I'm an idiot when it comes to electrical systems, so my electrical system and panel are going to be built by Jim Ratte. He's asked that I ship everything down to him, which means building a big crate.
Call me cheap, call me sentimental, but these are the screws from the original shipping crate. Some of the wood is being used for the dolly, and the rest was used by another person to crate T-6 parts.
Before I ship everything off Jim asked that I mate the nosedeck to the hull, and trim the panel to fit when the veneer is done. Apparently each nosedeck and hull have some minor variations, so it makes sense.
First, cleanup the flashing on the edge.
Measure 1" in. I added 0.25 for a little safety margin.
And carefully cut.
The panel will be attached to this lip.
For the umpteenth time, a fit check.
.
Then use a rivet spacer to set the 3" spacing. Note the stereo heaters.
Deep breaths, start drilling and clecoing from the front.
She's got a little bit of an overbite.
Some corrective surgery on her lower lip fixes it.
Much better. Still got a little hook, but a SeaHawk's beak is supposed to.
Almost looks like she's smiling.
I was going to use ratchet straps to pull the deck and hull together, but they kept slipping on the curve of the bow. I finally just forced them together and it worked fine.
But the ends just did not sit flush. I'm told that's normal and it will be covered with the edge strip. After these were taken I added a few more clecoes.
OspRey doing her catfish impersonation. Note that to make it fit I had to add more clecoes every so often off the spacing I had set earlier.
Kinda weird to see open space there.
That's better.
And it's time to make the final decisions about switch layout, radio, etc.
Here's the current almost-final design. After decades of flying rental aircraft with crappy radios I swore that when I owned an airplane I'd have excellent radios, so (this week) I've decided to go with a PAR100EX radio/intercom system.
Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, and Go SeaHawks!!!!!!
Call me cheap, call me sentimental, but these are the screws from the original shipping crate. Some of the wood is being used for the dolly, and the rest was used by another person to crate T-6 parts.
Before I ship everything off Jim asked that I mate the nosedeck to the hull, and trim the panel to fit when the veneer is done. Apparently each nosedeck and hull have some minor variations, so it makes sense.
First, cleanup the flashing on the edge.
Measure 1" in. I added 0.25 for a little safety margin.
And carefully cut.
The panel will be attached to this lip.
For the umpteenth time, a fit check.
Then use a rivet spacer to set the 3" spacing. Note the stereo heaters.
Deep breaths, start drilling and clecoing from the front.
She's got a little bit of an overbite.
Some corrective surgery on her lower lip fixes it.
Much better. Still got a little hook, but a SeaHawk's beak is supposed to.
Almost looks like she's smiling.
I was going to use ratchet straps to pull the deck and hull together, but they kept slipping on the curve of the bow. I finally just forced them together and it worked fine.
But the ends just did not sit flush. I'm told that's normal and it will be covered with the edge strip. After these were taken I added a few more clecoes.
OspRey doing her catfish impersonation. Note that to make it fit I had to add more clecoes every so often off the spacing I had set earlier.
Kinda weird to see open space there.
That's better.
And it's time to make the final decisions about switch layout, radio, etc.
Here's the current almost-final design. After decades of flying rental aircraft with crappy radios I swore that when I owned an airplane I'd have excellent radios, so (this week) I've decided to go with a PAR100EX radio/intercom system.
Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, and Go SeaHawks!!!!!!
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