This weekend I unpacked the replacement outboard wing plug cores, got them up on the table, and assembled the ones for the right wing. I also got the carbon stiffener strips embedded and glued in. Next week I'll do a bunch of error-checking to validate the alignment of the sections, and hopefully assemble the sections for the left wing outboard wing plug.
I also packed up the first set of outboards and delivered them to the local waste transfer station, and watched as the hydraulic trash crusher skooshed them. I really wanted to keep them, but I haven't enough room to store them. And I didn't want to give them away, since they embody a handful of proprietary airfoil data that I don't really want running around loose. Not that there's anything revolutionary or top-secret there; I just want to keep the outflow of what little intellectual property I have down to a dull roar.
Now that Precomtec R+D has finished the tooling and first articles for the forward two bulkheads, they're working on finishing off the implementation of the canopy frame design that I handed off to them last fall. When they finish that, I'll drive back down to Tehachapi with the aft fuselage and vertical fin plug that I'm storing in my garage.
Somewhere in that same time frame, I also need to get my HP-18 out of the box and finish installing the instrument panel and tail surfaces. I've shoehorned a Garmin GTX-320 full-size transponder into the panel, and I need to get it wired and checked so I can light up the TCAS on the Southwest Airlines thunderguppies that go roaring through PYRAM.
page updated 9 February 2004 all text and graphics copyright (c) 2004 HP Aircraft, LLC