Finish Kit 1

Finish Kit 1

10/20/04 Update

Finish kit arrived! I got a call yesterday asking where I was, because Roadway had tried to deliver. Well, I didn't know anything about it, so arranged the drop today. It was very easy getting this crate out of the truck into the hangar. Only 330lbs. I used the ramps I made for dragging the QB kits out of similar trucks.

I had to take some time out of work today. I was kind of hoping it wouldn't be too long, since we're really busy right now. Turned out to be nearly 4 hours.

Here's a shot of the big box....

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Then, with the lid off... This kit contains the canopy stuff, nose cowling, engine mount, under carriage and all the fibreglass fairings and a few other bits and pieces. Can't wait to get started on this stuff!

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10/24/04 8.5 hours

Today, I went to the hangar to inventory the finish kit, and try to get something else done on the plane where I could. There were a few things on back order, like the engine mount hardware, but otherwise everything looked OK.

Takes a while to go through all this stuff. I opened up all the hardware bags and sorted them into the relevant fastener trays and rivet drawers. Nice to restock all this stuff again!

I went to mount the engine mount, but then realised that the hardware bag was back ordered. So, it'll just have to stay here for now!

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Since I couldn't do that, I moved on to mount the tyres. The first one took a bit of messing about, but once I'd got the knack of it, the other one was easy. Here I am actually building an aeroplane!

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Intense concentration on the big black doughnut!

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There we are mounted and er balanced... Hmmm. No balancing here. Just line the red dot up with the valve and call it good.

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Here's a gratuitous shot of the cowling...

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10/31/04 4 hours

Wasn't really sure what I was going to attack today, until I got to the hangar. I decided to start looking at the canopy. Gulp! Well, it turned out that the hardware bag for that was also on back order. Anyways, I managed to start the roll over bar. I read the instructions for the roll bar and it all seemed pretty straight forward....

Here I measured the pilot holes and drilled them on each side...

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Then came the trial fit... Oh deary. A half inch too wide. So, I needed to squish the bar in a fair bit. Well, in the instructions, it said that it was 'easily done'. Easy my arse. The first attempt at bending the bar involved me bouncing up and down (off the ground) with all my weight (a measily 165lbs). It moved about 0.00000006". Joyous.

The next attempt was inspired by the ancient catapault devices used to blast down fortress walls. I used a piece of wood just long enough to catch the roll bar. I managed to tweak the bar in quite a ways using this method, although it was a bit dangerous to say the least! Anyways, the bar was squeezed in about 4 inches in the picture. When it was carefully released, it just sprang right back to where it came from! Now, did I read correctly in them there instructions that bending this thing was easy?!

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Attempt number three involved a similar strap idea, but this time a ratcheting one. We figured that we could apply more pressure in a more controlled manner and in a somewhat less dangerous way than the ancient catapault technique. Well, loading up the bar was fine. Letting it go was a whole other story! Here I am reefing the strap tighter and tighter...

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Here I am pondering the consequences of a strap snapping with all this potential energy stored up!

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We reefed this so tight, it HAD to bend the damn bar. We pulled it in a good 5 inches. The whole bar dropped into the plane where it was supposed to sit on the top! Well, now the problem was getting it undone. Mike, Cameron and Larry didn't want anything to do with any of this, and I really wasn't sure what to do either! Then, I had an idea. Use the old crate from the finish kit to unleash the thing. Cameron had the camera, and I put the bar in the crate. Then from the other side of the crate side, I flipped the ratchet open. Man that thing just blew apart! Cameron managed to get a pretty good shot of the strap flying off...

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The result of all this was... Yep, you guessed it... Nuthin. Nowt. Zero. Not even a sixteenth of an inch. Can you believe that? Me neither. So in the end, it was a case for the blow torch. Or two blow torches. I'm gonna repaint this thing the right colour anyway, so who cares about the finish? So, heat away... Here are the weapons of choice...

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I put the bar in a vice and heated away with it lightly strapped to preload the bar. The key was to get the bar glowing a bit. After this was done on both sides of the bar, I took it out and found it had gone wayyyyy to far. Bloody typical. So I carried it around to Mike's hangar and got Mike and Cameron to pull on it while I heated it. I needed the extra muscle, as I'm nowhere near strong enough for this kind of thing!

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Here it is, finally sitting in place, cleco'd down. Fits pretty nicely now. All I need to do is get the thing stripped. Mebbe get in blasted with baking soda to strip the powder coat off it.

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Next up is the brace. I popped the top skin on briefly in order to get the length right. Then I cut it to length. Good to go. Next task will be to drill the holes in the bar at the top for the brace. Not today though, I have to go eat and get ready for a football game. (Soccer to the Americans out there.)

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11/07/04 3 hours

Was at the hangar for five hours today, but spent a lot of time chatting with various visitors. The first hour was spent trying to update the EFIS 1 to Rev 2.19, which I managed to do eventually.

Next, I decided to continue with the canopy stuff. I finished off the roll bar brace. Drilling the top hole was fun, but not really too difficult.

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As I read through the 'destructions' as I call 'em, there were some steps that I had to overlook, due to NO CANOPY HARDWARE! Aaaargh! I think I will be on the phone to Van's to find out when this stuff will be coming. The next thing I could do was cut the canopy tracks to length, so that's what I did. That was about all I did. Pretty lame really. Like I say, most of my time was spent yakking. Yakkety, yak.

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11/14/04 6 hoursToday's plan was to start doing the engine mount with some temporary bolts, but Cameron showed up and said, "I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you should come here and check out your roll over bar..." It may not be too easy to see in the photo, but the bar is skewed quite badly to the left as you're looking at it. You might also notice that last time I heated it, I was way off with the symmetry. Must've been smoking the burning powder coat or somethin'. IMG_4078.JPG (202193 bytes)

I'm glad Cameron noticed, coz imagine the fun I'd be having by the time I come to make the canopy frame fit it. So, after the last roll over bar bending debacle, I decided that lots of heat was the answer, so a trip to Orange Hell was in order. Cameron mentioned MAPP gas was hotter burning, advice I recalled whilst browsing the selection. It consisted mostly of smaller torches. I wanted something that had a 3/4" to 1" nozzle, that I could attach to a big ol' bottle o' gas. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. They did have a huge torch for doing tar sealing or something, but that was way overkill! Anyways, I got a regular MAPP Gas torch with two cylinders.I stole Mike's torch too, and attached the other MAPP gas bottle to it. Now, this should work.... I also laid the part on the bench, and marked out where I wanted it to sit. Turns out the centre latch pin was a half inch off. Then I heated one side up to a nice cherry red and bent it no problem. I let it cool a while and then moved to the other side. Sorted. Even the holes previously drilled still lined up. Amazing. IMG_4079.JPG (209217 bytes)

So, once I was happy with that, I figured I might as well continue with it. I trimmed off the excess material that sits on the fuselage, and stripped some more of the powder coat. I'm going to paint this the same interior colour grey. This thing is about ready for primer. IMG_4080.JPG (306977 bytes)

While I was mucking about with this, I had a go at bending some grab handles. Seem's pretty easy. Took some brute force to bend the solid bar in the tubing benders, but seems like it worked great! I can polish these up and trim them to the correct lengths and tap the ends. I'll fit them to the roll over bar once I know where the canopy frame comes. IMG_4081.JPG (220803 bytes)

So, now that lot is all sorted I can get on with the engine mount. It's only took me most of the day to get that thing done! Anyways, I drilled the top right hole out for the mount, and then offered but a bolt through and slid the mount on. I checked the left side, and looks like it'll line up nicely. So, off with the mount, and drill away. Then on with the mount. When I came to the bottom, I had a bit of an interference, so some trimming was in order.Here I marked about where I wanted the cut by sighting down the barrel of the gear leg tube and drawing on the skin. Unfortunately, this being a quickbuild, it had a rivet hole in the way. IMG_4082.JPG (199588 bytes)

Here you can see I've been filing away to get the desired shape. I decided to fill the rivet hole with a rivet, and smooth it out. It looks OK, so I'm happy with it. Here's the cut out roughed out... IMG_4084.JPG (174159 bytes)

And the finished job... That was about all I had time for, so I'll do the other side next week. IMG_4087.JPG (169113 bytes)

11/28/04 4.5 hoursWell, Thanksgiving is pretty much over with, and the In-laws were dropped off at the airport this morning. So, today was hangar day. It's been two weeks since I've really done any aeroplane work, but now that the study is finished (yeeehaaa!) I can turn my hand to another project.So, in the meantime, the hardware arrived for the canopy and the engine mount, which is nice. Means I can get something done.I forgot my cellphone today, so I couldn't get hold of anyone today to let them know I was here. I finished the other side of the engine mount cutouts in the fuselage skins to clear the gear legs. Then I mounted the engine mount and drilled the holes to final size using the mount as a drill bushing. It worked pretty well, and the holes turned out really nice, which surprised me! For the lower centre holes I had to make up some spacers. I happen to have a ton of aluminium disc floating around the hangar from our weight reduction exercises from various parts of the plane, and a few of them were the perfect size. So, debur and away we go. I haven't bothered with cotter pins yet, as I'm sure this thing will be off and on again a few times. IMG_4124.JPG (154871 bytes)

Next up was to finish up the roll bar mounting. Now the hardware has arrived, I can make the spacers that give the nuts something flat to sit on. Well, what a royal pain these were. In the end, I ended up cutting out a part of the flange under there to aid assembly. The spacers themselves weren't too bad, just getting the nuts, bolts and washers in position was the pits. I yelled loudly a couple of times and Mike shouted back from the other hangar! These are just remporary too, hance no self locking nuts. Roll bar has to come off to paint. IMG_4126.JPG (193682 bytes)

Here's the top view. I'd like to find some bolts with nicer heads on them for this purpose, but obviously they'll need to make the grade for strength requirements. I search McMaster Carr for something, but they didn't have any bolts, just screws. (The UK definition of a bolt is a partially threaded shank, and a screw is a fully threaded shank. For some reason in the US it seems like nobody knows the difference.) IMG_4125.JPG (218274 bytes)

12/05/04 6 hoursToday, Scott came by to see my project. He's interested in building an RV, so wanted to see what was involved. We had quite a chat and a cup o' tea, and it was great to talk about the plane with him. He seemed like a guy with his head screwed on, so should be more than capable of building one of these puppies. Let me know when you bite the bullet Scott, when I'm flying, I'll take you for a ride.Today was the day to start getting all the canopy frame together. Now that the hardware is here, I can crack on. I started with assembling the roller assemblies. These are a little stiff as they come, so I may have to figure something out for those. Next, I put the rear sliding block onto the frame. Pretty straight forward. Have to ensure that it can swing through its intended range when you put it on though. IMG_4141.JPG (178760 bytes)

Next up was the rear canopy track. This took me a while, because I didn't want to mess it up. Seems, lately I've been doing to much measure once cut twice. So, this turned out OK. Here are the two individual pieces that make up the track. I'm not sure what alloy of aluminium the spacer part was, but it sure clogged up drill bits. IMG_4142.JPG (272909 bytes)

Next up, some 100mph tape holds the track in place on the fuselage. Of course, I polished the track. Tough to see in the picture, but it's pretty shiny! I bent the tab on the skin down over a bit of 1" dowel. I then put the canopy frame in position... IMG_4145.JPG (246464 bytes)

As you can see, the front sits up quite high. 3/4" too high to be precise. I managed to get the rear in the ball park by moving the rear track aft about 1/8". At this point, I spent some time figuring out the width of the roller tracks and positioning them correctly on the fuselage. This was fun! IMG_4147.JPG (215654 bytes)

Here, I cut the front of the frame down to bring it to the right level. I'm still a little high, but better to not cut too much off this thing. IMG_4148.JPG (262503 bytes)

So now the frame sits nice, and rolls along the tracks. It seems to fit pretty good.... IMG_4152.JPG (257495 bytes)

Except, when you slide it back, it clouts the rear skin.... So, what to do about that? Well, it fits kinda OK when closed, and really could do with squeezing in a little... IMG_4156.JPG (171172 bytes)

Trouble with that is, the tighter it gets here, the more it'll hit the skin as it slides back! Aaaaarrrgh! My canopy frame woes have started! Here are the trouble spots... IMG_4153.JPG (136806 bytes)

I thought maybe I could pull the thing wider at the rear bow, and use the locking blocks to flex the frame in as you close the canopy. I'm not sure how easy this will work, but it might be the best case scenario. I'm gonna do some research and chat with Cameron and Mike about theirs. Anyways, I decided I needed to start tweaking, to start getting a better fit. Everything was going so well, then all of a sudden, the whole rear bow seemed twisted out of shape! I'm not sure how I did this, but I was trying to get the centre bar in line with the roll bar brace. It's not easy bending this thing, because it has a lot of spring. It's also BIG! Ideally, a tree would be perfect to wrap this around (except after I'm flying!), but the airport is a little short of trees. Anyways, this was how I left it for the night since Lucy came by to pick me up. I got the front bow centred, but it's still a little high in the centre. Just look at the rear bow. I don't know what the heck to do with that! IMG_4161.JPG (222677 bytes)

12/07/04 2 hoursThe twisted canopy frame was bugging me so much, I stopped by this evening to do something about it. I went to Orange Hell and bought a selection of C-clamps (saw the idea on Rick & Lori Threet's site (thanks!), and then I fashioned some forming blocks from wood. I then cleared some space on the workbench and went at it. First, I got the front bow closer to where it needed to be. This involved bending it more at each side at about the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions. I still need to bend it a little more here. Next, I went at the rear bow. This was quite a bit trickier as it's dificult not to bend the opposite side to the one you're trying to correct! Anyways, I fathomed out a method, and I'll post pics soon (i didn't have my camera tonight).So, the end result of tonight was no more twist, but still more tweaking required. Removing the twist has caused the front bow to spring out a little more, but not so far that I can't correct it. I now have a new found confidence in canopy frame bending. Well, until it goes wrong again that is!Continue to Finish II var sc_project=283419; var sc_partition=0; var sc_invisible=1; <a href="http://www.statcounter.com/" target="_blank"> <p><img src="http://c1.statcounter.com/counter.php?sc_project=283419&java=0&invisible=1" alt="free hit counter" border="0" width="1" height="1"></a>