Jul 26 2003 - I finished fitting the wing tips, installing the nutplates for the #6 screws and dimpling the skins. No more clecos!

I also spent a little more time finalizing the flap fit. Here is a shot looking aft at the flap and fairing. I'll form the fairing just a little where it is too high in the center to better match the flap trailing edge.

Here is a shot looking up. The fairing did not fit as well when I pulled the edge to meet the bottom fuse skin. You can see a gap by the cleco which according to plans should not be present.

Here is a shot looking forward. I'm going to add a nutplate near the inboard end of the hinge. The spacer equals the flap brace plus wing skin thickness for an even fit.

With the tips and flaps in place, I fit the aileron pushrods while the jig plates were in place. After the pushrod lengths were adjusted (only about a turn to a turn and a half from the plans specified length), I pulled the jig plates and the controls were free to move. I am about 1 degree over max up travel, so I'll have to fabricate a stop and get it installed.

Aug 4 2003 - I disassembled the wings and brought the fuselage back home for wiring and firewall forward work.

The seats arrived from Cleaveland today so I had to install them and have a sit for the first time! Being able to sit in the airplane is going to help in some of the cockpit layout.

I'm undecided on the front seat arm rests - I might rather place a panel across the bulkheads and use it as storage since your arms don't naturally rest out so far.

A shot of the rear seat. It fits the seat back perfect. I have not fabricated the rear seat pan per the Cleaveland drawings yet so it sits low in the fuselage by a couple inches.

I have started a panel mockup as well. The radio and transponder position is still iffy - I'm not sure I like this layout. The ACS2002 in its vertical orientation will fit well on the right side.

Between the ACS and the Dynon in the middle there isn't much left. It looks like my rudder pedals will need to go full forward which will rule out the reservoirs mounted to the master cylinders. This was one of the fit checks I was talking about.

Another view of the rear. The padded armrests will get attached much later. I also have some material in the dark color to cover the fuselage sides. The dark panels should work pretty well with the light grey paint color.

Aug 10 2003 - I spent some time fabricating a cover for the rear stick well. As usual this took tons more time than I would have thought. I was a little concerned with items falling down in here so this is the result.

An angle similar to the RH side that mounts the vent was fabricated for the LH side and attached to the belt anchor.

The front just rests above the control hanger. I'll line the bottom edge with small slit tubing from the hobby shop.

The stick boot and vent mounted. I doubled the boot back on itself so that it can clamp to the top of the stick socket. I'll probably follow Brian Denk's idea of clipping the stick to the seat back unless I want the rear passenger to fly the plane.

I placed the bottom cushoin in place for a check fit. The rear seat pan fabrication is next up.

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