I made a computer generated image of the plane about a year ago when I was trying to determine how I wanted it to look. When I painted the wing assembly I deviated from the image that I made. I made the blue paint edge on the top of the wing an ellipse rather than the straight line that I originally planned. It changed the overall appearance. The change in appearance bothered me so I decided to strip the paint and start over. In addition, when I did the final balance to the ailerons some of the epoxy leaked out and onto the painted surface of the ailerons, messing up those painted surfaces.  They required some touch up as well.

I can attest to the tuff surface of the Stewart waterborn polyurethane paint. It took a considerable effort to strip it off. The schedule impact of this action shouldn't be too bad. The second time you do something it goes much quicker. I expect to be happier with the results.

Here is the bottom of the wing after stripping the paint off. I am adding new fiberglass. When I stripped the paint the original fiberglass became abraded. I stripped everything down to the wood on the wing assembly. I am using S glass cloth this time. I understand that it is 30% stronger than the conventional E glass cloth. It is also stiffer which made it easier to apply with the epoxy. The weight difference is greater but not all that much.



Another task that I did was to attempt to change the pitot tube from a press fit to a screw in device after the wing was completed. This resulted in an assembly that no longer held pressure. I messed up somewhere in this process. So, I plugged the hole for the pitot tube that was in the leading edge of the wing and relocated the pitot tube to the wingtip. I have initially installed loom tubing through the wing to the wingtips for the wiring of the navigation lights when the wing was put together. Adding pneumatic tubing as along with the wiring for the lights should be no problem.

The base for the new pitot tube is a simple aluminum block. It will share a mounting bolt with the sight gauge. The pitot tube will be fabricated from a section of 1/4 inch aluminum pipe. Everything is now easily assessable, the pitot tube base will be under the wingtip. Here is the new pitot tube assembly mounted at the wingtip.



The Dynon D-180 will be used for the instruments and engine monitor. It supports a two orifice pitot tube assembly. The dual orifice pitot tube generates a differential pressure and the Dynon D-180 uses it to display an angle of attack indicator that looks like an artificial horizon indicator. I don't plan to utilize this because I think it might be too distracting. I will start with a single port and connect it to both inputs of the Dynon D-180.  The way the pitot tube is now installed to the wing I can easily change it later if I decide I want to.

I began the wiring for the plane. The battery wiring harness is installed in aluminum tubing where it will pass through the cockpit and in loom tubing elsewhere. The wire I am using was removed from a section of MIL-C-55483 cable. The wire is made from a few hundred strands of AWG 30 silver plated copper wire sized to become AWG 4 wire. It is high flex cable that was made for the military, our tax dollars at work here. With the silver plating I won't have to concern myself with corrosion problems. The battery cable terminals required a heavy duty crimping tool. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow one that could do the job.  The heavy cable runs from the battery to the starter. The balance of the wiring will be with tefzel insulated wire.