As I had just recently mentioned here, my build progress really feels like Van's keeps on issuing Service Bulletins whenever I made one or two steps ahead and pushes me back at least one step with this unplanned work creeping into my schedule.
And to prove my point, they issued another SB this morning which will afefct what I am working on right now (Section 49, Cooling System). Apparently they found cracks in the base of the structure that holds the battery and the oil reservoir to the firewall. The weight of the filled oil tank and the vibration from the engine are obviously too much for this lightweight cube to take. I will have to install a reinforcement to the base but the lack of accessibility to do the measuring and the match-drilling will make this a very, VERY awkward task to perform.
I am glad that I did not install the oil hoses to the reservoir yet as this would have made the removal of the oil tank much harder.
Tonight I will take a closer look at that inboard part of the battery box and see if and how I could get a drill bit in that area.
Will this ever stop? I guess I have to look at the bright side and appreciate that I get to do this before it is actually flying and creating all the problems and damages to the structure but it seems hard to blind out the severe slipping of my build schedule.
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