Today I started with an inventory of parts for the electrical system. I’m using several d-sub connectors for the avionics, so I set them all out and wrote notes about which one needs to go where. Now it’s time to put some of those new parts to work! First, I installed the switches. The switches…
Category: Wings, Flaps, and Ailerons
Anything that attaches to the wings except the fuselage
Putting the Wings On & SD-8
After a year of watching, I finally found a good deal on an SD-8 standby alternator. Today Danny and I installed it on the engine. The last of the four nuts was a little bit tricky to get to, but we figured it out after a few minutes. I took a few pictures of how…
Shaping Wing Light Mount
Today was a short day in the shop without any pictures. I started filing and sanding the superfil down to a nice smooth curve. I think I might have had some sort of reaction to the dust on my hands, so next time I’ll wear some gloves. I used 150 grit wet/dry sandpaper with water,…
Wingtip Light Mounts
I started today by filing down the fiberglass from yesterday. I added another layer of smurf extract to fill the voids in the cloth: My hangar neighbor Danny got his RV back from the paint shop recently too:
Fiberglass on the Wingtip
The weather was nice today so I added a layer of fiberglass to the position light mount on the wingtip. I also picked up some 1.5″ electrical conduit to use for exhaust pipes. Since they’re galvanized and welding zinc is bad for my health, I dipped the pipes into some phosphoric acid. The phosphoric acid…
Cutting out the Windows
Tabitha has wanted to change the window layout ever since she saw an airplane with bigger back windows. Today she cut out the existing frames on the left side. While I was at Matt’s hangar he sent me with a length of spring to use for the rudder return springs. While Tabitha was working on…
Seats Ready for Covers
I started wet sanding the first silver coat today while Tabitha carved the last bit of foam. They are ready for transfer to Mississippi for covering. I also spent a little while carving down the wingtip foam to prepare for the first layer of superfill that I added to the wingtip for the position light….
Position Lights and Brakes
It was too humid this morning to spray the next coat of polybrush, so I worked on the wingtip instead. I mixed up a batch of epoxy and used it to attach the position light mount and the wingtip aluminum strip. I also made a short brake line for the left side and hung up…
Finish Heat Smoothing
In two sessions today I finished the heat smoothing on the rest of the parts that are ready to go. I rigged up a way to hang the parts from the ceiling so that I can spray them all in one round. One strategy that I came up with for handling the problems with the…
Positioning Position Lights
Here’s the antenna block that I was working on in the last session. I couldn’t figure out how to clamp it for drilling, and even if I did, I don’t think I’d have enough room between the elements to get in there and install the nuts and terminals. Meanwhile, I did make some progress on…
Stainless Firewall Shields
Today I tried a Tony Bingelis technique for making shields for firewall pass-through parts like engine controls and wires. The idea is to provide an equal level of fire protection for areas that use rubber grommets. I started by choosing a “die” from my die collection, also known as a socket set. I’ve found sockets…
Priming and Wingtips
After spending a few minutes making holes in my aluminum welding practice pieces, I got back to productive work. I cleaned up the skylight parts and sprayed them with some temporary primer. I also trimmed the little grounding bus off of one of my fuse blocks, since I’m going to be using the brass forest…
Battery Box Continued
As of today the fuel quantity gauges are done, and I drilled, countersunk, and primed the battery box and associated parts. Next time I’ll paint them and assemble the box so that I can add it to the firewall. Once again the pictures are missing until 8-25.
Seats and Engine Mount
Today Tabitha came out again to finish squeezing some more wingtip rivets. We also tested the glue on the foams to make sure that it wasn’t going to dissolve them. The glue checked out OK, so we glued one of the bottom cushion combinations. Tabitha marked it for cutting and spent some time thinking about…
Tailwheel Spring and Wingtip
Tabitha came out today too and we made some good progress. I was at a stopping point with the tailwheel spring because I didn’t have a drill that would handle larger bits. It had a temporary bolt in place of the AN-7 that is supposed to go in there. With the new drill I was…
Welding, Casting, Covering
asting complete on 1, elt brscket on, control sticks done, cast 2, cover front seat bottoms and backs 1800 lunch? With one aileron balance tube done, the second was easy. I’ll elaborate more on the process this time. I used tire weights that were really dirty. I would tilt the pan, and direct the torch…
Back from Sun-N-Fun
It’s been a while since the last building entry, but I’ve been out of town more than usual. I just got back from Sun-N-Fun with a new list of ideas and a few new parts. One of my SNF finds was these LED position lights. If I didn’t already have the aeroflash lights, I would…
Cable Guards and More Parts
Today I spent some time going through a big order of parts and hardware. This order included lots of stuff, including the rest of the screws for the wing inspection panels. Dad was in town, so he cut out some new strips of aluminum for the aft section of the rudder cable guards. I also…
Slave Labor
Dad was in town today so he stopped by to drill out some rivets. Tabitha was also there with us. In the picture she is working on her practice toolbox from Van’s. She said that she should get to work on the real airplane since dad gets to work on the real airplane, and said…
Cable Guard vs Baggage Door
This was my first attempt at making a transition for the rudder cable guard. Since this piece was too short (see the left side of the picture) I figured it was expendable. I think that the best solution is going to be a combination of a piece like this one (but longer) and a door…
Finished Right Wingtip Mount
Today I drilled the top mounting holes for the right wingtip and clecoed everything in place. I’m still going to have to do some work on the gap between the fiberglass and aluminum to try and get something that is rain tight. I walked over to Danny’s hangar to see how Vans solves the problem,…
Wingtips and Seats
I was able to get some good working time in today. The two areas of interest were the wingtip and the seats. Back when I was at Bob’s this fall, I noticed that the fiberglass wingtips on his new Patrol LSA prototype were really smooth, with no waves between the rivets. I asked him how…
Increase Wingtip-Aileron Gap
Today I was working on the wingtip mounting strip. I had originally put it in place with about a 3/16″ gap between the strip and the aileron, but I was re-reading Eric’s Building Manual and saw where he recommended a 1/2″ gap. This made a lot more sense, especially because it would be pretty stinky…
New Goodies
Today I spent an additional 1.5 hours on the wingtip, but the more exciting news is that an order came in from Wicks. I ordered some 5052 Aluminum to make fuel lines out of, along with some foam for the seats. My plan for the seats is to use tempur foam for the bottom layer…
Flush Mount Wingtip Continued
Today I added more of the strip material that will hold on the flush mounted wing tip. It goes much faster in the straight stretches because I don’t have to cut relief holes for as many flutes. I put the aileron back on so that I could make sure that the gap was even and…
Tabitha Visits the Hangar
Today Tabitha came out and started working on her toolbox practice kit. The weather was nice, so we opened up the hangar door and let some sunshine in. I made more progress on drilling out the rivets that held on the nutplates for the wingtip screws, and started making the first strip for the wingtip…
Drilling Rivets
Today I finally got a nice middle joining angle for the two belly pieces, on the 4th attempt. It looks fine now. I spent the rest of the time drilling out rivets on the wingtip. I really thought that attempt number 3 was going to be a good one, but I drilled the holes too…
Fuel Systems and Brakes
Today I finished welding the elevator trim pushrods: I also took an inventory of the fuel system and brakes to figure up which fittings I’ll need and how much line to use. I went back to read the Beartracks and realized that Bob recommended 5052 Aluminum lines instead of the softer and much cheaper 3003….
Answering Questions
I called Bob today and asked him about the AN210-3A vs -3B pulleys. He said either would work just fine. I also asked him about the braided fuel line, which is something I’ve been waffling about for a while. The issue is that the current fuel lines are braided stainless lines instead of solid 3003…
Hardware Patrol
Today I continued my hardware patrol. I have been through the entire fuselage and the control stick and have replaced and/or noted what I’ll need to get to continue. I can definitely justify the expense of a drilling guide since I have lots of bolts that are good candidates for drilling for cotter keys. I…
Nuts and Bolts
Sorting out which bolt goes to which nut and where the hardware is suposed to be.
Organizing and Inventory
Making a list and checking it twice!