We had another warm spell mid-week, so I took Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off. As usual, most days were classical “two steps forward, one step back”, but I made steady progress. The major accomplishment was to get all the inverted oil system hoses installed. Those hoses are very large and stiff, especially in the cold, so it was not easy to get the ends properly aligned with the fittings. Also, I had to manufacture one new hose, due to the different inverted oil pickup that Aero Sport Power installed for me.

I also got most of the fabrication work done for a baffle crack repair. I did manage to screw up that plan somewhat though, as I somehow had the wrong drill bit installed, and drilled #19 holes when I should have drilled #30 to take 1/8” rivets. I could use 5/32” rivets in those too large holes, but I am concerned that the much greater force required to set those rivets would deform the baffle piece. I’ve ordered some structural #8 screws to use instead. Hopefully they will arrive late this week. I will probably eventually order another baffle piece and redo this job.

I spent much longer than expected getting the throttle cable rigged. I suspect that when I put in the new throttle cable (the original had gotten damaged from heat radiated from the exhaust system), I must have not screwed the throttle lever rod end on all the way. When it came time to hook the other end of the cable up to the throttle arm on the fuel injection servo, I had a very difficult time getting it rigged so it would go to full travel in both directions before the throttle lever in the cockpit hit one of the stops. I eventually got it sorted out by putting all adjustments at the absolute end of their travel, and moving the lock washer to the other side of the bracket, but it took over an hour of fiddling around. And now I have decided that I really should have put a piece of fire sleeve over the throttle cable where it passes close to the exhaust system. I did add a heat shield there, but the insulation provided by a piece may provide a longer service life. I’ll disassemble things next time I am at the hangar and add the fire sleeve. While I am at it, I will see if I can spin the inner moving part of the throttle cable to it to screw a bit deeper into the rod end at the throttle lever end. It is such a horrible task to get the rod end pin installed at the throttle lever end, that I don’t want to disassemble it there. But, if I loosen the jam nut, maybe I can spin the inner part of the cable from the engine end, and have it screw a bit further into the rod end.

The weather forecast for Saturday changed daily. I woke up early, and checked the temperature and forecast. It was currently -16 deg C, with a forecast high of -16 deg C. It had been warmer the past few days, so I hoped that the interior of the hangar would actually have retained some of that heat. I got to the hangar around 8 AM, and found that it was -19 deg C inside. Ouch. I wasn’t about to give up, so I fired up the heater and started working. It was difficult to keep the hands warm, but I managed to get several hours of productive work in. In the end, the temperature fell for most of the day, hitting -23 deg C in the middle of the afternoon - the daytime high was at 5 AM. I got the mixture cable bracket and bellcrank installed, and the mixture control rigged. I then slid the alternator and starter cables on top of the mixture cable attach bracket, and secured them in the same way I had done them the first time. But, last night, I realized that there was a much better, more secure and durable way to do this, so I will redo this job next time I am at the hangar.

The current weather forecasts show another warm spell coming late in the week. I’m about one day of work away from starting to install the prop.