Home Preparation Empennage Wings Fuselage Engine Finish Kit Favorite Links W & B Calculator Van's Aircraft Email Me

Finish Kit Update August 2012 Updates August 02, 2012 The Last Rivets!...... - 1.0 hrs Ok today was the final last rivets. Turns out I had been putting off the last 12 rivets because I did not have a way to reach them. These were the rivets on the bottom of the firewall attaching the bottom forward belly skin on the firewall bulkhead. I think I originally skipped them when I was doing the bottom because I was not sure how far over from the edges I would go due to the camlock strips. Now with the engine installed and exhaust pipes and engine mount to much stuff is in the way. I helped Jim with his way back in the day with his so I knew he has a small bucking bar and a squeezer with a very small c-frame head on it. So all I had to do is say I have beer and even John B came over to help. We knocked those out pretty quickly. John climbed in and fired up the EFIS to play around with the functions. As we were sitting there sipping on some ice cold Yeunglings I mentioned all I needed now was the weight and balance and DAR inspection and this bird is ready to fly. John picks up his phone and calls a buddy that has the nice electronic scales. John sets up a pickup on his way home for the scales. How sweet is this.... we are doing it tomorrow night! So I start folding up the blankets on the wings and getting out the misc fairngs and inspection covers to load into the plane to prep it for W&B tomorrow night. I can't wait. Thanks John and Jim for your help and motovation. This website was built to document my work in compliance with the FAA requirements needed to certify my aircraft. My experiences and comments are by no means to be considered as instructions on how to build any aircraft.