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Well here I am, writing from the luxurious Marriott hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. Okay, it's not luxurious,
but pretty nice and way better than the Motel 6. Work down here is done for this trip and I'm kicking back in the hotel
room, updating the old build log. Over the weekend, I made some more progress and I will share that with my readers here. Lighting Final Test The EDI lighting kit was finally completed last weekend and tested in place. The lights look pretty good and I made a brief YouTube video that shows them off. So far, about 37 hits on the video. Here’s
all the wiring about as tidy as I can make it. I used wire numbers to hook everything up so I’d be able to identify
what goes to what. Where possible, I marked the connectors with a fine Sharpie. The square block with the gold label is the
EDR 117 RC switch.
It’s a bit hard to see, but there is the beacon I managed to catch in
the “on” state as it was flashing. These lights are very bright and are reported to be quite visible in full daylight
conditions. We’ll see.
The port side anti-collision light. Also known as a navigation or “nav” light. Head-on shot illustrating three
EDI lights; port, starboard and landing.
Lights turn off in the shop. All lights on including the beacon on top – caught at
just the right time.
Installation of the Ventral Fins Among the remaining items to be addressed, the ventral fins, located on the lower aft section of the
fuselage, needed to be affixed into place. This was one of the easier tasks to complete. Although easy, I was disappointed
to see one of the fins was warped. To correct it would have required removing the covering and taking the warp out of the
fin and subsequently recover it. No thanks. It wasn't that bad and no one will ever notice; except me. ;) The ventral fins are framed-up light ply. 
The fuselage has these markings, indicating the location for
fin tab insertion. They are not die cut. I used one of my Dremel cutting bits to carefully cut the slots. They should be cut
so the tab fit is snug. Medium CA beads are drawn between the fin and fuselage and hit with Zap accelerator. 
Ventral fins installed. Note the angle is not critical, however it is recommended
in the manual that the angles are the same for both fins. They are fragile compared to the rest of the airplane. You should
never set the fuse on the ground with the landing gear up because the fins will break.
Posted Thursday, March 19, 2009 Fuel Tank Debacle I installed a 16 oz. tank that had a smaller diameter than the stock tank so I'd have some space to pad it with
foam between it and the forward fuse former. The reason behind this was to minimize fuel foaming due to vibration in the airframe.
Jett Engineering emphasizes that padding the tank is needed to keep the fuel mixture from going excessively lean in flight
which can result in engine stalls. Well, after putting this long narrow tank in the plane, I was disappointed to learn
that its presence caused a fit problem with the cockpit tub that holds the panel, pilot, etc. So, out came the tank and in
went the stock tank. There was absolutely no air gap between
the tank and the forward-most former to allow any foam pad. Another bad mark for Cermark. With all the vibration a .90 sized
engine is going to put on the airframe, I expected better. Out came the Dremel, once again where I opened up the former at
least enough to pack some foam on the bottom and sides of the tank around the former. The 16 oz. stock Cermark tank The tank will ultimately get pieces of 1/4" latex foam left and right on the sides. There is a piece already
in place, taped to the bottom which you cannot see in this picture. This is a10 oz. tank. The Jett .90 will suck that down
in no time. The metal bracket gently holds pressure against the tank to keep it in place.. There is a round piece of foam
taped to the front of the tank to cushion it against the firewall. I dount it's going anywhere.
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