526 Echo Juliet

This was our first meeting with my EAA Tech Counselor. He's also an FAA Designated Airworthiness Representative (DAR) and will be the one who does our airworthiness inspection. He went over the kit with us and told us what he's typically looking for on composite aircraft. Overall had no complaints with the kit as built so far and offered some helpful advise towards the completion and certification process. Later in the day, I pulled the nose gear hydraulic cylinder, as it needs to be rebuilt and parts were on order from Velocity. Gotta say that this is *not* a fun task. I have pretty small arms, but working inside the keel to undo the bolt on the rear of the cylinder is not easy. At the top of the picture, you see my hand coming in the co-pilot access hole with the socket, and at the bottom, you can see my hand barely reaching the head of the bolt with an opposing wrench, coming in from the top access hole on the keel. Picture is taken through the control stick hole. I managed ...

I fixed some of the hardware on the main gear pulleys to get proper thread engagement on the lock nuts (no pics). Disassembled the nose gear doors and sanded them and the opening to get the doors to fit somewhat tighter.   Cleaned and prepped the nose and sanded paint off for battery tray install. Installed battery tray with structural adhesive and rivets to hold it while it cured. Drilling for rivet locations prior to sanding marking lines off. Mixing way too much structural adhesive Emily cut foam for seat bottoms and tested sewing with existing machine. Assisted with battery tray install.