Ordered parts and supplies from Vans

I made some corrections and added some clarifications to my previous post about resolving the potential build problems with the left elevator and trim tab, so please review it again if needed.

I also put an order into Vans yesterday. Consisted of the following:

24 MK-319-BS pop rivets (for closing up small ends and hard to reach areas of the riblets, elevator and trim tab)
24 AD-41-ABS pop rivets (Used for closing up the leading edges of the elevators. I drilled a ton of these out trying to close up the skins on the rudder.
1 E703 elevator tip rib (to make the riblet for the inboard end of the trim tab)
1 E720H5 predrilled stiffener angle (to replace the one that I screwed up while cutting)
2 K1000-3 Nut plates
2 K1000-4 nut plates (Will decide which size to put on the forward area of my elevator tip ribs to provide an attach point for additional lead after paint is applied. Great tip from Steve Riffe and others.)
14 AN470AD4-6 solid rivets (To replenish those that I cut down and used to attach the control horm to the right elevator)
1 Flop Tube IF-4/6  - This is a special fuel pickup tube for the fuel tanks on the the wings that can "flop" up or down or from side to side to allow continuous fuel flow during acrobatic flight, unusual attitudes, or times when fuel levels are low in the tank and you experienced turbulence that causes shifts in the fuel level that need to be followed by the fuel pickup line. I have had quite a bit of experience with this from my RC airplane building days, where even the "trainer" airplanes are capable of sustained inverted flight. they use a "clunk" tank system that basically contains a heavy weighted tip on the end of flexible fuel line so that the fuel line will follow whereever the fuel happens to be in the tank. This is just a bigger version of the same principle with a few more parts and functional aspects to consider. I will only use one in the left wing tank, and will plan on switching to that tank for all aerobatic maneuvers..

Time to start thinking about the wings and the several things that will be needed as wing construction progresses.
I spent considerable time over the past two days catching up on ALL of Ron Duren's Wing constructions posts. Tons of good info in there. SO much so that I will be revisiting it often as I begin building the wings in the not-to-distant future.

I can't remember where I read this recently, but it is so true when you start building one of these things. You have to think about building the airplane from the inside out in order to make it easier to include consideration for things that will be added to the airplane much later in the build. These include such things as:

- attach points for wire runs an routing
- wire needs for various components, such as nav/position and strobe lights, landing lights, heated pitot tube, antennas, pitot static lines, tank vent lines, etc.
- Light assemblies and locations
- Pitot tube style, function, and location
- fuel pumps

and so on....

I also have one other suprise that will require additional electrical wires in both wings, but I will save the details of that for later. I am still in research mode trying to determine what electrical system needs I will have, but I will need to account for additional electrical wires for what I have in mind. It will definitely make my airplane one of a kind I think, and I am excited to get to the point where I will implement it.

So right now I am waiting for stuff to arrive from Van's, and will continue with stiffener prep for the left elevator tomorrow.