February 27, 2021
Holy Hannah what a day! I had not expected to make my first flight today because I wanted wind from the south since that would keep me flying on take off over empty fields until I reached a safe altitude. Winds were forecast from the north so I settled in to cleaning up a few small projects until Loyd arrived…
February 23, 2021
With four hours until the inspector arrived it was hustle time to knock off the last few items. First up was installing the lighting and Plexiglas in the right wing tip. After making a few passes on englarging the opening the landing and taxi lights slid right in and from there is was easy going. The wing root fairings were…
February 22, 2021
My work day started at 4:00am and I put in 16 hours getting my plane ready for tomorrows inspection. And yes, I am exhausted. But I should be ready to go after a few hours checking the final items off the list. Today I finally got around to the louvers on the bottom cowling. This was a time consuming process…
February 21, 2021
The day started off with making good time on the right wing tip access door. Everything fell into place and soon I had everything cleco’d together and flox between the fiberglass door and the metal stiffener curing. Then is was on to electrical stuff. I knocked out the prep wiring for the right wing tip light. So once the tip…
February 20, 2021
No not the Airworthiness, but rather certification of the transponder and static systems. This was a much more involved process than I expected. All told it took three and a half hours. A good chunk of that was fixing leaks. At every threaded fitting there was a leak. I had used teflon tape but the system still leaked. Could have…
February 19, 2021
Whew, the cowling is making me work for it. Started and finished the day with sanding. You know my feelings on sanding. In between I fabricated the oil door mounting for the two latches and the hinge. At the end of the day I riveted the cowling/hinge/stiffener together with flox to support curved areas below stiffener. A break in the…
February 18, 2021
So I thought I could bang this out in short order. HA! Started the day with more sanding… A bump out/blister was needed for proper clearance from the Vetterman exhaust, this was completed a number of weeks ago and was waiting for final sanding and for the foam mold to be cut out. That wasn’t too big of a job…
February 17, 2021
With my inspection scheduled for Tuesday I am working long hours and on the items that affect airworthiness. Fancy interior and other bells and whistles will have to wait. I finished the last of the heavy lifting for sanding, woohoo! So today’s three hours of sanding included; pilot door sill and surround, the inside cabin top, and left wing tip…
February 16, 2021
I finished up the baggage area today. This included riveting the diagonal cover I had to drill out the rivets yesterday due to other rivets I had forgotten to pound… I fabricated a new steel baggage door lever, since the one that was included was 90 degrees off from what I needed. But on the plus side it provided me…
February 15, 2021
One week left until my inspection and so many little things to tighten up. But if feels good to have the finish line in sight. My day begin with circling back to the Vertical Stabilizer/Horizontal stabilizer fairing. I had drilled the holes but they needed to be countersunk and then the final screws installed. Knocked that out and moved on…
February 14, 2021
I felt that the Van’s Construction manual left a lot to be desired on rigging the flaps and ailerons. The information was spread out over many sections and took multiple readings to understand the process. This post is meant to be a more straightforward guide. 1. When setting the flaps they need to be fully up against the rear spar…
February 14, 2021
Whew, today feels like there was great progress. I was able to get the two charge ports installed with a bracket for the batteries. That will save me from removing the bulkheads should the batteries need to be topped off. Then it was on to finishing the baggage area panel covers and the baggage door. Let me just say the…