The past several days have been slow going. We’ve had about 5 days of working on the airplane, but only 1/2 days or so so the equivalent of 2 1/2 days of work.
We covered the left wing, with plans to move onto the fuselage as quickly as possible. However we ran into some snags with the fuselage that held us up quite a bit. We eventually got it all handled, but not until a 3am work session finally got us over the hump.
But to get started, we had to get the left wing covered.
It was enjoyable to cover the left wing. Having already covered the right wing, I felt like we were getting the hang of things and we’d be able to make quick progress on this wing. Unfortunately we ended up with some wrinkles that I couldn’t get out of the wing. We had the choice of pulling off the covering and redoing it, or trying to make the best of what we had. The issues were 100% cosmetic so after much deliberation, we decided to forge ahead. Now that the wing is covered, I’m glad we stuck with it. The wrinkles won’t be noticed as they are very small, on top of the wing, and behind the slats. If you are looking that closely then I’m probably going to chase you with a broom anyway.
There aren’t any more pics of covering the left wing. It was just like the right wing. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Before we could cover the fuselage, we had to install the autopilot pitch servo and a VOR antennae. There were several trips to HRJ to get parts ordered from Scott, and pick up doo dads he had there in the shop. I’d originally thought I’d place the pitch servo under the pilots seat, and the roll servo under the co-pilots seat. However a post by my friends Ed and Michael showed where they had put their pitch servo and I liked it much better. Since imitation is the best form of flattery, I flattered their butts off but stealing their entire design. I even snuck over to their house to not only pilfer their design but to borrow some glue and tape. Am I a good friend or what?
In order to get the pitch servo located in its final position, I needed a push tube and some new hardware to connect it.
It was a real pleasure to have something to weld finally. I enjoy welding and I’ve barely done any so far on this airplane build.
With the push tube welded, I sand blasted the tube as well as the bracket for the pitch servo. I then shot a coat of epoxy primer on both. They looked really good and matched the existing frame very well. I was quite pleased with myself until I checked the range of motion. The pitch servo was traveling WAY too far. I checked what my friends had done and their looked exactly like mine. Why is mine traveling so far and their only far enough that it works correctly? No idea.
After some head scratching, I decided to fab up a solution that would move the attach point closer to the pivot point on the bell crank. Some aluminum, some sander time, and a few clamps and the servo was mounted perfectly.
A few checks of range of motion and everything looked perfect. Hopefully the servo will have enough torque to control the pitch with this short arm.
On one of my trips to the airport, I found out the battery had died on our Citabria. The battery was 5 years old so it is due for replacement anyway but leaving the master on accidentally had hastened its demise. It was about $320 for a new battery, plus we had to put it in. However I had a new battery charger I’d purchased at a recommendation from EAA magazine. The writer said he was very impressed with the battery charger and that it had brought a dead battery back to life using its recondition mode. This sounded like a perfect opportunity to try it out.
Over time I was able to coax the battery slowly back to life. It took multiple cycles (like 5-6) of two different chargers to go from 0 volts and “bad battery” on the display until it finally started taking a charge. Once it would take a charge, I put it in recondition mode and was able to restore the battery to 13.2 volts. 
We installed it back into the Citabria and it worked like it had when we bought the airplane. Maybe not brand new, but certainly good enough for us to use. That 30 dollar battery charger saved us $300. I’m more than pleased. I asked Scott for a battery in even worse condition. I’m currently working on that one and have it back to about 12.5 volts.
I had to remake the tombstone panel in .040 aluminum. I then made stiffeners out of the old panel and riveted them in place. I then epoxied two bolts into the antennae so it could be tightened from the outside. It fit very well and looks perfect
With the autopilot servo in place, and the antennae mounted and wired, it was time to tidy up and get ready to cover. One big step was to check for any wires that might chafe. Above you can see little blogs of red clay. What this is is actually Sugru that we purchased from Amazon. This is my new favorite stuff. Moldable, hardenable, and easy to use. This stuff solved all my chafe issues.
With everything tidied up, it was time to start covering. 
We only got started on the covering as I had to go pick up a cow at the processor. However tomorrow we hope to make good progress on the covering of one side, and hopefully start on the other side of the fuselage. Then tapes and finish work and it is time to start painting! Cody leaves Sunday morning so hopefully we’ll have pics of a fuselage covered before he leaves.