There are a few more things that I need to have done before we can start covering. For example, the lower fuel lines that cross under the front door sills need to be in place.

I installed those lines and added a nutplate for a clamp that will support the right rear vertical line.

With our covering strategy I don’t think I’ll need to have the vertical lines in place prior to covering. I routed the rear passenger headset cables and tied them neatly in place. I added the anti-chafe tape to a few spots on the fuselage that seemed like good candidates for it, and I started repairing the hole in our wing root.

How did I end up with a hole in the wing of an airplane that isn’t even flying yet? I’ll tell you- I cut that hole. I was thinking of a way to get airflow to the back seats, and copied an idea that I saw on another airplane. Then, after I had the hole cut, I saw something in the Avipro manual about not putting big holes in the .032 portion of the wing skin. So I called Bob, who confirmed that there really shouldn’t be such a big hole there. He said that I should patch it with a doubler underneath, using -4 size flush rivets spaced 1 inch apart. In the picture above you can see the beginnings of just that. I used a square and a ruler to lay it all out, cut out the hole to a rectangular shape, then match drilled the skin and the doubler.