Move to the airport and prepare for Airworthiness Inspection

Hours 41
Total Hours 1912


My brother and his brother in law was kind enough to let me borrow their hanger at the airport in Big Spring, Texas. It has a 8,800' runway and all kind of safety features that will factor in my first flight.

We removed the wings after I did a little vinyl work adding a red stripe. This wasn't the stripe I had planned but I am running a little short of time and it will do until I have more time to work on it.

We loaded the fuselage up on my utility trailer. Had to modify the rail on the end of the trailer so the main gear tires would fit but it was no big deal.

 We hauled the plane to the airport 25 miles away and had no problems. I drove very slow and used gust locks to secure the tail feathers. Then we made another trip for the wings and all my tools, tables, ect.

Once settled in the hanger, my brother and fellow pilot, Scotty, helped me attach the wings for the FINAL time. Boy was I glad to get that set of close tolerant wing bolts out to use! The bolts were not nearly as hard to get in as I thought they would be. I made sure the holes in the spar was very clean and oiled the bolts with light oil. The nuts were all torqued to spec. Yes, I installed the two AN4 short bolts in the center a little later.

I installed ailerons and flaps back on the plane using all new hardware and locknuts. All was torqued to spec. I double checked my control surface throws. I also permanently installed all the center section wiring and aileron attach points. Hooked up pitot and angle of attack lines and wing lighting connections.

I had some time before the inspection so Nancy and I wrapped the wingtips and tail feather tips with the hot rod red 3M 1080 vinyl. I installed the interior and all the fairings and did some taxi tests and put enough fuel in it for the first flight. The Classic Aero aviator seats are great and the carpet package really quieted down the noise level in the cockpit. Radio works good and the engine is running great............I then took out all the interior, floor pans, fairings, and inspection covers to get ready for the Airworthiness Inspection!