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
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…
February 13, 2021
I bit the bullet and sanded the windshield surround fiberglass. That was a three hour project, but it looks pretty good and will certainly keep the windshield from departing the aircraft. Whew, happy to have that checked off. Then it was time for more sanding, this time sanding on the co-pilot door sill I epoxied yesterday. It turned out well,…
February 12, 2021
I finished up the co-pilot door strut. Then made some adjustments to the door lock blocks, sprayed some silicon and bam the doors open, close, and lock perfectly. Then it was on to floxing in the carbon fiber door sill. Once that was clamped down I added a nice edge and filler to the rest of the door opening and…
February 11, 2021
I knocked out the major sanding in a couple hours on the pilot door. Getting the door lock blocks mounted and operational was definitely much faster today. However, the sanding for the McMaster door seal took forever. Eight times I would sand to a gap I thought would be good, vacuum, apply the door seal, close the door, and check…
February 10, 2021
Blerg, what a day. I learned a lot about making the doors fit tight and have a proper gap. So that will be helpful tomorrow when I finish the pilot door. As mentioned in the title, I spent the entire day working on the co-pilot door. First I had to get the door lock blocks located and mounted. But before…
February 9, 2021
Huge day! Cross off the first engine start. Boy did that feel great to have an near instant start and for her to run so smooth. Whew. Backing up, I started with installing the fuel tank vents, attaching the rudder cables to the rudder, and attaching the yaw damper cables. This is was engine prep time; flush both fuel lines,…
February 8, 2021
Guess what. I started the day with sanding. Knocked out of outside of both doors and lots of sanding on the windshield. Hours upon hours of bliss. Later in the day I put on, what I hope is the final fiberglass layer on the windshield. After sanding I’ll make a final determination. The big excitement for the day was getting…