Update for 4th quarter 2023:

A lot of good work accomplished. I'm slowly ticking off the seemingly endless details...

ELT on it's mounting plate.

Mounting plate complete.

Drilling ELT mounting plate to floor.

A friend from work who had sold his plane gave me a very nice switcheon unit that allows remote control of things like an engine pre heater from an app on your phone. Very nice.

Plate nuts installed for ELT mount.

ELT antenna installed.

ELT installed and tested. Color is a little different but everything will be covered with carpet.

ELT plug including very loud buzzer.

Roll servo installed and wiring connected.

Roll servo plug ... a lot of wires :)

Installed fuzzy velcro strip under the wing skin where the flap could contact it.

Working on hanging and fitting the flaps.

Programming the VPX pro for flap travel limits,

The small heater helped a lot.

Working on the flap fit.

Installing the Skybolt 1/4 turn fasteners in the bottom cowl.

Nice Christmas present from Paul!

Right aileron and roll servo all hooked up and aligned.

Starting on left wingtip.

Bonding nut plate reinforcement strips.

Archer wingtip nav / ils antenna installed.

I reinforced the wing tip by laying two layers of 3" fiberglass tape over 3/8" foam backer rod.

Left wing tip drilled to wing. Trailing edge may need some tweaking.

Update for 3rd quarter 2023:

 There was a fair amount of work accomplished over the summer despite another trip to Europe for paragliding the last week of August!

Right fuel tank fuel gauge sender wired.

Twisting wires for the landing / taxi lights and pitot heat.

The left tank has an inverted fuel pickup in it and guess what ... the fuel sender is behind the tank and can only be reached with the tank removed ... so that's what happened :(

Working on the wiring for the left wing.

Preparing the inside of the top cowl for paint.

It looks so much better with some white epoxy paint on it.

Heated pitot tube / aoa sensor installed and wired.

Bottom cowl also much more appealing after paint!

Motivational picture of my work friend's beautiful RV-8.

Fuel flow testing.

Checking for tight fuel fittings. On the first start attempt it seems that we had an a loose fitting that was allowing air in the system.

Taxi light and landing lights are wired. (taxi light shown)

More fuel flow testing.

Installed taxi / landing light lenses. They has some small scratches but they polished out nicely.

Working on wiring for the autopilot roll servo and magnetometer in the right wing.

Connected and ran wires for wingtip nav / strobe lights.

Installed new ELT instrument panel remote control.

Initial install of lower cowling heat shield.

Finished up with aluminum tape and sealed edges with epoxy.

Working on the ELT install in the baggage compartment floor.

ELT floor cutout.