Well, it sure took forever to finally start riveting the fuel tanks parts together.

First, I went back into travel mode for several weeks. I spent about two weeks in Tel Aviv, Israel flying the IAI Galaxy business jet. Nice aircraft, fascinating country, and great people. While I was there I visited RV-8A builder Ariel Arielly.

I went straight from Israel to Scotland to do some natural icing testing on the Global Express for about 10 days. Lots of fun, but it does feel different to be looking for ice instead of trying to avoid it. We found huge amounts of ice north of Iceland.

After I got back home, I was spooked by the thought of working with Proseal, so I got motivated to do all kinds of other little jobs that I had been putting off. That stuff needed doing anyway, so the time was not wasted.

Finally, this weekend I bit the bullet, mixed up some Proseal and started riveting the stiffeners to the bottom of the right tank skin. Other than not mixing up enough Proseal and running out near the end, it went really well.

Here you can see a few stiffeners. The black stuff around the edges and on top of the rivets is the Proseal. It comes in two parts and you mix it together. It sets up into a rubbery sort of stuff that stands up well to fuel. It is needed to make sure that no fuel leaks around the rivets, which is why the rivet heads are covered with it. It is also applied in between the tank skin and the stiffeners to make sure that no fuel gets between the two and out the rivet hole.