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…
January 13, 2021
So the cowling fit is shit. To get it to line up in the back, the front is off – not terrible but off. The sides are the issue. On the pilot side there is a 7/16″ gap. WTF. So today the sides got built up to fill the gap. More fun tomorrow. The cabin top is now drilled and…
January 12, 2021
It started with the cowling. This things is way off, ugh. Even the top (without sanding the air inlets) will need a good 1/2 to 3/4 inch of fairing to make the cowling line up with the spinner. And the sides seams, yep that is going to be a ton of work too. Moving on… With a call to Stein…
January 11, 2021
Oh my, oh my. The bottom cowling was not fabricated ideally from Van’s… Took a lot of cutting, grinding, filling, and sanding to get the cowling to line up pretty well. The sides, bottom, and front all look great. The issue was getting the curves on the bottom to match the fuselage. They are close but there will be some…
January 10, 2021
Whew this was a long day. Started with terminating the CHT and EGT wires in the Garmin GEA24 connector. Then moved on to terminating the other end. The grind comes from the awkward spots to cut, strip, crimp, and screw each wire. That could be a pain but the biggest pain was installing all of the Adel clamps to support…
January 9, 2021
I’m not sure why I put off the Elevator trim tabs for so long but hey they are done now. Riveting, proseal, more riveting. Oh and blind riveting. Once the proseal cures I’ll slide in the hinge pins. The big excitement of the day was finishing up the electrical wiring. I put in the remaining instruments and flips the switch.…
January 8, 2021
The day started with mounting the engine. Only hiccup was “losing” one of the engine mount spacers. But thirty minutes later I found it in my pocket, please don’t ask… Then I got some work done on final wiring/labeling of the pilot switches. The only wiring remaining in the cockpit is the Starter/Mag switch. Probably knock that out tomorrow and…