I've been working away to finish off anything in the forward fuselage that will be easier to do with the upper forward skin removed. I thought there were only two or three such tasks, but I took a good hard look at the whole area and came up with 13 items that I should do before riveting that skin on. I got four items finished, then found one more. So, that makes 10 items to go.
One of the items on the list was to confirm that I had the EIS 4000 Engine Monitor tachometer input wired correctly. I'm not sure why I was suspicious about that one, but something was bothering me, so I checked it out. Sure enough, something didn't make sense when I used an ohmmeter to check out the wiring. It took about three hours of puzzling around, studying wiring diagrams, and Googling to figure out how magnetos worked, to learn that the ohmmeter readings were normal, but there was a missing resistor in my tach wiring. Once I knew what I was supposed to do it only took a half-hour to put it right. I'm glad I noticed this now.
I decided to put some acoustic and thermal insulation on the cockpit side of the firewall, to try to keep it quieter and cooler in the cockpit. I ordered some stuff from an aviation supplier that was marketed for this function. It arrived earlier in the week and I started installing it. I'll use adhesive backed Velcro to hold it in place - that will let me remove it if required to inspect the underlying structure. I was about half-way through the installation when I decided to see how this stuff reacted to a flame. I took a scrap of it, and fired up a propane torch. I was quite dismayed to see that this stuff would burn, producing thick black smoke. The fire would eventually self-extinguish if I removed the flame from the torch, but I'm now a bit unsure whether this stuff really belongs in an aircraft. I'll talk to a couple of the Occupant Safety engineers at work to learn more about the testing that materials to go in type certificated aircraft are subjected to, and what type of insulation materials are best. I won't mention the type of material and vendor until I learn more about whether it is suitable for aviation use.
I stopped installing the insulation, and just made paper patterns for the areas it will go. It won't be difficult to install later, if I have a pattern to use when I cut it.
I haven't got too much done this weekend, due to various jobs around the house, and a few hours spent at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival.