Monday, April 21st, 2104

Didn't realize how long it's been since I did a post.  Not idle on the project by any means, but had a lot going on both at work and home.  Since the last update I've run the pitot tubing and fabricated some brackets (but changed my mind and am going to re-do it), done a ton of reading on sikaflex and pretty much settled on going that route for the canopy.  Fabricated a tail strobe mount, and finished trimming/fitting/mounting the lower and upper rudder fairings.  Went out to PVG and helped Strike a bit on trying to finish his project up - probably final mounted the wings (but not final bolted just in case).  Also got to check out his beautiful Steinair built dual G3X panel with a GTN 650.  Really really nice work those folks do.  Beautiful installation (although Strike still had to do a ton of work obviously).  Also finished up the fresh air vents in the cockpit, made up a masonite test panel to play with, fabbed up some seats from cheap foam to see what I could do simply, and some other miscellaneous stuff.  I'll add pics to this later in the week as I get them uploaded.

Really trying to finalize the engine and avionics choices.  I've been planning all along for an O-320, fixed pitch, carbureted, with dual P-Mags.  That said, there are a bunch of ways to make that happen, from a first run rebuild to taking your chances on a mid-time engine, building one from scratch like Tim Ribble did, or just buying something new.  Even then there are choices - real deal Lycoming from Van's, or an ECI Titan or Superior from any number of vendors.

Similar choices reign in the land of avionics, although I've narrowed that down to Garmin G3X or Dynon Skyview.

Accordingly, I headed down for Sun N Fun on March 30th hoping to narrow that list down.  We needed to visit some family around Gainesville for about a week, and the drive from Gainesville to Lakeland isn't that bad so I could round trip it every day, and use the commute time to think about what I wanted to see and who I wanted to talk to on the way down, and rehearse the day and think about what I'd learned driving home at night.

I went down knowing that Dynon and Garmin had both just announced touch interfaces to their flagship products (in Garmin's case going to a 10" landscape display very similar to the Dynon).  From all my research leading up to the trip, I was 99% sure I would go with Garmin.  Interestingly, by the end of the week that had completely reversed.  I came away much more impressed with Dynon than I had been, and was back to deciding  between the old G3X portrait displays and the new Dynon touch.

I'd never been to SNF before, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I thought Oshkosh was better from the one time I've been, but this was definitely great and I'd love to go back.  I thought there was too much airshow - 4 hours is a bit overkill every day.  I think a bit less and a more open flightline would be better, but it was still great.  Talked to and met a ton of great folks, and gathered all the info I wanted to except info on interiors from Flightline and a couple of others.  Very well worth the trip, and I had a blast.

Adding some photos and and update