It's been a while since I really did much on the plane. I'm finally back to a fairly normal energy level following round two of Covid, so I decided to knock out the priming of the left flap parts today. Van's sent notice that the fuselage kit is going to crating, so my guess is it'll be ready to pick up or ship sometime in the next few weeks. I need to try to get most of the wing related work done so I can rearrange the shop and figure out how to fit the fuselage.
The fuselage is going to have another big pile of hardware to sort through, so I finally went through the exercise of sorting the remaining hardware from my previous kits. Up until this point I had just kept everything bagged up as sent from Van's. That works fine, but now that I know what the more common types and sizes of hardware are, I think it'll be easier to find what I need if I just combine like sizes from the various bags. I won't do that with everything though (for sizes where there is just one or two used, I'm just leaving those in the bags vs making a dedicated bin just for them).
I like the Husky bins/carriers that I have, but the bins are really bigger than necessary for the volume of each size of nut or bolt. Out of boredom the other night, I drew up and 3D printed some little inserts that slide into the Husky bins, effectively giving me twice as many compartments. I only made 4 for now, but it'll be easy enough to print more if I end up needing them.
The wiring conduit that goes through the wing ribs needed to be given some sort of protection against vibration, which over time can sometimes wear through the conduit. Van's recommends using proseal or RTV. I'm almost out of proseal, so I went the RTV route. I'm not sure that this really provides a ton of protection, but once it dried it did seem to hold things more secure at least.
The left flap has been ready for primer for a while, but I just didn't have the energy to get through it. Once it's started, it's kind of hard to stop, so it requires a good block of time to get through the prepping and priming. I had some leftover primer from a month or so ago, so I mixed that in with a fresh batch. This is one of the really nice things about the water based primer - much less waste compared to a catalyzed primer that has a pot life and then is no longer usable. I don't think I mixed the two batches very well though, because there was a mottled effect on most of the parts. The coverage was still fine though. Next up, I'll rig the left wing pushrods, set the aileron neutral point, and start riveting the left flap. Then I get to finish building the right flap and do this priming thing all over again. I'm assuming I'll fly this plane for many, many years, but if the day comes that I build another, my guess is I will switch methods and only do very light spray can priming on mating surfaces! Priming isn't hard, but it definitely takes a lot of time to do. For a plane that I'll have to keep outside for a while and want to last for many years, it's worth it. After I gain a few more years, and assuming I can find a hangar, priming is out the window though! Couple changing the priming picture with the new Van's kits that are punched to final size (so you just put things together and rivet vs putting together, drilling, taking apart, deburring, put together again...) and a second plane would go together very quickly relative to this one.
