The next few days were spent assembly and reattaching systems. Oil lines, fuel lines, cooling lines, electrical lines all have to installed and routed in a particular way. As you might expect, not all parts fit perfectly the first time. He seldom had to disassemble a previous item to install the new part. I was the "GoFor" and helped by finding wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers and such. I also leaned how to buck rivets. As each hour went by the engine turned into a system. Friday afternoon I turned the key and she came to life. All temperature and pressures in the green. No leaks, no smoke, no issues. We pushed her back into the hangar for final adjustments.It was IFR Saturday morning but improved throughout the day. Saturday afternoon we put the cowling back on. CERTUS and I prepared for a maintenance check flight. KLAL is a controlled field so in my initial call to ground I let them know what we would be doing. This plane doesn't have a BRS so my cockpit brief stated we would stay in the pattern. In case of engine failure he would fly the airplane and I would assist as backup and handle the radios. We would not attempt a restart and if an airport landing was not feasible we would look for something soft straight ahead.
Good runup. 5050RPM on the roll. No noises, shutters or smells and the instruments were all in the green. Smooth and quiet. Two full stop landings a Go Around. She went smoothly from idle to full power without any hesitation.
Maintenance check complete. Back to hangar, CERTUS got out and the customer got in. Same brief, same plan, and we got the same results. Acceptance check complete.
Not including the transportation time, it took just 5 days to do an engine change and put the airplane back in the customer's hands..
Good job CERTUS.
