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 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 7, 2021
Well the rear windows are sanded. That was a fun start to the day. Tomorrow the outside of the door windows and then I will begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Ha. Still have to sand/fill the door gaps for the McMaster Carr door seal. After that excitement I moved on to the continuing ER…
February 6, 2021
Boom two and a half hours later the right ER tank was installed. Of course it is a totally different position from the left or the first set of tanks. No surprise at this point. But after some monkeying I got it installed. Then filled it with fuel. Actually filled both tanks. Turns out they hold 14 gallons and not…
February 5, 2021
Okay first off, I didn’t realize how long it takes for the FAA to process aircraft registrations and I really painted myself in a corner. Hell I even forgot to enter the engine serial number requiring a second notarized form to be sent UPS red. But today my registration came through. Huge relief to know that my inspection/first flight won’t…
February 4, 2021
I have held off on this post until things reached a conclusion. My fuel tanks were about two months late but finally arrived back in October. The weld and metal forming quality was not good. I talked to a couple of other builders who recently bought tanks and one of they got replacement tanks. I have learned that the original…
February 4, 2021
I feel good about today, only because of what I got accomplished. It started with two and a half hours prep’ing windows and sanding the windshield. Still more sanding on the fiberglass tomorrow but I couldn’t take any more. I moved on to the poorly built Hotel Whiskey ER fuel tanks. Troy at Hotel Whiskey warranties them for life and…
February 3, 2021
Yep, still taping/sanding windows. I got the rear windows finished on the inside and I got some prep work done on the windshield on the inside. Put down another layer of fiberglass around the windshield on the outside. Of course this meant more sanding first. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy sanding? The replacement ER Fuel tanks arrived today.…
November 23, 2020
I have been bouncing around a bit lately and not getting a ton of items finished. Today I was able to check off a number of items and the biggest on being the ER tank installation (ended up taking 58.5 hours). Installed the connectors for the roll trim servo. I can now properly say that the wings are just about…
November 22, 2020
Man, today was a day that was an uphill climb. Right off the bat, when I removed the air valve used to leak test the tank the Loctite 515 made it stiff. Removed, I used acetone to try to cleaning the bung fitting. Then I screwed in (temporarily) the new AD4 fitting – mistake. This messed up the threads. Ugh,…