Finish kit lead times have now grown to 12 months so I decided that I had better get my order in. My wing kit will hopefully arrive around March/April 2022. If it does, I’m hoping to get the wings completed by the time the finish kit arrives in September. But, who knows. Best laid plans and all that. But so far so good. I’d rather have things here slightly early than to have idle time.
Contrary to the name, the finish kit doesn’t finish the project. The engine, avionics, and firewall forward work still remain. The engine is one item that I don’t want to have sitting around so I’m going to hold off on that for now.
My forecasted completion is way out in 2024 still but it continues to creep closer. I’m convinced that the final-sized holes in the fuselage kit are helping to speed things up. I also have the suspicion that I’ll lose all of that extra time in the end. But, I’ll keep on guessing and planning as best as I can.
I made several modifications to the finish kit and itemized everything on my mods page. This includes swapping out the tires for Desser retreads, swapping out the wheels for Matco’s (XLT-2 mains), swapping out the windows for Cee Bailey’s, swapping out the intersection fairings for RVBits, and upgrading to the heavier duty door struts.
In other news, I have made several other decisions and placed some of those orders.
I decided to go with AS Flightlines hoses for both the brake system and the fuel system and I placed my order last week. I’ll be adding a Matco PVPV-D parking brake valve and I ordered the extra AN fittings with the brake lines.
(I feel the need to give Steve from AS Flightlines a mention here. He took my phone call on a Friday afternoon, answered all of my questions, and then proceeded to send out a detailed email follow-up with all of the specifics from our conversation including a text to let me know he had sent it. He then promptly handled my remaining questions and helped me work through my order. Great customer service is much appreciated!)
I also made the decision to use the SDS EFI electronic ignition system (which I needed to decide on before purchasing my fuel system hoses). The SDS EFI requires a fuel return line (which AS Flightlines has a hose option for). I also decided to go with their dual wing-root fuel filter setup which should simplify maintenance down the road and keep things out of the tunnel. The SDS ECU conveniently emits a fuel pulse signal so I’ll also avoid the need for a fuel totalizer (aka the Red Cube)
I had already removed the fuel valve from my fuselage kit and I will be purchasing a duplex Andair FS2020 fuel valve and the necessary fittings to use with the AS Flightlines kit (4 EF20 elbows and 2 MF20 straight fittings).
It feels good to have a few more decisions behind me and to have several more orders placed.
Time to start planning for the next round of decisions…