Wow! A year has passed. Past time for an update. July 1, 2020, we closed two of our centers and turned the properties over to the owners. It left us with the original leased property (last 18 years) where the giant top and launcher is located. The landlords graciously waived the rent on the condition we keep the place maintained and ready to open as soon as possible. We were approved by the government for partial operations in September but were shut down again in March. Still shut down but prospects of reopening soon. Quite important because we probably can't survive, even on austerity, for more than a few months more.
Anyway, my last post was on the bearing point. Basically everything was in limbo until we got our partial operations going. The bearing idea ended up being a failure. My friend, the factory owner, came out to witness it in February and agreed the bearing was slowing the spin after rope release rather than facilitating it. So we went back to the original plan but rounded the original point so not as sharp. Also installed a harder steel disk for the point to spin on.
We then decided to try a tarpaulin cover. My wife supervised our housekeeping staff in the cutting and sewing of the panels. When they were assembled, the maintenance staff sewed them to the framework by hand from the inside. We think fiberglass would be the best permanent cover but we lack fiberglassing experience and could not afford it at present in any case. Our maintenance staff are currently constructing and fiberglassing a children's playground slide so we are gaining experience!
We tested the spin with the tarpaulin cover on Saturday. Just a manual pull, no Bumblebee yet. Jeremy was correct in assuming it would spin better with the cover. We had a 7 minute spin manually. We were doing only 4-5 minutes with frame alone on manual spin. I would think it's a combination of aerodynamics and the additional weight of the tarpaulin purely on the perimeter.
Will post a link to the video of the test when uploaded.
