Patient Right Wing Operated On!

I had to reassure the patient before operating on him that I was not a left wing surgeon.
Given the tools I used, I understand he was apprehensive:



I decided to go with the "Hole cutter" after discussing with Denny Smith who used the same tool for his RV-12 landing light cut-out. Not that I don't trust him, I had a test on a "scrap" part which was none other than the piece of rudder I built during George Orndorff metal working class (sorry George!).

First we make the patient ready and comfortable under the operating gown (which is parchment paper my wife uses for cooking, convenient see through paper to copy the pattern provided by VANs without messing it up):

Then we mark the holes and cutting lines from the marks left by a hard sharp tipped tool pushed through the paper:


Let's cut this skin now!
First pass:


Second Pass:

Now let's use these nice snips and finish the job while the patient is still sleeping...

A couple hours later after most cutting, filing, deburring, drilling, we are fitting the lens:



Slight change to VAN's instructions: as I did not closed the skin above the cut-out I was able to push the lens from behind and secure it with duck tape for the plastic drilling. You can see some of the duck tape on the lens on the picture. As an additional precaution I pushed the lens from behind with one hand while drilling the holes with the other hand.