1 hour.
This wasn’t much, but it was a big deal to me. the Dynon pitot/AoA probe comes with the housing filled with silicon goop, to keep the tubes from rattling around and chafing. This is fine, except for some of them come with the tubes shoved all the way to one side silicon-gooped in right up against the wide part of the flange where you’re supposed to drill the mounting screws. I also needed to get down to Cameron Supply, the local machine-shop supply house, to pick up some #36 drill bits, which is what you’re supposed to use on holes to be tapped for 6-32 screws. The screws I got from the aviation dept at B&B Hardware in Culver city a while back; stainless steel pan-head philips screws. But what vexed me, other than working 12 hour days on Speed Racer and facilitating the rape of yet another of my childhood memories, was putting a drill through one of the air lines and racking up $300 worth of frakkage. After lots of careful measurement and putting a piece of tape on the drill bit as a depth gauge for safety, I actually drilled out the pitot assembly. I tapped the holes for 6-32 with no issues or problems. Although on the hole where the air lines rub up against the flange, I had to cut the screw off to about 3/16″ so it would go all the way in. and not kink the aluminum air line on the other side.
So what to do next? I’m not really sure. there’s lot’s of fuselage work I need to get into, but I think I should move the wings to the garage and move the big rollaway toolbox into the shop. I also need to cut off the legs of the sawhorses so the longerons are about waist height, then I can get in there and move around a little better.
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