No... I'm still here! I've been burning the midnight oil... actually, the wee hours of the morning oil. And, then there was the trailer.... another ARF. Yes, I had to buy a trailer so we can haul all of our junk down to Joe Nall. So far, three coats of white paint on the walls and three coats of paint on the floor. Of course the floor was different paint and couldn't be done at the same time.... anyway.... that was 6 fairly long sessions....

The Decathlon got attention most of those days as well. Some days for very long hours. At this point, I'm channeling servo wires to the SmartFly. I still have the ignition cutoff LED to drill and install, the ignition switch and the SmartFly switch. I have one more battery which needs holds downs, then it will be receiver time and programming time. I haven't yet started this used Brillelli engine, but I feel certain it will perform.

The only other non-essential items I have not done are painting and installing wheel pants and the flying wire system. I'm just being sort of hard headed on the flying wire system. I just don't condone the $25 or so price tag for no more than you get in that kit. A nice pull/pull system has a lot more in the package and cost about half. So, I'm still designing in my head. Heck, I have enough cable left over from my pull/pull system for the actual wires... just need to work out the fastening and adjusting points.

My cowling paint colors weren't perfect. I should have listened to myself and had custom paint mixed for it. As it was, I cust mixed the orange as I was spraying it. First a coat of this color, then a misting of that color... sort of back and forth to get the right color. The shade however is just a bit dark. Once I get it to the point of RTF, I'll do some more photos and post them. I might actually be able to get there by tomorrow night. If I can get some good weather, perhaps it will make it into the sky sometime this week or at the latest by the weekend. I'd really like to get in 10 or 12 flights before hauling it down to Joe Nall. At the moment, this is the flagship of my one year old hanger. I'm sure it will be ho-hum vs. what I'll be seeing down there, but I'm pretty darned tickled with how it has come out.