The last four weeks have been very busy, so I have made much less progress on the project than I hoped. I spent two weeks on a refresher course at the National Test Pilot School. There was a fair bit of classroom stuff, but the highlight of the course was the flying - seven flights, all in interesting aircraft. Then we had some relatives visiting for the last few days of the Tulip Festival, so I spent all my time touring, eating, drinking, etc. It was great to see Donna and Mary again though.
Since the last update, I've fitted the intersection fairings between the wing and fuselage, and fabricated the fuel tank vent lines, and almost finished the fuel feed lines from the fuel tanks. I've got held up twice because I discovered I needed extra fittings. The basic kit includes all the fittings if you build the aircraft as Van intended, but I used an Andair fuel selector instead of the one that Van supplied, and I modified one of my fuel tanks for inverted flight. These mods meant I needed additional fittings, but I hadn't figured that out ahead of time. Fortunately the head maintenance guy at a local flying club was very cooperative, and he ordered the parts from his supplier. They cost me a bit more than they would have if I used my normal supplier (Wicks), but he got them for me in two days instead of two weeks (I could get things quickly from Wicks too, but the courier charges would be ten times the value of the parts). So, I hope to pull the wings off later this week and start the engine installation.