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I have found that most builders seem most productive during the winter months if they have easy access to a warm space like I do.  For me, not so much.  I seem to be able to get easily stopped during the winter. It is hard to get started after the holidays and harder to keep going once I start.  It is four weeks since my cowling issue came up and it took me two weeks to get to that point.

So my first confession is – I’m addicted to curling.  Between all the curling on TV and the great Hockey during the Olympics I was very unproductive.  Even though I’d gotten started again, this week my son had emergency eye surgery for a partially detatched retina.  Lots of things have gotten in my way.

Besides the cowling issue, I have also had an issue with my ground power unit.  It worked flawlessly while I built the panel and I have used it a lot since the electrical system was completed while I customized the EFIS display.  It was still under warranty with Sporty’s but the manufacturer couldn’t find anything wrong with it.  I have talked with them and they have sent another unit for comparison and it works great.  That has also taken up time.

Of course my big problem a month ago was the subject of a blog post that I have now put in the logs just prior to this entry.  With help from a Lancair builder in my EAA chapter – Dave W –  I have gotten past that problem and finally was able to make some progress.

The first picture below was one of many sessions I had trying to collect data on my misbehaving GPU.  I did a lot of charging of the battery with my old charger and then running it down to see how the unit was behaving.  I have a working unit now and will send back my malfunctioning unit tomorrow.
      The second and third pictures highlight the solution to the cowl problem. When Dave came down and looked at the cowl, he convinced me to continue trimming the cowling. The long and short of it was that he was right.  After several small shavings it was clear that I was getting good results.  I finally got it to fit as shown in the last picture.  However, the rear edges now all needed repair because of all the holes from the original fitting of the hinges.