Thoughts on Building

After flying the airplane for a while, we’re realizing there are some things we’re really glad we did and some things we’d do differently in the future.  We’ll update this page as we think of things.

Things I’m glad we did a certain way:

1. Segment the tunnel cover forward of the fuel valve.  Splitting the forward tunnel cover in two pieces enables you to remove the part forward of the fuel valve, which makes inspection of the tunnel much easier (otherwise, you’d have to remove the seats and fuel valve each time you take the cover off).  This means you’re more likely to check for fuel leaks in the tunnel, which is a good thing, especially in the early stages of flying.

Things I’d do differently next time*:

1. Omit the “Safety Trim” controller.  My biggest complaint is that it limits the trim travel to a few seconds at a time.  Though this is intended to reduce the danger of “runaway trim”, it also makes it take forever to re-trim the airplane in a go-around scenario.  The two-speed operation is also unnecessary.  Lastly, there’s the added weight and expense, and it’s just something else that could break in the future.

* There will not be a next time, according to Kelly 🙂