Engine Mount and Landing Gear
The small heater duct part I needed came with my exhaust system that arrived a couple days ago. It was easily installed on the right heater duct. Now back to the engine mount. Building buddy Craig helped with that process. A 2-man job for sure. All six bolts on the backside of the firewall were pretty accessible and easily torqued to spec. I needed my big torque wrench to handle those beefy AN6 bolts. With the engine mount on I can turn my attention to getting the fuselage on the landing gear. The full swivel tailwheel went on easily after I got the steel parts painted. The tail spring is powder coated. To get the main gear legs lined up with their mounting tubes the front of the fuselage must be raised about 10 inches from its current height on the dolly. I thought I could do it with a motorcycle floor jack I have. The first 3-4 inches went smooth but as the deck angle increased things got very sketchy. I installed stilts at the wing roots to provide stability. The last thing I want is to damage my plane and/or hurt myself. I need a better way which will be provided by an engine hoist that I can attach to the engine mount and pull from above vs push from below. I've got a lead on borrowing one tomorrow. Hopefully more, and safer progress then.

The tailwheel looks cool. At least to me.

I got the fuselage lifted 4-5 inched but I need at to double that to get the gear legs in.

Was satisfying to get the engine mount attached,

This EXP119 specific heater modification part was included with my exhaust system that finally arrived. Easily installed. Would've been hard with engine mount in place.
This post is from Scott's RV-14 Build