Things are moving along.

1. My new tail-to-fuselage fairing has arrived, and my A&P has allowed
as how we can use cherry pop rivets (rather than structural), which
will save a bunch of headache. (Although Mary will still have to get
back into the aft fuselage in order to vacuum up the rivets that fell
into the plane when we cut the old ones off...so pictures will be
forthcoming... ;-) Thanks for the suggestion!

2. We're still hunting down the source of a pesky oil leak that has
driven me nuts over the last year. I pulled the prop off yesterday,
under the suspicion that the seal right behind the prop might be the
culprit. It wasn't. It looks like the oil might be coming out where
the case halves come together, right behind that seal -- but it's sure
hard to tell.

So, we're retorqueing all the case through bolts again, and my A&P is
going to apply some sealant (that he uses on the big jets at his "day"
job) to that joint, in hopes of licking this incredibly aggravating
problem. (I want the Japanese to come out with an airplane engine.
I'll bet it wouldn't "mark its territory" like an old Harley, and maybe
the competition would force Lycoming/Continental to figure out a better
way to seal their engines....)

3. As long as the prop is off, I sanded the backside of the prop, and
will be applying a nice, new coat of flat black prop paint to it. It
was pretty badly scoured, and -- with the sun at our back -- was really
getting annoying.

3. The new Ameri-King ELT arrived, which I'm suppose to be installing
right now. Unfortunately, our lead housekeeper called in sick this
morning, so Mary is out cleaning rooms, which means I'm covering the
desk. (I've got other staff on vacation.) So I'm paying my A&P $65/hour
instead of $8/hour for someone to cover the desk. Stupid, stupid,
stupid. :-(

Otherwise, no surprises...yet.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"