Attaching the panel
The hatch covers turned out great. Epoxy is such a cool material, when it works right. They just need a little drilling and countersinking and nut plating.
I went down to Lowes at lunch time to pick up some band saw blades, and of course they’re out of them. And nobody was in sight to ask about them. I ordered the blades from their web site instead. It almost took longer to get through their terrible online store than driving down to the store 5 miles away.
Since I couldn’t work on the panel reinforcement angle, I started working on the panel attach points at the canopy deck. I should have done these a long time ago, especially before I cut the left panel rib. I had to do a lot of measuring left vs. right to make sure I had the panel in the right place. At least I already had the angles made. After probably 30 minutes of measuring, and re-measuring, and re-measuring, I drilled the angles to the canopy deck and the panel to the angles. I drilled some of the angles for nut plates, but that’s about where I ended for the day.
I’m also starting to work on the electrical planning some more. I pulled out the diagrams I sketched out several months ago. Now that I have more of the components, I can finalize wire sizing and runs.
Working on the panel is a lot more fun than tweaking the cowl. I’m getting re-inspired about getting the plane into the air. I’ve had some serious ups and downs in enthusiasm on this project. It’s no surprise that many people never finish their kits.