I riveted the oil cooler door bellcrank earlier in the week, then had a few frustrating days when nothing I touched worked out well. I always managed to stop before destroying anything, but some nights you just have to pack it in.

Saturday I went to an RV Fly-In at Smiths Falls (CYSH). It was a beautiful day, warm, with blue skies, and I thought that this weather extended for a long way around. So I expected a good turn-out of RVs. But apparently there were low ceilings or poor visibilities in the rest of southern Ontario, so many RVers who had planned to come had to stay home. There were several RV-8s, including Don Kugler's, who flew up from NJ, and Paul Bailey's eye-catching RV-8A. I took my camera, but never thought to take any pictures. The hot sun addled my brains I guess.

Thanks to Cathy and Dale Lamport for organizing the RV Fly-in.

I'm in the mode of trying to get all the cockpit stuff done, so I can rivet on the skin from the instrument panel to the firewall. One of the last items I need to do is to install the Hall effect alternator load meter, as its wires have to come into the cockpit. That means I need to first install the alternator output cable, which means I need to install the alternator. I expected that this would be quick, as I had sorted out the alternator installation a long time ago, then put it on the shelf. I just had to bolt it in place, and fabricate and install its output cable. Piece of cake.

Not so fast... I had installed most of the engine cooling baffling since I had sorted out the alternator installation. I discovered that I couldn't get the alternator installed, as it's tension arm interfered with the baffle front shelf. I removed the baffle front shelf, installed the alternator, then trimmed the baffle front shelf a bit and tried to reinstall it. It still interfered. I couldn't get the shelf completely in place, so it was hard to see exactly how much I needed to trim it. I ended up in a multi-hour cycle of trim, try to install, trim some more. I eventually decided to rework an attachment bracket that goes between the front shelf and the front wall in the center. This allowed me to do some major surgery on the front shelf, so it now fits - finally.

So, I spent many hours in the garage working, and got a lot done, but it was on a task that I didn't even know I needed to do. So I didn't manage to cross anything off my long mental list of tasks to complete. Depending on your perspective, I either made good progress, or no progress at all this weekend. It all depends on whether you are a "the glass is half full" or "the glass is half empty" type of person. I'm an engineer, so for me the glass is at its design capacity, with a factor of safety of 2.0. :)