My buddy Vern really came through for me. I couldn't find a set of tube clamps the correct size to mount my fuel filter/shut off valves. So, I sent Vern a pic of what I wanted with the hole sizes I needed and he went to work.
A lot has been happening lately. I discovered that I waiting too long to purchase a trailer for the SuperSTOL. The guy that was making them, no longer is. So, this sent me scrambling to find an alternative. I spoke with Keith Showalter about his experience towing his SuperSTOL on an open flatbed from South Carolina to Alaska. He was a wealth of information and very kindly shared it with me.
I immediately began a Craig's List search and found the exact trailer that Keith used for his trip and called on it only to find ti has sold the day before. Back to the search. I soon found a 24ft ALUMA aluminum deck over trailer with full width ramps and only 2 years old. It's 102" wide which is perfect as the width of the plane is 102" at the tires. I was off to check it and made the deal. It was in very nice condition and is light weighing only 1650lbs. No problem for the Jeep Grand Cherokee to pull, even with the 1000lbs of plane loaded. It will also come in handy on the ranch.
Next, I needed a tool box for the front to stow, tools, a battery, and the winch. It came today, now I have to figure out how to mount it. I also picked up a Super Winch Winch-2-Go, 4000lbs winch. This will allow me to load the plane by myself. I'll be mounting all that soon.
I had my friend Vernon repair a couple of cracked welds on the ramps now they're back on and ready to go.
It was really getting worrisome how I was going to get the plane to Colorado. I'm really glad to have this taken care of and it's a really nice trailer.
I installed the remaining VG's across the skylight in line with the wing VG's. I also peeled off the protective external plastic covering from the skylight.
Chris worked on the wiring and got almost everything done! The taxi-cam is the last connection to be made and I need to get the bottom cowl scoop in place to determine where the camera will be mounted. Once that's done Chris can finish the terminations and we'll move on to programming.
He spent this morning tiding up the wires and lacing them in place. The pitot and static air lines are connected
More progress has been made on the cowling. I was able to cut out the bottom and fit the new piece that goes around the radiator. A couple of days of on/off work on it. It is now finished waiting to put the last piece on to form the scoop. It has a couple of layers of fiberglass on the inside and the outside seam has been filled/sanded.
I also cut out the opening for the Inter cooler. I realized that the inter cooler sits to far forward and those brackets will need to be re-made. This makes for a really tight fit and is too problematic for easily removing the cowling. Once that is done, I will be able to "frame" the inter cooler with fiberglass for a tighter/better fit..
The belly piece was intentionally off set to the right side because the radiator is off set to accommodate the exhaust on the left side. Once the scoop is in place I don't think it will be readily apparent.
