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I'm beavering away, slowly getting little things done on the airplane. It seems that for every thing I get done, I see another one or two more that need doing. So, while I am making progress, my list of things that need doing is getting longer rather than shorter. But, if I keep plugging away, someday I will be done.

I drove out to Carp today, to meet up with RV-8 builder John Perrin. He had a Strong 304 parachute that he had used during his flight testing. He doesn't wear it any more, so he decided to sell it. I put it on and climbed in his aircraft to see how comfortable it was. It isn't as comfortable as a seat cushion, but it isn't bad. It should be more comfortable than the cushion on an ejection seat, and I've got lots of hour strapped into those. So I bought it.

I took the snow tires off both cars this weekend, and put the summer tires back on. I traditionally do this immediately before the last snow storm of the season, so I wouldn't be surprised to wake up to snow tomorrow :)

I'm starting two weeks of vacation tomorrow. I'm hoping to make quite a bit of progress on the aircraft.

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Early this week I spent some time securing some of the wiring ahead of the firewall. Then I noted that the starter cable was rubbing on the mixture cable bracket. In the past, I would have simply added this item to my snag list, and worry about it at some unspecified time in the distant future. But now that I am getting closer to the end of the project, I am trying to tie off those loose ends as I find them.

Securing the starter cable ate up a lot more time than I expected. I tried two different ways to attach it to an oil pan bolt with Adel clamps, but it was still rubbing on the mixture cable bracket. I eventually found a way to tie it down, but it ate up two evenings.

Then I noted that the mixture cable bracket had not been torqued. It took a bit of head scratching, but I managed a Rube Goldberg arrangement with a combination wrench, a bolt, two nuts and a torque wrench. I still have to figure out a way to torque the fastener that holds the Adel clamp that holds the starter cable to the oil pan. This one will take a bit of Red Green, I think.

I box of hardware arrived this week, so I have the stuff I need to finish off a bunch of other loose ends. Today I put in some bolts with holes in the heads to hold the flap torque tube, and safety wired them. The basic design relies on the friction from the nutplates that the bolts go into, but I wanted a more positive safety, as this is a critical part.

This afternoon I fitted the baggage tie downs to the rear baggage area.

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I got a bunch of small items done this week, as it seems that every place on the aircraft I look I see some small loose end to tie off. I installed the angles that made the battery tray compatible with my smaller battery. The tray that comes with the kit is designed to accept a fairly large battery. I should be able to use a smaller, lighter one, as I have a standby alternator, and thus don't need a long endurance on battery only. I bolted two pieces of angle to the bottom of the battery tray to narrow it.

I started securing the wiring bundles ahead of the firewall yesterday. Last night we had a dinner party, and didn't get to bed until after midnight, after having consumed way too much alcohol. Today was a very slow day, as I had no energy at all. This evening I fitted several grommet shields on the firewall.

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My planned paint scheme  doesn't leave enough room to put the registration markings in the normal size and place. In Canada, we need to either put 12" high marks on the rear fuselage, or 6" high marks on the vertical tail and 20" high marks on the bottom of the wing. I eventually called someone in the aircraft registration section of the Ontario region Transport Canada (TC) office to see if there were any other options. The guy I talked to was quite helpful, and he said that I could probably get approval for non-standard size and placement of my registration marks, as there was a regulation that allowed such flexibility for replica military aircraft (see CAR 222.05). I'm not building a replica military aircraft, but my paint scheme is a replica of a military one, and that seemed to be enough in his eyes.

I wrote up a request in August 2005, and sent it to the TC regional office. It was a long time making its way through the bureaucracy, but I eventually got a phone call from someone in TC headquarters here in Ottawa, saying that they had received the file from the regional office in Toronto, and they needed some more information. They wanted more details of my paint scheme, and a photo of the official data plate that will be attached to the aircraft. I don't understand exactly why the data plate photo was needed, but she was determined to get a picture of it before issuing the approval. I ordered a data plate, but the engraver screwed up the first one. I got a replacement data plate, then I was on the road for quite a bit. I finally got the data plate done, gave the photo to my friendly TC registration person here in Ottawa. Friday morning I received the official letter that authorizes me to have 3" high registration marks on the side of the fuselage beneath the horizontal stabilizer.

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RV-7A builder Bob Collins has started the RV Builder's Hotline, a weekly newsletter that will contain the highlights of the week's information from Van's, the VAF WWW forums, other e-mail lists, builder's groups, etc. You can view a sample online, but it is intended that the actual newsletter be delivered by e-mail every Saturday. The first issue looks promising. Hopefully he will be able to keep the standard up.

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After sorting out the wiring bundle/aileron push rod interference, I decided it was time to find the correct position for the rudder pedals. Van offers two different rudder pedal options - adjustable rudder pedals, and fixed rudder pedals. The adjustable rudder pedals mount on a framework that slides fore and aft, and can be locked in any position to fit different length legs. The fixed rudder pedals can be mounted in any one of four different fore and aft positions. They can be moved between positions, but it would take a half-hour or more to reposition them, and you would need to have a supply of different length links that connect them to the rudder cables.

To fit the rudder pedals, I needed to put the front seat back in, and install the rudder. I decided to try the fit of the lower rudder tip fairing, and discovered that it hits the fuselage when the rudder is moved past two-thirds travel to the right. I don't know how I missed that before, but I'll need to do yet some more fibreglas work on it to sort it out. I'm very, very glad I discovered this before I had it painted.

I had to put the floors back in so I could install the front seat. While doing that I discovered that one of the wiring bundles on the left interfered with the passenger foot wells, which are recesses in the floor where the passengers heels go. Out came the floors again so I could move the errant wiring bundle. It was still very close to the foot well, so I encased that part of the bundle in a piece of very tough piece of reinforced plastic hose. That will ensure that the bundle doesn't get chafed.

I got very little done this weekend, due to two household plumbing tasks. Yesterday I installed a new set of faucets in the kitchen. It went very well, all in all, but it still ate up 3.5 hours, once you include the head-scratching time, and the trip to Home Depot. I was feeling pretty chuffed about doing the job with only one trip to Home Depot.

But this morning Terry noted a leak from the trap in the drain under the sink. I found the leak, and carefully made a list of the parts I would need to fix it. off to Home Depot. But when I disassembled the stuff under the sink, the flange on the drain pipe from the sink broke due to corrosion. Back to Home Depot for a new drain pipe. When I went to put things back together, I discovered that the new trap I bought had a very slightly different thread than the old elbow - I thought those things would be some sort of standard. Back to Home Depot again, for the third time. Grr. Most of the day was gone.