Speaking of landing light cutouts...

[RV10Man]

Dremel tool and cut-off wheel on both of mine. I put a light in each wing.

[rv9builder]

Originally Posted by John Tierney

I started with a unibit in 4 corners then used tin snips, sanding drums, files, etc.

I did the same thing on my 9A.

[Scott Hersha]

8 Duckworks leading edge light kits installed so far. First thing I did was to tape the whole leading edge of the wing in that area with 3? wide painters tape. Then taped the cut out template to the wing, and traced the cutout line onto the taped area on the wing. I used a Drexel tool to cut just inside the line. Then a 2? sanding cylinder in my die grinder to bring the cutout right down to the traced line. Touch up the cutout with a file and scotch-brite pad or wheel and you?re done. It has never taken longer than 20 minutes to get a perfect cutout.

[FlyGuy65]

It's a done deal - circular cutter for all 4 corners, combination of snips, sander, file, and reciprocating saw. I found it easier to draw the cutout on top of blue painters tape vs gluing/taping the template.

Thanks everyone!

[DrillBit]

Originally Posted by John Tierney

If you take a close look at the Van's RV-9A demonstator, they had to fabricate a filler piece because they cut it wrong the first time.

So THAT's why I got the template bass-akwards on my own bird! I took the "free ride" at the Mothership, and I didn't notice the the replacement "eyebrow" in the landing light cutout at the time.

It must have planted a subliminal seed in my mind: "Build yours exactly like me...exactly like me...."

I stayed over at the weekend following a business trip to a certain large computer chip maker up the road a piece in Hillsborough, OR. If any of the folks on this board know the place, you may understand another source for a "Copy Exact!" voice in my head.