With the LHS radiator and other parts at the welders that lingering job of the oil inspection door as arrived as the next item. This involves cutting a hole into the cowl, making a hinged opening and having a fastener. I have a feeling this will not be as simple as it sounds.

I have to give a shout out to Wade Parton here where he detailed his install. For once he was well ahead of me on a build job given we are both Long-EZ scratch builders. He seems to do much nicer and more careful work than I do but we each have our own styles.

Yes I even got the french curves out to make this door template. Its a lot bigger than the one on my flying Long-EZ, JZE.  If I get it right it might double as a coolant check door too. That’s the plan.

It goes about here and should be accessible without climbing into the back seat as I do at the moment on JZE.

To get the cuts straight I’ve hot glued a ruler onto the lines and did the four sides that way. It takes quite a while with my skinny blunt blades.

It took a few hours to get the door ‘out’. As the cuts are so fine I have a bit of play room when I square them up without needing to back fill to get the edges. That’s the plan anyway.

Cleaned up, it is the beginnings of a door.

It is wide enough for my proposed overflow bottle position. It may or may not work out. I’m having a tough time getting the right bottle and I might have to move something to make it fit in that position. The blue foam is a dummy I made for position testing based on the Rotax bottle that should be available at an unreasonable price.

I had the door cut out yesterday. Today is Sunday and I went for a two hour flight in JZE late morning. I really need to do that more often, but this build has to get done. After I got back, I’ve gone for a two ply carbon layup on the back of the door to give it some strength.

I’ve peel plied this layup in case I have to do another one. We will see how stiff it is in the morning. Coming up are a trim of the parts and then making a lip on the cowl. Mind you, this is a fill in job. If the welding comes back I’ll get on with positioning the LHS radiator.