May 2, 2004

I managed to get 6 hours in at the hangar today, did 3 hours this morning, went to a birthday party, and then came back for more back breaking punishment. Last week, I couldn’t touch my toes at all. This week, I can almost put my hands flat on the floor I’ve done so much bending down over this thing! It still isn’t done either! It’s seems like there are a killion wires coming out of these sticks!

Here I have all the wiring done for the pilot side lower terminal strip. I also finished the upper strip today, but forgot to take a picture. Getting this all completed also help with…..

The picture I forgot….

Getting the flaps going! So, these are all the wires going into the flap system (except the blue one for baggage compartment illumination). The flaps now work from the pilot side. I need to finish the wiring for the panel flap switch, and also the co-pilot stick. Next time I’m at the hangar, I’ll probably figure out the co-pilot stick itself. I need to find a good way to connect it, so it’s easily removed. Some passengers may want to sit and read a book. You never know, and it’d be nice to have it out of the way occasionally.

I need to get a good picture of the stick grips, so I can describe the functions. We have…. Trim on the cooley hat, both elevator and aileron, thumb operated flaps right of the cooley hat, auto pilot disconnect on the left of the cooley hat. Lower down, the trigger is used for push to talk, there’s a thumb operated on off switch for landing light or whatever else takes my fancy as my moods change (still not sure what to do with this one), and a pinky operated starter button with a lockout switch on the panel. We need a starter button on the stick, coz we’re doing the taildragger, and it’s nice to have the stick in your hand when you start her up.