Yes, I finally got back to work. Well, back to work on the airplane, that is…I started my new job a few weeks ago, things are going well there. Between the new short days and Thanksgiving, there have been ample opportunities to put off getting back out in the garage. Part of the issue was that the first order of business would be cleaning and priming the stiffeners I cut back in (jeez) September, which required use of the driveway and light. I’ve tried priming at dusk or after, and it’s nigh-impossible to see what I’m doing. Since it’s invariably dark when I get home from work, weekdays are right out. I’d thought of going to the EAA 690 breakfast this morning, but as tends to happen on weekends, my decision changed when the alarm went off. I proceeded to sleep a few more hours, but finally got myself out of bed. My main motivation was that if I let another weekend go by without getting back to work, I’d be all sorts of angry with myself.
So I went down, got the stiffeners off the table (along with the trim reinforcement plate) and went to work. That actually didn’t take long at all, maybe 30-40 minutes start to finish. While waiting for them to dry, I went to work cleaning up in the garage. Without any activity on the workbench, it quickly became home to lots of random stuff. (as all horizontal surfaces do) This happens anyway, but when I’m working regularly it gets cleaned up regularly as well, out of necessity. Ten or so weeks of no regular cleanup…yeah, the thing was pretty much covered.
So I spent the next hour or so finding homes for all that junk, putting away tools that had been used and then just set down, fixing the leaky drain valve on the compressor, and finally getting my retractable air hose mounted to the wall. Then I wandered outside and found that my stiffeners still weren’t dry. Having seen before just how well primer adheres to wet aluminum, I decided that, annoying as it might be, I should just let the things dry overnight.
I suppose I could have dimpled the elevator skins as well, but that’s better with two people, and Josie wasn’t feeling well. But at least I did something. Tomorrow I’ll prime, and maybe dimple…maybe even get the stiffeners back riveted to the skins.