I made a shelf for the space between the firewall and the subpanel. I’m going to put stuff like fuse blocks and all the little boxes on it. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of it clecoed in but I will eventually. It will be riveted to the top firewall angle and the bottom of the subpanel ribs. The aft edge has a bend in order to stiffen it up.
I also took apart the forward upper structure in order to dimple as needed for riveting.
I just noticed that last night’s session bumped me over the 1700 hour mark. At the beginning of the project, I was estimating it would take 1800 hours. Now I’m thinking it will be more like 1900. We’ll see.
I completed my BFR today. It was crazy at BFI with the Blue Angles in town on top of the usual weekday mayhem. I’d say my landings were some of the worst I’ve done in a while, but the instructor said they were safe and I was good to go. Along with my medical from yesterday (which sadly lasts only 2 years this time), I’m good to fly for another 24 months.
The seats arrived from Classic Aero!! From other builders’ comments, I was expecting them to be great. Well, they are actually better than great. The stitching is as nice as my Audi. I put them together with my harness and of course had to try them out. Very comfy. I know the colors are boring, but I love the mellow scheme.
The side panels and carpets also arrived. These things make the plane look absolutely fantastic. I just set them in place, but you get the idea. I’ve got a minor issue to work out with my ELT placement. I’ll have to peel back the leather and cut a little relief in the aluminum panel. Should be no problem. Everything is fairly light weight, except the seat backs. But they replace the whole seat frame, so that’s why they’re a little heavier. This is going to make for one nice comfy cockpit. The first picture shows the upper side panel which is molded plastic, and the two lower panels that are aluminum and split at the F-704 center section. The second picture shows the baggage compartment side panel which also has aluminum backing (ignore the junk sitting on the baggage compartment floor).
No real work done on the plane today. I was too wiped out after the BFR.
After discussing with Jim, I decided I didn’t need to prime the reinforcement angles on the panel. The powdercoating should seal things up just fine. I countersunk all of the rivet holes in the panel for AN426 rivets, and then cleaned and scuffed both sides of the panel. It seemed a shame to scuff up the nice shiny panel, but it’s better for getting the powder coating to stick. I used a squeezer to set all of the rivets for the reinforcement angles and avionics stack angles.
I also primed/painted a few miscellaneous parts like the throttle quadrant mount.
I finally gave up on using steel firewall eyeballs. I contacted the distributor for the eyeballs I have, and they don’t make the steel eyeballs in the size I need. I also asked Vans if the cables can be made with a smaller diameter. No go. If the manufacturer decides to make .35″ eyeballs some day, I can always swap them out. I went ahead and ordered the custom quadrant cables from Vans in 50″ and 51″. I already have the 48″ one I need. I’ll order the aluminum version of the eyeballs from Spruce.
All I did was disassemble the panel and prep the extruded (i.e. non-alclad) parts for painting. I’m planning on getting the panel itself powder coated once I have everything fitted.
As a background task, I’ve been doing a bunch of planning for wiring. The snap bushings in the F-704 center section are notorious for filling up. I made a list of every wire that needs to go through the various snap bushings in the fuselage. I also started a list of the electrical equipment with recommended fuse ratings and wire sizes. With those two lists I can determine which snap bushings are too full, and re-route some wires if needed.