A WEEK OFF

So here I am with a full week off, and seeing as I work one week on, one week off, that means three weeks off!  Oh yeah! I basically squandered the first week with travelling to Perth for family stuff but now I'm back and ready for BIZ. The last two days have seen a great leap forward in my mind. I am starting to really get the hang of these plans and reading them. I am still having issues with hardware as I go along but I have been lucky so far regarding the fact that I have had quite a few spares from the last plane build.

I made up the brackets for the hydraulic brake master cylinder. As I stuffed one up, I got the pleasure of making two on one side of it, but it was all good. 

The fuel tank is now sitting in position. I have screwed in all the bungs and fuel level probe and only have the breather to decide upon. I would like to use the piece of ali tube going straight up to allow more fuel to be added to the tank, but am very worried about fuel spillage onto the windscreen if I ever find myself in the negative G situation. Plus it looks a little unprofessional.  I will have to read up on it more before I decide, but I expect I will just go with the normal fuel vent to the bottom install. 

I have no idea how people manage to get the AN3-10 bolt into the center join of the tank straps. I went and bought 5mm threaded rod cut them to 3" long and joined them then wound them in tight. I am hoping, once the straps have been in there for a while, I can hold them together with some clamps of some sort and replace the threaded bar with the correct hardware. I have plenty of time to change that later. 

I had another one of those 'Walter Mitty' moments where I seemed to be staring at the plane for ages, moving onto the plans, staring at the plane again, and so on. When ordering the quick build I asked for the lowered seat option. I have since found out that I have been sent the standard seat arrangement.  This took me a long time to work out by reading the plans and working out the differences. As I look back on it now it is very easy to tell in hind site. As it stands now I am not too concerned as both myself and wife are quite short in general. I can see what needs to be done to change the seating but I will leave it for now and worry if it becomes a problem in the future. 

So I've 'gone for broke' and charged forward with the normal arrangement. Who knows, Maybe it will be really good and I'll be able to see over the dash while taxying :)  I hope so. 

The lower hinge, I ended up riveting on before the day was out, and tomorrow I plan on fitting the other two hinges at the bottom and the top.  I have realized I have not made a cut away for the hinge pins at these two areas so will also do that in the morning. 

I don't have a picture but I also riveted on the wing spar carry through box and the associated brackets today. I think most of the rivets have been left out as the option of the tri landing gear brackets would need to go there if they were required. As I'm running the standard gear I riveted it all up.  I am really hoping I haven't made an oversight, and missed something.  Again, I sat for ages looking at the plans before I decided on this bold move. I don't fancy having to drill out over 100-200 or so rivets if I have made a mistake.

So what will tomorrow bring?