I’m doing a lot of good work lately, but as with the strakes so many years ago now, none of it’s really user-noticeable. Folks come by the hangar and wonder what I’ve been spending my time on. Admittedly I was down with the flu all of last week pretty much, but mostly I’m waiting on a couple of key parts to actually proceed with wiring and covering my panel, so I continue with the very necessary (but unglamorous) preparation work.
I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to capture every wire in the airplane in my wire listing, which I’ve just posted in the panel section. I intend to make a harness this time around, rather than run each wire one at a time, but to do that you must catch every single wire. Just ask my buddy Andy. And there are a bunch of wires that are very easy to forget about. Then every wire will get a shrink-wrap label with this number so they can be easily identified.
In other news, I’ve ordered blue fuel gauge LED lights since every other light in the airplane is now a soft blue. The new TruTrak electric ADI is so deep it’s forcing me to move my GRT AHRS unit to the copilot side of the airplane, which of course means all new cables from Tim at Approach FastStack. That’s unfortunate, but it should make getting the cables to the AHRS and Display Units much easier to work with than they were previously. Having flown the airplane I find that my mindset is very much changed. This time around I’m more willing to sacrifice a little time as long as it’s getting “better”. We’ve flown enough to know what we have and where the bugs are, and now I want to do this once more and then leave it for many years. The glareshield is out for upholstery at FlightLine Interiors and should be back well in time to go in with the finished panel. I wanted to have this done so we can start testing the new electrical and get the GRT software updated and get the entire system pitot/static calibrated without affecting the rest of the interior. I think we’re pretty much set to have our buddy Dave Spano come down and install the interior for us some time in February or early March. Right now were working with Oregon Aero to get matching materials on order for that.
I think we’ve also set our minds on an MT prop, which I hope we will order this week. This was a very tough choice. My heart was set on the AeroComposites. But, it’s terribly expensive and the wait is enormous. It’s also relatively new and has relatively few numbers in the field, and it’s had teething pains. I believe those are behind it, but who knows. This way I can fly in the spring with a known quantity with money in the bank for the first overhaul, or just maybe a Garmin 430W!
Posted By: Brett FerrellMonday January 31st, 2011 at 10:42 PM