41 - Wing Attach (finished); OP52A - AeroLEDs Sunspot LX (finished); Other (lots o' stuff); 24 - Wing tip (mostly finished)

It's been a month since I last posted, but I have been working as diligently as possible on the bird.  I had a little (well, it was yuuuge) snafu at work that I have been spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with, so working on the plane has been good therapy.  I hope to finish in a couple months, and there are still tons of items on my to-do list.  Nevertheless, I accomplished quite a bit during the past month:

- Attached fuel lines between wing and fuselage; continued working on left lower wing root fairing

- worked on wing root fairing fit (left upper and lower) to clear fuselage by at least 0.040”; riveted root fairing stiffeners to upper left root fairing

- finished most of the wing root fairings, except for lower right; attached OAT probe; wired OAT probe (spliced to pigtail at wing root)

- finished lower right wing root fairing; RTV-attached UHMW spacers to both wing roots (using instead of proseal; will keep an eye on it when removing upper root fairings; rigged ailerons (the control stick moves like buttah); attached flaps and started rigging flaps (need to file a bit off the edge of the right flap) 

- removed lower cowl and two landing light lenses; started working on landing light brackets; attached magnetometer; other misc. stuff

- worked some on landing light brackets (mostly painting); final-attached and checked canopy switch; routed and attached Pitot and AOA tubes to G3X and G5; tidied wires under panel some more; attached brake modification (thanks, Mark A. and Shane B.!) which affords a spring-return to not accidentally drag brakes

- finished attaching and wiring landing lights (AeroLED Sunspot LX); the two adel clamps were a pain, since they were on the inboard side

- fueled left tank with 20gal (no leaks so far), and started to calibrate fuel sender in G3X; added canopy latch warning from Van’s; played with G3X settings; installed and painted canopy guide pins

- drained left fuel tank, filled right tank with 20gal, calibrated both fuel senders; programmed G3X limits and calibrated aileron trim and flaps; tried to calibrate elevator trim servo, but couldn’t get a voltage reading (I’ll redo micromolex connector with D-sub pins, as recommended by Ken B.); painted seatbacks

- added 7qt of oil to engine (Aeroshell 100 mineral oil); worked on tail light wires; drained 20gal of fuel from right tank (no leaks so far!); attached seatback interior to metal painted seatbacks

- attached wingwalk pads to both wing roots, so I stop scuffing the aluminum (or slip); finished tail light wires, and tucked under rudder so I can do the fiberglass; started playing with brake bleeder, but the container won’t prime - needs new seals, or I need to buy a new pressure vessel

- bled brakes after fixing container; re-did elevator trim wiring again, this time with d-sub pins (thanks for suggestion, Ken B.!) - successful calibration

- Completed much of the right wing tip up to installing the nutplates; also started installing Archer tip antenna (for VOR/ILS)

- finished right wing tip, including nav light lens and wired nav lights (started)

- started left wing tip, finished Archer tip antenna (floxed/micro’d to inside of wing tip), finished nav lights

- finished 2/3 of left wing tip up to installing nutplates and installing wing tip rib

- sanded trailing edge of left wing tip, sanded nav light area; cut and trimmed left tip lens to size (what a pain)  

There are approx. 50 pictures that follow, but unfortunately they are not in order - I'll still annotate each.  Here are the seat backs, after priming and painting:

Thanks to Mark A. for suggesting a brake cylinder modification, which should help prevent the brakes fro dragging while taxiing.  Here are the parts:

Control stick rigged in the neutral elevator and aileron positions:

Nice alignment of left aileron and retracted flaps, per the new rigging instructions:

Routed and connected static, AOA and Pitot lines to ADAHRS (all) and G5 (static and pitot only)

Flap pushrod, attached:

Temporary wing-walk material installed (skateboard deck material):

Right wing tip rib, attached:

Right wing tip rib, drilled:

Rigging the left aileron:

Canopy guide ping (left):

Attached UHMW tape so the flaps don't get scraped while retracting/extending:

Right wingtip, with AeroLED nav lights and Archer tip antenna installed:

Seatbacks attached to seatback rails:

OAT probe, attached and wired:

Mark A.'s brake mod, installed to all 4 cylinders (2 shown here):

Left wing tip with nutplates and rib installed:

Fuel vent (left) from Aircraft Specialty, installed:

After adding and draining fuel from both tanks (20gal/side for now), I made a chintzy little dipstick/gauge - here's the right side.  Also (not shown) I calibrated the G3X fuel senders, which seem to be working quite well through the 0-20gal range.  

Left landing light, installed and working:

Part of the process of installing the Archer tip Nav antenna:

Removed micro-molex connector from elevator trim tab servo and installed d-sub pins, shown here heat shrink-wrapped: 

Right wing tip after initial #40 drilling:

Pitot cover (almost forgot to remove before checking pitot heat, which works really well and fast, btw):

Left wing tip after #27 upsizing of holes:

Magnetometer in its bracket:

Dimple formed from canopy guide pins (reveals where to drill the guides):

Right landing light (off):

Ah, the pain-in-the-ass process of slooowly draining fuel. At least I didn't have any leaks in either tank!

Right flap push rod:

Another pic of the Archer Nav antenna, right before final floxing of the metal antenna to the fiberglass tip:

Left wingtip lens being traced:

Alignment of the right aileron and flap:

Brake bleeder - it needed a part to fix it, but then it worked like a charm:

Upper right wing root fairing:

RG-400 prepped to attach to the Archer Nav antenna:

Right wingtip lens and light, attached:

Closeup of how I kept the fuel drain open:

Wing root fuel line (Aircraft Specialty):

Left landing light, installed but off:

Right landing light, on:

Right lower wing root fairing, installed:

I guess I have another pic of the flap/aileron junction:

Drilling the Archer antenna for nutplates:

Left wing root wiring - note the grounds are all connected to the fuselage and NOT the wing:

Fuel vent line with 45deg chamfer:

Left guide for guide-pins, drilled and installed:

Right aileron, rigged:

Added 7qts of Aeroshell 100 (pure mineral oil) to engine: