Day 13--Hatch covers, engine coolling, and inspection prep

Hi everyone!

Well, it looks like yesterday was our first day of building with not too much to report.  We have some big items to finish yet as we get the airplane ready for first flight, so we did a lot of work on those.  I was working on the hatch covers and Tracy worked on the final cowling baffling.  All afternoon yesterday we did a full aircraft inspection--basically a tip-to-tail, rivet-by-rivet aircraft inspection to double-check our work over the last couple of weeks.  It took over three hours!  It was great to do, however--it gave us a lot of appreciation for the attention to detail we'll need to exercise on our future annual inspections.

Here are today's photos:

Here is the bottom section of the left hatch cover.  the hatch covers are carbon fiber and form-fit to the fuselage and wings to complete the aerodynamic shape of the aircraft.  If we had a big gap here between the wing and fuselage it would increase our stall speed by about 5 knots.  Instead, our plane stalls at 42 knots in level flight in landing configuration.

Here are the top of the hatch covers.  They take awhile because they require precise fitting to the fuselage gap.  I spent most of the morning marking them and sanding them to get this gap to look right all the way around.  Tomorrow's work is to fiberglass the top and bottom halves of each hatch together.  Once installed, the hatches will be a removable feature on the aircraft--they need to be off to fold the wings.

Meanwhile, Tracy was working on the engine cowling baffling.  These rubber strips complete the air circuit under our hood.  When the cowling is on, it pushes down on them and creates a seal of sorts--it doesn't catch 100% of the air but it does divert most of it straight down through the engine cooling fins.

Here's the baffling up close.  The rubber strips are attached with big pull rivets and washers--easy.  The hardest part, like the hatch covers, is getting the right shape.

Meanwhile, it's a beehive of activity at Glasair!  There are actually 6 airplanes in this picture--3 of them are in the hangar!  3 are getting ready to go to OshKosh on Thursday, one is ours, and one is the Two-Weeks-to-Taxi build that started behind us this week, a nice couple from Wyoming.  The red one in the middle is the factory Demo plane, which we will fly Wednesday to get ready for our own flight on Thursday!

Okay folks, that's it for today!  Tuesday we expect to finish the hatch covers and baffling, and Glasair will follow up our inspection with one of their own.  Wednesday and Thursday are big days--on Wednesday the FAA comes to inspect our plane for airworthiness, and Thursday (maybe Wednesday afternoon but unlikely) we will take our first flight!  Stay tuned!  -zen