Many weeks ago I found that one of my fuel tanks leaked when I pressurized it with air. I eventually found a leak at a threaded fitting. I searched the RV-List archives, and found that many people reported good results using a wicking thread locker to seal leaks. I eventually found a local supplier for Loctite 290 (Legere Industrial), and purchased some awhile ago. Several days ago I put a several inches of vacuum on the tank and applied the wicking thread sealant. I started another leak test on Friday, but this morning I could see that the air had all leaked out. Drat.

This morning I pressurized the tank again and started going over likely areas with soapy water. I couldn't find any evidence of a leak at the threaded joint that was leaking last time. Some progress at least. I finally found a small leak on the inboard end of the tank, at the upper aft corner of the rib. The good news is that there is a large access cover on that rib, so I can open it up and spread some more Proseal in that corner. I thought about just putting more Proseal on the outside, but I'm convinced that sealant on the inside will be more likely to do the job (I'll put a bit more on the outside too, but for good measure). The bad news is that I don't have any more Proseal. I'll order some.

I've been bogged down in finishing fibreglas fairings for what seems like forever. I hate working on the stuff, so I'm not too motivated to go out in the garage. My progress has been slow as a result. I'm at a phase where I need to sand a bunch of fibreglas filler. I do that outside as much as possible, in an attempt to keep the dust out of the garage. Today it was quite cold (it only warmed up to -16°C), so I had a golden opportunity to work on something else.

This afternoon I decided to attack some of the small items on the infinitely long list of stuff I need to do. I had run out of nut plates for the wing root - they will hold the wing-fuselage intersection fairing in place. The needed additional nut plates arrived a few weeks ago, so I riveted them in place. I also installed a wing rivet that I had somehow missed when I riveted the wing skins a long, long time ago.

I installed the nut plates that attach the pitot tube mount to the wing, and spent a while poking through my collection of fittings and eventually found that I had the right mix I will need to hook the pitot tube up to the pitot line. I'm using the mix of fittings that Paul Besing suggests on his web page.

Next I installed the fresh air vent for the passenger. The AN525 washer head screws for the front fresh air vent came a few weeks ago, so I replaced the hex-head bolts that I had temporarily used. That turned out to be a much tougher job that I had expected, as the new screws were ever a few thousandths of an inch larger diameter than the bolts I had temporarily used. I tried forcing things in place, but that was obviously not the right answer, so I eventually disassembled everything and enlarged the holes.

The standard air vents are cheesy black plastic ones, that have a reputation for not sealing very well. Not good in the winter. I ordered some very nice black anodized aluminum eyeballs vents from Van's.