My engine is coming sometime in the next week or two. My finishing kit is coming sometime in mid-December. As is only natural, I want to hang the engine immediately. I'm building a tail dragger, if that matters...
Section 38 is canopy and window. At 42 pages and 407 steps, it is the longest section by a considerable margin. (The nearest competition comes from the cowl (219 steps), gear and wheel fairings (246 steps) and cowl baffle (243 steps).
Section 40B is the engine mount and landing gear. Section 43 is the engine installation.
Is there any compelling reason why the plane cannot be put on its wheels and the engine mounted before the canopy is built? My rational reason for wanting to get it on the wheels and the engine mounted is that my build buddy is probably going to be instrumental to getting the canopy build well as he has a lot of fiberglass experience and I have almost none, but I can put a lot of solo time into the plane working on things in front of the firewall.
Also, I built my own workbenches and used my imperfect basement floor as a flat place to build them top-down, so having the plane on its wheels in the basement is probably a better resemblance to the final overall way the plane will sit than having it on top of saw horses and/or workbenches.
All thoughts welcome. I'm 3-5 weeks away from having any of the parts to do any of these steps, but I want to plan ahead as always. Thanks!
Section 38 is canopy and window. At 42 pages and 407 steps, it is the longest section by a considerable margin. (The nearest competition comes from the cowl (219 steps), gear and wheel fairings (246 steps) and cowl baffle (243 steps).
Section 40B is the engine mount and landing gear. Section 43 is the engine installation.
Is there any compelling reason why the plane cannot be put on its wheels and the engine mounted before the canopy is built? My rational reason for wanting to get it on the wheels and the engine mounted is that my build buddy is probably going to be instrumental to getting the canopy build well as he has a lot of fiberglass experience and I have almost none, but I can put a lot of solo time into the plane working on things in front of the firewall.
Also, I built my own workbenches and used my imperfect basement floor as a flat place to build them top-down, so having the plane on its wheels in the basement is probably a better resemblance to the final overall way the plane will sit than having it on top of saw horses and/or workbenches.
All thoughts welcome. I'm 3-5 weeks away from having any of the parts to do any of these steps, but I want to plan ahead as always. Thanks!