Carpe Diem

Today was such a beautiful day here. One of those days you just have to take advantage of. Plus, May 2nd is a day I am reminded not to take my time for granted. So how better to ‘carpe diem’ than going for an airplane ride. My buddy Dru picked me up in his beautifully restored Cessna 170, fresh from the paint shop. He even had about 1/2 the airplane re-skinned. We flew down to Owatonna, MN where there is a Cabella’s about a mile from the airport. They have a shuttle that will provide transportation to GA pilots.

When I got back, it was time to out to the Garaggio. I started by making up some more hoses. I won’t belabor the details of hose construction because I have already done that. But I got a good chunk of the fuel supply system plumbed. This included from the fuselage line to the mechanical fuel pump and then from there to the fuel injection servo. These have firesleeve in place on them, but I still need to clamp and seal the ends. There is more crossing of hoses than I would like, but that is just aesthetics and would require MAJOR rework to allow the lines not to cross each other. I will live with it. The hoses need stand-offs yet, but that will come in time.

While I was working on these lines, Eric came over to spend some time in the Garaggio wiring. Most of his time was spent uncomfortably positioned in the rear cockpit. Eric is a tall guy and I am sure it was not fun working in such a confined space. I hope his knees and back aren’t regretting it too much tomorrow.

Like normal for Garaggio projects, he had a somewhat frustrating day. While he was working on the wiring, he had to do some rework due to a few failed crimps on connector pins. For added measure to prevent this from happening again, Eric both crimped and soldiered a few of the connectors for added strength and reliability. He also got the joy of assembling, then having to disassemble and then reassemble a connector. In the end,  Eric did make some forward progress in addition to making the wiring more robust. He got the fuel quantity sending units and the fuel sight gage LED lighting wired up. We even got some satisfaction out of lighting up the LED by running the positive wire to the battery temporarily. Additionally, he spent some time cleaning up the wiring bundles in the back seat. They will look nice secured to the sidewalls.

My last task for the day was spent on the throttle and mixture cable/oil cooler/fuel injection mount. The “oil cooler frame” which is the mount for the cables needed to be de-burred and cleaned up. Then I drilled for and squeezed rivets into the two pieces that make up the frame. The second piece is just a small spacer plate that takes up some space between the bottom flange of the oil cooler and the frame. I decided to rivet them together to simplify installation and removal so you don’t have to align 3 pieces.

Then it was basically a re-assembly job putting all the final hardware in. The assembly can be put together on the bench, including the fuel injection distribution block. While it was on the bench, I added thread sealant and torqued the plugs for the unused ports on the distribution block. I also took this opportunity to put in steel fittings in the oil cooler instead of aluminum. This was suggested by the cooler manufacturer to prevent the aluminum fitting from galling the threads on the cooler.

I have it mostly installed on the engine now. I just need to finish attaching the oil cooler exit duct. Then we can get back to plumbing for the return line from the cooler and fuel injectors.

About this time, the day turned into one of those “15 perfect flying evenings” we have in MN, that Kevin decided he wanted to go for an airplane ride. Of course, I obliged happily. We were enjoying ourselves so much on the flight that we didn’t get any photos until we put the airplane away. Thanks Bob for the use of your beautiful bird! Carpe Diem!