Kris Holt popped by the hangar today. Kris is an IA/A&P and a field service engineer for Lycoming who I got to know when I did some pt 141 prog checks for him, and then took him over midstream to finish up his PPL training when his first instructor left for the airlines.

I Gare him the nickel tour of the project and we did a good bit of hangar flying, but honestly, not much else.

While he was available, I did have him help me get these panels off.

Basically, these fwd inspection panels allow for easy access into the area fwd of the sub-panel so you don't have to stand on your head to get to the avionics. Vans now makes an optional kit for these, and I had installed them back then.

Per instructions, you are supposed to make gaskets out of pro seal, then screw the covers on with a layer of kitchen Saran Wrap to act as a mold release.

I did that, let it set for like 3 days, then took it all apart and life was good until it wasn't. I put those panels back on and when I tried to get them off again they were absolutely stuck solid. I was using a SEM kit of B2 so I have no idea why, but evidently my pro seal wasn't completely set up and they had gotten solidly glued down.

Anyway, I got underneath they panel while Kris heated them up with a heat gun and we finally got them unstuck. This is somewhat important because unless you grow another elbow and a wrist that bends the other way, thats really the best decent access to things like the CO sniffer and the avionics forrest of tabs. It wouldn't have been the end of the world if we couldn't have gotten them up, but this sure makes life easier.