This is what I have settled on. I have a buddy from church who’s itching to try out his new machine equipment and see if he can tear me some holes in my panel. I need to clean up the measurements a little and get them to him. But here is what I have finally decided on.
Okay aviators… constructive criticism. I like it but I always like to hear intelligent suggestions that might improve the functionality or logic of my panel. What do you think?
Spent a really nice evening yesterday getting acquainted with N7160L, a Grumman Traveler. Some friends own it and have agreed to allow me to fly it while I am building my aircraft. I went up with an instructor who had been working with my friends on their checkouts and some flight training. Really great instructor that I recommend highly. Mike Liese. Shoot me an email if you want his contact info. We spent about 30 minutes on the ground and one hour doing air work. I am now cleared to fly the Grumman!
Pretty good day full of aviation today. Scotty and I went out to the airport to direct aircraft parking at Oakdale (O27) this morning. We had a nice breakfast cooked by members of EAA Chapter 90 and then spent the next hour and a half parking airplanes. As in, guiding them to their parking spots. The event is our first annual poker run. The object of the game is to fly to different airports where you pick up some cards. When you land back at the first airport you check your poker hand that you’ve created picking up the cards at the airports on the route. The pilot with the best hand wins a prize. It is a fun event and brought pilots in from as far away as Watsonville.
The second half of the day was spent pre-fitting some parts on the airplane. I would pre-fit one part, get as far as I could and then move on to another. Scotty did the final riveting of the vertical stabilizer and afterwards I installed it. It’s starting to look very airplanish now.
Here are some photos of our progress:
This is the instrument panel and firewall pre-fit. You can also see that we’ve installed the floor board, scuff plate, rudder pedals, sticks, and seats since the last update.
Here is a photo of the seats. Angela was my big seat helper. She prepared the uphostry by cutting the openings for the lacing and wires which hold the seats to their frames. Angela was also the first person to sit in the airplane!
Here’s the airplane’s first occupant.
We’ve installed the optional aft baggage compartment. There is another baggage area just behind the seats which I haven’t installed yet.
We completed and bolted on the vertical stabilizer. The rudder is not complete yet but I decided to hang it on the VS for this photo.
Here’s the entire airplane so far. You can see the firewall that I have pre-fit on the front. The aft baggage compartment door (the blue triangle) which I have also-prefit. Everything is coming along nicely.