Normally, I try to get a couple of evenings at the hangar during the week. But this week I had a whole bunch of flying to do, and that fouled up my schedule, so I didn't get there until today.

I had installed the left wing tip a week ago, but when I reviewed the digital photos I had taken before I installed the tip, I noted that the wires for the position light looked like they might possible chaff on some of the attachment screws. So, today I removed the dozen screws that held the tip on (I hadn't put all the screws in, as I have not yet been able to do a functional test on the COM antenna inside the wingtip). A quick look showed that there was no risk of the wires chaffing - the camera angle had made it appear as if there was a problem when in fact everything was fine.

Today I connected up the wiring for the strobe light and the NAV antenna in the right wing tip, and put the wing tip on. There is no way to do a functional test of the NAV antenna on the ground, as the nearest VOR is too far away. So, I put all the screws in.

About this time I heard an aircraft taxi up and shut down outside the hangar. I'm in the last hangar on the row, so there is no reason for an aircraft to be out there. Curious, I went outside, to find that Mark Richardson had come by for a visit in his RV-8. He offered me a flight, and I quickly agreed. It was great to get back in an RV. But, eventually my feet started to freeze, so we came back to the airport. Mark hadn't put boots on the aileron control rods where they enter the fuselage. We suspect that the cold air that gets in under the floor is cooling down the passenger footwells, as they protrude down right next to where that cold air would be blasting in. Hopefully the situation will be better with my aircraft. Maybe I should glue some insulation onto the lower surfaces of the footwells before I put them in place.

Next I prepared to install the AN4 bolts that fasten the root end of the fuel tanks to beefy angles on the sides of the fuselage. I was extremely dismayed to see that the slots in the angle on the fuel tank didn't line up with the holes in the angle on the fuselage. It turned out that I had put the fuselage angles on the wrong side of the fuselage. It was a pain in the butt to get those angles installed the first time, and now I would have to remove them and redo it. Grr. I was so frustrated that I almost packed up and went home, but I snapped out of it and jumped to the task. 45 minutes later I had the angles back on the correct sides of the fuselage.

I forgot to take my camera to the airport today, so there are no pictures.