I had Chris come yesterday afternoon to finish up the last bit of wiring. Part of that was connecting the GPS puck and securing the extra wiring under the glare shield. That was the last task before installing the glare shield. So, this morning I did the final install of the glare shield. Got the cover made and drilled out for lock plates. The GPS puck is velcroed in place. I had it covered with faux suede It's done. Windshield next...
Busy day back at work. I started the day installing the bushing and Jesus bolt for the elevator.It was a tight fit and took quite a few attempts. Even a trip to Lowe's for some magnets. I dropped the bolt in the tail section several times while trying to install it. Very limited access to the very rear part of the tail. Getting a strong magnet was very helpful in grabbing the bolt and sliding it to a point where I could retrieve it. Again, a couple of hours later I got it done. I then decided to mount the plexiglass inspection covers for the tail that I had previously made. I holes that I had cut previously were not of the correct shape or in the correct position. So, I had to fabricate new ones. These covers make checking the tail connections really easy. They came out pretty good and I got them installed and checked off the list.
Next, I finished off the brakes by installing the cotter pins in the pedals. Nothing fancy, just installed them and torque striped them.
Then on to the required fuel placards. I received the placards last week but went out of town before I got around to installing them. I had to remove the fuel tank covers to clean and prep them so, I did one side at a time. As usual, James at Aerographics in Colorado made these up for me. I sent him a rough sketch of what I wanted and he took care of the rest. The top of the wings are really dirty, lots of dust on them.
Last, I installed the door/window lift struts. This required rerouting the electrical cables from the wings so the lift strut nut/bolt would not make contact when in the closed position. I have to cut new door plexiglass as I messed up on the original pieces. I'll get them cut and installed this next Monday.
Just returned from a trip to Colorado this afternoon. I had to jump on the plane as the clock is ticking. I installed the window plexiglass. I had already cut and fitted it to the window frames, I was just waiting to get the door/window frames back from powder coating which I did just before leaving for Colorado. I had to drill out all the rivet holes in the plexi to 3/16 inch to allow room for heat expansion. Once that was done I sanded all the edges and reamed all the holes. Then I set all the large head rivets. I also test fit the window locks (red parts).
While I was gone, the high temp grommet from McMaster Carr arrived. It is for the firewall penetration to seal all the cables coming into the cabin. I cut the grommet to allow me to install it around the wires and pushed it into place in the hole I had cut out with a hole saw for the cables. Once in place I used the Firebarrier 2000 high temp caulking to seal around all the cables on both sides of the firewall. I let it set up overnight, it makes a nice tight seal, not very pretty but does the job.
Started installing the under seat storage pans today. Originally, I had bolted these into place but upon reflection I decided to use rivnuts with the Adele clamps to facilitate easier/quicker removal. Good move, much easier to remove and install.
Next, the seats...
Next, the floorboards...
I had new inter cooler brackets made because the old brackets pushed the inter cooler to far forward regarding the cowling. These new brackets tuck the inter cooler in a little more than an inch. They'll be off to the polisher soon...
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.
