Wing top skins prep for close-out
After I spent two hours on Tues night taking a chucking reamer to most of the rivet holes, there was indeed a lot of metal shavings inside the wing so I started with vacuuming that all out. After vacuuming, I had a few holes to investigate why I couldn’t...
Pitot Installation Complete, Electrical Checks OK
Although I’ve had it for a while, I never finished the pitot tube installation on the left wing. It was one of few remaining tasks to do before I close out the wing. I finished up wiring the heater controller module, then took care of the plumbing. There are...
Wing Riveting & Wiring
Today I continued attaching the fuel tank to the wing, riveting everything but the 4mm rivets at the back edge of the top skin — I’m leaving these cleco’d for now until it’s time to attach the top wing skins. I also had a bunch of rivets to put...
Attached left fuel tank
Fresh back from my work trip to Germany, I was ready to attach the fuel tank to the wing. First, I wanted to check that all the bolts are torqued correctly on the fuel sender cover, but I wasn’t too sure about the correct torque value. The screws provided...
Fuel tank leak test passed
After the required minimum 3 days elapsed to allow the sealant to cure, I was able to perform leak tests on my left fuel tank this past weekend. I closed off the vent and fuel supply fittings, and then used a bicycle pump tethered to the fuel return fitting...
Starting Right Fuel Tank
Since I have all the fuel tank build steps fresh in my mind, I’m building the other one now. It took me about 14 hours to build the first one, not including leak testing and remediation (if needed). Let’s see how long it takes the second time?...
Closing up the fuel tank
This weekend I made it my goal to close up the left fuel tank. After one last inspection of the tank’s inside for debris, a final cleaning of all the mating surfaces, and staging all the rivets, screws, brackets, and tools, I mixed up a 66g batch of sealant...
Misc Fiddling with Fuel Tank
I’m back at it with the fuel tank. I was fiddling with the fuel sender cover and decided to add a ground terminal by drilling out one of the closed rivets, and then putting it back in but also adding a little metal tab. My concern is that with...
Elevator complete
I finished buttoning up the elevator last night, it looks good! With the exception of an anti-collision light on top of rudder, I think I’m complete with all the empennage tasks! Now, back to the wings.. which means returning to my cold, cold garage :-/...
Swapping an Elevator Skin
After trying to adjust the skins to eliminate the “banana” curve at the end of the right skin, I discovered other builders had also run into this, and it was because the skin was bent incorrectly. Worse, you can’t really fix this either. As it turns out, I had...