21/03/2026 - Afternoon

 21/03/2026 - Alex Randall and Sam Hill

After a beer in the pleasant midday sun we headed in. No significant fumes from the day before's charge, but again the results were slightly disappointing. Must be a combination of the rock and the geometry of the passage to be enlarged. SH quickly dragged the spoil back where AR filled bags which SH drilled. Drilling was complete before all the spoil had been bagged, so this was left for Wednesday. SH completed the set up under supervision. The holes were not stepped this time to see if that offers any improvement. 

Before firing an attempt was made to fit the new winch remote. A previous repair to this winch has meant there's no connector between winch and remote so the new control would have to be soldered wire to wire. However when the connector was cut off it was found the new controller only has 3 wires, but the old one had 5. Very confusing. Repair efforts will be aimed at making a working controller from the combination of the new and broken one.

On surface SH had a lesson on big genny and skip operation, followed by dumper starting. The skip load of stone was then tipped and spread onto the track, and rolled in with the dumper. The dumper was also run up and down the track a couple times as this should do it good occasionally. 

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