1 hour.
Didn’t have a lot of time to build today.. Actually I did, so it’s more my fault. The landscapers came today and moved all the compost and bark into place for our front yard. Supervising them took until noon, but they did a fine job. Then it was lunch time. It rained all day and every place I went for lunch was either too crowded or not open, so I just gave up, got Subway, and came home. Then I surfed the internet and gawked at engines for a while, then finally got going on the left wingtip. I cut the strobe heatshield/reflector plates for the outboard facing surface on the wingtips, which was a royal pain. The flycutter can’t do a 1″ diameter cut, and I don’t have a 1″ hole saw or punch. I do have a 1″ wood bit, which didn’t work at all. I finally made a 1/2″ hole and expanded it with a spare rotary burr chucked into the drill press. Time-consuming, but effective. I managed to make a bit of a mess, so I think a 1″ unibit is on the list for acquisition because only Cthulhu knows how many 1″ holes I’m going to have to drill around this airframe. On the plus side, I cut the plexiglass lens bubble in half, and this photo shows it taped into position with the cutout edges marked. The strobe bulb is also in, but I’ve got the black protective foam around it.
Then when this is done, I have to turn around and do everything to the other wingtip. Oh, and I did run pitot/static lines, but haven’t messed with the actual pitot/AOA probe yet. Not quite sure how to go about that one, so I’m leaving it until I can spend some time pondering it. The biggest thing is going to be how I fasten the probe to the mast, since there are no holes drilled for the purpose and I REALLY don’t want to put a drill hole through one of the aluminum tubes in the probe. Drill stops and a steady hand, I guess.
Oh, one other thing. I ran the power wires for the nav and landing lights, and the shielded wire for the strobe. I’ll probably locally ground them at the wingtip, assuming that’s viable with this Nav antenna. If not, no big deal, it’s a fat conduit and I can get two more wires down there with ease.
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