January 25, 2021
So with some effort the door clecos/tape that was installed for curing the epoxy to seal the halves were removed and the doors were ready to have the mechanics installed. This was a bitch of a project. Specifically getting the long tube/pin into the 3rd door latch gear. Wow, who would think you could spend hours dealing with that. Took…
January 24, 2021
The engine is a part of the project I underestimated. I had the engines on my Aztec overhauled so I thought I knew what I was getting into but damn there is a lot of work. Today was spent mostly fabricating and installing the ignition harness. Each cable had to be made from wire and terminals. Also I was able…
January 23, 2021
Ugh, one of those days that just wears your down. But I grinded through and got a decent amount completed. I installed the oil lines and got the fittings mounted into the oil cooler. It isn’t installed yet as I don’t want to risk damaging it. A time consuming project was running the cables for the heat controls and then…
January 22, 2021
Another day of checking off boxes. I got the tail strobe wired up and threw down a thick layer of micro on the VS tip fairing. While that cured, the final skin got riveted. Wow, that felt great – even if it was quite loud bucking the rivets. The fuel servo was next up and thankfully the throttle and mixture…
January 21, 2021
Big project today, getting the doors halves glued together. The prep involved drilling for more clecos, sanding (this seems never ending), mixing up lots of epoxy, flox, and taping off the fuselage. The actual gluing and affixing the doors to the didn’t take a ton of time. Lots of clecos and clamps to hold things in place. As there seemed…
January 20, 2021
There I said it – I am not fan of epoxy, flox, micro and sanding. My day was kicked off with 150 minutes of sanding and cleaning up. But the cabin top was to be installed! Whew. Next up was finishing up the door prep. Those door pins, filing the correct amount off the ends of the rods to get…
January 19, 2021
Big progress on the cabin top today. I figured out a way to apply micro to the vertical surfaces which greatly reduced the waiting time. All told today I major sanded twice and applied micro three times. I think after tomorrow morning’s sanding session I should be ready to attached the cabin top to the airframe! Also up today was…
January 18, 2021
So I started the cabin top fairing this morning, which meant three hours of sanding. The raw fiberglass out of the Van’s mold is wavy and full of fabric patterns so it was go time. That was a fun morning. I got a layer of micro laid down on the flat top section and put a first coat to smooth…
January 17, 2021
Whew, those doors with the PlaneAround and Aerosport parts sure do require a lot of time and effort. Heck a lot of time figuring out what to do as well. Anyhow, the mechanics are complete for one door. The second door I’ll bang out tomorrow. Today I got the PlaneAround 3rd latch installed so that helps make tomorrow easier. Also…
January 16, 2021
Sooo, I finished up the sanding/priming of the right elevator trip fairing before moving on to wiring the overhead console lights. I needed to get the console finished so it could be attached to the cabin top. This meant putting in the eight single lug nutplates that I had to order way back when I last worked on attaching the…
January 15, 2021
Seems I will be living in the world of fiberglass and epoxy for awhile. The engine cowling hinges are now all drilled, this took two people – one to squeeze and one to drill. After all the filling of the sides and back there is poor alignment on the front corners. Got a layer of flox down to start filling…
January 14, 2021
First, I think the top cowl is in a good place. The sides are now built up and there are no longer gaps on the sides. However, now material needs to be built up on the bottom cowl so the thickness matches the top cowl. Mañana Also, got the Elevtor tips filled in and floxed. Sanded that and coated with…