On my way back from the paying job, I picked up some more cans of primer from the National Aerospace Parts Association or short NAPA. So when I got home I scrubbed the modified angles that will help lifting the canopy out of its closed position. After some sun drying I applied two coats of primer (on the back only, where it touches the bare metal of the skirts) and let them sit to dry out.
Then I could finally rivet them on and finish the skirt riveting by doing so.
I also had received a package from Van's that contained those desperately needed parts. Well, the desperately needed part I should because only one part in the package was dearly needed. More about that a bit later.
Some additional parts that I will later for finishing my SkyView panel I had ordered with this shipment as I thought I might be able to bridge some more days with this work while still waiting for my SV. Bill Hollifield had filled me in on those needed parts.
I heard that Van's had changed the design of the map box cover which would be a heck of a lot easier to install. I read how much trouble others had and so I chose to get that cover, along with a new right side panel that goes with it. The new right panel also has no cut out for the ELT and the Intercom. I might put them back in as I'd like to have my PCAS in the left panel where the SV now has the ELT and Intercom. It might be easier to track it in that spot right above the SV screen.
Here are the parts you need for the new style map box cover.
If you don't want to zoom in, The right panel is F-00035 and the cover is F-00021. The manual update you can see, is 29A. You still need the rest of the map box parts that you have put aside when receiving your kit.
So the following day I took a closer look at the other parts I had received from Van's. Among them I was hoping to find the desperately needed guide block part that mysteriously couldn't be located by its name C-1212. Neither in the web store nor in my work shop. Well, the mystery finally got resolved.
The part in the top was what I had ordered, a C-1207, in the assumption that this must have been it what was missing from the Canopy parts bag. Well, as you can see this is a part I had just installed a few posts back and this was certainly not what I was missing. So I started digging a bit deeper into that bag and into two items cryptically described as PS UHMW-750X1/2X2 and PS UHMW-150X1/2X2.
To cut this short, the part called 750 is in the photo on the left side and the 150's are the two thin parts in the middle and on the right. Problem is, that I needed TWO of the 750 part and only ONE of the 150. The manual did nowhere note that the mysterious part C-1212 is supposed to be manufactured from the PS UHMW-750X1/2X2 raw material. That's why I wasn't able to find a hint of it.
Result is that I put another order in for TWO PS UHMW-750X1/2X2 (just in case i mess one up, as I have been known to do such things) but there is no way they could arrive here before the weekend and I certainly wasn't going to pay for overnight shipping for two parts that cost $3.10 each (still, $3.10 for 2 inches of plastic?).
I guess, I'll just have to work around it until it gets here next week.
So, on I went to install the latch handle assembly. First a shot of the cured and partially cleaned up filler that is supposed to keep water out of the cockpit.
Finally I could install the upper part of the latch handle and continue installing the rest of the assembly. I was precisely following Van's measurements on these parts. And I also followed precisely that somewhat convoluted description of installing the latch block in step 2 on page 34-10. It worked out perfectly and so maybe it's worth breaking it up in so many steps.
I didn't have to do any trimming or fine adjustment, everything turned out just as Van's wanted it. I continued with the next step which I still don't fully understand what it's for... Installing that little plastic support at the back of that metal hook just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Anyway, I put the raw piece in place and match-drilled it as I was asked to do and then shaped it to match the shape of the metal hook.
To give it a little bit of meaning I made sure that it was extending just a tad above the level of the hook so to not scrape the paint off the latch handle when it locks the canopy.
And in closed position.
With all this done I just jumped across the line of 800 hours worked on the plane. When I had ordered the first subkit and estimating how long it would take me, I thought that I should be done by now. I guess the decision to prime easily cost me 250 - 300 hours. Not that I would be much farther to First Flight, as I had just likely waited longer for SkyView, but at least I could have done something else with that time :-).
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