Year-end Update

Off topic, from the '70s. Here's an old photo of me and my buddies making a practice jump at East Troy, Wisconsin. We were getting ready for regional 10-man speed star competition.


It was a good year, but I do regret not getting to fly and race this thing.

Having said that, I am really getting close. I'm working on firewall forward and things aren't too bad. I just had two days of working with the hangar door open and it is really a morale booster. So much better than trying to think and fabricate in a dungeon.

My most recent success (meaning overcome obstacle) is mounting my ignition coils. With the RWS EC3 injection/ignition system, each plug gets it's own LS1 coil. I understand these coils are used on Corvette engines. I took a cue from Lynn French's creative installation and mounted two of them directly on the engine mount. I think this will work pretty well.




My short-term goal is to fire up the engine by the end of January.

I don't work in a total vacuum and certainly don't have the skills to do it all myself. Here are just some of the people that helped me this past year. I know I don't have everyone and if you don't see yourself here, please don't be offended. I probably lost those brain cells connected with your name.

Billy Cheek
Bob Knuckolls and the AeroElectric Connection e-mail list
Bruce Dallas
Charley "C-Rod" Rodriguez
Cory Steinkoneig
David Posey
Dennis Hannon
Don Bartlett
Grither's Auto Body
Harry Hinckley
Jerry Marstall
John Cotter
John Eynon
Ken Robinson
Larry Dauer
Keven Mitchell
Lynn French
Mike Bergen
Mike Burgener
Mike Dwyer
Mike Most
Rob Hoskins
Various SIU Aviation Technology students

And the award for the most help and patient understanding goes to:

My beautiful wife, Sandy

My original target date, for project completion, was May 1, 2008. I still think that was realistic for the original project list, but I kept adding things and it grew and grew and grew. Not on the original list were; replacement of the rear wing, new canopy, and TWO PAINT JOBS.

I just need to stay at it.

"There is No Such Thing as a Simple and Cheap Paint Job"

That quote was from the counter man at my local paint supply shop, as I returned to buy yet another $100 quart of paint to fix yet another of my screw-ups.

The week of prepping, primer and painting was an exhausting marathon. As I write this, Rob is on the train on his way back to house and family.

Some of the good things were: getting to spend time with my brother, getting the benefit of his years of experience, getting to use the SIU Aviation Technology paint booth, getting help from some of the SIU students, getting rid of all of all that old cracked paint and filler, having Sandy provide critically needed logistics support, and finally, getting paint on the bird.

Some of the not-so-good things were; having the wrong tip on his new HVLP gun for the DuPont Centari and getting runs on the vertical stab, sticker shock at the paint store, and me mis-mixing the paint used on the main fuselage resulting in excessive orange peel which will require extra wet sanding after everything cures.

I really didn't want to repaint the thing, but now that I have, I'm sure I will be happy with it. But, oh man! What a job!