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I didn’t get much done in the first half of the week due to the bug I was fighting. Thursday and today I got a whole bunch done. I changed the O-rings in the brake system - I had screwed up, due to a misinterpretation of some info, and had O-rings made from EPDM, which were not compatible with my chosen MIL-PRF-83282 brake fluid. I went back to the stock Buna-N O-rings.

I removed the right flap, removed the UMHW tape adhesive that was causing it to bind, and reinstalled it.

I put foil heat shield on the insides of the cowling in the areas where the exhaust pipes are routed close to the fibreglas.

I got most of the access panels, floors, seats, etc back in. I just need to reinstall the baggage compartment floors, install the spinner and cowling and the plane will be ready to fly.

Now I just need the paperwork and I can start the flight testing.

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I had grand hopes to clean off the loose ends so the plane was ready to fly this weekend, just in case the paperwork arrives in time. But, I have been fighting some sort of digestive tract illness for several days now. Some days are better than others, but I have had to stick pretty close to the facilities most of the time. This has greatly hindered my hangar work session plans, and it now seems quite unlikely that I will be ready to fly this weekend. I will endeavour to close off those loose items by the end of the weekend, so the aircraft is ready to fly.

Monday I head on the road for the week - two days in Toronto, then two nights in Brazil. I fly overnight each way for the Brazil trip fly down Tuesday night, and arrive back home Saturday morning. Needless to say I won’t be doing any RV flying on that Saturday (the 23rd). Maybe Sunday the 24th, if the paperwork is here, and the weather is suitable.

So, it is hard to say when this thing will get airborne.

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I got a few hours work in at the hangar today. I got about half the reassembly work done, added a placard by the external canopy handle, and sorted out the remaining paperwork.

The transparent label material looks great when used in the cockpit, but it doesn’t look nearly as transparent when used on the silver paint on the canopy skirt. But, it only has to stay like this until the aircraft is painted, so I’m not going to lose any sleep over it now. I will revise the wording though, as the current wording doesn’t mention the need to pull aft after rotating the handle. I think I’ll change the placard to:

Rescue
1. Rotate handle
2. Pull handle aft

The new words will be to the right of the arrow. I’ll also trim closer to the arrow and words, to minimize the amount of “transparent” label material that is visible.

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I got back from Wichita Friday afternoon. I got up at 0530 this morning, and zipped out to Smiths Falls, to get the aircraft ready for the final inspection. I had a short list of little things to sort out, then I removed the seats, cockpit floors, baggage compartment floors, wing and empennage intersection fairings, all inspection covers, etc.

Pierre Marcotte, one of the local MD-RA inspectors, showed up at on schedule at noon. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but he was very helpful, friendly and reasonable. He took about 90 minutes to inspect the aircraft, and only had one gripe - he noted that I didn’t have any markings by the external canopy latch handle. He wanted me to identify this as the means to open the canopy, with an arrow showing which way to rotate the handle. I had planned to add such a placard, but never got around to it. I drew one up late this afternoon, and printed it out on a clear sticky label. I’ll head back out to Smiths Falls tomorrow afternoon to put it on.

After Pierre was done with the inspection, he wanted to observe an engine run. I put the front seat and seat belts back in, and did a short run, including cycling the prop, while he observed the prop tracking, looked for leaks, and confirmed proper functioning of the engine instruments.

I need to sign the back of the inspection form to confirm to Pierre that I have added the canopy opening placard, and send him the application for the Special Certificate of Airworthiness, a copy of the log book entries, and a photocopy of the Certificate of Registration. He signs the paperwork, and forwards it to his MD-RA people. They then fax me the Special Certificate of Airworthiness. It is hard to know how long this process will take. In the meantime, I have several hours of work to put the aircraft back together, and I have a short list of niggly items that I need to close off before I am ready to do taxi testing and first flight.

I am so happy to have the final inspection out of the way. Terry and I popped the cork on a bottle of Champagne to celebrate.

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Quick update.

Terry and I drove to Wisconsin for 10 days. I spent four days at Oshkosh, and she visited family in Green Bay. There were a huge number of RVs there, reported as over 400. I looked at a lot of fabulous aircraft, and especially studied cockpit storage options and canopy skirt sealing ideas in RV-8s. I found a few good ideas that I will steal, and implement after I get flying.

I met up with a number of other RV-8/8A builders on Tuesday and Thursday, at the Theater in the Woods. It was good to meet up with several people that I have communicated with online.

We got back from Wisconsin on Sunday, and I spent Monday at the hangar finishing off some loose ends. The final inspection is scheduled for Saturday. I’ll be leaving for Wichita in a few minutes, getting back Friday night.

After the inspection, there will be a wait for the paperwork to arrive so I can fly.

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I had hoped to be able to do my final inspection and first flight this week. But, I ran into a scheduling problem with the guy who is doing my final inspection. The way our respective schedules line up, I won’t be able to get the inspection done until sometime after we get back from Oshkosh. And to add insult to injury, I learned that I had misunderstood how the process worked. I thought that I would be given the Special Certificate of Airworthiness at the end of the inspection, so I could fly right away. But, it turns out that the process is to send the inspection paperwork to MD-RA headquarters in Hamilton for their audit, and they send me the Special C of A later. This can apparently take weeks :(

So, it looks like first flight no earlier than mid-August, with a significant risk of a delay until late August. Drat.

Update 22 July 08 - My work schedule has suddenly started to fill up. I will be on the road of much of August, and all of September. It won't take much of a paperwork delay, or bad weather on the few days I am in town, to push the first flight into October. Double Drat.