jomac wrote:you guys are talented...looking awesome jon.....!

Thanks Jo! My dad has some skills. I try to make sure he does the work that will show and I do the stuff that will be covered.

Looks really nice Mr. Whee.

akaviator wrote:Looks really nice Mr. Whee.

Thanks AK.

For sure! Looks great. Excited to see her flying!

Bigrenna wrote:For sure! Looks great. Excited to see her flying!

Thanks.

You guys are giving me the encouragement I need to keep at it. Been feeling a bit burnt out.

whee wrote:Had to fit the firewall and boot cowl so we could cut a new instrument panel.


Haven't nailed down the panel layout but I thinking something like this...maybe.


We will probly ditch the 430 and go with a Garmin GTR200 or a Icom A220. The T&B won't get install unless we decide we want one. All the switches and the key will go on the far left.

Looking good! One thing to think about... I had an engine out this summer and the key is on the far left of my panel. The primer and throttle is in the center.. The only way I could get her to stay running for a few minutes after the restart was to slowly pump the primer. I got a restart at about 50' off the trees and shit was hairy for a bit. Try flying with the your knees while turning the key with your left hand and trying to work throttle and primer with your right hand. Shit goes south quickly. I added a starter button I can hit with my thumb as I pump the primer now... Hopefully I will never need it again but if I do the flight path wont be as erratic on the the way down I hope.

I would put all the switches on a drop out pannel so they are easy to work on when needed. Consider the same for instruments. Most every plane I have seen built has the instruments and wiring in place before the boot cowl is put on. If you want to really make your life easy in the future mount the boot cowl and dash, than do all final wiring and and gauge fitting with them in place!!! I have seen many a beautiful panel wire job turn into a nightmare once you try to work on it with boot cowl and dash in place. Consider a large hole with cover in the top like a pacer has.
DENNY

DENNY wrote:I would put all the switches on a drop out pannel so they are easy to work on when needed. Consider the same for instruments. Most every plane I have seen built has the instruments and wiring in place before the boot cowl is put on. If you want to really make your life easy in the future mount the boot cowl and dash, than do all final wiring and and gauge fitting with them in place!!! I have seen many a beautiful panel wire job turn into a nightmare once you try to work on it with boot cowl and dash in place. Consider a large hole with cover in the top like a pacer has.
DENNY

x2. When the brushes on my alternator failed I put on a larger alternator (got a good one for a good price!) and had to rewire part of the plane. Having that hole in the top of the dash that I could remove the cover from was clutch. I still spent a lot of time on my back, upside down on the seats to reach up under the panel but I had tons of light to see and could reach some things from the top as well. I'll see if I can find and post any pictures if you'd like.

I've been really lazy the past couple months. Most of what I have done is getting things ready to assemble the engine.

I did spend a little time in the garage over the weekend working on the third row bench seat frame. I think it's going to work out pretty well.

Finished building the seats and just need get them painted. I'm pretty happy with how the seating turned out other than being a bit heavy.
Untitled by Jon Whee, on Flickr

Temporarily mounted the fuel boost pump.
Untitled by Jon Whee, on Flickr

We moved a wing to my dad's garage so he could start working on mounting the flaps and ailerons.
Untitled by Jon Whee, on Flickr

Untitled by Jon Whee, on Flickr

We are still waiting on some engine parts so we can move on with the FWF. Seems we are in a holding pattern and just need to pull the trigger on some significant items; prop, avionics, paint scheme so we can order the covering material.

Looks great! Progress is always great. Boost pump is an IO-360 thing, I presume?

All fuel injected Continentals, Lycomings too I think, require a electric boost pump in addition to the engine driven fuel pump. This pump is from FlyEFII.

Progress has been extremely slow this summer due to...life. We are starting to make some good progress now though.

The only picture I have to share at the moment is likely the only picture I'll share of my engine build. Just have to safety wire the cluster gear bolts and it will be time to put it in the case.

Looking great whee. Not sure if you got my latest message on tapatalk, but I had an idea on what we were discussing there. May wanna check it out.

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

A1, I must have missed it. That's not a bad idea but I decided to shelf that concept and stick to off-the-shelf parts as much as possible from here on out.

whee wrote:A1, I must have missed it. That's not a bad idea but I decided to shelf that concept and stick to shelf parts as much as possible from here on out.

Ok. Not a bad idea. Keeps things simpler if you ever have repairs away from home and such. Still going to have a kick ass plane man!

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

Looks great Whee.... persistence pays!

gunny

Making some headway and I'm pretty excited about it.

This is about where we are at on the engine. We decided to pause here so we could get the fabric on and painted before the cold weather moves in.


It has been a while since she had a sun bath...


I really like how the stringers look and almost hate to see them covered up.




Started covering. Surprising how much bigger the rudder looks with fabric on it.


My pops has been working on the wings. One done and this one almost done too.

Good stuff JW - nice to see your progress.

Thanks Battson.

I'm finding fabric work pretty enjoyable. It's been slow going but as I figure things out it speeds up quite a bit.