Finally remembered to take a picture of Kent's plexi bits. I'd never seen any and they did not look like I expected. They do seem to work pretty well.
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| From Finish Kit |
I did work on the width and got the frame down to the correct size so that when bubble is clamped to the frame, it rides in the rails nicely.
Trimmed and fit the canopy handle assembly to what looks like the final size. I might have to take just a bit more off the inside tube to get it lined up well, but I can always take more off - can't add any back. For now it looks pretty good. I will need to remove some plexi from the forward edge of the bubble to get a good fit with the rollover bar and forward canopy, but I'll hold off on that until the bubble is finally attached to the sliding frame permanently. For now it's close.
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| From Finish Kit |
Did a test lift of the engine using a hand winch and a ceiling cleat. It's strong enough, and it would work, but I wasn't wild about it. It would probably work fine, but given the cost of the engine and how things can go wrong unexpectedly, I think I'll pass on that idea.
My finish kit arrived Saturday as well. There were a couple of deletions since I'm getting the exhaust straight from Vetterman (saves about $100). Also deleted the gascolator and a couple of other things.
Scat tube (that's the red corrugated tube on top) is for the heat muff and carb heat and anything else I might need it for. Fuel and oil lines on top - the red ones have fire shield on them. The big box at the bottom left is the baffle kit.
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| From Finish Kit |
Spent a couple of hours inventorying the kit. At usual, Van's did a good job and everything was there. This is some of the other stuff that was in the kit. Battery box, alternator (Plane Power 60a unit) and the air box on the right. One of the Lord mount boxes is on the left - these are special flexible mounts for the engine - two top and two bottom.
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| From Finish Kit |
The other thing I got was another bottom skin for the left wing. A ladder fell in the shed where the wings are stored and dented the skin. Thankfully it didn't get anything else, but rather than try to fix it I decided to get a new one. :<
I ran out to our chapter hangar Saturday night. We have a nice engine hoist that can be towed behind a vehicle. I'll go that route and hope to hang the engine for the first time in the next week or two.
Had a couple of visitors Saturday. Mike from across the street came by when I was final trimming ( or at least * *think* final trimming - you never know) the canopy sides, and Del Quisenberry and my Dad came by after dinner. It's always interesting to hear people's comments - the most frequent is that they could never have the patience. The funny thing is I don't either, I just happen to be motivated. That's about what it boils down to - if you want something, you'll do what you need to do to get there.
