Oshkosh 2011

I had a friend that got there before us and happened to catch some pictures of our landing and taxi into Airventure.

Back on the ground at Coffey County by Friday evening 7/29/11.

Our stop on the way back was at Iowa City, IA.

Taxiing to 36 for departure.....hmmm, I suppose I should pay attention and not be taking pictures.

The co-pilot making some last minute phone calls.

Packed up for departure on Friday mid-morning.

The 120/140 Association had their supper on Thursday evening. It was a little rainy, but we stayed dry and the food and fellowship was great.

Enjoying the event with friends.

The airplane is all tied down for the week. A friend that drove brought all of our camping gear along, so the next step was to get it all set up.

Our camping spot was off the end of runway 36. It made for a fantastic approach view while 36 was active.

An early departure from Portage had us to our camping spot in Oshkosh by about 8:30 AM on Monday morning.

We arrived at Portage, WI on Sunday evening and stayed the night here.

Our first stop was Centerville, IA.

Departure from Coffey County on Sunday afternoon 7/24/11.

Headliner Installation

Airtex sent along some pieces that go along the rear door post, but it looked a little too much like a Chia pet with these installed for my liking.

The side covers installed

The backing plate for the instrument light.

Installing the instrument light.

I had some help during this project.

Glueing the headliner to the side of the fuselage in the baggage compartment.

Tucking it around the sides.

The most aft rod put in place and everything fitting well.

The toughest part of the installation went really well.

Beginning the installation by locating and cutting out the sky light windows.

The next step was to reposition the com antenna so that it would not interfere with the installation.

The first step for the new headliner was to come up with the mounting brackets and come up with an installation for the radio speaker.

Little helper.

Engine baffling.

The new engine baffling added a ton of time to the whole process, but it sure does look nice when it's done.

The finished product after installing the flexible engine baffling (the black material).

Installing the back baffle piece.

This is basically the finished product for the back engine baffle.

This big back piece also had a couple places that were formed out to clear the exhaust and intake areas of the aft cylinders. This is one of the sets of blocks made fot his purpose. The 2 big pieces were clamped tight and then the arbor press was used to press down on the center die to form the aluminum.

Lining things up preparing to make a joggle.

The joggle die doing its thing.

The rear baffle piece requires a couple a joggles in the material. Dad made me 2 sets of joggle dies (one 1/2" set and one 11/32" set) for this part of the project. They worked great in the arbor press.

The long process of final fitting.

This is what it looks like after the flange is formed.

This shows the flange as it is being formed.

A couple of the baffling pieces required a 1/2" flange all the way around the outside. This was done by making forming blocks and then a leather mallet to form the flange around the outside. This required quite a few trial and error pieces to get it right.

More baffling fit and installed.

Installed.

After some trimming and bending.

After some deburring I started with the baffling that goes around the bottom of the case to see how things were going to fit.

Dad got my new baffling all cut out this week. The original baffling was used as a template and all new was cut using a water jet.