Monday, March 21, 2016

Not Again!!!!

Welp... the basement flooded again. Not nearly as bad this time, and unlike last time, this event was 100% my fault. In an effort to "foolproof" the sump pump system for the coming spring season, I had recently installed a triple-redundant array of pumps (two 120v and one 12v backup), each with all new PVC lines and couplings. Unfortunately for me, I didn't properly tighten one of the hose clamps on a rubber coupling, and after the first 24 hours of operation (during which time I had been checking on it religiously) it came apart. For the next 36-48 hours or so until we discovered the problem, every time the pump kicked on, it was spilling water directly into the basement... Ugh.

So that really sucked. Luckily, cleanup wasn't quite as bad, and we should be able to salvage the carpet. But, it will be a few weeks of off-and-on rework down in the basement, which will of course take time away from the project. Oh well, that's life I suppose.

Things that we have gotten accomplished since the last update: nothing really measurable, hence the lack of posts over the past month. We've been filling and sanding on the overhead console, switch pod, and center console pieces. It's coming together, but motivation has been slipping a bit too due to all the other things going on. We'll get through it, eventually.

One other thing we got done was take the engine over to Poplar Grove Airmotive near the Rockford, IL area for assembly and testing. I spent more time than I thought would be necessary to inventory all of the parts in the days leading up to the road trip over there. By the time I was done inventorying everything, I had an SUV completely filled with boxes, and an Excel spreadsheet that itemized every single part and its current condition (new, overhauled, as-removed, etc).

I ran into a couple minor snags with the folks at Poplar Grove, but I'm pretty sure we'll be able to work everything out. I had no trouble making the 3.5-hr drive over there, and unloading all the parts and check-in was a breeze. I headed for home thinking all was well. The next day, however, I got an alarming phone call. They don't deal much with the experimental aviation side of things, and they were expecting many of the parts like the new fuel system (overhauled by Airflow Performance) to have yellow tags with them. Since the overhaul was experimental, those tags don't exist, and for a moment there I thought that might be a show-stopping problem. After some negotiation and explanation though, they were able to accept everything as-is, and I think I narrowly avoided having to drive back over there to collect all of my parts and take them somewhere else. I still don't have a finalized quote though, since they have a backlog of several weeks before they can really look at everything and shoot me a finalized number... so I'm still sort of in a holding pattern, hoping that things will turn out as originally expected.

While we wait on the engine, we'll hopefully get a chance to finish up on all this fiberglass business. If the timing of things goes well, we'll get our engine back and ready to hang about the time we finish getting the cabin cover and doors all fitted and glassed... we'll see if that happens!