The Waiting Game
Hey everyone. Not much to write about for the last two weeks. We have worked on the center-section fuel tanks. installed and sealed the fuel draw tube assemblies into their tanks. Installed the fuel sender units with neoprene gaskets instead of the cork ones that came with them. Routed the signal wires, pitot tubing and lighting wires through the wings and through the fuselage. Small but steady progress. The wing attachment blocks were installed and torqued, then marked with torque seal. We have the rudder cables mostly installed and need to work on the tailwheel steering cables. So, not a lot, but something.
Main reason for not getting a lot of progress is due to having to wait for hardware to arrive. We need to install the wing center-section and landing gear to proceed with all the systems. We ordered close tolerance bolts for the wing spar brackets, qty: 8. Well, Aircraft Spruce split the order and I was going to get 6 in three days and the other 2 in 12 days. Dang. well I waited the three days and got 5. Then I called and informed sales that they shorted me a bolt. Well they sent me one with free shipping. A week later, the two back-ordered bolts arrived. But not the shorted bolt. That took four more days to arrive by USPS in a small envelope. Weeks dealing with waiting for some bolts. Never been like that before with Spruce. They are not the lowest cost hardware, but reliable - they always have it and get it right out to you. Not now. Not sure why. Might be the same reason that all our local hardware and lumber stores have empty spaces on their shelves. End of year accounting.
Well, we finally had all the bolts and Scott finished up a bunch of paintball gun parts for his project. It was time to test fit the wing with the new blocks and hardware. Well, it fit perfectly - except the close tolerance bolts were barely fitting. After looking at it and checking the dimensions, I ordered a size that does fit -but not perfectly. The next size down would work perfectly. Arrrrgh! I waited for weeks! Well, ordered the new size bolts and had them shipped two day air.
So, been forced into a slow mode at the shop. Nice in some ways. But it’s Friday night and I’m waiting for the UPS driver to drop off my bolts. Today is the day! We will definitely get the wing on this weekend - when I can get the crew to show up. Will follow up with pics of it up on gear! Better go check the front door. See ya.