can still fly her, though – so if the weather’s good the week after next, I’ll take her out for an hour or two to blow the cobwebs off her wings. She spends too much time in that hangar!

Till next time……