Step 11.0, Finish kit

At very long last the finish kit has arrived.  The finish kit was ordered from Van's in the last week of September anticipating an 8 week delivery time.  By the time December rolled around I was expecting delivery at any time...  Tick, tock... At the end of December I called Van's to inquire.  It turns out they mailed me a confirmation of my order on October 7 that itself requires a confirmation.  Since I did not receive this confirmation requiring a confirmation, my order was unconfirmed!  Consequently, my order was stalled -- indefinitely, I presume since they already had accepted my deposit and had written authorization to charge the balance to my credit card.

Still, I remained busy on the project during the wait so I can't be too angry about the mix up.  I just feel like I spent a lot of time wondering when, and planning for, the finish kit arrival.  If only I had realized that I had an additional 6 weeks of lead time on this order, I might have been more productive.  Perhaps this might have been a good time to take on Middle East peace or cancer.

And so began the inventory.  The packing list is spread out along the nearest horizontal surface, in this case the right wing.  One at a time the pieces come out of the box, are checked off the list, and then are carried upstairs for temporary storage.

So what's in the finish kit?  Well, not nearly so much as your bank account might expect.  The big items are the canopy, and the fiberglass parts such as the cowling and wheel pants and fairings.  There are also the wheels, brakes, front landing gear leg, swiveling nose wheel fork, and motor mount.

And so it goes.

Step 10.8, Forward deck

The forward deck is the structure from the instrument panel to the fire wall above the foot well.  There are a lot of little flanges and fiddly bits to fabricate.  They don't take too long so it's best to just power through it.

Which brings me to the frustration of the week:  One might assume that is is possible to complete a sub kit like, oh, let's say hypothetically, the fuselage kit without needing parts from the next kit.  Well, one would be very wrong because in at least two instances that I have run in to recently I have needed parts from the finish kit which I have not yet received.  Specifically, the wing root fairings which are to be fit during the first wing fitting and the F-697 top hat piece which is needed during the front deck assembly.  Both of these parts are called out in the manual during the fuselage assembly but are not provided until the finish kit. Arrgh!  Neither are real show stopppers, but I wasted a lot of time looking for them only to find out that they haven't yet arrived.

The front deck begins with the aforementioned flanges which begin life as aluminum angle of various thicknesses.

They each get cut and drilled in some way,  a few being to get by without having a corner lopped off.  Most of these will be used to mount the instrument panel.

Instrument pannel.

Here are the ribs that make the front deck frame.

I need to make a cut out in the center to accommodate some of the avionics that are a little deeper than Van had originally planned for. 

I will cleco this thing to together prior to a test fit on the fuselage.

Now it's all riveted in place.  The top skin will not be riveted down until everything is complete with in the forward fuselage area.  

So here is a sneak preview on what I'm planning for the panel.  The avionics manufacturers provide full sized stickers of their offerings for panel planning purposes, but I decided not to avail myself of their sticky backed feature.  I'm just using masking tape so I can move them around much easier.

That's it for this week.

Year 2 retrospective

Unwavering and implacable, time advances.  January 1, 2014 marks the second anniversary of this project. To me, it seems the pace would challenge a snail's attention and yet, it is remarkable how much has been accomplished in just one year.

On New Year's day 2013, I was still 3 1/2 months shy of completing the wings.  Among other things, I still had the top skins to rivet, and the wing tips fit.

By mid April the fuselage arrived.  I plowed through the fire wall and then began the unending series of ever smaller bulkheads that make up the tail cone structure.

And then came the dreaded bending of the longerons.  It turns out this process is only 95% as bad as its online reputation.  I really could not recommend it for its entertainment value, but as an educational tool, well, let's just say it's an education all by itself.  One is not likely to fully appreciate what an obstinate thing aluminum angle can be -- until you try to beat a curve in to it.

With the longerons shaped, the tail cone was next.

And that was followed by the center section.

Which led to the forward section and the side skins.

Then a rotisserie was constructed.

The tail cone top skin, baggage compartment interior panels and seat pans were next.

At some point the propeller arrived.

And we finished the seat backs. Carol took the first ride.

I'm not sure, but she appears to be steering by reins.  Either way, she's an unconventional pilot flying from the right hand seat.

Eventually, it was time to attach the wings and set their incidence.

And the horizontal and vertical stabilizers were bolted on.

Finally, the roll bar was set.

All of which brings us to the present. Here's to all of the progress of 2013.

Season's Greetings and Best wishes in 2014.