23 JAN 17: 45-13, step 2 (R), fit Aerosport door handle and lock: 4 hours

Finished the right door handle and fit the Aerosport flush door handle and lock.  These handles are going to look really nice when the plane is finished!

27 JAN 17: Remove tail section: 3.5 hours

Well the time has finally come to dig back into the tail section.  A LONG time ago I replaced a piece of angle (cut original too short) with a piece of angle from Lowes.  Even though the aluminum angle had the same inside radius as the Van’s angle, I was never comfortable with this after I did it.  I recently thought about this, so decided to pull things apart in order to replace it.  Well, my memory failed me.  I always thought the angle was a piece on the top of the back deck (easy fix), but it’s actually a piece under the back deck, which attached to the top of a bulkhead/reinforcement gussets.  This whole back deck must come off…

Removed:

The good news is that it’s pretty easy to remove rivets in the longerons.  I can drill the 1/8” rivets with a #40 bit and then drive them out with a punch, thus greatly lessening the change of enlarging the hole in the longeron:

Here is the offending piece of angle on the top of the bulkhead.  These rivets will be a bit more challenging to remove without enlarging the holes – especially the outboard ones.  It will be tough to get a straight shot – even with my angle drill:

29 JAN 17: Removed tail angle, trimmed door for PlaneAround latch, overhead : 4.5 hours

Finished removing the bad tail angle (no pic).  Everything is good to go; just waiting on the new parts to arrive from Van’s.  Continued working on the left door.  Cut the bottom of the door to fit the PlaneAround 180* latch.  Initial fit:

Finished the work session by fitting the Aerosport vents and eyeball lights in the overhead console:

Close up.  The silver will look nice against the carbon fiber once I clear coat and finish it: