I’ve put in another 200 hrs since the last update. I closed on a T-hangar and all of the airplane parts are there now (except for the firewall forward kit which is on its way from Van’s Aircraft.) Here’s a picture of the hangar.
Here's the hangar with all of the pieces. It's not so big when you start filling it up with stuff.
Here’s a picture of the instrument panel being cut. I laid out the panel on a CAD system and then plotted a full size 1:1 drawing. I taped the drawing to the blank and used a fly-cutter to make the holes. The instruments include airspeed, electronic attitude indicator, altimeter, vertical speed, turn coordinator, compass, tachometer, manifold pressure, fuel pressure, fuel quantity, oil pressure, oil temp, cylinder head temp, exhaust gas temp, voltmeter, ammeter, hobbs meter. I found an Icom transceiver on Ebay for $700 and a King KT76C digital transponder for $1400. I bought the Dynon electronic EFIS with the battery backup. I don’t plan to have a vaccum system on the airplane. I left space for an autopilot and VOR/GS/LOC indicator. I'll upgrade to IFR after I pay off the VFR version of the plane.
Here's the nearly finished panel. It will be painted flat black.
My parents are in town for a bit and they graciously helped me move into the hangar and put the wings on. The spars and center fuselage center section are drilled for you at the factory so if they don't line up something is terribly wrong. Luckily, the temporary bolts slid right in. Since the bolts are temporary, I ground off the threads off some hardware store bolts and rounded the ends to get them to slip in easier. A bit of WD-40 helps too.
I didn't spend the whole summer in the garage. I did a lot of flight instruction and even worked in a flight with my friend Graham in his DG500M 22-meter motorglider. A wonderful machine. This is Graham flying final approach into Boulder Airport.
There was a 5000 acre fire last night in the foothills northwest of Boulder. Here's a shot of the smoke.
