Looking awesome John. How did you do the labels on your panel?
Thanks,
-DP

awesome

Amazing work!!!

Tom (the avionics guru) took care of that...about $250 total.
John

This week, the cowl came back form the paint shop along with the baggage door. It took two days, but the baggage door now operates like a fine German luxury auto. With good weather, we got a crew yesterday and mounted the wings. The next task is to make the fuel, air, electric connections between the wings and body. She is beginning to look like a plane again!!

Looking great John.

With the wings now on, the day was 'spent' on the right side attaching cables, mounting bellcranks and connecting wires. Just takes a lot of patience and tricks to pull cables w/o twisting or overlapping. Found it is best to attache cables to bellcranks BEFORE you install them into the wing. Small digital cameras with flash allow one to inspect the cable runs for twists.

Left wing is next...alot more 'things' to hook up on that side.

Got some pics of the baggage door install. I will cover the door with 1/4" foam to match the rest of the interior. It took a long time, but it sure fits nice and operates easy.

Installed BAS inertial reels. Does anyone know details of the tapped #6 holes on the bottom of the rear carrythrough spar? Are these nutplates, rivenuts or simply tapped threads into the spar? Mine seem to be stripped out. I would like to use #8 AN screw in the bottom.

John

John, beautiful airplane, makes me envious. I've installed a couple of the BAS shoulder harness kits in 170B's. Those are suppose to be 1032 screws. Per the 170B parts manual fig 24 item 7 they are nut plates, AN366F1032 which updates to MS21078-3 or NAS1023-N3. The nut plates are basically an elastic stop nut on a 2 hole mounting strap. Since 632 and 832 screws have the same thread pitch they would screw right in but would not engage the thread fully. When you put the thread under tension to tighten they would feel like the thread was stripped. I'm sure you knew this, just grabbed the wrong screws trying to get finished. Hope this helps.

Tim

Tim,
Thank you. I was going to post a question about the mounting plates. You answered my question exactly. The -10 would not start. I will run a proper sized tap through before installing the -10. These are temp screws to hold it in place until done right.
John

John, I should have added to my original post that in both sets I installed the BAS mounting bracket on each harness was sprung slightly forward when installed, just enough to make it hard to get the screws to start straight. I had to push the bracket slightly aft to get the holes to line up so the screws would start straight,

Tim

John,
I see that you have the three-blade installed on your latest avatar picture. Any updates?
Looking good,

-DP

John how well did your air box line up with the air filter throat on the cowel? Mine doesn't line up very well and cocks of the hose to one side, Ive talked to a couple other delair installers that had similar issues.

I got the plane done and flying and lost track to time to post updates. In summary: WOW what a wonderful machine!!

Since the last post, the wing controls were installed and rigged. Doors and windows installed. Interior surfaces insulated w/ 1/4" foam, door panels installed. Front kick panels installed. Aircraft weighed (1405 is new empty weight with full oil) Annual inspection completed. Flew it to OSH, Emergency landing-clogged fuel filter on the way home. Took the plane on a 5-day, 40 hour trip touring SD, WY, MT, ND, MN.

Got the hydro pump for the skis mounted...will install the AWB skis next week. I am going back out west several time next year in hopes of exploring more of these wonderful places with some of the members of this group. Still need to leather wrap the control wheels and dye the grab handles black and chrome plate the control wheel shafts.

Performance is unbelievable!! During my West trip, DA was many times over 11K during departures from backcountry strips and she came out just fine. For normal cruise, I like 23" MAP 2200 rpm, set hottest EGT to 1400 (50 rich of peak) and see 127 TAS with DA of 7000' burning 8 GPH. It also loves to run at 2000 RPM and 22" MAP a bit lower, but whisper quiet. With cold temps arriving here, we see DA below sea level and it can get off the ground in about two plane lengths!

Loving it!!
Thanks for the support!

John

Looks awesome John!

Nice work. Great job on the empty weight!

-DP

John,

is that 127 kts?

Nice airplane!!!

Kurt

John, what did your empty weight end up being?

Very, very nice.

Outstanding work John! Looks incredible.

I'm curious how much better the 79" MT 3 blade works compared t the STC'd 83" MT 2 blade?

John,

That's a gorgeous airplane, indeed! Enjoy it, and keep us posted.

If you're going to be in SW Montana, let me know, we'll join up, and if you need a bunk, we've got space.

MTV