Today was a big day, we were able to get the tailwheel installed and the engine mount installed.
The tailwheel took some work. Before I had installed the tail wheel tube into the aft fuselage, I had primed the inside of the tube. This was a problem, and the finely machined flanges inside the tube were coated in paint and the tail wheel spring would not go in. We had to carefully sand the paint out of the tube before the spring could be installed and correctly positioned. Once that was done, we used a drift pin to locate the bolt hole, then carefully reamed the hole. With the bolt in place, we were able to finish installing the tail wheel components and torqued everything up.
The next task was drilling a hole through the firewall to accommodate the control cable for the EXP119 cowl flap modification. Using a step drill, I stepped up the hole, then carefully located and drilled the two smaller bolt holes used to clamp the fitting onto the firewall. Everything came out looking good, so we mixed up some tank sealant and installed the fitting onto the firewall.
With that job complete, we moved onto the engine mount. We installed 4 nut plates, found the right hardware, carefully framed the holes, and then installed the engine mount. Would have been impossible without a helper, so I was glad to have my dad assisting. We torqued up the 6 bolts, then called it a day/night.
