4 Sierra Tango

Aviation Furniture

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0500

Bespoke aviation themed furniture, starting with a conference table made from a pair of Beech 18 wing flaps.

First Flight!

Fri, 24 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

The day we’d all been working towards finally arrived.

Sun 'n Fun 2005

Sun, 17 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

The trip to Sun ’n Fun where the engine was ordered and new friendships were made.

Phase 1 Flight Testing

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

The first 40 hours of flying is for flight testing. It’s called Phase 1.

Scooby

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

A Subaru WRX with quite a lot of power… well until I blew it up anyways…

Oshkosh 2004

Mon, 02 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Oshkosh this year was pretty sweet. Cameron and I went for four days! Flew in Wednesday, left Sunday. Saw lot’s of cool planes, bought lots of cool things.

Our panel is finalised pretty much now with the purchase of a Mid-Continent turn coordinator for back up gyro, and the Proprietary Systems Angle of Attack Pro. All I need to do is get this stuff in the panel! I bought a bunch of hardware, some electrical bits and pieces, yet another set of wire strippers to do 12 and 14 gauge wires, and a few other small tools. I also bought a book on the Beech 18… I had to really. I fell in love with them after seeing them up close at Osh. Wow.

Paint

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Back from the paint shop!

Oshkosh 2005

Sun, 31 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Oshkosh this year was pretty expensive! Well, I didn’t take any pictures of RV’s. I was preoccupied with other stuff this trip. Mainly a propeller, but the other one was the B-17 ride. All I can say is WOW! It was definitely the highlight of all my aviation experiances, apart from when I first solo’d and when I passed my checkride.

Here are some pictures of the experience. I’d recommend doing this to EVERYONE who even has a remote interest in flying. If this doesn’t get you hooked, nothing will!

Oak Paneled Study

Sun, 05 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

This has been taking time (and money) away from the plane… Finished!

100 Hours

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

100 hours! That’s a lot of flying in a year!

Snowboarding

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Another one of my hobbies and a great way of keeping fit.

Oshkosh 2006

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

This year at Oshkosh was a bit of a strange one for me. I didn’t have to buy anything! I didn’t take any pictures either. It was more of a social event for me than an aeroplane spotting event.

I arrived on Wednesday evening, and was picked up by my lovely sister-in-law Carken who helped me out tremendously for this trip, since I messed up both my hotel room AND my rental car! Carlen is working in Neenah for a while on assignment, so she extended her room for me, fed me, and loaned me her car to pick up Cameron and Suzanne the next morning.

Sun 'n Fun 2008

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

An award winning aeroplane! Grand Champion - Kit Built!

Tailwheel Training

Sun, 07 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I started my tailwheel training in a Piper Cub. Sweet!

Oshkosh 2008

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Oshkosh 2008 - Bronze Lindy!

Mike's Plane N223RV

Mon, 29 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Mike was in our hangar row helping us out with his vast experience… until he moved out!

Cameron's First Flight

Sat, 05 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

3/5/2005 was Cameron’s big day!

Starting Out

Tue, 30 Apr 2002 00:00:00 -0400

How we ended up this deep in aeroplane parts!

Building the empennage

Mon, 06 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Dave and I started actually working on this in February 2002. We spent quite some time ‘pounding wood’ as Mike put it, making our 12’ x 4’ worktable. Having…

September 6, 2004

Mon, 06 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I finally got to mounting the empennage today too. This is the final time. I put a dobbin of RTV on the end of the ELT antenna so it sticks in the vertical s…

September 7, 2004

Tue, 07 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Stopped by tonight on the way home and mounted the rudder. Looking good!

September 9, 2004

Thu, 09 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight I starting doig the rudder stops. I had one already made, which was attached to the fuse with clecos, and still had the other to do. That was about 1…

October 10, 2004

Sun, 10 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Today I carried on where I left off last time I was here and finished up the rudder installation. This included making the right side rudder stop. After maki…

July 17, 2005

Sun, 17 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I lifted up the tail of the plane and put it on a saw horse so I could wrap up everything at the tail end. I finished the wiring for the Nav light. I had don…

The quickbuild kit arrives

Sun, 09 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Our quickbuild kit arrived November 11th, 2002. Wings and all. I recruited a couple of buddies from work to help unload it from the Roadway truck. We had som…

Interior topcoat

Sun, 09 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Didn’t take any pictures of us actually laying on the topcoat, but here are some finished shots. The grey matches the middle of the seats. Coincidence? Nope….

May 9, 2004

Sun, 09 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Yesterday, I didn’t get to go to the hangar because I thought I’d keep ‘her indoors’ sweet by taking her flower shopping, and then planting them all with her…

May 16, 2004

Sun, 16 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Some of this 5 hours was spent douing electrical, so you can look there to see what’s been going on… Nothing smoking yet!

July 18, 2004

Sun, 18 Jul 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Here are the shots as promised of the centre console that I’m trying to develop. I’m hoping to put the throttle just aft of the fuel selector, and then also…

August 15, 2004

Sun, 15 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Today was a fuselage day. Last night, I stopped by the hangar to measure up for a new center console design. Then, when I got home, I hit the CAD tube, and r…

August 17, 2004

Tue, 17 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

By popular demand from the RV-List, I took some better photos of the Matco parking brake valve, and the external stop I made as part of the doubler to the fi…

October 10, 2004

Sun, 10 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Cameron came by today to prime some parts, so I quickly prepped the fuselage skin behind the canopy and it’s stiffeners so I could shoot them at the same tim…

October 24, 2004

Sun, 24 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Cameron was by today, so I took advantage of him by getting him to drive all the rivets for the turtledeck skin. This took us quite a while, with me inside b…

March 20, 2005

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Today was the day I had to start the centre console plug. I can’t really get the inside of the plane finished now without having the centre console in place….

March 22, 2005

Tue, 22 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Tonight on the way home I stopped by the hangar to check the console for fit in the plane. I had to trim a bit off the piece that is going to form the top, b…

March 23, 2005

Wed, 23 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Tonight I stopped by the hangar again to trim up the rear triangular pieces to the exact size. I wasn’t there long! Then once I got home, I put them onto the…

March 24, 2005

Thu, 24 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Over the last few days, I’ve been tinkering with the centre console at home. This has basically involved some filling and sanding, filling and sanding. Why d…

March 28, 2005

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I’ve been making steady progress on the centre console for the last week in the evenings when I get home. I’ve been doing a bit here and a bit there, wheneve…

April 3, 2005

Sun, 03 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Today was the day I found out that fibreglass is not my bag…. The stuff truly does suck. Anyways, not to be to discouraging, I learned a lot today. One is,…

April 4, 2005

Mon, 04 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Last night after footy (soccer), I went to the hangar to inspect the console… It seemed OK, so I pressed on and laid up the front half. Then, went home to…

April 8, 2005

Fri, 08 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight, I spent a bunch of time fixing up the plug for the centre console and also the instrument panel. I basically cleaned it all up, filled any voids tha…

April 9, 2005

Sat, 09 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today was the day where I was going to do this thing properly. I got to the hangar this afternoon later than I’d have liked, but I still made significant pro…

April 10, 2005

Sun, 10 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today, I laid up the other big side of the mould, and reinforced all the corners. I added an extra layer of fat mat all over too, except for the big side I d…

April 11, 2005

Mon, 11 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Last night after football (soccer), I stopped by the hangar to lay up the final piece of fat mat to the large area of the mould. It didn’t take long. These a…

April 18, 2005

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Over the last couple of days I’ve stopped off at the hangar to wrap up the centre console mould. First I finished up the front half fibreglassing, then tonig…

April 24, 2005

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

On a more positive note (see Fuselage 4 for the negativity), I trimmed up the centre console mould and it’s looking good. I also connected the two halves tod…

May 1, 2005

Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I also spent a couple of minutes filling up any voids on the centre console mould today. There wasn’t very many, and I mixed up way too much micro for the ta…

May 8, 2005

Sun, 08 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

After I’d done painting the panel, I started on the centre console again. First task was to wax it WELL. So, a couple of coats and a buff between each, and t…

May 15, 2005

Sun, 15 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Last night, I spent a couple of hours wet sanding thepanel, ready for when the rub down transfers arrive. They’ve been made now and sent, so they should be h…

May 22, 2005

Sun, 22 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I accomplished a heck of a lot today, and it made me feel good after yesterday’s panel disaster. The whole day was spent on the centre console, and it’s real…

May 23, 2005

Mon, 23 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I stopped by the hangar as promised this evening on my way home, and sure enough, the part was ready! First I removed the front portion of the mould. It came…

May 30, 2005

Mon, 30 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

After getting back from a weekend in Chicago (went to see England play USA at footy, and see family), I went to the hangar to do some more console work. I go…

May 31, 2005

Tue, 31 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today was a long day at the hangar! Probably one of the longest I’ve put in for some time. It’s nice to have a long weekend, and we got today off as well! Bo…

June 5, 2005

Sun, 05 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Over the course of last week, I put in some orders for various bits that need sorting out. I ordered a bunch of fittings from Spruce, and the banjo adapters…

June 12, 2005

Sun, 12 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

It was pretty humid today, so it wasn’t very nice at the hangar at all. To top it off, I didn’t have the camera with me. It was in the car, but my wife took…

June 19, 2005

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

In between FADEC wiring, I painted the tail wheel spring again to cover up the band that I missed last time. The weather today has been great, and the paint…

July 16, 2005

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

After I did the washers for the panel, I moved onto the fuel pump assembly. Namely, putting it in the plane proper and routing a fuel line from the pump forw…

July 17, 2005

Sun, 17 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

This weekend has been a pretty good one at the hangar. It’s been pretty warm, yesterday was rainy so it was horribly humid. Today was much better though, whi…

July 18, 2005

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

This evening, I stopped by the hangar to apply colour to all the parts I primed on Sunday. Nearly everything got painted the same colour as the interior of t…

July 24, 2005

Sun, 24 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Over the course of this week, I did some wet sanding at home of some of the parts I painted over the weekend. The orange peel was so bad coz of the humidity…

August 7, 2005

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

This evening, I messed about putting the trim indicators into the centre console faceplate. Here’s a pic, just for the heck of it. I still have to do some la…

October 9, 2005

Sun, 09 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today, I finally got round to putting the longer bolt in on the throttle quadrant for the friction lock. I’m a bit of a dummy though as I forgot completely t…

October 13, 2005

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I needed to epoxy in some nuts to use for the screws that hold the faceplates on the centre console. I finally got round to doing this today too. It’s not pr…

October 16, 2005

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I spent the whole day working on centre console stuff, mainly getting all the control cables figured out. I received my order from Van’s that consisted of a…

October 23, 2005

Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Continuing on with the fuel lines… These were a right royal pain in the arse! I got my order through from Aircraft Spruce which had some more fuel line in…

November 6, 2005

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

While we were mucking about with the cowling top, I decided now would be a good time drill the firewall flange across the top of the nose. I drilled, Steve c…

January 22, 2006

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Time to make sure everything on the fuselage is ready for the wings. Something that needed to be done was the AOA Pro tubing. I made another hole in the side…

February 5, 2006

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Other things that needed to be done before the wings go on were the tank brackets, and the gussets to the spar.

February 10, 2006

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

I went to the hangar this evening to do a bit more preparation for getting the wings on for good. First thing I did was cut off the all that 3/8" tubing stic…

February 19, 2006

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Since I had to mix up some proseal for the AOA ports on the wings, I figured it would be a good time to bond the OAT probe into the intake duct. While it’s n…

April 28, 2006

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I came by the hangar tonight, but spent a lot of time chatting with visitors, so I can’t really put down the full 5.5 hours that I was there. I’ll be back at…

May 15, 2006

Mon, 15 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

No hangar tonight, but I did do some work on the plane. I tried to do the lettering on my centre console with the Decal Pro stuff I used for my panel. I’m a…

May 21, 2006

Sun, 21 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Everything is done now inside the fuselage, except for putting the floors in and then the centre console, so we worked on getting the floors sorted. The floo…

May 22, 2006

Mon, 22 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight, I stopped by the hangar to make the seat floors removable with the centre console in place. One seat floor spans the centre tunnel area, so I had to…

May 30, 2006

Tue, 30 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Some more time at the hangar today! I flew the cub again first thing this morning (06:30!), and got into wheel landings. My first one was a bit bouncy, and w…

January 10, 2006

Tue, 10 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Finally! Some wing work. Well, it had to get done sooner or later, and with Dave being here and the wings being somewhat of a two man job, it’ll be a big hel…

January 11, 2006

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Mike stopped by yesterday and took our aileron bellcrank bushings to ream out on his lathe. We picked them up this morning so we could finish up the bellcranks.

January 12, 2006

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Here’s the Gretz pitot tube mount. It’s tied into the rib by a small piece of angle. Making the matching hole for this in the skin was fun with a file.

January 16, 2006

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

In the right wing, we needed to mount the autopilot servo. Here’s the start of the basic design. The end plates are 0.063", and the angles are 3/4"x3/4"x0.06…

January 18, 2006

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

This is Dave’s last day here. He has to leave for the airport at about 4pm to catch his flight back to Australia.

January 25, 2006

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

I went to the hangar for a couple of hours to do a few things. I got the ailerong control rod booties made. I used some Tyvek coveralls, end glued them to th…

January 27, 2006

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Mike and I arranged this evening to get together and finish up the wing skin and get the wings on the plane. Mike’s a really usefull guy to have around, as t…

January 29, 2006

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Considering the time spent at the hangar today, it didn’t feel like I got much done. I worked on doing stuff that needed doing with the wings on. The first t…

February 3, 2006

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

We forgot to drill out the rivets on the wings for the nutplates that go to the bottom of the fuselage skin, so I got mike to come by today again after work…

February 5, 2006

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

A nice long day at the hangar. My first task was to put nutplates on the inboard wing ribs for the fuselage skin and the wing root fairings. This took me for…

February 10, 2006

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Here, you can see I’ve bent the arms for the fuel sender floats. Now then, this was a source of confusion for me, as the fuel tank drawing showed 3" between…

February 12, 2006

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Today was the day that the wings go on for good. The first obstacle to overcome though was the fuel senders. Now then what a malady this turned out to be! St…

February 14, 2006

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

I tried to spend some time at the hangar this evening, but only managed two hours. Trouble is, the hangar isn’t on my way home from work anymore, so it’s a l…

February 19, 2006

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

I was tempted not to go to the hangar today as it was so cold. I didn’t get there until noon, hoping for the temps to go up a bit. By the time I got there, i…

March 12, 2006

Sun, 12 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Back from vacation, it’s been a while since I saw the plane! Something cool to do today would be to put in the landing and taxi lights. Today was a lovely wa…

March 26, 2006

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Today was the day to comply with Van’s latest service bulletin regarding the fuel pick ups in the fuel tanks. I wasn’t looking forward to doing this really b…

April 16, 2006

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I did get to the hangar last week, but didn’t work on the plane, mainly because I was a bit too sick to think straight, and my friend Sung-Yeah came by with…

April 26, 2006

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Since I was at the hangar tonight when it was dark out, I decided to have a go at aiming the landing light. I’ve still no real idea of where it should be poi…

May 6, 2006

Sat, 06 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I finished up the fuel vent lines to the wings, so now the fuel system is 100% complete. As soon as I figure out how to set up the fuel account with the FBO…

May 9, 2006

Tue, 09 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I wanted to do something different on the plane, just for a change from all the engine stuff, but something that would also contribute to getting the thing s…

May 21, 2006

Sun, 21 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

We had to torque up the wing spar bolts before laying the floor boards, but I’d forgotten to put washers under the bolt heads when I last put them in. I neve…

June 18, 2006

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Some more wing work today. It’s time to start wrapping things up in general, which also means doing some fibreglass work (ugh!).

July 2, 2006

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Today was pretty hot and humid, so progress was a bit slow really. Clayton came by and help me get one of the wing tips almost done.

July 23, 2006

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0400

It’s been a long time since I updated the site, mainly because not much has happened! Two weekends ago, we had friends over form Chicago for the weekend, and…

August 5, 2006

Sat, 05 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Today was the first day of Thunder Over Michigan, so the airport was very busy! I eventually got in to my hangar after moving a line of people out the way th…

August 12, 2006

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

This evening I stopped by the hangar for a bit to try to make some headway with the wingtips. I needed to have the nutplates on so that tomorrow I could get…

August 13, 2006

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Today I wanted to get these wing tips wrapped up. That involved getting the foam strips laid in, and a lay up of glass on top.

August 19, 2006

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Today I finally finished the reinforcement in the wing tips. I had just one foam strip to glass over that I didn’t have time for last weekend. I put the othe…

August 27, 2006

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Well sooner or later these wing tips will be done. I did almost exclusively wing work today, so I figured it warranted posting in ‘Wings’.

October 20, 2004

Wed, 20 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0400

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 d…

October 24, 2004

Sun, 24 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0400

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…

October 31, 2004

Sun, 31 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0400

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…

November 7, 2004

Sun, 07 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0500

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…

December 9, 2004

Thu, 09 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Canopy frame… Yes, still at it… Will be at it for a bit longer too. Anyways, I stopped by on the way home tonight and continued with the frame bending fu…

December 18, 2004

Sat, 18 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Today I went to the airport. I was hoping to actually do some flying today, but the weather was pretty grim. So, instead, I hit the hangar and did a bit more…

January 9, 2005

Sun, 09 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Today was relatively warm, so I decided to head down to the hangar. I started just tinkering around, and ended up doing more canopy work. I forgot my camera…

February 6, 2005

Sun, 06 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Finally, some warmer weather! Anyways, first, a bit of catch up. Here are some shots of the canopy frame in position after relocating the rails and doing all…

July 16, 2005

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

This evening, my buddy Clayton came over. He’s also my new web hoster! While he was there, we decided to put the gear on the plane! Well, I’m not sure if thi…

July 24, 2005

Sun, 24 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I also got the roll over bar all finished up. This is ready now for permanent installation in the plane. It’ll get drilled for the windshield in situ. I thin…

August 6, 2005

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Having put off the canopy for what seems like an eternity, I figured that it was time to make some headways with it. First thing I did was chat with Cameron…

August 7, 2005

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

It didn’t feel like I accomplished too much today, although I was working for six hours! Oh well. I wanted to figure out starting the skirts for the sides of…

August 14, 2005

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

During the middle of last week, I was reading Rick & Lori Threets site, particularly the canopy bit. Rick quoted a measurement that he calculated of 1 9/32"…

August 21, 2005

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today, I figured it would be a good idea to make some headway on the canopy. It’s gotta be done sooner or later, so it might as well be sooner. I started by…

August 22, 2005

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Did anyone notice that I assembled my latch the wrong way round? I did, when I saw the picture. It was then I realised that was why I couldn’t get the handle…

August 23, 2005

Tue, 23 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight, I started to do the rear canopy anchor blocks. It didn’t seem too bad. Getting it all lined up was quite interesting, and making sure everything was…

August 28, 2005

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today was a good day at the hangar, apart from the late start. I continued on with the canopy, specifically the lower skirts. There’s still a long way to go…

September 2, 2005

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

What a long day! I bounced about a fair bit today working on various things, one of which was the canopy skirts. I cleaned up the inner braces, and made the…

September 11, 2005

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

It doesn’t seem like I got much done for the amount of time I was at the hangar today, but at least the canopy is mostly done now. It took me quite a while t…

September 18, 2005

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I decided to make the canopy skirts again after much fretting, so I set about that task first. I need to get this canopy wrapped up while we still have the w…

September 20, 2005

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I stopped by the hangar on the way home from work tonight to paint the canopy parts. They all turned out pretty good, so I expect that this weekend I’ll be r…

September 24, 2005

Sat, 24 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today was the day for riveting the canopy together. I managed to buy some silicone sealant for Lexan and Polycarbonate from Orange Hell (Home Depot) during t…

October 9, 2005

Sun, 09 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Clayton came by to check progress today, and we made some little handles for the sides of the canopy to help open it up. We then rivetted them on. We debated…

November 10, 2005

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Since I’m waiting for some coax from SteinAir, I figured I should press ahead with the cowling today. You’ll have to forgive me because I forgot my camera. I…

November 11, 2005

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Continuing on with the cowl today. I drilled along the top edge before the edge started to come around the sides to hold it in place, then I removed the bloc…

November 13, 2005

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Today wasn’t so productive really. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to do the sides of the cowling where the two halves join. I started off making so…

November 20, 2005

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

For some reason, it didn’t seem like I did very much today. I wasn’t even messing about much, and I had no real interruptions. Larry came by and chatted for…

November 27, 2005

Sun, 27 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

After getting home from Chicago this morning,I managed to sneak a little time in at the hangar. I din’t have my camera with me though, so no pics. I managed…

December 4, 2005

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0500

We got some snow today, so my first job was to clear the driveway. Ugh. I better get used to it, as there’s surely a ton more to come. I received my order fr…

January 29, 2006

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

While I was waiting for Lucy to pick me up, I needed something to tinker with since I didn’t have much time left. I thought I’d tackle a brake line. I got an…

February 5, 2006

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

On a roll today, I made all the brake lines that were left to do. I started with the ones for the brake pedals to the parking brake valve. These were pretty…

March 26, 2006

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0500

I had to make some clearance on the lower part of the cowling because of the Skybolt flange. The area where the cowl gets thicker interfered a bit. I sanded…

Planning the panel

Fri, 06 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Instrument panels seem to be one of the biggest attractions for scrutinisation of everything on an aircraft. Some are basic, some complex. Some look like som…

August 6, 2004

Fri, 06 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Today, the Proprietary Systems AOA Pro Indicator arrived that I ordered at Oshkosh. I was impressed, it comes with EVERYTHING! Even a video. Looks pretty coo…

August 7, 2004

Sat, 07 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Thunder over Michigan was on at my home airport today. It’s on tomorrow too. Anna, Cameron and I had a quick look at the planes when we went down to find som…

August 8, 2004

Sun, 08 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I managed to sneak some time in today too! Quite a lot of time. So, today, I continued with the glove box, and then I reassembled the whole panel to see what…

August 26, 2004

Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Sometimes I have difficulty deciding whether some of this stuff should be filed under fuselage or panel or electrical… Oh well. So tonight I stopped by the…

August 28, 2004

Sat, 28 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I wired in the AOA indicator today, and listened to the audio come through the audio panel. This thing is pretty easy to install. The instructions are reason…

September 4, 2004

Sat, 04 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

It started raining this afternoon, so I took a break from working on my study (look here)and went to the hangar. After getting soaked putting my tools away a…

September 6, 2004

Mon, 06 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight, I finished up connecting the pitot/static lines to the instruments behind the panel, and routed the tubing down through to the opening inthe fuselag…

November 14, 2004

Sun, 14 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0500

A few days ago, I ordered the FADEC cabin harness kit, with a two light LED health status annunciator. This will be the final thing for the panel Once I get…

November 28, 2004

Sun, 28 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0500

I found a thing on the web called PhotoEZ, which is basically a silkscreen type stencil maker. With PhotoEZ, it seemed like the way to go, because it’s a pla…

December 3, 2004

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0500

I managed to get some bits and pieces today to enable me to do some samples… Some white screenprinting ink, some transparency film, and some grey primer to…

February 2, 2006

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Since I found outthat the FADEC ACU doesn’t require panel mounting, it appears that there is now nothing left to go on the panel! Which means… It’s about d…

February 20, 2005

Sun, 20 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Today, most of my day was spent working on panel stuff. I’m at a point now where I really should be getting it ready for finishing. So, I did some of the las…

February 27, 2005

Sun, 27 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Where today went is anybody’s guess! The 7.5 hours spent at the hangar just whizzed by. It was pretty cold too today, so the heater was on a lot of the time.

March 9, 2005

Wed, 09 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Yesterday saw the arrival of some Letraset rub down lettering from England. I remember using this stuff as a kid for various things, one of which was etching…

April 8, 2005

Fri, 08 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

As well as the centre console, I spent time tonight wet sanding the panel. I think I’m keeping 3M’s sandpaper company in business single handedly! Anyways, I…

April 10, 2005

Sun, 10 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

While I was waiting for the fibreglass to set up a bit I primed my instrument panel. I’m in a bit of a dilemma here with how to make this work with the glove…

April 23, 2005

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I figured I’d better do some sanding on the panel, as tomorrow at the hangar I think I’ll bite the bullet and rivet on the glovebox without the door. I’ll pr…

April 24, 2005

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today, I thought I’d get the glovebox attached to the panel and get it primed, once and for all. So, I that’s what I did. First, I removed the glovebox door…

May 1, 2005

Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today, I finished up wet sanding the panel, and took it to the hangar to touch up the areas where I’d got carried away and sanded off too much (down to the m…

May 4, 2005

Wed, 04 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Well, I decided today would be the day to paint the panel! I got to the hangar, cleaned everything down with wax and grease remover, and mixed up some paint….

May 18, 2005

Wed, 18 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight was nothing short of a disaster. It started of really well, I got the panel final wet sanded ready for lettering and clearcoat. I got it done, becaus…

May 21, 2005

Sat, 21 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today I decided to attempt to go down my original road of silkscreening the panel myself. So, I dug out all the PhotoEZ stuff, and the enamel. I used the sam…

May 22, 2005

Sun, 22 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I received an e-mail from Pulsar today. Looks like what they have might work. It’s a whole new type of process, and it will enable me to make my own rub down…

May 23, 2005

Mon, 23 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I spoke with Frank, from Pulsar today. He’s the man heading up their operation. It really sounds like this thing will work for me, but there’s a small snag….

July 1, 2005

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today, my order came from Pulsar! Naturally, I couldn’t resist having a play around with a new toy. Fortunately, in the kit, they send you a sample sheet las…

July 4, 2005

Mon, 04 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

We were in Chicago this weekend for the 4th of July celebrations with the in-laws. We had a great time. Our Cousin Jack lives on the lakeshore on the 30th fl…

July 5, 2005

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I spent a lot of time flying today. I got my BFR completed and out of the way. This Saturday, I’ll be flying the Diamond DA-40. Now that’ll be a little diffe…

July 6, 2005

Wed, 06 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight, I carried on with labeling the panel. This is a lesson in perseverance and patience! While these transfers are initially quite difficult to do, the…

July 9, 2005

Sat, 09 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today, I spent more time doing this labeling. Well, I can finally say I’m done with it. It turned out really well, so I’m pretty pleased with it. I think the…

July 17, 2005

Sun, 17 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Bob from the hangar next door suggested using some black fibre washers under the screws on my panel, to help protect the paint some. I took the advice, and o…

August 28, 2005

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

When Mike came over, he brought with him the GX-60 that he might let me buy. I say might, coz he’s all up in the air as to what to do for the panel in his RV…

About the Blue Mountain EFIS/1

Fri, 04 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Still in it’s infancy, the EFIS1 held lots of promise. Back then, it was housed in a plastic box and was pretty much hand made. We discussed whether this was…

June 4, 2004

Fri, 04 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Today, I went by the hangar to update the E1 with the latest software release… Much anticipated event. Well, it seemed to go through the update pretty well…

June 6, 2004

Sun, 06 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0400

So, this evening I stopped by to perform jumper change. Removed the box from the plane, peeled her open and imagine my surprise when I found said jumper chan…

June 12, 2004

Sat, 12 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0400

After speaking with Bob Northrup on the phone last Friday, he gave me some things I could do to check my system, so today, I went down and checked it out. I…

June 13, 2004

Sun, 13 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Spoke with Bob Northrup on the phone again today, and we talked about the DVD drive. I may have one of the dodgy ones from ways back. So anyways, I want to d…

August 2, 2004

Mon, 02 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

BMA now have my E1 in their possesion to work their magic. They will be upgrading the unit to feature multiple serial ports and a compact flash card reader….

August 17, 2004

Tue, 17 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

BMA called to let me know my E1 is ready to be shipped back to me. Not bad really, two weeks turn around! Turns out I’d fried the motherboard. Great. So, obv…

August 22, 2004

Sun, 22 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Now that the E1 is back in my hands, I figured I’d get it up and running again. Everything looks great! I was hoping to start hooking it into the avionics st…

September 2, 2004

Thu, 02 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Yesterday, I received the amplifier for the xpdr grey code output from BMA. I was a little disappointed that I had to pay another $101 for this with shipping…

September 4, 2004

Sat, 04 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

After working on the panel and the radio stack wiring, I decided to start working on the E1’s gauge inputs, namely the fuel levels and volts.

September 2, 2005

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

No pictures, just a story. Today, I spent about three hours of my day trying to get the EFIS 1 working with the GX-60 that Mike brought around the other day….

September 11, 2005

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I’ve been chatting to Bob on the phone some this week, in an effort to figure out this strange phenomenon. He couldn’t understand why the EFIS 1 was getting…

September 24, 2005

Sat, 24 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today, Carl came around from USA Jet with an avionics test set. We ran the radio stack through it’s paces and watched what the EFIS 1 did. It behaved pretty…

January 25, 2006

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

There was a service notice a while ago on my version of the Blue Mountain autopilot servos. The clutch mounting plates were coming loose as they wore, so I h…

May 16, 2006

Tue, 16 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

On the way to the hangar, I stopped by a motorcycle store to buy the smallest gell cell battery they had. The other night, I’d tested the system to see if I…

June 11, 2006

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Most of my day today was spent messing about with the EFIS 1, and getting all my engine gauges working as they should. I needed to get the ammeter working pr…

August 13, 2006

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

While I was at Oshkosh, I chatted with Blue Mountain and they suggested I send my unit in for a preflight check out. During this check out, they’ll update me…

Our electrical system

Sun, 02 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Our electrical scheme will follow Bob’s AeroElectric scheme Z-12 more or less. We aim to have dual alternators due to the fact that this will be an all elect…

May 2, 2004

Sun, 02 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I managed to get 6 hours in at the hangar today, did 3 hours this morning, went to a birthday party, and then came back for more back breaking punishment. La…

May 3, 2004

Mon, 03 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I finally took a photo of the baggage illumination. It’s pretty bright. The small hangar lights were actually on in this shot. I turned all the flourescents…

May 4, 2004

Tue, 04 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Didn’t take any pictures today, so I’ll post some later. Today I worked on making the second tier terminal strip for the co-pilot side. Once I’d done this, I…

May 5, 2004

Wed, 05 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Yep, no hours. Basically, I went to the hangar, and Mike was there. I was chatting with him for a bit, and then we got Cameron to bring some beers. So, basic…

May 7, 2004

Fri, 07 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight, I wired the flap switch on the panel, and hooked the wires to the co-pilot terminal strips. So, it’s all working now from the panel and the pilot st…

May 13, 2004

Thu, 13 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Yesterday, I ordered the standby regulator from B&C. Man, this stuff is adding up. $268! Wow. Then, there’s an installation kit too for another $228! Ouch! I…

May 14, 2004

Fri, 14 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I got a good amount of time in on the plane tonight, and had a quick beer with Mike afterwards. I spent tonight doing the stick grip side of the connector an…

May 16, 2004

Sun, 16 May 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Today, I started wiring the back up engine gauges. The primary gauges are part of the Blue Mountain EFIS 1. I decided to daisy chain the power and ground lea…

July 18, 2004

Sun, 18 Jul 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Today, I wired in a few more gauges, including the ammeter, manifold pressure, and both fuel gauges. I also fitted the secondary alternator regulator, and wi…

July 25, 2004

Sun, 25 Jul 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Today I did some more wiring. Wiring, wiring, wiring… When will it ever end? I bet even you’re getting bored with it! Today I wired the elevator and ailero…

August 1, 2004

Sun, 01 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

After returning from Oshkosh this morning, I got away with slipping down the hangar for a bit! Lucky me! I wired in the supply cables from the battery to the…

August 8, 2004

Sun, 08 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

After getting the panel back together, I decided it would be a great idea to start wiring the stack. Hmmm… Where exactly do I start with this mess?!!! I bo…

August 10, 2004

Tue, 10 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

After work, I stopped by to carry on wiring. Truth be known, I was darting around the plane a bit. I didn’t have my camera with me this evening, so Pictures…

August 10, 2004

Tue, 10 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I managed to get to the hangar again this evening, and finished up the wiring to the pilot headset jacks. Lucky I double checked, because I had the mic jack…

August 17, 2004

Tue, 17 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight’s hangar visit was a little shorter. I ran the mic wire from the the copilot side to the audio panel, and also attempted to solder on the transponder…

August 28, 2004

Sat, 28 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I did a lot of wiring today, as can be seen by the size increase in some of the cable runs. Steady progress is about the best way to describe the wiring task…

August 29, 2004

Sun, 29 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I went to the hangar today and finished up what I could of the stack wiring. Apart from the ACU, it’s complete. All the wires running to the back of the stac…

September 4, 2004

Sat, 04 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I finished up the wiring to the ACU from the radio stack, and also to the E1. That’s about it now for the stack.

September 4, 2004

Sat, 04 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I finished up the wiring to the ACU from the radio stack, and also to the E1. That’s about it now for the stack.

March 6, 2004

Sat, 06 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Today was a day of electrical work. I started with a mission to try to see if the EFIS 1 would work with the VOR’s properly. Turns out, it wasn’t gonna happe…

July 10, 2004

Sat, 10 Jul 2004 00:00:00 -0400

I also finished up some of the wiring for the audio panel (aux input jack), and the buttons for the AOA pro. These all required soldering, which I wasn’t to…

October 23, 2005

Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Well, it’s been a long time since I did any wiring! I still have some odds and ends to tidy up in the fuselage as far as wiring is concerned, and I need to g…

October 25, 2005

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight, I stopped by to carry on with wrapping things up in the Electrical department. First up was to wire the Nav antenna cable out to the wing root. This…

October 30, 2005

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I spent a bit more time wrapping up electrical stuff inside the cockpit too today. Mostly the trim indicators. Here, I’ve put some Molex plugs on the indicat…

November 6, 2005

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I was on a roll today at the hangar. I received the ANL current limiters from B & C, so they have been loosely mounted for now, until I get the correct count…

November 7, 2005

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

After getting back from the hoby and electronics stores, I finished the flap position sensor installation and then set about more electrical stuff.

November 9, 2005

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Today was a day of more wiring. It seems like it takes forever to do, and that you don’t see much progress too. I just plodded on. I took a break from the fu…

May 14, 2006

Sun, 14 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

One of the many things we did today was try to trouble shoot a couple of issues I’ve been having with the Aileron trim and the flap position microswitch for…

May 16, 2006

Tue, 16 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I did some more trouble shooting on the AOA flap sensor switch issue today, and discovered that when the EFIS is on, the flap switch works correctly. Hmmm. T…

May 18, 2006

Thu, 18 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight, I continued with wiring inside the fuselage. I threaded the Com 2 antenna cable through the spar, and took it up to the radio stack. I still need to…

May 20, 2006

Sat, 20 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Lots of stuff getting done now! It’s all happening fast too. I finally put the connector on the end of the Com2 antenna cable, and connected it to the GX-60…

May 21, 2006

Sun, 21 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I knew we’d forget to take a picture of something today. That something was the EFIS 1 current sensor. I mounted it on the sub panel, just under the glove bo…

May 24, 2006

Wed, 24 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

This evening’s task was to get started on mounting the EFIS keep alive battery. A good place for this is between the firewall and sub panel near the glove bo…

May 25, 2006

Thu, 25 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

This evening, I continued with the keep alive battery tray. I riveted it all together, and drilled the holes for the bolts that will secure the rearward end…

May 26, 2006

Fri, 26 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I recieved a big order from Allied Electronics yesterday, so I could get some more stuff done! I started out putting all the D-Sub hoods on the EFIS connecti…

February 6, 2005

Sun, 06 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I had ordered the FADEC cabin harness kit a while back from Aerosance with annunciator box for two LED’s rather than two incandescent lamps. Unfortunately, I…

February 14, 2005

Mon, 14 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I had ordered the the wrong box and after talking with Aerosance, they said, “Sure, no problem, just send it in, we’ll get the right one out to you!” Sweet!

March 6, 2005

Sun, 06 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I had a play with the FADEC stuff too today. I got the new HSA box for incandescent lamps. I wanted to get all the wires routed and connected where I could,…

March 20, 2005

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I got a 2-10 type On-On-On switch from B & C yesterday, so I mounted that on the switch channel. This will be for the fuel pump. The switch will be wired for…

May 1, 2005

Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I did a bit more wiring today for the FADEC. I spoke to the guys at Aerosance about cutting some of the wires shorter, and they had no problem with it. I als…

June 19, 2005

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I didn’t really spend too much time at the hangar today, due to going out to an Oasis concert last night. It was absolutely great. So, I needed a bit of a li…

June 21, 2005

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I stopped by the hangar tonight on the way home from work. A first for a long time. I had made some wire markers at home last night, so I could finish up the…

June 21, 2005

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

This evening, the weather was really nice, so I broke out of work a bit earlier to wrap up the FADEC cabin wiring, which includes ECU 2 and the HSA. It all t…

September 2, 2005

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

One of the challenges I decided to take on today was the FADEC engine harness. I was having a spot of trouble trying to figure out how this thing was routed….

September 18, 2005

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I’ve also put some more thought into mounting the FADEC ECU’s. I decided to turn the units through 90 degrees so that the connector faces to the right side a…

October 2, 2005

Sun, 02 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I didn’t get much time today to work on the plane, as we had a BBQ to go to for lunch. Once we were done there, I went to the hangar to work on the FADEC stuff.

October 9, 2005

Sun, 09 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I ordered some fittings from Spruce a while ago, and I thought I’d ordered the wrong size, so I ordered some more. The new ones hadn’t arrived yet, so I figu…

November 6, 2005

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I went to put the correct bolts in the FADEC ECU’s today, and found a fatal flaw… I had one of the mounting plates on the wrong way round. “Wrong way round…

May 4, 2006

Thu, 04 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I still don’t have a Serial Bus Controller. Aerosance are between design iterations, and have taken the SBC-100 off the market. After speaking to them yester…

May 11, 2006

Thu, 11 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I’ve been speaking a lot by e-mail with my buddies in Holland about the SBC controller. There’s been talk on various forums, and some information posted in t…

May 16, 2006

Tue, 16 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

The SBC-100 arrived from Aart and the PH-VII team in holland on Monday, but I wasn’t there to take delivery, so I signed the ticket for them to drop off at m…

May 19, 2006

Fri, 19 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight, I had a little mess around with wiring for the SBC to the EFIS 1. I reconfigured the serial connection from the SL-30 Nav/Comm to go to Serial 2 to…

May 20, 2006

Sat, 20 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I got a shed load of electrical stuff done today, including the FADEC SBC wiring. The notes from the Aerosance knowledge base say to run a ground wire from t…

August 13, 2006

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

For some reason, I’ve never had my fuel pump warning light come on while we’ve been running the plane, so I decided I needed to troubleshoot the item today w…

Choosing the engine

Tue, 24 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Ah, the engine. That all important item at the pointy end that turns the big fan on the front. There seems to be lots of debate about engines when you look t…

August 24, 2004

Tue, 24 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Yeah, I know Oshkosh was ages ago now, but I figure I should get to writing my bit about what I saw there. Lots and lots of planes for one thing, and also so…

March 20, 2005

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

He we go again…. I’ve been doing a bit more research, and I’m now erring towards the TMX engine from Mattituck with the FADEC option. This will help financ…

April 17, 2005

Sun, 17 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Well, it happened! The engine is ordered! The choice was an easy one to make after talking with the various engine people. It was to be the TMX IOF-360! At S…

May 12, 2005

Thu, 12 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I got home and it looked like the UPS man had been. Funny, I didn’t remember ordering anything that large recently. It was two cases of aviation oil, some re…

June 26, 2005

Sun, 26 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I found this picture on one of the forums. I can’t remember where though. It’s a much better picture of the TMX than I have at the moment, so I hope nobody m…

August 28, 2005

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I got an email from John Sannizzaro the other day. He took this picture of the TMX when he went to the build school a while ago. He’s known as Captain John o…

July 28, 2005

Thu, 28 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

At Oshkosh, I was looking to order a propeller. I already knew what I wanted. For me, it was a no-brainer. It was to be the MT 3 blade. I wanted something tw…

August 7, 2005

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Last Friday, I called Mattituck to check status on our engine. They’re right on schedule, as promised. Engine has been assembled, and is scheduled to be test…

August 14, 2005

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Last Thursday. Mike Yusek called from Mattituck to let me know my engine was ready! Woohoo! They crated it up, and shipped it Friday, so it should arrive som…

August 19, 2005

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today, the engine arrived! Woohoo! The shipping company actually tried to deliver it on Wednesday to the hangar, but sonce nobody told me, nobody was there t…

August 28, 2005

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Something else we figured out some when Mike was here was the engine harness routing. We tried to route the harness up through a hole in the right intercylin…

September 2, 2005

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Here’s a bit of a problem… I’ve got to squeeze this transducer into a tiny space between the oil filter adapter and the secondary alternator. Hmmm. That ai…

September 18, 2005

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Last week, I got a phone call from Mattituck explaining to me that they managed to fail a couple of the Superior Ryton sumps. Turns out that it cannot withst…

September 20, 2005

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

After speaking with Mahlon again, he said that there’s still the same opportunity for a FADEC engine to have fuel in the intakes. Maybe not as much, but ther…

October 9, 2005

Sun, 09 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I guess it’s time to start tackling the baffles. Not the most looked forward to job. First we laid them out on the bench and figured out what bit went where….

October 13, 2005

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I got out of work early today and went to the hangar. I didn’t really have a lot to do at work, and the weather was nice. Yesterday, I ordered a 4 into 1 exh…

October 22, 2005

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I dropped Lucy off at the Airport for her business trip this afternoon, and then went down to the hangar. I started to work out the throttle bracket, since I…

October 23, 2005

Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I continued on with the throttle bracket today. First I put the holes in it, then went on to trim out it’s final shape. It turned out really neat. Here it is…

October 28, 2005

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today, the exhaust showed up from Aircraft Exhaust Technologies Inc., and what a work of art! It looks great. Here are some pics.

October 30, 2005

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

I was actually at the hangar a bit longer than this today, but Cameron was here, and my friend Colin came by so we spent a whole lot of time hangar flying. A…

October 31, 2005

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500

This evening, I spoke with Kirk at Aircraft Exhaust. He checked out my pictures on this site, and saw my issues. From the discussion we had, he seemed to thi…

November 4, 2005

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Today the prop arrived! I didn’t make it to the hangar in time to meet the delivery, but luckily for me, Cameron was there to let the truck in to the hangars…

November 6, 2005

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Today was a big firewall forward day. I continued finishing up everything I needed to do in order to get the engine on for the last time. First task was put…

November 7, 2005

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

More aeroplane stuff today! I started with the alternator, and getting it mounted properly and secured. All I needed to do was double check everything, torqu…

November 20, 2005

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

This week, I received the stainless steel prop governor line form Mattituck. This should help with the clearance issue I have to the alternator. First thing…

December 4, 2005

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Back to the baffles. Clayton came by today and we started to put the baffles together. We did a little trimming to them to make them fit the engine better. T…

December 11, 2005

Sun, 11 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I didn’t really get a lot of time at the hangar today as we had the inlaws in town from Chicago. We dropped them off at the airport at midday, and then I wen…

December 18, 2005

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0500

It was really cold at the hangar today. I was wrapped up too. I had ear plugs in for the noise of the heater, and my insulated winter boots on! I carried on…

January 9, 2006

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Look who’s here! Dave is actually being put to work while he’s here on ‘vacation’. He’s got some serious catching up to do! We spent the day today messing ab…

January 13, 2005

Thu, 13 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I was on my own today at the hangar as Dave went down to Dayton for the weekend to see friends. I did some firewall forward stuff, tidying up loose ends here…

February 19, 2005

Sat, 19 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I was tinkering about a bit and decided to connect the tacho sensor. I got a 12" extension from Van’s, and it turned out to be exactly the same as the 24" on…

March 12, 2005

Sat, 12 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I removed the fuel feed line to the fuel pump, and put some firesleeve on it. You have to be careful with the firesleeve length, because as you bend the hose…

March 19, 2005

Sat, 19 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Today was a firewall forward day. I’ve been putting off the baffles for so long now, it’s time I just bit the bullet and got on with them. Yesterday, I went…

April 2, 2006

Sun, 02 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0500

It was a big day at the hangar today. Not as far as time was concerned, but as in I got a lot done for a change. About a week and a half ago, I spoke with Va…

April 16, 2006

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Here’s the patch I made to go over the big hole I made in the air intake snorkel to clear the alternator bracket. It’s stuck down here, but I need to sand of…

April 18, 2006

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Tonight, I stopped by the hangar briefly to lay up some fibreglass on the patch for the intake snorkel. It didn’t really take me too long, and it turned out…

April 19, 2006

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Dodged out of work early today, which was nice because it’s 74 degrees F here right now. Almost summery! I need to start pushing harder to get some of this s…

April 23, 2006

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Well, I did have my camera today, and we took a slew of pics, but for some reason my card was unreadable when I put it into my computer. It just said it was…

April 24, 2006

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Another evening at the hangar! I couldn’t stay too long tonight as I had to play soccer this evening and needed to eat something a couple of hours before pla…

April 25, 2006

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

This evening, I assembled the snorkel and left baffle floor so that I could make the bracket. Yesterday, the screws arrived for it, which was convenient. Her…

April 26, 2006

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I got to spend a fair amount of time at the hangar tonight, as I didn’t have to go pick Lucy up from work. I got out of work at a decent time too!

April 28, 2006

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

The other task I got done today was the right baffle inner wall. I made up the brackets that hold it to the floor, and riveted it all together. Things are mo…

April 29, 2006

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

It was a seriously long day at the hangar today. It was so long that it’s now the early hours of Sunday! Well I got a lot done today. The baffles are as good…

May 3, 2006

Wed, 03 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I managed some hangar time today, by getting out of work earlier. To get out earlier though, I had to get in at 6:30 am, which is hard for me to do as I’m no…

May 4, 2006

Thu, 04 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Ten pages of Firewall Forward! Wow. There’s gonna be a ton more too at this rate. I’m really pushing along now. I got out of work at just before three today,…

May 6, 2006

Sat, 06 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Another big day at the hangar today. I spent most of it doing the baffle seals. They’re still not quite finished either.

May 7, 2006

Sun, 07 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

There are lots of bits and pieces that need to be done now on the engine. It’s mostly wiring related, but there are some mechanical things too. I continued s…

May 8, 2006

Mon, 08 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I did a quick stop at the hangar today and finished drilling the holes in the exhaust for the EGT probes on the right side cylinders. I then started trying t…

May 10, 2006

Wed, 10 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I did some more polishing of the tailpipe tonight. It was a chore. Fortunately, I don’t need to do too much of it! Anyway, I got it to a point that I’m happy…

May 11, 2006

Thu, 11 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I had a bit longer at the hangar this afternoon/evening. First up, I removed all the baffles and the snorkel, and took them to a paint shop to be painted. Th…

May 12, 2006

Fri, 12 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I stopped by the hangar on the way home and did some polishing on the tailpipe. This is it now, it’s done. Whew. Now I can fit it for good - when I’ve done t…

May 13, 2006

Sat, 13 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I had a reasonable day at the hangar today, despite the late start. I didn’t get there until 2pm. I have a lot of things to get wrapped up, and the first one…

May 14, 2006

Sun, 14 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

We’re moving along nicely now, and there really isn’t too much left to do to get this thing cranking! I needed to make a new throttle bracket to get the cabl…

May 15, 2006

Mon, 15 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

This evening I stopped by the hangar (briefly) and attached the throttle bracket to the engine. I think I may still need a heat shield. We’ll see how it look…

May 20, 2006

Sat, 20 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I also did a bit of firewall forward wiring today, and secured the secondary alternator harness. Here it is all wrapped up and adel clamped.

May 26, 2006

Fri, 26 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I took a day off work today so I could make some progress towards getting the plane started. The baffles were ready today, so I picked them up, and started p…

May 30, 2006

Tue, 30 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I spent some time going through firewall forward stuff today too, first of all trying to find a way to route the crankcase breather. I’m not sure how this is…

First Engine Start

Sat, 27 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400

What we had to do to get her running for the first time. And of course the actual run!

August 19, 2006

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Since I seem to be spending a lot more time darting around different areas of the plane these days, I’ve decided to make a general category page called Wrap…

August 23, 2006

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I spent some time last night getting the paperwork together for the airworthiness application. The only thing I need to do now is the weight and balance, but…

August 26, 2006

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I went to the hangar this afternoon with the intention of staying until after dark, so I could set the landing and taxi lights. I had set the landing light p…

August 27, 2006

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

After working on the wings for most of today, I started to get to grips with tieing up all the wiring behind the panel. There’s a lot to do there. I need to…

September 4, 2006

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I was hoping to get to the hangar both Friday and Monday this weekend, as I was off work both days. On Friday, I had an appointment at the BMW dealership to…

September 10, 2006

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

More wrap up stuff today. I went and forgot my camera though, so no pics today. I’ll take some next time and post them. Doh!

September 14, 2006

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I stopped off at the hangar to paint the parts I’d primed last Saturday. They actually look like they came out nice for a change.

September 17, 2006

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I didn’t spend too much time at the hangar today, mainly because I had surgery on Friday afternoon - a bone graft in my sinuses for a tooth implant. I wasn’t…

September 24, 2006

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0400

More wrapping up. This stuff seems to take up a heck of a lot of time, and it seems like I haven’t done much. I also helped Larry roll some aluminium parts o…

October 1, 2006

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

This wrap up stuff goes on forever! Maybe I started it too early! Well, I got a call from Blue Mountain saying our EFIS CPU has had it’s preflight calibratio…

October 4, 2006

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I stopped off at the hangar tonight on the way home for the first time in ages. I spoke with Mike yesterday on the phone, and it looks like he may be availab…

October 7, 2006

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I went to the UPS depot and picked up the EFIS CPU yesterday. It’s time to get cracking with everything under the front skin. It can’t wait any longer!

October 8, 2006

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Well, today was they day we started to rivet the forward skin on. There were a few things that needed to be done though before Mike arrived. Clayton came by…

October 9, 2006

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Mike and I arranged to go to the hangar again this evening to finish up the skin riveting. There sure are some hard to get at rivets. You need to get quite c…

October 11, 2006

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I managed to get out a little early yesterday and today and stopped by the hangar. Yesterday, I didn’t really do plane work, I spent most of my time cleaning…

October 13, 2006

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I got all my stuff done early today at work, so I managed to leave at 1:30pm. Of course the motive was to get to the hangar and do aeroplane stuff. Much more…

October 14, 2006

Sat, 14 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I wangled my way to getting to the hangar again today, although I’m pretty busy doing home stuff too at the moment. We got a bunch of chores done this mornin…

October 15, 2006

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Piero called me early this morning, and we both went down to the hangar to start upholstering the glareshield. He found some foam that will be perfect for th…

October 22, 2006

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Today, we got to finish up the glareshield trim. I’d spoken with Piero the day before and I picked him up at 8:45 this morning. We got to the hangar, warmed…

October 26, 2006

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I took the day off work today coz it was a bit warmer (50F) so I could heat up the hangar easily to cut the windshield. I need to get this thing ready to put…

October 28, 2006

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Well, I did get to the hangar one more time in the week, but not really long enough to count for anything, so I’ll call it a loss. I was there for two hours,…

October 29, 2006

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

This morning I got to the hangar earlier, because of the clocks going back an hour! I was expecting Keith to come by with his vast Lancair experience to help…

October 30, 2006

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Today, I was a bit cheeky and took a half day off work to work on the plane. I went to West Marine and picked up some black pigment for the rest of the fibre…

October 31, 2006

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500

I broke out early again today, although not as early as yesterday. I got to that hangar at about 3pm. Keith was around, so he came by and we attacked the fro…

November 1, 2006

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

I couldn’t get out of work today, which was a shame. As a result, I didn’t really get to do much at the hangar. I peeled off the peel ply, and it turned out…

November 5, 2006

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Filling and sanding. Filling and sanding. I’m really getting bored of filling and sanding! On the bright side though, it’s starting to look nearly finished….

November 9, 2006

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

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…

November 10, 2006

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

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…

November 11, 2006

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

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 fai…

November 12, 2006

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

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 schoo…

November 13, 2006

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

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 bl…

November 14, 2006

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

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 gea…

November 14, 2006

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

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 jus…

November 16, 2006

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Clayton came by to help out this evening, which kind of helped push me along some as I was facing some serious motivation problems after looking at the empen…

November 17, 2006

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

A long day at the hangar today! I started the day getting all the seatbelts installed. This meant making six little bushings out of aluminium tubing for the…

November 18, 2006

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

I think I’m in pretty good shape for the inspection. I still have to do the hinge retainers on the cowling, but that shouldn’t be too bad.

November 19, 2006

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

I was at the hangar a little longer than anticipated really today, but I made good ground. I wanted to make the cowling hinge pin retaining cover thingies to…

November 20, 2006

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Sorry about a lack of updates! This past couple of days has been crazy mad! Here we are finally, a bit brief though, I’ll elaborate later!

November 21, 2006

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Today is inspection day! I got up early and got everything together for the hangar. All the paperwork, the computer with the build log on it and something to…

November 23, 2006

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

In anticipation of tomorrow’s planned first flight (yeah baby), I went to the hangar with our cousin Jack to get the plane ready for flight. It all needed to…

January 14, 2007

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Seems like forever since we worked on the plane. I guess it’s a long time because since it’s been airworthy, I’ve been flying it whenever I can. Today, the w…

March 31, 2007

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0400

As well as the GX-60 installation, I decided it was time to get the oil door started. I’m so sick of pulling the top cowling for every preflight now to check…

April 1, 2007

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0400

On today’s agenda are the wheelpants and finishing the oil door installation. First up was to slap on some carbon fibre reinforcement for where the wheelpant…

April 2, 2007

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0400

This evening I continued with the wheelpants. I got the right hand one aligned and cleco’d. Next task was trimming the wheel hole and generally cleaning them…

Back online, and this time it's everything

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The last attempt at moving the site to WordPress stalled about a third of the way through, so for a few years most of the build log was only available on the Wayback Machine (and not very well at that).

The whole site has now been rebuilt from the original files: every page of the build log from 2002 through first flight, Phase 1, paint and 100 hours, plus the Oshkosh and Sun ’n Fun trips, all with the original photos (sharper ones, where I still had the originals). It works properly on phones now too, there’s a search box, and you can click any photo to see it bigger.

4sierratango.com is back!

Sun, 03 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0400

After a long hiatus, caused by multiple factors like web hosting, DNS technical issues, the original website being compromised by a virus, and a lack of time, I figured that it was time to sort it all out and get everything back up and running again.

So, I’ve spent a little time learning about WordPress and sorting out a good layout for the site. A revamp and modernisation was in order. So, I hope you find the new look and feel a pleasure to browse. As time goes on, I will be adding content that was on the old site. It might take a little time, but it will all be transferred to the new format as my time allows.

www.4sierratango.com is back up!

Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Unfortunately, we had a server issue which doesn’t look like it’s going to be fixable anytime soon, so I had to switch hosting service. Unfortunately, that means I have to pay a bit more, but the site is back up. Sorry for any inconvenience caused to those who visit regularly and use this site as a reference… Which includes me!

Links

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Useful links to vendors and other RV related websites.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mark and Dave, and how two friends ended up building an aeroplane.

Contact

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Questions and comments are always welcome.