Wrap Up Work 6
11/9/2006 6 hours
Since today was so nice, I took off from work at lunch to work on the plane. I'm also taking tomorrow off. I recently ran the engine, and it was a bit rough for some reason, so today we spent some time diagnosing the issue.
We removed all the plugs, and tested them on the spark plug testing machine. All of them were fine. Then we tested all the new ignition leads with a lead tester. They were all fine too. Hmmm.
I connected the laptop to the FADEC system and did a run, and everything was fine. So now I don't know what to expect. Maybe it just needs a good clear out, who knows?
11/10/2006 9 hours
I started running through the list of odd jobs that needed doing to get this thing ready to fly. I need to really get this stuff dwindling down to nothing or it'll never be ready in time. I started to install the covers for the centre spar section, but found I didn't have enough LP4-3 rivets. Great. The only place I've found for these rivets is Van's, and they take forever to get stuff out. Anybody know another source?
I made a little shelf for the EFIS 1 GPS antenna. Ultimately, I'll need to make a bigger shelf for the GX-60 antenna when we get one, but this will suffice for now. I shortened the cable some and crimped on a new BNC connector. Lovely.
This was one of my biggest dillemmas. What to do for the crankcase vent. Keith found me a piece of 5/8" tube that slid into the hose perfectly, so I found a way to mount it pointing at the exhaust and trimmed it to length.
Rick, our local A & P, said my ground strap on the right side of the engine was in a precarious place near the ANL current limiters with a positive supply, so I decided I'd better move it. It's hard to see in this image, but you can just see the braid near the middle lower left. I also tied up the engine heater cable so the plug was by the oil filler. That way, the cable will go through the oil door when it's plugged in. This should hopefully alleviate any chance of me pushing the plane out of the hangar with the wire still connected. It would be easy to miss if it was hanging out of the belly of the plane.
I spent some time securing all the wires on top of the engine. There will be a lot of air flowing through here at 200mph, so they need to be pretty well secured.
I did the left side too.
Tomorrow I want to try to get the empennage fairing fitted and the oil door started. We'll see how that goes. I did start the lower empennage fairing strips today, buit didn't make much progress on them really.
I also put another WDG3 clamp on the alternative air cable. I had only secured it with one clamp thus far, and I had received an order from aircraft spruce with some in there.
I think that the firewall forward is now flight ready! Hmm, apart form the front baffle seals. I better do those tomorrow too then.
11/11/2006 7 hours
I started the empennage fairing stuff off today, but didn't get finished really. I was spent way too much time messing about with the bottom parts of the fairing, under the horizontal stabiliser. Well, even then I only got one side done.
I was late arriving at the hangar today too, because we had to go to an auction to bid on a Royal Crown Derby dinner service. Since I wasn't spending time on the plane, I was determined to win it. We spent more time taking it home and inventorying it. It's going to be the same story tomorrow as there's a painting I want to buy too. Doh!
Anyway, back to the task at hand.
IN order to dimple these holes for the access panel screws, I had to resort to the mothod shown below. Unfortunately, I don't have a small yoke for the squeezer, so it wouldn't quite fit to make these dimples. This worked pretty well! Look, it's adjustable! No kidding Batman.
Van's have you drill the holes for the screws in the longerons, then tap them to 6/32". This was not too clever in my opinion, as once the longerons were countersunk for the screws, there wasn't really much material left for tapping. I decided to use nuts were possible, and nutplates wherever else. I ended up with nutplates on the front two holes as specified in the plans, and the last three holes for the access cover. All the ones in between take a regular nyloc nut and washer on the back. They're easy enough to get to through the lightening holes in the rear deck. Here it is installed.
For some reason, I decided to start messing about with the fibreglass fairing. I trimmed it so it would fit at least. There's some work to do here. The left side is different from the right side! Well it generally fits OK, so it shouldn't be too bad.
I also spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME removing the blue plastic from one of the ailerons. If you haven't removed your plastic before final fitting of them, then it will be a pain to remove. Don't ask me how I know. I ended up removing the outer nut & bolt and swingoing the aileron out a little to help get some access to rip the stuff off.
Mike was kind enough to drop by this evening and bring me some LP4-3 rivets. Sweet. I can finish up riveting the fuselage cover I started on yesterday. I'm whittling down my list of things that need to be done. I really need to be in a position to weigh the plane next Sunday. Thanks Mike!
Something I noted the other day when running the engine was that there's an awful lot of cold air coming in, even with aileron pushrod boots. Well it's easy to see that there's a massive hole where the spar runs through! I think I'm going to jam some foam in there to close that pathway off. I'm sure with the seat floors installed this is reduced some, but still it's probably better to eliminate it now while the chance is there. Another job for tomorrow!
11/12/2006 4 hours
I got to the hangar way too late today after going to the auctions again. I got the painting I wanted. It was 4:30pm by the time I got here, and it's a school night to boot, so no midnight oil for me.
I carried on with the empennage stuff fairing stuff, and got the right side completed. Obviously this went a lot quicker than the the left side. It's always quicker doing something for the second time right?! Here, I'm match drilling the longeron to the inspection cover and the fairing strip.
I decided to modify a G clamp to take a dimple die instead of trying to balance it all together like I did yesterday. I don't know why I didn't do this before! An easy mod, and it helped no end. I bet there are amultitude of places this would come in handy if you didn't have a small yoke for your squeezer like me.
Here's the fairing strip in place. I was 1 nutplate short for the inspection cover. For some reason, we're at the point where we're out of everything before we're done with it. I had to borrow 100 LP4-3 rivets off Mike yesterday, and now I need a K1100-6 nutplate! What's going on? I'm almost certain I didn't use it anywhere else, it's too small! I even have a big bag of assorted nutplates I got from Sun N Fun one year, but no K1100-6 in there!
While I was back at the empennage, I remembered I needed to secure a bunch of stuff. I safety wired the trim tab hinge pin, and I put a cotter pin on the trim actuator arm.
I also put a cotter pin in the tailwheel axle nut.
I needed to secure the brake lines to the gearlegs somehow, so I put them inside a polypropylene tube and glassed around them with some lightweight glass. It looks like the leg got broken and it bled some and I bandaged it up! The loose looking stuff is peel ply.
I normally play soccer on Monday evenings, but I think I'll have to forget that this week. I still have a ton to do before next weekend, so I need all the time I can get. On top of all that, our house is a construction zone too and we have the in-laws coming for thanksgiving! Oh god, we'll never be ready! I have a bedroom to finish remodeling. Will there be an end?!
11/13/2006 2 hours
Today I got up late and ended up having to stay longer at work than I wanted. I only got to spend two hours at the hangar, which isn't good. I removed the bloody bandages from the gear leg and laid another layer over it and applied some more peel ply. Tomorrow, this leg will be complete, and the other leg won't be far off complete.
I started cutting strips to reinforce the empennage end caps for rivets. I'll get all these glued up then. I'm out of time tonight though. I'm going to make an attempt to get in early so I can leave at a reasonable time and get all this stuff done.
I got in at a reasonable time today, so I could leave a little earlier which helps. I started the evening at the hangar by removing the peel ply from the gear legs. They look pretty good. One more layer of glass on the left leg and they are done for first flight.
I finished what I started yesterday with the empennage tips. I'll leave them like this overnight, and tomorrow I'll rivet them to the plane. I'll save the beautification until after we're flying, and probably until it starts getting warmer here again!
Next I trimmed the empennage fairing to fit the empennage a little better. It really isn't that great. I might just tape the thing down for first flight, then get the fairings etc. one. I decided to see what I could do for fit by doing some layups on to the actual plane, then epoxying the fairing to the new layups. I put some electrical tape down, and coated it with some PVA release stuff.
Then I laid up some pieces of glass around the front of the HS to form a hook for the front of the fairing, and I ran fibreglass tape along the rest of the HS and VS to give me something to bond the fairing too. I'm not sure how well this will work, but I know Mike did it once and it seemed to turn out OK. I put some peel ply over the whole lot and left it. Tomorrow we'll have a look and see if we can bond the fairing to it all. If it doesn't work, then it's out with the duct tape!
I was actually at the hangar for four hours today, but one and a half was spent making some aluminium strips to inlay into our bathroom floor which we've just had done in a nice Brazilian hardwood. We're putting the aluminium trim into the wood about a foot from the edge of the room, all the way around. It should look pretty cool.
Once that was out of the way, I continued with the empennage tips. They're riveted on now, so all they need is a little sanding for them to be flight ready. I'll spend some time making them all pretty when it's warmer outside (ie, next spring!)
Here's the HS tip. This one has a lot of filler on it already from years ago!
Next task was the fairing. I'm beginning to dislike this piece more and more each time I do something to it. Here's what the fibreglass strips looked like after the peel ply was removed. That stuff is fantastic! I swear by it now! The only issue I have with mine is it's on a roll like toilet paper, and the edges fray chronically. I should take a picture of all the strands I've put in the bin just lately. They're awful!
In an attempt to make this thing fit to some degree, I had to make some serious cuts. I removed the whole front hook areas, and also slitted the upper flanges so they would be free to flex against the VS. I roughed it up with some 40 grit and applied some epoxy.
Then I put it on the plane and taped it, clamped it, and weighted it down. Now in hindsight, I probably should have used a flox mixture here, as it would be a better structural filler material than pure epoxy resin. We'll see how this goes, and if it turns out to be a load of rubbish, I may cut the flanges off altogether and make my own. It can't be that hard right? My only constraint right now is time. I could just duct tape it for the first flight, we'll see.
