SNF Best Ultralight of the Show!

Airshows back-to-back, travel to Europe and Dayton and more coming. Getting things done makes everything better. So on to the update of what is getting done now.

The new fuel system has been the priority. I thought it was done as the design was settled and all the parts made, including the custom rubber gasket. And a 20-hour test run worked fine. But the internal fuel line wasn’t cooperating with the 180-degree bend. The day after the SNF show I flew to Europe to help sort this last issue. Rubber fuel hose tended to sag and interfere with the fuel sender. Adding support was just more complication we wanted to avoid. We did finally solve it with a corrugated fuel line that took the desired shape in a boiling water bath. Now we have 50 new fuel lines coming in. These fuel upgrade kits will be shipped by air to Alabama build center soon.

Mirrored assemblies.

We also have the first fuel side circuit boards stocked and getting populated. And new wiring harnesses as well. Finally, we can get started on the build programs stacking up in Alabama. Good thing too with another 4 Merlins shipping Monday.

The Sun N Fun show was pretty good this year. A lot less dust and only one bad weather day. Plenty of interest in our line of aircraft.

The first TrueLite arrived just hours before show start. Here we are unloading the container directly to the booth.

2-minute wing fold on display at Sun n Fun.

The Merlin Lite won best Ultralight at SNF show!

And finally, some real progress on our electric system. BTW, we plan to install this system on both the TrueLite and the Merlin Lite. The Electrolite is the electric version of the Merlin Lite. The components are all selected and on order. We are building a couple Merlin Lites in CZ for flight testing.

The first production batch of Merlin Lite parts made. Hard tooling is finished which allows us to build more parts and faster.

And TPA now has a 3-D printer for a variety of small part production.

Sun n Fun and AERO shows are just over, and we already have to plan for Oshkosh.

CWE