Nov 11, 2024: Since finishing the empennage in September, I’ve been a bit frustrated to find that I will need to wait a long time before I get any more parts from Van’s! When I ordered the quick-build wing and fuselage, the projected delivery was late 2024. Then the bankruptcy happened and everything got delayed, and now they are estimating I will get the wing and fuselage in late February or early March 2025. So, that’s basically 5 months with no hardware to work on. The engine isn’t due until early 2026, so that should be the gating item, and I hope to get everything possible done before the engine arrives. So, I’ve been spending some time researching and preparing to order other stuff, like avionics, interior, paint design etc. So, here’s an update on that stuff: Propeller: Received the Hartzell 2-blade metal prop a couple months ago, and just unpacked it from the shipping box today (and then repacked it). Looks like the right part number, and no sign of damage in shipping. Photos attached here. Avionics: planning to go with Stein Air. During my 5 month downtime, I thought I might buy the panel and avionics and do a bunch of wiring. But, I was stymied, because everyone thinks Garmin will come out with an updated G3X by spring of 2025, and I’d rather wait for the new design. So, the plan is to order a plug-and-play panel in maybe Q3 - Q4 of 2025, and a kit of harnesses and components that I can install in the wing and fuselage earlier, in Q1 of 2025. Stein seems very helpful with this kind of stuff. Interior design: I got a quote from Jeremiah at Classic Aero designs, for a very nice looking and complete interior, with synthetic leather seats, sidewall kit, full carpeting, stick boots, etc. Mary decided she wants heated seats, so need to add that to the quote (and also add a panel switch for those to the avionics plan). Classic sells Hooker Harness, so need to decide between that and the Crow brand (from a different supplier). Also, decided to use a 4-point harness, for limited aerobatics only. Paint Design: Friends have used Cascade Customs and Design for painting their RV’s, so we are leaning that way, and got a budgetary quote. They have about a 1-year lead-time, so will need to get on their schedule in early 2025 probably. They have a $1200 line item for paint scheme design through Evoke (in Louisiana I think). We don’t really know what we want yet, but Mary is favoring something with British Racing Green color. N-number: I kind of wanted a 4-digit N-number, and something meaningful to Mary and me. I found that N91ML is available and reserved it. We got married in 1991 and the M and L are for Mary and Lou. So, that works. Insurance: got quote from Gallagher, for $2700/year with $250k hull value. They were satisfied with my total time (including 3000+ hours of tailwheel) and RV-7 and -7A time, and also 1.5 hours of RV-14, so I don’t need transition training, fortunately. I will need a wing cradle, and I am going to inherit an RV-7 cradle from Andrew Clark, who built an RV-7. Hope to get that next weekend, to put in the now empty garage. That’s all for now. Might be a long time until the next update…

Time spent: 20hr