My Dad and I continue to grind through the various electrical and plumbing tasks forward of the firewall. We also began working on the cowling which is lots of messy grinding and sanding.
We installed the oil cooler and the hoses to it.
We did the initial wiring to the right P-Mag. So far I decided to leave the other P-Mag off to give more access to the fuel pump until I finish the hose connections there.
We worked on running some of the ignition wires and putting the adel clamps where they need to be. Two big learnings here:
- The safety wire trick for closing adel clamps while you are trying to get the bolt through them is GOLD. Simply put a loop of safety wire around the clamp(s) and use your safety wire pliers to close them up. So much easier than trying to squeeze them with your fingers or a pair of traditional pliers.
- In the case where you need to enlarge the holes in the adel clamp for a bigger bolt, it is super easy to do with a uni-bit and painfully difficult with a traditional drill bit. In defense of Van’s they tell you this in the instructions.
I did some of the butt splices for things like the fuel and oil pressure sensors. I didn’t like the way some of them came out so I will likely redo at least some of them. I ordered longer pieces of heat shrink to slide over the splice to give them a cleaner look.
I broke down and ordered a Bogert tow bar from Spruce (significantly cheaper than ordering directly from the manufacturer). I had one for my RV-10 and they are good quality, but I think $200 is sort of highway robbery for one of these things. Just my opinion.
I realized that the trailer I had planned to use to transport the airplane to the airport isn’t wide enough to accommodate the landing gear. I have a couple of alternate plans and I don’t have to address this issue for a couple more weeks (my engine work is taking longer than I anticipated).
20 hours (2 people x 10 hours)
