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Larry Winger's 601XL Project
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Date: 4-20-2014
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Number of Hours: 0.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Back in business - Part 1
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It is Easter Sunday and in just 10 days, it will be the one-year anniversary of my last posting on April 30, 2013. I’ve had a number of readers inquire about my project, so here is the latest. After my last posting, I found out that, indeed, by reaming too aggressively I had violated safe margins between my wing spar bolt holes. While some well-meaning onlookers at the airport said I shouldn’t worry, that’s not the way I’m wired. I can’t even begin to describe the emotions that I experienced when I realized that I would have to completely disassemble my wings (again), remove the center spar from the airplane, remake both the center spar and both main spars, reassemble the wings with new spars, and reinstall the new center spar just to get back to where I was. I’m not ashamed to say that I lapsed into despair, doubting that I would ever complete the project. I was in a major funk and was ready to throw in the towel. Then over lunch one day my wonderful wife asked if I should just order the new parts from Zenith and get on with life. As a dyed-in-the-wool scratch builder, this was a thought I had never entertained. She, on the other hand, saw that I didn’t have the emotional reserves required to remake those spars AND all the other tasks I’ve outlined above AND do my day job. My consolation was that I had proved myself capable of making flight-worthy spars, only to ruin them in the final step. It was not from a lack of ability that I was ordering new spars, just a lack of energy to remake them – especially when my tools and work space were all in the hangar 22 miles from home. So I pulled out my credit card and placed the order that got me back in business. That was May 3, 2013. In the months that followed I slowly got my wings back into working condition and restored the center spar running through the cockpit. (continued next post)
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The patient after major surgery to remove a ruined main spar
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The replacement spars arrive
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The restoration project in progress
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