I’m still slogging along in this chilly weather spell trying to get as much done as possible… admittedly, my plane-building output isn’t nearly what I want it to be, but I am knocking out some of the more mundane, albeit somewhat challenging, tasks as I slowly creep towards getting this bird finished.

Today was all about finishing up the front corners and TDC CAMLOC holes on the top cowling.

I started by drilling out the center holes wider out to their original diameter on all the holes being worked, to allow for CAMLOC installation.

I then spent a good little bit grinding and sanding down the tops of the G10 “washers” on the right front corner to be even with the top of the surrounding micro, as they were a bit proud by around 0.015″.

After drilling out the center of the front left CAMLOC hole, I did the same thing by thinning down the carbon fiber “washer” to make the top even with the surrounding micro.

On the top CAMLOC hole —after re-drilling the hole— I trimmed the edges of the laid up carbon fiber and then shaved its height down a bit as well.

With all the “washer”/fill heights good (via eyeballing from the side) I then whipped up some micro (heavier on the West 410 than before) and filled in the gaps around the floxed in place “washers.”

I then filled the perimeter of the added carbon fiber plies on the top center CAMLOC hole as well.

I spent nearly another hour sanding down all the dabs of micro/West 410 that I had applied to some divots on the strakes, as well as quite a few on the right upper winglet. I also sanded down a couple of minor strake-wing seam fills as well.

Tomorrow is forecasted to be rather chilly again, so I’ll continue to do what I can with localized heat (aka heat lamps) since keeping those kerosene torpedo heaters fired up is not only loud and a bit smelly, but also fairly expensive when used day in and day out for heat.

Pressing forward! (slowly)