Preparations for SERFI

The EAA is holding their annual South-East Regional Fly-In this weekend in Evergreen, Alabama. My friend Don and I intend to fly down from Ft. Deposit on Saturday as early as the fog will permit. If the weather looks like it will be good on Sunday morning, we are going to camp out at the airport on Saturday night. I've never flown to SERFI before, but I have once flown to Middleton Field in Evergreen (Saturday, April 16th, in the archives). It's about 50 miles one-way. Just under two hours in no-wind conditions. We both washed our planes last weekend are making final preparations for the trip. Should be a fun time. I'll get some pics and post them next week sometime.

Phantom work is going slow. I went out last week and permanently attached the stab, fin, rudder and elevator halves. I assembled the kingpost and attached it to the keel. A new torque tube/bellcrank assembly arrived last night from Phantom and I'm going to try to install it tonight and hook-up and adjust the elevator. That will complete the fuselage assembly except for the engine mounting and plumbing, pod/windshield/instrument panel assembly and gauge hook-up. I'm going to shoot for the end of October as a completion date. I still have lots of work to do. I have to complete the surface prep of the pod and get it painted. So far I would estimate that I have about 10 hours into fiberglas repair and sanding. It's been a bunch of nasty, dusty work but I believe the results will be acceptable. It won't look like new, but I think it will be presentable.

I'll give a pilot report on SERFI when I get back.