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 ????

A lot of small steps

The control surfaces are in the paint shop.

After much trimming, I finally felt that I had a good fit for the bulkhead and cut one out. Another kitbuilder at the airport had some extra glass layups from his kit and kindly donated a piece to OspRey. 

Note the mockup battery. I finally got wise and made it out of scrap wood, allowing me to fit the 16# battery without being terrified of dropping it and breaking the hull. 

Tack the bulkhead into place with 5 min epoxy, and wait for it to dry.

Then make fillets. I was doing this on a Friday afternoon and plannig to work through the weekend when I realized I should check my supply stock. Sure enough, my big can of resin had crystallized, but luckily, Fiberglass Supply is just across the airport from me. A quick run over and I had a fresh can, ready for the weekend.

They say a perfect fillet should be the radius of a tongue depressor. I ran out but discovered a quarter was also perfect. 

The next morning I refreshed my fiberglassing skills and sealed the bulkhead in with 2 layers of glass: a 1" strip over the fillet, followed by a 2" strip over everything. 

Nothing secret, just keeping the avionics from getting accidentally glassed.

Jim is going to freak when he sees this. Because of some new equipment that would not fit on the old tray, we've pulled the avionics tray he so carefully built and are building another one.

Next steps will be to design and fabricate the new tray, rerun the wiring, and continue working on the new panel. All good...



...

Going backward, moving forward.

Abominable snowman, or my dog playing in the snow?

And as winter hits in earnest,  a little formation work gets put in.

Here we go. Pull the old panel, take everything off, and cut it apart. Now we're committed to rebuilding the panel.

Practice makes perfect. I'll never be as good working metal as TJ, that takes years of experience and talent, but if I can be competent and get his respect I'll be happy.

I spent an inordinate amount of time deciding on the layout of the landing gear lights, but it's something I honestly find fun. (Another shameless plug for XPanel software, great program.).

I probably voided the warranty by doing this, but I didn't like the ACI eFlap mounting plate, so as both a challenge and solution I decided to make it recessed and cut individual openings for each pushbutton. Wish I could change the color of the buttons, but at least I'll be able to  find them easily.

And for the wing panels. I got tired of fumbling under the panel for the Dynon USB extension and decided to mount it on the left wing panel, while on the right side I wanted to add a USB charging socket for phones, cameras, etc.

To fit the USB ort into the panel I needed room, one version was to change the orientation of the switches from horizontal to angled up along the curve of the glareshield. Failed experiment, adding the USB port made the panel crowded, and the angled switches did not work in a simple flow so the idea was junked and we went back to the horizontal switch layout.

Instead, using my new-found metalworking skills, I'm just going to take the old USB extender and mount it into the panel above the switches.

At the same time, I've been working on the front bulkhead. Paper template first,

transferred to some old foam for fitting. Anther thing that seems easier than it was, I'm sure there's a trick to making paper templates from a complex curve, but if there is, I didn't find it. All good.

Next step will be to glass it in, one of these days when I have time. I'm basically copying the new SeaRey's design, I'll have the battery hanging off the front and the relays on the back, the ELT will be somewhere on aircraft right behind the bulkhead.

A long time ago I had put the seatpans in with Rivnuts, when I burned out working on the panel I took a day and replaced the rear seat mounting tube with a new one.

Now we're seriously digging into the electrical. In a classic case of "You don't know how much you don't know until you realize how much you don't know.", while building the wiring harness I did not  make a detailed list of the wiring, so it's time to go back and make one.

I got to fly this last week. 23 years ago I started out flying ATRs from a gate nearby that no longer exists, it's been a long, strange, wonderful trip.

But really, it's not about the planes, it's about the friends you make along the way. Gator, James, and me at the wrap party for Sun 'n Fun 2019. The t-shirts say "This ain't Oshkosh", which is an informal motto among the volunteers at Sun 'n Fun, and the shirts are available here, with all proceeds going to charity.

And the gang.

Rumours of my quitting are greatly exaggerated....

It's been a long few years, no need to post once in a while pics of slow progress, so here's some catching up.


We've been working on beautiful, crisp fall days




and sometimes late into the night.




And winter days. I miss the rustic feel of my old hangar, but it's REALLY nice to have a weather tight hangar and HEAT!!!!





The focus has been on getting OspRey ready for paint, going over every seam and layup, looking for blobs of Polybrush or fabric peeling up.




Dan Older of Old Aire Seaplanes on Lake Whatcom will be doing the painting, and he's a perfectionist, like me. Dan is very popular in the aviation community up here, and OspRey is patiently waiting her turn.




And the hangar door got some needed maintenance.




Turns out my Ameri-King AK-451 was the subject of an emergency AD a few years ago. We were hoping it would pass the test and still be operable but no-go. Not even dropping it onto the concrete hangar floor was enough to set it off. *groan*....




When I cut the notch for the flap pushrod I was new to metal working, the manual said make it .75"-1.0", so I made it 1". After looking at other SeaReys I realized how disproportionate the 1" gap looked, ordered new pylon side covers, and cut it to .75". Much better.




I have also made the acquaintance of a gypsy metalworker named TJ, who travels the west coast only accepting jobs that interest him. We met one night at the hangar, OspRey and him talked and she cooed at him. End result, TJ is going to help me redo the panel and a couple other things.

 


Here's an example of his work. This is the old pylon side cover, with a crimp at the end I did to make it sit tight against the aft pylon tube. 




TJ gave me a demo of his mad skills that night








Niiiiiccceeeee......


We're also working on the nose area, first step was to remove the old, weak plywood battery support that was already showing signs of cracking. We're going to put in a bulkhead for the battery like on the new hulls, and move the ELT to the nose area to get it away from  the heater, and shift weight forward.




Part of the mods requires removing the carpet from from the dash. Heat gun, scraper, and patience.













Lastly, is this my future?