Tonight I cleaned out most of the hangar and got most of the workshop ready for business. John has already used the hotbox for a few bits he was working on. It took all night to get it ready, so I didn’t do much, but I did sand the edges of the firewall-to-aft-LG reinforcement in preparation for installing the mains. It was just a 5-minute job, but it counts as plane building, so I’m back in the saddle!

Tonight I watched John doing a short taxi test. It’s simply amazing how smooth and powerful the Mazda 13BT is. I’ve seen Lycomings, and they vibrate like hell – the Mazda is so smooth you can hardly tell it’s buzzing along. Moreover, in a Lycoming, the Cozy will strain against the brakes when you go WOT, rolling forward a bit even on Matcos. The 13BT? John wasn’t even giving it all the boost it could theoretically take, just doing a normal runup, and there was NO way the brakes could hold back – he was at walking speed before he let off. The brakes are fine, it’s just a powerful engine and an adjustable prop (that has a big impact, too).

Tomorrow John will help me flip the plane over, then I plan to fix a few undercarriage dings from the move, and do the LG bulkhead reinforcement that’s impossible to do with the plane on its belly. Hopefully the hoop will arrive soon…