Lots of little stuff
I went straight to the hangar after work, and got in some really productive time. I started off with something easy. I hooked up the landing lights. Took about 5 minutes and I had them flashing. Very cool. While I was there, I hooked up the Angle of Attack tubing to the ports.
Next was the outside air temperature probe. The harness from AFS/Stein had the wire about a foot short of ideal. I had to reach into the inboardmost wing access hole and put the pins into a connector shell. Not fun, but I got it done. Turned on the EFIS and the temp was reading correctly, although it sure felt colder than 56 degrees.
Next was the autopilot servo connector. I put the pins back into the connector shell and plugged it in. I don’t have the head unit installed right now, so I wasn’t able to test it yet. While I was under the wings I put the screws into the bottom skin that overlaps the wings.
Next up was fuel lines. I torqued the connections to the tanks. Re-attaching the lines under the fuel valve was fairly difficult. There are just too many connections under there and not much room to work. I eventually got them connected and torqued. I also hooked up the coax wires to the capacitive fuel probes and set the empty point on each unit.
I swung by the self serve fuel pump and got 5 gallons of 100LL. I was planning on pouring some in the tanks and checking for leaks, but didn’t want to risk that kind of bad news. Maybe tomorrow.
I left the big task for last, because I knew it would be frustrating. Getting the nuts on the bottom wing bolts is nearly impossible. I climbed into the cockpit with all the tools handy and went to work. Luckily, I was able to back out the one bolt pretty easily. I found a way to pry the end with a screwdriver while I turned it. Backed right out. From there I just started putting the nuts on one by one. One was easy for some reason, and the others were a pain. But they are all on now and partially tightened down. It should be easy from this point to tighten them down and torque them. I’m very happy about that.
Lots of frustration and sailor’s language, but got a ton of tough stuff completed.
Sorry for the lack of pictures lately, but I’ve been really concentrating on maximizing my limited work time. Plus the hangar is too dark for decent pictures anyway.