With the holidays over, I’m trying to recover from all the excitement. Lots of time with friends and family even though we stayed local this year. Since the last update I have made some progress on the airplane build, but not as much as I was hoping. But hey, that’s how life is sometimes.
Fuselage Skins: So I’m still working on getting the fuselage skins riveted. This task is taking much longer than expected due to the fact that I don’t always have access to a “rivet buddy”. While my wife is willing to help me, she is also limited in what she is able to do (no crawling under the plane anymore due to some back issues). Luckily my brother and father were down for the holidays and helped me get most of the “hard to reach” places riveted so hopefully I can start making more progress.
With forward progress on the fuse skins slowed down, I decided to start working on some other areas (more to come in a future update). Upper Forward Fuse Assembly (panel area) and the steps are basically done. I’ll have to take some video of them as well as some pictures. I also started to build the baggage door as I was getting a bit stir crazy wanting to do something on the airplane!
In addition to all of this, I had a mix of things arrive that I ordered earlier as well as placed some more orders for items that I’ll need in the next few months. Most of my air conditioner system arrived from Airflow Systems. I’m waiting on just a few pieces from this order and trying to make sure I understand how everything goes together. The instructions are pretty clear, however I upgraded from the Standard kit to the “aussie” evaporator so I need to figure out how that goes together. (More posts / photos to come). I also ordered and got a floor creeper to help me work on the bottom of the plane.
Earlier I posted that I installed one of the air ward tunnel access kits. As I did more research on the SDS installation I decided to go ahead and install the access kit on the other side of the tunnel as well. It’s a bit more difficult with the side skins on 🙁 I also ordered the parking brake kit and step access panel kit from air ward. I’ll be installing those in the near future.
Lastly I decided to make a few purchases so I’ll have all the stuff necessary to work on the tunnel. I ordered a set of hoses from AS Flightline. Been working with Steve over the last month and all I can say is wow. Responsive and extremely helpful. I’m hoping to provide additional documentation for their site for anyone looking to install the SDS system as they already have documentation on the EFII System 32 system. That also lead me down the path of ordering the AndAir duplex fuel selector.
With all of that stuff ordered, I then start thinking that I may also need to put in my order for Aerosport Products line of goodies. Center console with throttle quadrant, panel, over head console, and switch pod. They have some other items I’m interested in, but may have to wait for my bank account to recover. I’m waiting for Geoff to get back to me about a custom quadrant with no mixture control since I’m going with the SDS system.
That’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll make some additional progress and have a few more videos in the next few weeks.