This morning I reinstalled all of the sheet metal on the front end, especially the tunnel and lower boot cowl. This is all part of the plan to make sure that I don’t have any interference problems.
With those parts and the cowl on, I rolled the airplane outside for a few photos. It looks so close to being done, but it’s still so far from flying!
I also measured for the size of the wheel axle. This is the first time that I’ve needed to take the wheel off, and I’m not sure about what the best tool is going to be. The nut is 1-3/4 inches, but it’s recessed inside the wheel so that it’s not really accessible by a wrench or socket. I’m not sure whose idea that was. I did more initial checking of the main landing gear alignment and have come to the conclusion that I’m going to need some better measurement methods if I’m going to get repeatable results. I tried using some 1/16″ aluminum angles that I had on hand, but they’re just too wiggly.