Friday, May 7, 2010

gathering parts

My credit card is now smoking gently, as I've bought trailing edge, PK #4 1/4" screws to hold the trailing edge on, leading edge material (even thick leading edge for where people tend to lean on the wing while putting gas in the tanks, as a dent-preventative measure), and the materials to cover the wings.

Also gotten almost everything moved from storage to the hangar, which is an interesting exercise in logistics in an econocar so tiny I can't even get my bicycle in without a bungee cord to keep the trunk lid semi-closed!

While I've been buying and moving things, I've also been spending time as unskilled labor on the last plane in the hangar that needs to be worked on before there is room for my wings. I can unscrew inspection plates - pretty straightforward, right? Except not really - they may have a cross-hatch pattern on top, but the screws are apex #2 heads, not phillips heads. Also, on this twin, the compass is out in the left wingtip - so working my way around, I had to stop and find a screwdriver without a magnetic head for the inspection covers nearby. After being under the wing and holding up the powered screwdriver at head height to take out the many, many screws there, my upper body is reminding me that I don't start with as much upper body strength as the average guy, and I certainly don't use those muscles often like mechanics do. Long hot showers and stretching carefully keep me from being curled in a fetal position!

But it's all wonderful, because I shall shortly take off to the Valdez May Day Fly-In!

1 comment:

  1. Enjoy yourself! And stretching and hot showers always help :-)

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