Progress - week of March 24

The countdown is on... and continues.

Monday, March 24 - 14 days to go

• Removed cowl
• Drained fuel
• Unbolted park brake valve... need to find the leak

Tuesday, March 25 - 13 days to go

• Fitted starboard lower strut fairing.  Still needs some tweaking, but its on.

Wednesday, March 26 - 12 days to go

• Removed park brake value (that I suspect is leaking), which involved lifting the header tank and taking off the side skirts from the center tunnel.  Drained rest of fuel from header tank.
• Cleaned up the mess.
• Tweaked and sanded wing tips
• Drained rest of the fuel.

Thursday, March 27 - 11 days to go

• Night off... LAAA meeting

Friday, March 28 - 10 days to go

• Final fitting of fuselage struts
• Make new starboard lower outer seatbelt bracket

Saturday, March 29 - 9 days to go

• Modifying the strut fairings to the bolt on the strut attach fairing can come off.  Came up with a new plan, and partially executed today.  I bonded together the two halves where I need to extend the aft portion.  Then cut it with a coping saw.  2nd one in progress.
• Elevator and stab removed.  Prepped, primed, deburred, fasteners and final riveting on an inspection ring on the bottom of the stab i forgot to install years ago.  
• Made all new pin keepers... the previous owner had made them, and I couldnt find them.  Searched for an hour.  Had everything to make new ones, so I did.  Plus spares :-)
• Figured out exactly how to get the pins and keepers in the elevator.  I had been trying to insert on the plane, which does not work.  You have to bring the elevator up to almost 90 degrees to get the pins and keepers in.  So that is solved.
• Helped Peter weigh his amphibious ultralight.
• Very productive day... I'm tired.

Sunday, March 30 - 8 days to go.

• Elevator trim hinge pin finally fit in place.  As with the elevator itself, needs to go in from the bottom.  Added a few rivets that I cannot remember why I missed them.
• Potted the holes for the park brake valve.  Need to come up with a better solution for this.  It's a royal pain it its current location.
• Disassembled elevator trim servo and bagged everything for paint.
• Assembled all inspection panels for paint
• Worked on starboard strut to fuselage fairing.  Not fitting well at all.  I have done something wrong here.
• Added flange for port strut fuselage fairing so nutplates can be added later.  Needs 1 more layer of glass.
• Packed it in early.  Was starting to get frustrated and make mistakes.