Build start DEC 1 2011
Today is DEC 1 2019

Eight years building

My build log shows 10,134 hours. I am cringing rather than congratulating myself. All I can say is no modification to the plans goes unpunished. I have a LOT of modifications, only some can be blamed on my round the world goals.

I have worked at the YMMB (Moorabbin Airport) hangar every single day, yeap,  7 days a week since last December and I still have a lot to do. The engine has been delayed until at least February and to be honest I wasn’t ready for the expected Nov 1st delivery anyway.

This last year the baggage pods were assembled and fitted.

The hellhole area was finished up and a hatch with integral ram air scoop constructed along with a match to the lower cowl and plenty of fill and fair.

The main gear attachments got a serious beef up after much discussion on my higher weights. A structural engineer was consulted.

I got the angle on the main gear fairings wrong. So they were taken back to the raw foam and rebuilt in-situ correctly. I added floating intersection fairings as another job that needed to be done.

Wheel pants…. aka time thieves.

The wheel pants were reattached with a different bracket system and many many hours getting the rear pant half removable ‘in the field’. I am finally happy with them.

The pilot side windows went in and there was a LOT of work on the canopy latch.

The post cure at 60C finally happened. That was a long day and night at the airfield.

A huge amount of finishing work has happened through the year. The fill and sand on the strakes was particularly challenging. I thought I’d have the plane painted by now. There have been numerous false starts.

The fuel vents are in. The controls have been set up, rudders and ailerons and too many jobs to mention.

The HF radio is in place and the locations for headsets and USB ports are all done.

This is getting close to the panel layout.

The wirebooks are completed to the point where we can begin wiring up the plane. The Garmin avionics have been paid for and delivered. The boxes above all go in the panel. Wish me luck.

In summary. I thought I’d be painted, engine installed and first taxi at the end of 2019, December 31st was the goal. I have no engine, the avionic install hasn’t really started and the paint is yet to be applied to the air-frame.

All I can do is keep at it everyday, until its done. The new goal for first taxi tests is April the first, in the morning.