First inspection. All assemblies passed fit for purpose.
My inspector Mick Bevin came along this evening. I had prepared all the assemblies up to the point where the next step involved closing them up and hiding the internal riveting. He went over every rivet, marking pretty much every one that I already knew was dodgy. I had left them there to get a feeling for what would pass and what would not.
We also talked about a number of the big decisions later on in the project such as fuel injection, electronic ignition and wobbly props. Mick is a traditionalist and likes to keep it simple. He pointed out that it is not just the cost of purchasing but the expensive and regular maintenance on some of these systems that you need to watch out for.
He encouraged me to consider getting the tanks built professionally. Another of his 'clients' - a group of Irish Air Corp personnel - had a lot of trouble with leaks and found them very difficult to solve. I had checked the position the last time he mentioned this and found that Vans no longer offer this option but they recommend Evan Johnson who builds them to order in Callifornia. They just ship the parts to him and he ships the finished tanks back to Vans where they are forwarded on to the customer with the rest of the wings order. Based on Mick's urgings, I decided to go with it and got in touch with Evan the same evening. He is a great guy who likes to talk RVs and seemed tickled that two of his tanks would be going so far afield. He is building a 10 of his own.
In the end, he completed my log book without reservation and passed all assemblies fit for purpose. Now I can get on with closing up these beauties.
I won't need to see Mick again until I reach the same stage on the wings - just before I begin to close up any of the parts and hide rivets. At that stage, he will also have a look at the rest of my work on the emp.
Sorry, no photos. I was too excited. I will get Mick's photo the next time he comes around
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