7/5/2008
Three years today!
Yup, three years ago today, I started the tail kit by making that little bearing. Man, time flies, and money soars out the window!
Today I had a few other things around the house that needed to be done, so I didn't spend as much time as I could have on the project. I started by running the countersink bit over the screws holes in both halves of the canopy. There are two depth's to work, one for just a #6 screw, and the other for a dimple in the skin for a #6 screw. I did the shallow one first.
Even with a sharp #27 countersink bit, I still had some minor chipping. Nothing that couldn't be worked out with a deburring tool, but it happened.
I didn't take any pics of the dimples in the skin, or the deeper countersinks, but those were next.
After that, I worked on tapping the threads over the roll bar for the screws for the rear window.
I don't know how many holes there are, but this took a while.
Then I masked off a few places, and laid some boards down to block the overspray, repainted the roll bar, and touched up some other areas that got scratched over the last few months. I also painted the inside of the aft top skin in the baggage area.
With that looking all snazzy again, I called it a day since I need the paint to dry before working any further.
Later in the day, the mailman dropped by to hand me a package from Aircraft Spruce with my EPM.AV stainless steel heater valve. This was on the list of purchases to make soon, but we found out that as of July 1st, the owner was quitting the business for health reasons. I called Spruce that day to get an order in before they ran out of stock.
This is the one that does have two firewall penetrations, one for the cable, and one for the flange to pass thru. This allows me to attach some SCAT tubing, or a Y-fitting to route the heat up to the canopy if I wanted to. It is another hole in the firewall, but I won't have a prop cable to pass thru, so it'll take the place of that cable.
3.75 hours