Saturday 7
Well my leg is still in plaster, but I have graduated to a walking stick so getting around the workshop is not too difficult. One thing I had left over from my old Cessna 150 was portable intercom. Except that it is not a stereo unit, it is pretty decent. It has a squelch which has automatic ambient adjustment, a self muting music input and separate pilot and co pilot volume controls. I pulled the circuit board out and decided that I could build this into my panel, along with an input for a CD or MP3 player. Well it took a little longer than I thought, but by the time the weekend was over I had a fully functional system built into my instrument panel.
The next thing I got done over the weekend was to teat the VOR. I had a VOR with a HIWAS output less than 10 miles from my house so I set up a fairly simple antenna in the window and much to my surpise it worked. I could hear the audio and get a To/From indication on the dial. The only trick left was to figure out how to couple the audio into my intercom since I don't have any additional inputs.
Flushed with the success of my VOR working I hooked the radio up and sure enough I could get it to receive okay as well.
Wednesday 11
Friday 13
Not attaching any significance to the date I thought I'd see if I could fly the airplane safely. I got a hold of my airplane partner and I did a bunch of landings and an airport close by. I really didn't have too much trouble handling he plane so flushed with that success I planned a flight for the next day.
Saturday 14
I had a visitor over from Australia so took the day off and flew the Comanche up to Mackinaw Island for the day. Its an island up at the top of the Great Lakes about 2 hours flying distance away.
Sunday 15
To make up for my day off I decided to do penance and get into a bit more of the 400 grit sanding. I got 3/4 of the wing done and called it quits.
In the evening I fitted an audio switch for the VOR. White it is not the best solution at least I won't have to listen to every marker beacon in the country as I fly over them.
Monday 16
I felt like I was falling behind on getting things organized to go out to the painters so I took the day off to work on the aircraft. I got both wings and flaps done and while it wasn't as much as I wanted I was at least past the halfway mark.
Tuesday 17
With the long evenings I was able to get both stabilizers sanded in day light, so that pretty well left only the ailerons and trim tabs to go.
Saturday 21
Our EAA Chapter has an engine host so I asked my fried Gert would he mind dropping it off. Well we got to thinking and working and before long we had the engine hung on the aircraft. Now while this might be one small step for man kind, it sure looks good.
In the evening I wired up the panel dimmer. While the dimmer works well, I was disappointed with the Nulites. I don't think it is a fault of the product, but what I did to them. I had to slightly trim them in areas just to get them to fit in my tight panel and in doing so this removes some of the reflective material. I tried adding it back with white paint but it was nowhere as good as the factory applied coating. Well they are in now and they work, it just that the light pattern is a bit un even.
Sunday 22
I didn't put in a full day on the project, but I got the ailerons & trim tabs sanded down. The pretty well is the last of it so the first thing I will do next week is to make a booking in at the paint shop.
Saturday 28
I spent the day tidying up my wiring in the avionics. I labeled all of the wires using a Brother labeling machine which can project 9 pitch print on clear tape. I print the labels and cover them with clear heat shrink tubing which does quite a nice job. I used a combination of tie wraps, spiral wrap or string lacing, depending on the situation I have set the radio stack up so I can unplug it and remove the whole subassembly from the instrument panel.
Sunday 29
Went flying
Monday 30
Took all of the flying surfaces to the painter