I've been filling rivets and boxing up all my remaining parts...  The Sling Central guys arrive on Thursday and it should be ready to go on Friday.

Doing two at a time saves time...  If I were doing this again I'd make one that has four properly spaced holes to make the whole process even faster.

Buzz....

Pizzas I made last night.  Delicious!

And Crosby relaxing...  I'll bet you're more relaxed now after looking at this. 😊

I'll be spending the next several days filling and sanding rivets in anticipation of the pickup by Sling Central in less than 2 weeks.  Lots more rivets to fill than I expected... 😮

I wasn't too happy with using a large syringe as it was hurting my hand to squeeze it, so instead I got this marinade injector, which is much easier on the hand for injecting the Sherwin-Williams Shrink Free Spackling.  I shortened the supplied needle significantly with my pipe cutter.

Friends....  I've made an important decision regarding my plane....

For the last year I've been exploring ways to get help finishing the plane and to no avail.  Where I'm building I haven't had the good fortune to have TAF nearby, an A&P friend to help, easy visits to the factory...  Nothing, and it's increasingly taken a toll on me lately.

At any given point in the last year or two I thought I was between 3 to 6-ish months away from completion...  But, every time I got there, I again thought the same thing.. Over and over....

After 5 and a half years - I want this plane done.  I want to fly it.

I recently got into a discussion with Mike Black at Sling Central in Oklahoma (I had a question and he's been super knowledgeable and helpful in the past) and I brought up my state of mind in hopes that he could suggest something...  Well, he said, "We can come pick it up and finish it for you." 🙂  After some discussion on cost and time estimates, it was clear that this was a definite go for me.  It would clearly be worth it.

Some people do Quick Builds to save time.  I'm ready to save time, I'm just doing it at the end.
It's what I'd call a Quick Finish.  I figure it's also better to have pros do the critical plumbing and rigging.  I have no doubt I could have done it in a safe manner, but it definitely feels better to me having people with lots of experience do it.

They're also going to do the Phase 1 testing and I'll also have the painting done down there (a good deal cheaper than up here in the North).  So basically I'll fly down to OK in later January to pick up my ready-to-fly Sling 4! 😁  I won't be flying back alone - Bob Zaleski has offered to fly back with me.  😊

The plane will be picked up in about 2 weeks.  Meanwhile I'm going to finish up some easy miscellaneous tasks and start boxing up all the remaining parts.

I am SO happy about all of this.

NOTE: I will continue to post pictures and updates on this blog, so it can continue to be helpful to other builders.

1 hr not making much actual progress...

Trying to figure out if I can just move the fuel pump clamps to accommodate the fuel pump cover.  So far, no luck....  Peering down you can see how that clamps hit the cover, preventing you from being able to get the cover close enough to the firewall to screw it in.  I think I'm going to defer this for now...

Contemplating where to put the fuel flow sensor...  And still be able to use the pipe cutter to cut the line.

With the line connecting at both ends it's tough to get it all the way around to make the cut.

But, disconnecting it at the regulator end allows the cutter to go all the way and make the cut....

... but.... This line is quite thick, so I'm not sure how that can be used with a compression fitting.  Can it??  Oh, and I discovered that the line is 5mm and the fitting I have is 3/16" - in other words, it doesn't fit....  Two strikes...

...So, do I go back to the original (what's in the manual) plan of brazing on this fitting?... 😒

1.5 hrs. on misc. items.

Finally got edge grommet that fit well for this.

Fuel supply/return lines through on left side....

...and right side.  This side had a sharp edge inside that I was concerned about rubbing against the hoses, so I put on some heavy-duty edge grommet and on top of that two layers of metal tape to ensure it won't move.  I may add some additional rubber hose material there to further protect them.

I have to move those two clamps so the cover can slid up.  I may need to reverse the clamps though to get the necessary clearance... Could be tricky surgery....  Grrr....

1 hr. going over all my remaining parts, getting things organized and filling out my Task List in much more detail (I need a clear list of task for me to make progress, otherwise I feel lost and lose momentum).

Going through some boxes that I hadn't really examined before and found these goodies.  So much to learn about...

These should be helpful!

Not sure what these parts are.... Time to check in with the factory...

Spreading out my remaining parts so I can quickly find things.

Plane is back in the garage!

Wings back in!  You can see why I want to keep them on the dolly.  Forgot I still had some rivet heads to sand down.

My neighbor down the block who kept the fuselage safe helps me roll it back up the street.  Weird sight...

Back in, and in a different orientation.

This will be my electrical workbench.

My fuel, oil and cooling workbenches.

This was from the article I read recently that gave me the idea to use those Molex XRC connectors.  I noticed that there are some lines that are shielded and should have grounds through the connector, so I added those.  I do have to check whether my fuel signal lines are shielded.

More than an hour today cleaning up and organizing the garage.  I want to orient the fuselage differently than it was so I can store the wings on the dolly they're on now.  This way I can do stuff on the wings more easily (e.g.  I realized I still had some rivets to fill on the bottom of the wings).

The dash/panel has been in my home office for a couple of weeks and I actually like it there.  Easy to check things and work on it as necessary.

I printed out my wiring spreadsheet (sometimes I like to look over an actual piece of paper rather than the computer screen).  So far 85 wires listed and that doesn't include all the pre-wired engine monitor harnesses.  Soon after I printed it out I found another important wire that wasn't listed: Master Switch (battery) to the battery contactor.  A few more passes and it'll be done (maybe 😁).

The garage all cleaned up and ready for the plane to return!  I want to put the wings dolly on the left side and angle the fuselage with the tail toward the right rear.  Hope that works.

I'm ready to rock-n-roll!

Garage is basically done!  So, I'll be cleaning up and re-organizing it over the next couple of days and will move the fuselage and wings back in on Saturday.  Finally!

Meanwhile I've still been going over the wiring spreadsheet in increasing detail and I just extensively updated my Task List, so I'll be totally ready to get going.

So looking forward to getting back to it and finishing this plane! I can smell the finish! 😁