I’ve been refining my instrument panel concept over the last week. One of my goals was to fit the Garmin G5 at top center, but its size disrupts placement of other components in the center between the two G3X screens. I’ve moved the G5 to the left edge of...

With everything attached for the front and main landing gear, and all of the fuselage riveted together, I decided it was time to drop the fuselage onto its wheels, and free up my workbench. I’ve been working on the fuselage for a little over a year now, so I...

I got a tip on my blog a few weeks ago from Daniel H. that I should have installed the static ports from inside the fuselage, not on the outside as I documented previously. The thought never occurred to me that they should be inside; the static port on...

In between activities over the long holiday weekend, I spent some time working on the nose gear. I found the nose gear difficult to rotate once assembled. It appeared to be binding on the split bushings used in the lower mount. I think the split bushings are created from...

Continuing with the installation of the landing gear. To install the wheel, the brake assembly needs to be partially disassembled. Unfortunately I discovered that one of the brake pads was cracked and will have to be replaced. Spruce sells a Matco brake relining kit and a tool to squeeze...

My Garmin GTN 650xi arrived this week, very fresh from the factory — all the paperwork was dated 8/25/2020! Great service from Steve and Adam at Midwest Panel Builders. They are an authorized Garmin dealer, and I highly recommend them for anything avionics related. As I discussed in a...

Attaching the main gear leg proved to be a difficult task, as other builders have reported. I experienced a lot of the same difficulties, resulting in the need to file the legs in a few spots, both spread it and squeeze it, and then finally I was able to...

On Sunday I finished riveting the port side fuselage skin, so now the fuselage is finally a structure that can carry some load. My next goal is to get the fuselage on wheels, so I started looking into the work required for the main landing gear assembly. The main...

I have friends over today for a summer BBQ so I decided to set up the plane for a little showcase. Some of the interior bits are installed, and I hastily attached the nose wheel (temporarily of course). I’m quite pleased with how the interior is looking, and very...

My current favorite layout of the instrument panel is what I call ‘Variant 1B’. I settled on using a GTN 650xi as my IFR navigator, per my recent post comparing it with the GNX 375. This panel is the result of feedback that I solicited from two Facebook groups,...