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Tonight I messed around with the side skins on the canopy trying to see if I could minimize the gap between the canopy side skin and the fuselage side skin. Eventually I decided to just go with the existing skins and worry about the gap later, if it’s an issue.

I moved on and measured the thickness of the canopy on the sides to determine whether I needed the use the supplied shims. If the thickness is less than .17 of an inch the shims are required. On the right side I measured between .158 and .17, and on the left I measured between .147 and .158. The thickness varies along the edge, hence the ranges. So it looks like I’ll be using the shims.

Today I made a start riveting the right bottom skin onto the right wing.

It want easier than I thought, perhaps because I’ve done it before on my previous set of wings. I didn’t finish the job, and expect it will take a number of sessions to get this set done.

It’s been a month without work on the plane, partly due to work travel, but mainly because we brought home a puppy, Bruno, and he has been requiring my help in the evenings.

Now he is sleeping in his crate all night, so I can get some time back in the garage.

My new garage setup is looking good and I’m almost ready to start building again. Everything in the garage is on wheels except for some storage racks in one corner. I’m planning to make up some storage bins for nuts, bolts and washers, but other than that I’m ready to start. My goal is to be back into the swing of things by the end of next week.

Sometime in June, Stuart Transport arrived and picked up my wings and fuselage, shipping them back to Vans. With those out of the garage, the remaining parts were relatively easy to pack and stow into a 20 foot U-Haul.

I built a wooden crate with shelving for the tail feathers. I lined it with blankets, and used shrink-wrap to secure the parts to the racks. That worked out well, and I am going to put wheels on it and keep it as a storage rack in the new garage. hardware and small parts were wrapped and stored in cardboard boxes. The horizontal stabilizer went into my wing cart, and was strapped firmly against the cart, and the cart against the wall of the truck. I temporarily installed the forward-most bulkhead in the aft fuse, using clecos to secure it in place. Then I set the aft sure on the dolly I had built for my Quickbuild fuselage. I cut some foam strips which ran on the dolly lengthwise to help support the curvature of the bottom of the fuselage. Then I used shrinkwrap to secure the aft fuse to the dolly.

After a 12 hour drive, we arrived at the new house, and everything was still very secure. Unloading was uneventful, but space was limited due to the ongoing construction happening on the house.

A few weeks later my new fuselage arrived from Vans, which prompted some cleanup and rearranging in the garage. It’s good to have the new fuse now, it looks great and primer is definitely heavier and looks more like I would have expected.

As far as I can tell, all my parts and tools have made it with no noticeable damage.

We are in the process of moving from The Bay Area south to San Diego county. With everything going on, I’ve not been making much progress on the build. The goal is to be moved by August, although it might be a bit later if the house isn’t ready on time.

In parallel I’ve been talking to Vans about my Quickbuild kit. It’s been found to have defective primer, which isn’t a big surprise as I’ve noticed it runs off easily and I found some corrosion on the wings. Because I’m moving, and because my kit was perhaps the first one impacted, I have priority in the queue. I decided it would be best to replace the kits, and to coincide with my move.

So most of the work I’ve been able to do in the last 6 weeks has been removing systems and components from the wings. This was a bit demoralizing at first, but I quickly started thinking about how to do everything better the second time.