Its been more than 3 weeks since I was last in the shop!  I had a trip to Charleston South Carolina one weekend, and another weekend taken up with homework for my MBA program.  (Accounting… yuk).  I also took a weekend and completely vegged out.  I have a tendency to take on large workloads and multiple projects that can wear me thin.  Sometimes I have to take a step back and recharge or I will get burned out.  This weekend, is of course Thanksgiving.  So its been a four day weekend that I can relax, work on the plane, and get some homework done all at the same time.

Before I get on to the project, there is other aviation related news.  I’ve rejoined Fort Meade Flying Activity (www.fmfa.aero) and I will be getting checked out in the Piper Arrow.  I also need to do a BFR and IPC.  My wife and I want to do a couple overnight trips, and I figured it would be fun to do some flying around here, so its time to stop procrastinating.

On to the project.  First, I finally completed the other tie down bracket as I’d received a shipment from Van’s.  I bought the tank sealant, flop tubes, new delux fuel caps, and the silly rivets I was out of.  Next up, I started by making the leading edge cradle.  I used scrap wood and really took Van’s instructions of “don’t waste time making it perfect” to heart.  Its a POS, and it took no time at all to build, but it serves its purpose nicely.  I completed clecoing both leading edges together and mounted them to the spars.

While I was in Charleston I picked up some swag from my alma mater.  Here’s Squire trying on my new hat.

I finished all the final drilling today.  Its quite an endeavor to place a couple hundred clecoes, final drill several hundred holes, move all the clecoes and drill those holes.  My wrists are sore from the cleco pliers.

Not much else to report.  I removed most of the clecos from the bottom skins, and I am ready to begin the leading edges.  I will need to place an order with Van’s Aircraft this week for several items to include fuel tank sealant.  

Happy 238th Marine Corps Birthday Marines, and Semper Fidelis!

Today, I drilled the wing walk doublers and clecoed the top skins to the skeleton.  I had enough clecos to do the top of the left wing and half of the top on the right wing.  I called Jack Savage, and he agreed to lend me his clecos.  He’s got a ton, and I should be able to cleco all 8 skins.  Unfortunately, I forgot that I also still need 8 pesky AN426AD3-7 rivets to complete the second tie down bracket!  I guarantee Jack would have some handy, so I was fairly pissed when I remembered.

It might not seem like much got done, but that is a lot of clecos to install!

I hung the bottom skins, but only did part of the clecoing.  Tomorrow was a light day in the shop.  Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day and I have off work, so I’ll make a fair amount of progress.