I flew the Legacy to Brady, Tx back in early March. Good weather all the way, but some head winds too. Left the airplane with Alan Woodson - Texas Aerocolor. Went back about a week ago to pick it up. My brother Norman picked me up in Dallas and provided a ride to Brady. Since he had helped build (builder assist, week 1), it wasn't all new. Sure looks different! Nice work, Alan and Ray! And Many thanks to Don Barnes who contributed his Legacy paint scheme. His is maroon, mine is blue. Had a good trip back, just low ceilings in central Texas, strong winds and mountain obscuration out west. But it's finally done, just a few things to keep working on, and a few things for the annual. Picture credits are to Alan Woodson and Don Barnes.

Went to Redmond to meet Josh Brungardt, CFI and HPAT Instructor, to get several hours of dual in Lancair's Legacy, N199L. Flew back last Monday with several stops along the way. Pretty speedy little airplane! On Tuesday, Josh inspected the aircraft and got ready to test fly it. After a couple of pit stops (change oily plugs and fix a partially clogged injector), he took to the air. Looked great. He reports that it handled well, just a few little adjustments needed. Next day, a few more hours of dual, then one more test flight, then my first try at it. Loved it - very nice, stable, but light and quick. Finally - Onwards!

It's been pretty quiet for a few months. We're waiting for some dual training in Lancair's Legacy, but it's been down for a few months. Hopefully it will be ready in a few days. In the meantime, went ahead and moved to Hollister, reassembled everything, got the Airworthiness Certificate taken care of, and calibrated the fuel probes. Along the way, I left the VM1000 manual in the other car and called Jason at Aerotronics for help. He read the setup info over the phone to us and saved the day. Also did a little taxi test, felt fine, wants to fly!

Things have moved along well. The baffling was fabricated, painted and installed. Brian Stout did a much appreciated inspection. Only a few things were found wanting. Barry Turner did a transponder/static check which, amazingly, went fine. Otherwise, I've spent a couple of days going over all of the hardware again.

It's been pretty busy - hoses, carpet, seats, engine controls installing the VM1000C wiring, and starting the baffle. Wasn't long before I figured out that the oil cooler (aft of #3) was not going to work - poor air compared to in front of #2, and difficult to fit in the plenum and have satisfactory mechanical clearance.

But things have just been really busy, so here's a little more. Now that the avionics shelf has been installed, I've tried to finish off the panel wiring, fit and refit the intercooler box, wait for hoses, install the carbon cowling hinges along the sides of the top and bottom cowling. Hooked up a battery and so far everything powered up properly, lights flash, flaps move, gyros turn, no smoke.

But 90% done and 90% to go. Did I already say that?

Tuesday, 9 May. Ron called - said we had an engine. It's ready. It's been run on the test stand for 4 hours. We drove down to La Verne and picked it up. Went over a lot of stuff with Ron. Looks great, everythings in place. What a nice, complete facility. Thanks, Ron, Stuart, and everybody at Performance Engines.

Yes, still waiting for an engine. But, we should have the exhaust back this week and installed for test like maybe this weekend. Golly, time to work in the Lancair again?

Still waiting for an engine, not doing much except a couple of battery boxes. Deluxe style, with air conditioning (for a turbo-heated firewall area)

Pretty much finished the panel wiring and cabling to the aircraft, installed the HSI flux gate, cabin lights. Also installed the baggage tunnel and aft windows. Did a little testing to see how much metal it takes to affect a compass or HSI. Looks like small hardware at least 8" away has a negligible effect.

A little bit longer for the panel rework (next week), and no engine, but the pieces for the turbo are going out for welding, so it's coming... Starting avionics tray installation, all the trim and misc wiring under the seat, and the aft windows. The control sticks are installed, the trim servos work, lights work, just need to finish hooking up the panel. Should be a busy month!

Gee, still waiting for the rest of the big pieces. It's really January 2, but I'm just now getting around to updating this project. The panel showed up just around Thanksgiving, but I soon discovered I needed some changes, so part of it is being reworked. Meanwhile, finish the fuel system, install the rudder pedals and brake lines, and start wiring.

That was a solid month+ of priming and sanding. Took most of it home where it's easier to manage the dust. Still finding more low spots and subtle pinholes, but we're moving on! The propeller showed up, the panel is just about ready to ship, and the engine is ... due shortly.

It's been sort of monotonous the last couple of months. We did take 2+ weeks off for good behavior to visit Australia and New Zealand, but then back to bodywork. It's pretty much finished, at least for now. Everythings been sanded and gone over at least once. A thin layer of fiberglass has been put over the built-up areas (leading edge, for example) to protect it.

Since putting on the center section wing skins, it's been bodywork and more bodywork - top of the wings, fuselage fairings, canopy. The vacuum cleaner was kept very busy. This will continue for the next few weeks with the bottom of the wing and fuselage.

This was the last major assembly before doing the rest of the body work and installing various systems. Since the engine will take awhile, it's good that there's a lot to do, still.

The last month or so has been a mixed bag. The main focus was on closing out the wing center sections, but that means wiring, fitting the landing gear fairings, anything that can better be done with full access to install nutplates, brake lines, etc. I received and started to install stainless/teflon brake hoses instead of polyflow/tygon.

Thanks to Don, Mike, Rick and Sam, we put on the wings for the first time. Yes, they did fit. They came right off in order to install the aileron idlers. Now they're back on to install the flaps. The focus here is everything in the wing center section - landing lights, fuel, wiring, brake hoses, flaps, landing gear trunions, etc. Once that's done, it needs to be inspected before putting on the wing top panels.

This month focused on the underside of the fuselage and the tail - in particular, the panels to fill in the landing gear holes. I didn't use the panels from the kit. Instead, the wheel cover is built-in using foam and BID. The strut panel is removable, also foam/BID (lighter than the originals), and with fiberglass rod cut to length to get the right spacing. The home-made rotisserie worked fine. Early on, I had installed the lower outside BID on one of the wheel covers, which really went on poorly. That was removed, sanded out, and replaced. Also set up the antenna mounts and faired in the pitot static mounting.

Well, lots of sanding. The rudder, elevators, horizontal stab and the interface between the h stab and vert stab get a lot of micro and sanding, fit checking, realignment of one rudder hinge. Finally, everything fits and moves smoothly, good clearance. Installed the final BIDs on the rudder and vertical stab after rebuilding the lower end of the rudder.

This was a busy month. Finally received main landing gear legs and trunions and installed same. Started on the Legacy Innovations fairing kit - elevator leading edge is first. Resolving discrepancies in the nose gear kit. Installed the wing tip lights and did a release to fit and cover the gap around the light base.

This month focused on some basic assemblies, getting the controls partially installed, doing the NACA submerged inlets (check the NASA web site - lots of studies available in their historical records!). Building the flap center hinge, building fiberglass shaped speedbrake covers (instead of flat metal plates)

I'm not quite ready to start doing wholesale micro and sanding on the tail. I'm more into the mechanical stuff, so this month is fitting the ailerons, adding the counterweights, checking free movement. The fuel drain fairings are installed and faired in with micro. Lots of phone calls to Lancair support. They're very patient and helpful.

November was mainly a transition month - getting tools (epoxy pump in particular), work benches and shelves, and setting the fuselage and wings up on supports. The supports are just plywood with 2x4, covered with foam (used to insulate pipes). The fuselage support is intended to allow rotating the fuselage later on, and is flat/level for installing landing gear and checking control surface movement.

Rest of the work will happen at RHV

While the wings were curing, we went back to the fuselage/tail. The horizontal was installed, and the left side of the vertical stab was closed out. After that had cured, we cut the rudder along the hinge line and installed the leading edge of the rudder. Finally, we bonded in the seat rails. A pretty fair amount of progress for 2 weeks!

Wings come ready to be closed. All that's required is a complete sanding where the top and bottom are bonded and a (very) careful inspection. Once the the Hysol cures, you've got a wing! (well, a little finishing work is needed)

Step two

First step at the builder assist program at the Lancair factory. Rather a big job. Don't try to rush it, lots of "fitting" required