Today I started on my plan to ramp up work on the project by adding one night per week to see if I can get this thing flying sometime within the next 18 months. The first thing I did was attach the spacer I had made yesterday, and then adjusted it a bit to get it as close to perfect as I could. I'm not sure if the flange was slightly out of round, or if my PVC spacers weren't exactly even, but by shimming the bottom, I was able to get it pretty close. The aft portion of the flange sits at 2 3/8"...about 1/8" farther out than the actual hub, so I'll take that into account when I trim.
I don't care much for the way the aft portion of the cowl fits at this point, but I'm not going to worry too much about it until I get farther along and have a better idea how the whole assembly attaches.
After fitting the top cowl, I turned my attention to the new battery box. Drilling the bracket attach holes and dimpling went pretty quickly, so after riveting the brackets on, I pulled out the new 2" knockout punch and made four lightening holes. Piece of cake! I actually think I may skip the four in the back...I'll decide that the next time I go out to the hangar. Enough for tonight.
