6.0 hrs
Spent the 1st two hours putting the crease in the firewall. The bend took 30 seconds. It took the rest of the two hours to mill the lumber to shape to make the bend, and then cleanup the sawdust mess.



Continue front deck frame.
Match drill 7108B&C angles.
Final drill and deburr ribs and subpanels.
Make shim for 7108B from .063. Match drill and deburr.
Fit and drill 7103B&C attach angles.



What a hockey game!

4.5 hrs
Went over to Wayne's this morning and helped him install the landing gears. He got the engine mount and nose gear installed.



Back at home, dug into the forward deck.
First, deburred the wing tip ribs. Got these done, so they're ready to work with.
Make and deburr 7103B, 7103C angles.
Make 7109 plate, 7108B, 7108C attach angles.
Cleco ribs and bulkeads for forward canopy.
Fit the 7109 plate, 7108B angle to center rib.
Fit and start match drilling.

1 hr
Continued deburring front deck parts. Got all the ribs and bulkheads done, now for the small parts.

.5 hrs
More edge deburring on the front deck parts. We had actual snow today, not just a couple of flakes. A whole 1 inch at the house. This is more snow than most Central Texas kids have seen, ever.

.7
Started edge deburring the forward deck structure.

2.5 hrs
Reworked the parking brake bracket for the third time. Still not completely happy with it.

Scuffed the skin for the NACA ducts. Will use only proseal to attach them.

Will start working on forward upper fuselage. I need to see how it all fits so I can start getting cables and wiring to final lengths.

4 week lead time on the Skyview ADAHRS. Also way short on the avionics budget. Going to have to make some tough decisions, like doing without the 430W for a while, and the second Skyview.

5 hrs, 8 rivets
Finish assembling forward elevator pushrod. Got it all torqued down nicely, and then tried to get it into the center tunnel. With the ends on, it won't go. So off came the ends. Then it would just barely fit with some creative bending and positioning. Then put the ends back on and measure to rough fit as best you can.
Finally bolted the forward elevator pushrod to bellcrank.

A little misc electrical that was pending, shrinkwrapped expandable sleeve ends on tail light wiring.

Then dug back into the brakes.
Reassembled brake pedals, master cylinders and rudder pedals.
Did a rough fit of the brake plumbing. I think I'm going to replace that cheap-ass plastic tee connector with a brass tee. There was a post on Van's about it this morning.



There are two lines missing as shown on the plans. They are the VA-118 brake lines. I wonder if they come in the finish kit.

Gonna have to redo the parking brake bracket again. Wayne has a setup that I really like, I think I'll copy it.

.7 hrs, 16 rivets
Fit ends to elevator pushrods. The fit of the forward push rod ends is very tight. The rivets are redundant, there's no way those are coming apart. But I'll put the rivets in anyway.

Rivet aft pushrod. This was almost easy compared to the front pushrod.

.8 hrs
More firewall drilling.
Drill bolt holes for heater valve. Cut 3/4" hole for nose gear bolt.

Talked with Craig Cato today. 5-6 month lead time. But I'm going to do it. 3 blades. Not metal.
Also place a Stein air order, various electrical bits, and 2 eyeball vents. The Van's std issue are junk.
In a total abandonment of discipline and willpower, ordered one of the notch tungsten bucking bars on sale at flyboyaccessories. Been wanting one, and even though most of the rivets are set, the top skins will be a challenge. This will make it easy!

.8 hrs
Ramp duty this week at 3R9. There was a beatiful F1 Rocket tied down tonight.

Drill pilot holes for bottom center firewall through holes.
Cut and deburr hole for heater valve.



Started an order for the Skyview appliances I'll need. The ADAHRS are now in the critical path, because they have to be installed before the aft top skin can be riveted on, which has to be done before the canopy can be done. So ordered those, network cables, engine monitor kit and accesories, pretty much everything except for the displays.

Also trying to reach Craig Catto about a prop. That 3 blade prop sure will look nice.

Oh, and the Grove nose wheel arrived.

3.5 hrs, 5 rivets
Various odds n ends.
Finished riveting nutplates to inboard bottom wing.
Finally got the pushrods primed and painted, and primed the rest of the loose parts that had accumulated.
Planning the wire runs for the aft fuselage, drilled holes for tie down spots and made a few angle clamps for adel clamp attach points.

5 hrs
No work during the week, even though I was home. The first time that happened in 2 years. We're having a freaky cold wet winter, unlike any in my 35 years of living in Texas. Plus got the taxes done, and that didn't leave enough time and energy to worry about the project.

But it was almost nice today after the morning fog burned off.
Continued working on rudder cap fiberglass. Gonna take a bunch more work. Mine has very thick skin compared to the one Wayne has. Taking lots of sanding to get it to fit properly. Cut a little too much and will have to build that back up with some fiberglass and microballoons.
Then it was warm enough to prime elevator pushrods. I put them in my daughters black car to warm them up, and then applied primer. Got the inside of both done, tomorrow will do the outsides.
Removed the empennage parts and deburred. Scuffed and cleaned empennage small parts for priming.
Cut angles for AHRS platform.
Drill holes for aft fuselage wiring runs. I think I finally know how this will work out.



The finish kit should have been loaded on a truck this week, but haven't heard anything from Partain. I expect his trucks are stuck in snow somewhere, so he'll be running behind. (Like a month. The kit finally arrived on 3/9.)

5 hrs
Finish trim servo wire lead.
Initial fitting for trim servo.
Trim elevator cutout for proper clearance.
Start fitting rudder bottom cap.

Time to partake of beer and football.

5.2 hrs
Finish rudder stops.



Start fitting trim servo linkage.
Fit new left elevator counterbalance.
Start wiring for trim servo.

2.0 hrs
Started working on the rudder stops. I had purchased a delrin internal rudder stop, but decided I didn't like how that can load the hinge, eyebolt, and doubler. The load points are just too close the fulcrum. The per plans rudder stops aren't too much better, but they're about 4 times further from the center of rotation, so the force is 4 times less. And they load the angle at the bottom instead of the hinge.

So I made up the two stops per the plans. Before drilling any holes, I wanted to see how close they were. Well, setting the rudder up for the 46 1/8" from tip to elevator tip, the stops were too far forward. In fact, the stops would allow almost enough travel to touch the elevators. Not good.

So I made up two more stops. This time I left the protruding flange mostly uncut, and trimmed the aft corner much less than the plans. A quick test shows these are about right. Tomorrow I'll drill them and finish them off.

1.6 hrs, 4 rivets
Finish drilling aft VS spar to 912 bulkhead and tie down bar. Glad that's done. My hands can't fit in that aft compartment and do much usefull work.
Disassemble and deburr.
Rivet tie down bar to 912 bulkhead.
Reinstall VS. Fit rudder. Very cool. Need to fine tune the top pivot brackets, can't get the pin completely in.



Talked with Tony Partain yesterday. They should pickup my finish kit later next week. I might possibly see it on the weekend, but sometime during the week of the 15th is more likely. If that's when it comes, it will have been 14 weeks since I mailed the check. Plan accordingly.

Need to get busy and order a Grove nose wheel, and a prop. I'm thinking about a Catto 3 blade. They sure do look nice. Dealing with the lower cowling is reported to be very difficult with a 3 blade and a nose dragger.

1.5 hrs
Everything with the VS attachment is a excersize in frustration. Simple things take way too long.
Drilled the front VS spar to the 981 bracket.
I had already drilled the tie down bar to the 912 bulkhead, dimpled, and countersunk. I had looked ahead, but failed to find the section I'm dealing with now. It's clear now why I should have waited before drilling the tie down bar. In the end, I got it to work out OK. Fortunately, all of the holes were drilled in just the right spots. So after bolting the VS in place, I marked the holes from the forward side of the 912 onto the VS. Took the VS off, and drilled the 4 holes to #40. The other 4 holes for the tie down bar take flush rivets. I put long flush rivets in, bolted the VS on, placed the tie down bar on the flush rivets, then used a cleco from the front to clamp the tie down bar in place through the 912 and the VS. Averything aligned perfectly, and I have #40 pilot holes ready to enlarge to 3/16 from the outside. At least this part should be easy.



Then I had to call India so it was time to stop.

3.0 hrs
What a pain. Fitting the VS is a challenge, thanks to instructions that could be more clear.

Trimmed the front spar on the Vertical Stabilizer. Then clamped to the aft bulkhead. Required very little adjustment to get it normal to the HS. The HS was at 0.0 degrees to the deck, which was level with the forward fuselage. So it should all be in good shape.



Drilled the VS to the 912D elevator stop. That's what the instructions say to do. But it became clear that the 912D should be drilled and bolted to the aft deck first. The instructions failed to mention that, I looked for this step for quite a while. Maybe it was much earlier in the build.
Once you've got the 912D bolted to the VS spar, you don't dare relax the clamps, but they're in the way of drilling the 912D to the aft deck. Arghh.

Got it done, but what should have been 45 minutes turned into 3 hours.