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[August 10, 2010]


Tonight was an unexpected night at the hangar. I pretty much have to use every free moment I have to get this thing finished up. For some reason I was convinced the struts for the canopy were at my house. But when I looked there, I couldn't find them anywhere. Sure enough they were at the hangar already. I installed them and checked the motion of the canopy. Looked great. The one thing that isn't working is the canopy is really hard to latch, and even harder to unlatch. I need to trim the ears of the steel weldment to make this easier to latch.

I also installed a AN4 drilled bolt, castle nut and cotter pin to secure the canopy hinge point. Pretty easy to install from below, but be sure to take the struts off. They add too much pressure.


Next up was installing the fuel level indicator coaxial cable to the vent line. I tried using zip-ties, but they wouldn't tighten down enough on the 1/4" vent tubing. So I used the old reliable wax lacing cord which worked very well.


Inside the fuselage I installed the vent lines (yes it is possible with the top skin riveted). This was a royal pain in he ass. It was HOT and very awkward to be under the panel this long. I also tied the fuel sender wire to the vent tube using waxed lacing cord.


I cut the vent hose Van's provided and installed it for the fresh air vents. I am not too keen on this tubing, as if it ever caught on fire it would probably emit some nasty fumes. I might replace it with the orange fireproof stuff, but the chances of this catching on fire are extremely low.


I spent the last bit of tonight wiring up the left landing light, taxi light and NAV/strobe lights. Everything worked great and fired right up. Other than wirign the ELT and the NAV/Marker antenna's, all the wiring is DONE and works 100%! Great night on the project. I really saw some great progress.

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Last Modified: October 5, 2024