Europa
	N55XS
	January, 2005

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Europa A-055

January 2nd

Setup the port wingtip and bonded on the clear lens.  Prepped the starboard tip and glued spacers in place...

  
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Time: 1 hour
Total: 758 hours

January 3rd

Bonded the starboard wingtip lens in place, then began trimming and sanding the port lens...

Time: 1 hour
Total: 759 hours

January 6th

Visited a local upholstery supplier, yesterday and bought some 4", very high density foam.  It's fire retardant.  Took the old electric knife to it, today and carved it up, into a couple of seats.  Extremely comfortable to sit on.  Will be sewing covers this weekend, hopefully.  Also filled the area around the port wingtip lens...

     
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Time: 1 hour
Total: 760 hours

January 7th

Started cutting material and sewing seat covers for starboard side...

Time: 2 hours
Total: 762 hours

January 8th

Finished covering the starboard seat and the lower half of the port seat.  All that remains on them is to attach a little Velcro to hold them in place...

        
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Time: 6 hours
Total: 768 hours

January 9th

Finished covering the port seat back and installed both seats. A little Velcro will hold them in place.  Aside from finishing the panel, this pretty much finishes the interior...

Finished sanding around the port wing wingtip lens, then sanded and primed lower port wing...

        
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Time: 3 hours
Total: 771 hours

January 10th

Sanded lower half of port wing and flap and reprimed.  When dry, I sanded it again, finishing the lower side.  Turned it over and began touching up the small imperfections in the upper surface...

Time: 5 hours
Total: 776 hours

January 11th

Sanded upper half of port wing and flap and re-primed.  When dry, I started the final sanding...

Time: 4 hours
Total: 780 hours

January 12th

Completely finished the port wing, then started sanding out the wingtip lens on the starboard wing...

Time: 1 hour
Total: 781 hours

January 15th

Finished up around starboard wingtip lens, then sanded the bottom and primed.  Started working with the flight instruments...

  
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Time: 4 hours
Total: 785 hours

January 16th

Sanded and re-primed lower starboard wing and, when dry, sanded again.  That's it for the bottom.  Rolled it over and sanded and primed the top, then touched up all the little imperfections in the surface, with a brush and primer...

Time: 5 hours
Total: 790 hours

January 17th

Sanded and re-primed upper starboard wing and touched up about a million little pinholes...

Time: 4 hours
Total: 794 hours

January 18th

Did some sanding on the upper starboard wing...

Time: 1 hour
Total: 795 hours

January 19th

Drilled flight instrument panel and installed four of the 5 engine gauges that will go there.  Last gauge should be here in a couple of days...

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Time: 1 hour
Total: 796 hours

January 20th

Finished sanding the upper starboard wing.  Time for some paint...!

Time: 1 hour
Total: 797 hours

January 21st

Worked on wiring the gauges...

Time: 1 hour
Total: 798 hours

January 24th

Recovered the doors from the paint shop, stripped the masking and installed the door handles, then mounted them to the Fuselage to check fit.  Installed the pitot/static tube connectors and assembled the plane.  Nose gear assembly will arrive this week.

        
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Time: 1 hour
Total: 799 hours

January 26th

Found a little play in the port aileron, so I removed the wing and shimmed the self connect bellcrank .040".  Remounted the wing and checked aileron.  Perfect!  Started fabricating the inside door handle knobs.  Installed the blind encoder.   Nose gear finally arrived, so I installed it, made up the safety cable and stretched the bungee.  All that remains is to pump the fork full of grease and set the tension on the shimmy damper...

     
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Time: 4 hours
Total: 803 hours

January 29th

Greased the nose gear and set the tension on the shimmy damper.  Finished the inside door lever knobs and installed.  Fabricated, painted, installed and placarded the door latch guards...

  
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Time: 2 hours
Total: 805 hours

January 31st

Mounted transponder tray into avionics rack.  Sanded avionics panel and painted...

Time: 1 hour
Total: 806 hours

 

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