Switching around

Originally I ordered Fast-on switches, which I found out really meant "Fast on, Never off." After ruining some wires trying to remove & replace wires, I decided to change to switches with screw mounts. Means redoing the wires, but will make repairs a lot easier.

These are available at SteinAir.

Thanks to the Vans Air Force

Much as I like my Seagulls, I've found that another group of pilots, the Vans Air Force, have a huge resource of knowledge and have been very welcoming to me asking questions on their forum. Appreciate it, gang.

"I don't know." is not an acceptable answer to a USN Chief (ret.)

Syd: What does this wire do, Steve?
Me: I don't know.
Syd: (looks at me)
Me: I will know next time I see you.

The cockpit was my office

 Panel temporarily mounted in place, it will be held from overhead by the nosedeck, but this allows me to work on the wiring. 

And put everything (or as much as possible) back in place.

Spaghetti, Part ????

New panel in progress

It may not look like it but there's a huge difference from this

to this. Very happy with my progress.

Still cold, but good enough weather for outdoor cookin'....

back scratches,

an airshow

and soaring. 

With the wiring sorted out it was back to working on the panel. I had been thinking about doing a 3 piece removable panel mounted to a frame, but the weight and complexity stymied me. I know there's a way to do it, but I'd rather go with a tried and true solution and get going. Paper template transferred to cardboard

and fit checked. 

drawn on some .063" 2024T3

and cut. My new favorite tool, it cuts faster than a sabre saw, which is good (job is done faster) and bad (easier to f-up and make a terminal error in the cut.).

All that other cutting wasn't for waste, practice makes perfect, things fit better and were cut faster this time.

Something that REALLY made me nervous  was bending the side panels. Had to get it right the first time, and I measured,

and remeasured

until my hangar neighbor Jerry kindly showed me how to bend it on his brake.

Perfect. (in retrospect I wish I hadn't drilled the left side panel until after I bent it, but I was worried about trying to drill it after being bent. Oh well, the changes I would have made are not significant.) Off to work for about 2 weeks, things will start moving quickly now. I hope. 

I missed it over the winter, but a little bit more than 30 years ago I started flying fixed wing airplanes. Never in my wildest dreams did I dream I'd be flying a 300+ passenger, 3 week old 787 for a living.

Company policy about social media is pretty restrictive so I won't post who I fly for, but check out this shiny clean landing gear!!!