In March I was focused some on the engine & figuring out some of the components I needed.  I had put an order in with Sam Tillman at Saber Manufacturing for an 8-inch prop extension.  Sam of course does some amazingly high quality work.  Very nice.

Another serendipitous find I made was a local manufacturer that makes certified parts for military aircraft simulators.  I guess because it was the holiday season, and since my buddy Marco wanted one as well, I was able to talk them into doing a two-unit production of some F-16 throttle handles.  Since instrument panel space is limited in a Long-EZ, I want to put a number of switches on my throttle handle along with my grip stick to attain the highest level of HOTAS (Hands-on-Throttle-and-Stick) as possible (I listed the throttle as Chapter 23 since it’s actually not covered in the Section I plans, but rather in the Section IIL plans which covers engine installation exclusively).

The first weekend in March I attended the EAA SportAir TIG Welding Workshop in Griffin, Georgia.  Great class!  I would highly recommend it for anyone who is looking to do TIG welding specific to Aircraft building, both with 4130 steel and aluminum.

This is my first experience welding aluminum . . . what a different animal.  Glad I’ll only be working with 4130 steel for my rollover assembly.  Still, it was fun to try something new.

Below are a couple of practice projects we did in the workshop.  I added a few pieces to a few them of them to make it a little more realistic.  Our instructor was fantastic and really helped lock in our TIG site picture, pointing out how to improve our techniques & showing us a few tricks.  It helped immeasurably.