I took a full week of work off, plus the Friday before, to give myself 8 full days to perform the “big push”. Which included:
moving the aircraft to the airport Mounting the tail surfaces Mounting the wings Rigging the control surfaces Finishing the work required in the wing roots Weighing the aircraft Calibrating the fuel tanks Configuring the EFIS and sensors Test running the engine All the little things along the way =) It all got done and the plane was ready for inspection and flight 9/23/2017
Used 3m Flamemaster 2000+ to seal the reaming holes in the firewall and wire passthroughs Installed foam in the top cowl to seal the prop governor baffle area
Should be easy access in case of an emergency, but out of the way and not encumbering any space from the cabin
Installed passenger seat pan Finished installing seat belts Vinyl wrapped left elevator Installed anti-chafe material on lightening holes that the transponder cable routes through
Wendy came down to help me vinyl wrap the control surfaces. Only few more to go Crotch strap installed. Left seat pan also installed
Installed forward canopy seals Step grip Date plate installed Installed quick drain
Countersunk holes in fairing Riveted nutplates onto vertical stabilizer Riveted nutplates onto horizontal stabilizer Installed tail light onto rudder fairing
First I had to temporarily mount the horizontal and vertical stabilizers Bent the lower empennage fairings per the plans Trimmed the upper empennage fairing to size Drilled the upper empennage fairing to the horizontal and vertical stabilizers
Today I installed and wired the ELT. It’s wired to the G3X system, so in the event of a crash landing it will transmit my exact GPS location to search-and-rescue. Let’s hope I never have to use it!
ELT antenna installed ELT unit wired and installed The audio alerter secured to the bottom of vertical stabilizer. This thing beeps loud if the ELT is transmitting, to help SAR find you Installed the aft seal on the canopy temporarily mounted the tail so I can work on the empennage fairing