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! 😁

1 hr. contemplating my navel...

Some of my original LED lights have been dying lately so I've been using a portable halogen work light.  Problem was, that light was ridiculously hot, so I bought another LED light to replace it.  Didn't realize how huge it would be!  Good lighting makes a huge difference in the ease of working on anything!

The picture doesn't do it justice, but it's crazy bright.  Unless I'm shooting a feature film, I'll probably just point it up to reflect off the ceiling...  Blinding...

Starting to think about the sensors that have to go on the engine and noticed this little nugget on the SteinAir circuit diagrams - it has two fuel flow transducers (out and return)...  I'd have to buy another FT-60 (OSH discount!), but doing it this way would be way easier than silver soldering fittings on a metal fuel line.  I could put them just inside the firewall, maybe on some bracket I can fashion.  You wouldn't want them dangling on some of the existing fuel lines on the engine side since they're supposed to be mounted horizontally in a preferred orientation.  I like this better, but I'll think about it some more.

Do I have the Oil Pressure Sensor, Oil Temp Sensor, Coolant Temp Sensor, Air Box Temp Sensor?  Are they already on the engine?  Pawing through my parts I don't see them.  Some research ahead...

I did find the Fuel Pressure and Manifold Pressure Sensors.  They look exactly the same, but if you look closely you can see they have different part numbers on the sides.

Just spent a little time last night organizing for the engine work.  My task for the next few days is to come up with a detailed task list for the engine install.  Combining the info in the build manual, Rotax Installation Manual and Sling 4 Maintenance Manual I should be able to write it all out.

Spreading out all the Firewall Forward kit parts...

That light shouldn't be on...  Haven't even connected it to anything...  Time to contact EarthX...

3 hrs. on the engine install and 2 hrs. cleaning and starting to organize the shop.

Tried to capture how I threaded the strap in the back.  Need to make sure that when the straps are attached over the center of the engine, that nothing movable has pressure on it.

Ready to lift!

And it's up!  Removed the supports under the engine at this point.

Getting it into place.  I'm sure that hoist didn't think it was holding anything. 😁

 Pulled the plane up to meet the engine and kept adjusting the hoist height to get things lined up.

Getting bolted (M10-sized nuts are temporary since I need to wait for a cup washer before putting on the lock nuts and torquing).

And she hangs! 😁😁

The lower bolts go backward.

Lower nut side don't get washers (temporary M10 nut for now).

BobZ says that the position of this inlet will need to be changed and he suggested to put the hose on and clamp while it's off the engine.  Thanks Bob!

Me.

Time to do a deep clean of the shop and start organizing to prep for the next steps.

Starting to gather and organize the parts on various tables.

Still didn't have the energy to do any real work, but I did do a little more organizing... 😁

Various parts I had recently ordered from Aircraft Spruce...  I know I'm going to have a boatload of extra parts when I'm done...  Maybe I'll build another plane when I'm retired, so I guess I can save the parts...  Don't tell my wife... 😜

I watched an excellent webinar last night on how to determine whether it's a good idea to turn around in the case of engine failure on takeoff.  No matter your experience level I highly recommend it!  It was given by Brian Schiff, based on research he and his father (Barry Schiff!) did over the last 40+ years.  I'm a huge fan of Barry Schiff's writing - I believe he's been a columnist for AOPA Pilot since the 60's, which must be a record.  His Proficient Pilot boxed set of books is a favorite of mine.

Check out the webinar here.  Watch it, you'll be glad you did, because I can almost guarantee you'll learn something you didn't know.

1 hr. tidying up.  When things get messy I get stressy... 🙄😄  There were too many miscellaneous parts strewn about, so I had to organize.

Had some spare parts boxes laying around, so I filled 'em up!  I could use a couple more of these for other parts not yet organized.  Maybe it's time for another trip to Harbor Freight... 😁

Tomorrow night I'll get back to making progress on the firewall...

Haven't had time to work on the plane, but I have bought a couple of tools. 😁  I'm kind of a sucker for useful tools.

I have a nibbler, but it's pneumatic and that's a pain...  I recently stumbled across this cool tool which is a versatile nibbler that uses your drill.  Good for cutting circles, curves, etc.  This would have been a better tool to use to cut that notch for the wiring the other day.

I read an article in Kitplanes the other day (from the guy that does HomebuiltHelp) that recommended this tool for cutting straight lines in sheet metal.  Using a straight edge, you just score the sheet a few times with this knife (not going the whole way through) and then just snap it off.  Much cleaner line (and way easier!) than using snips which I think are a real pain to use (especially if it's thick sheet) and don't give you the cleanest lines.

After doing that gluing with the Barge yesterday and realizing that some of my next gluing will require a lot of glue I decided to do more research on glue and the danger of using the various types.

Long story short, while Barge is amazing, I think it's best for smaller pieces to be glued together - The original formulation I was using is very dangerous stuff as it contains a large percentage of toluene (and other bad chemicals).  Nasty.  Fortunately I was wearing the highest-rated respirator, so no issue (though even with that on I was able to get a whiff of it...), but the smell lingers and I'd rather not breath it.

I spent over an hour this morning researching low-odor alternatives and I decided to try Gorilla Construction Adhesive.  You can use it without a respirator and will bond nearly any combination of materials quickly.  Read more here.

Fortunately my local (and close by) Ace Hardware carries it so I ran over and got some.  We'll see how it goes.  Today I'll just try it on some smaller pieces and see how it works out over night.

1 hr deciding I don't like hex head screws....  Have you ever noticed how close a six-sided shape is to a circle?....  In other words, I've found that they too easily strip if there's much resistance to turning it.  And I'm using top quality screws with a perfectly matched top quality hex key...

Well, that happened with screwing in the panel and now I have a screw that is totally stripped, which is tightly attached to a loose rivnut...  I'll figure out how to get the screw out, but I'm switching these screws to philips heads.  M4, black, carbon steel philips head screws arriving tomorrow...

Heard from a local builder buddy (he built a Sonex from scratch) about a technique he used to locate holes to drill when you couldn't easily get behind the fastener you were trying to drill the hole for.

Fix a laser to point at the fastener with the wheel pant cover off, then put the cover on and mark the spot where the laser is pointing.  Here's his blog page on what he did.

So, I ordered this today.  Cheap and I can do two at a time! ;-)  Probably just do the top two then measure down from there to get the other two.

1 hr. looking through my remaining parts.

From the firewall forward kit...  There's more on another table.  Lots-o-parts...

Do these lights and misc. parts come with the canopy kit or the electrics kit?  I don't have them (I didn't get the electrics kit, so maybe that's why?).  Need to get them...  Partly because I want to route the wires down the side channels so that I'll be closer to being able to install the rear interior side skin.  How many cores of wire need to go down there?

Good video on lock nuts.  Thanks Pascal!

HomebuiltHelp has lots of good videos on their channel.

Last night I spent an hour putting together a one-time-use tool for locating the bracket holes on the wheel spat covers.  Will try it out tonight. :-)

QUESTION: Can anybody think of a reason why I shouldn't put the canopy on yet?  Anything that needs to be done before doing that?

If all goes according to plan I will have the canopy on within a week.  Then I'll be connecting the parachute cables, putting the seat belt reel nuts on, and other misc. work.  After that I'll put the front top skin on and then on to the dash.  Once the dash is in then I can start the panel install. :-)

5 hrs. on misc.

2 hrs. of it were cleaning/organizing the garage since it was starting to get disorganized by my standards (it was also a bit disorganized because of the move on to the wheels).

With the new holes the spat covers now fit.  I need to order something before I can easily locate the bracket holes, so once I have that I'll get back to this and show you my plan.

I think I found my missing nose wheel pushrod bushings in this unlabeled package.  Look right?

I decided to try and figure out why I couldn't get the 3rd Dzus fastener in on the rear seat. I found that the rear seat has a rivet tail out near the end of the seat....

... that was not matched by a hole in the cross brace in the fuselage.  All the other rivet tails have matching holes except the end ones.  But, after measuring I could see that the necessary hole would be too close to that rivet on the end (left side)...

... So for now I just drilled out that rivet to test the theory that the rivet tail was preventing the seat from going back far enough to engage the Dzus fastener....

...and voila, it worked! :-)

I saw that JimP had elongated the seat belt guides, but I misunderstood what he was talking about.  It is not these slots, it is the guide/slot in the fiberglass of the canopy.  So, when I get to that point I'll note it here.

Starting to read up on and gather parts for the canopy install.  I did note that this page indicates riveting the canopy, but then mentions in a later step to use Sikaflex before riveting...  Um, I'll guess that's a mistake and I'll apply the Sikaflex before riveting...  Advice from others: Use LOTS of painter's tape on all the surfaces near where you'll be using the Sikaflex, wear clothing you intend to throw out and have ready lots of latex gloves to keep the Sikaflex (evil stuff!) off your skin.

And the necessary chemicals have arrived and with all good expiration dates.