Jul 6 2003 - Over the long holiday weekend, I installed the flaps. This included trimming the skins to fit, fabricating the pushrods, and then fitting the flap fairings. This took way more time than I expected, but the results came out pretty good. This shot shows the fit between the fairing and the flap skin.

Here is a shot of the flap lowered. I'll probably install some UHMW tape on the fairing lip to keep from scratching the skin at the front curl.

Here is the LH pushrod with the flaps fully up.

An overall shot with the flaps down...

And then retracted. I am really pleased with the aileron and flap alignment to both the wing and fuselage. I'll start fitting the wing tips next while both ailerons are still pinned in neutral with the alignment plates.

Jul 13 2003 - I fit the tips along with the reinforcement strips that go inside the lip and the rear ribs. Since this shot, the strips and rib have been epoxied and riveted in place. I'll wait for the epoxy to set up well before I proceed with the screw and nutplate installation.

The fit came out very good. The LH side shown here is perfect, the RH side suffers from the aileron being mounted just a tad high. I am undecided whether to try and fit a new aileron bracket on the right.

I then went on to the tank attach brackets. I had to take off quite a chunk of the top forward corner of each side to clear the gap cover plate. Using the topmost hole specified on the plans, there is no way to keep this bracket inside the wing outline if built per plans. I would have left the rectangular cutout in the center further away from the top hole if I had known what I do now.

Here is the bracket installed on the fuselage. I have to slot the tank attach angle when the wings are off on sawhorses and access is easier. The nutplate still has to go on after I finish polishing the edges.

Jul 19 2003 - I started fitting the fuel supply and vent lines. This shot also shows the tank attach bracket bolted in, the slot cut, and the nutplate mounted. The grommet for the supply line is on the tube, but has not been slid into the cutout.

A shot from below showing the vent line routing. The tank access cover uses Proseal without the gasket and hex head bolts.

The Andair valve being hooked up. The left tank is plumbed, the right is stalled while I wait for a 90 degree elbow. The original valve supplied by Vans used 45 degree fittings, I failed to order 90 degree fittings for the new valve. The kit had one which I used on the LH port.

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