Well, fall is really here -- over the past month a lot of rain has fallen. This normally means a dreary feeling usually felt by many people. However, the mood and tempo at the hangar has been notably upbeat this month. This can most likely be attributed to the following reasons. One, we are back to work on the project restarting the work we halted on the empennage earlier this year.

Two, we had a visitor to the hangar towards the end of the month who dropped of a $5,000 donation!! This was a tremendous boost for us since it will allow us to continue the contract with our AME for one whole month. To commemorate this, Jim O'Toole, one of our Spitfire veterans who was at the hangar signing the limited edition print, helps to install a plaque to recognize the donation to our project.

Three, our limited edition prints are all signed and the initial response has been tremendous. Remember if you wish to support the project one way you can do this is to purchase one of these limited edition Spitfire prints signed by over 10 Spitfire pilots for $195. Details can be found on our Multiple Signed Spitfire Print page.

As mentioned earlier we are back to work on the project. In this picture you can see me working on installing anchor nuts on the empennage. These anchor nuts will secure an inspection panel that will allow access to the weights in the tail section, as well as access to the pulleys that move the trim cables out to the elevator trim tabs.

As well, we do at times have to do woodwork at the hangar. This may seem strange as the aircraft is an all metal construction; however, it is easier to make wooden molds at times to help shape some of this metal.

	In the accompanying picture, our AME is shaping an oak block into a form that will help him shape the nose skin for the vertical fin section of our empennage. He then shaped the skin out of O condition aluminium which will later be heat-treated in the oven. Once heat-treated, it will be fitted to the fin and installed.
	In this picture you can see the test fitted nose skin. We have even started on the lower nose skin as well. After this we will continue to fit the skins, however, final installation of one side will wait until we have built our tail plane. This will actually be the next big project: one, building the jig for this tail plane, and then physically building the tail plane.

Until next time -- thank you for your time and support,
The Spitfire Volunteers