30th April 2012

Little things

Well, the DPLF did flow out a little bit more during the last 24 hours, despite the cool temperatures in the shop…it looks better than it did last night.  Not perfect or even quite ideal, mind you, but I’ll accept it for now.

Moving forward…working around the passel of newborn kittens who decided to come into the world under a sheet of plastic, I started doing the punch list of FWF items.  I’m not going to handle the cowls much for another day or two, to let the primer harden as much as possible.  I carefully attached the bottom cowl to the plane, then fit & drilled the airseal strips which cover the gap between the cowl inlets and baffles.  Three screws along the bottom, and one on each side to hold the curves in place.  Once the cowl is removed, I’ll make up aluminum backing strips for these pieces, as well.

Swapped out the temporary nuts for metal locknuts on the spark plug access hole seals.

Filed the front baffles where I’d trimmed earlier, then laid a bead of RTV on the aft side and clecoed the airseal fabric on.  Formed it into the approximate shape it’ll be when the cowl is on, and held with binder clips until the RTV cures; then rivets will replace the clecoes.

Hours: 3.2 | Posted in Cowling & Baffles | Comments Off