Good and bad

Another day at the airport.

Got my registration marks painted under the wing, this would have been so much easier to do before the wings was mounted to the airplane!

Getting the washers in place when attaching the elevator controls was difficult, should have done this before mounting the vertical stabilizer. Then the molex connector on the trim wires broke, after reading about others problems with these connectors it was probably for the best that I had to hard wire them instead.

I finished off with testing my nav and strobe lights. All nav lights worked, the strobe worked in the tail and on the left wingtip but not on the right wingtip, to be investigated.

Tail attachment 1

Oldest had no school today so we had a great day at the airport. I managed to lend a lorry from work, solving the problem of transporting the stabilizer that would not fit into a car.

After a long day I was ready to go home, my son then asked if we could fly! There is only one answer to that!

We flew over our to be house, our groundwork should start in a few weeks.

Wing torque, flaps

I need to find a way to get to the aircraft more often!

I attached the bolt that connect the back part of the wings and then torqued all wing bolts. I used about 170 and 820 inch pounds.

Then I attached the little fuel line from the tanks to the fuselage. After that I managed to connect the flap actuation. My flap motor runs in the wrong way, I will deal with that later.

Final task was checking my com radio, I could here coms but with very low volume. Hopefully just a configuration problem.

Wings

Another milestone. Wings are attached (not all bolts are in and no torque on any nuts)

I arrived at the airport early, unpacked some tools and supplies and then started working. First was removing the cowling again, the upper pins really caused trouble this time, must use better lube the next time.

Next was removing the lower spark plugs and letting out the preservative oil. Almost nothing came out of cylinder 2-4 but a lot from cylinder 1. Next was removing the oil, about 1/2 quart came out. Filled with 7 quarts of straight mineral oil.

Removed the plastics from the propeller, connected the main battery and rolled out the RV from the hangar. Now several EAA members started showing up, ran the starter motor with the lower plugs still out, almost no oil pressure on the first run but after letting the engine cool, I got pressure on the second 10-second run with the starter.

I had not gotten hold of or been able to manufacture any drift pins so I had not planned to install the wings today but with all helping hands around, I found two old worn 3/8 bolts and sanded them slightly and trial fitted them on the RV and lubed everything with grease.

Then we got to work, being five people it was surprisingly easy to get the bolts in, what I consider mild tapping with a plastic hammer while the others wiggled the wings was enough.

A big thank you to all who showed up!

The big move

Some pictures from the hectic days before the big move, lots of last minute tasks to be done:

Panel Version 1

Then it was time to rent a truck, unfortunately winter has returned and my train to the destination was delayed so I had to drive in snowfall and darkness. 

The ride went well, it was a three hour drive home, I got a great discount for basically transporting the truck to the next customer. It was a good way to get to know the handling before having precious cargo in it!

Finally parked at home:

 The train delay meant that I arrived home way to late for preparing anything on the night before the transport as planned. So in the morning I started opening up the shop.

 Then my father and father in law arrived for helping me load the RV onto the truck.

 My wife managed to help a lot while keeping track of the kids at the same time :)

 The cargo space had about 1 inch in total divided by the two sides as clearance. I had to dismount the wheel pant attachment points to make it fit. The entrance to the cargo hold was 1.5 inch tighter so we could not just roll it straight in.

 The next problem was that the cargo hold had absolutely zero low attach points so my thought out plan on how to secure the RV went into the trash bin. I basically used every wooden board I had and all my 2x4s to secure it. I did not look pretty but I can now say that it worked!  Unfortunately I do not have a single picture of it secured :( 

 Ready to drive

 The boys loved the ride, they slept for more than half of the 1,5 hour drive. My as always fantastic wife took the car and meet up with us at the airport delivering hamburgers for lunch.

 Unloading with the help of my wife and EAA controller Jan-Erik, thanx!

Safe in what will be the new home for 1-3 months