Today was a productive day with help from Jack and Vince. In the morning I put the casters back onto the wing rack in preparation for moving the right wing off of the rotisserie and on to the rack. Above you can see the left wing out in the sun. The problem with talking about…
Recent Posts
Parking Brake Warning Light
Today I made a few software adjustments to try to get the EMS data to show up on the D100. I had to call Dynon for advice, and they pointed out that while the DSAB was working fine, I had to configure the default screens on the D100 to allow the EMS pages to come…
Audio Problem Finally Resolved
Today was a good day for progress- I finally got to the bottom of the last audio problem. I isolated all of the inputs from the audio amp except for the music, which works fine. The circuit is designed to use resistors to control the volume level of each channel. I gathered from the directions…
Audio Troubleshooting Still
The results of yesterday’s ground problem correction were good. Everything in the system works except for the channels that go through the iso amp. I took a break from troubleshooting to install the aft 12v SAE jack, and run a few cabin wires. I installed the dimmer for the instrument panel flood lights. The dimmer…
Audio Troubleshooting Continued
The audio problem still continues. The good news is that today I have a better troubleshooting plan, thanks to the AeroElectric list. The most frustrating thing about this problem was that I just didn’t have a good plan for how to isolate the problem. One list member suggested pulling all of the pins out of…
Instrument Label Planning
This evening Tabitha and I both came out to the hangar so that she could see how the panel is coming together. We worked some on making a list of labels that we’ll need for the panel. I plan to use a label printer that we have on hand, at least at first. We may…
Audio Troubleshooting
Today the audio troubleshooting continues. First I swapped the power supply. My fancy battery charger has a “power supply” mode, so I had been using that for test power. Just in case that was related to the audio problem, I installed a temporary SLVA battery and tested again, with no change in results. I tried…
Removing Masking Tape
Tabitha especially enjoys removing masking tapes, so we both came out today and finished removing the tapes from last night’s paint session. She compares it to unwrapping presents.
Spraying Blue on the Tail Pieces
This afternoon I was able to get the correct combination of software, drivers, and cables to update the firmware on the Dynons. The D100 had been in service before, so it was only a few versions old. The D180 was factory new, and the firmware was very old. I also updated the HS34. Then I…
Reinstall Intercom
I was feeling pretty good about my wiring, right up until I hooked up the intercom. All of the audio is just really weak. I did a little bit of troubleshooting before tabling that problem, pending more research. I installed the aft dome light, which will be able to serve either the baggage area or…
Powering Up the Avionics
I started today by preparing and painting the tailwheel spring. I suspect that the paint will be somewhat short-lived on this part, but if it starts to come off, I’ll just paint it again. I cleaned off the light surface corrosion and applied a flat black rustoleum. All of the tailwheel parts were ready to…
Painting White Pieces
This afternoon my Mom was in town again, so she helped by adding the masking paper to tail pieces. I use 3M fineline tape to mark the final edge, and then use regular cheap masking tape to hold masking paper onto that tape. It can be a little bit confusing sometimes to make sure that…
Rudder Pedal Changes
Yesterday’s efforts to strip the tailwheel fork were not fruitful. The abrasive that I was using was too fine and the coating was too tough. Today I was able to remove it with the die grinder and a scotchbrite wheel. I had previously painted the rudder pedal assembly, and while it turned out quite nicely,…
Another Round of Primer
The weather today was good enough for priming, and I finally have a big enough pile of parts ot make it worthwhile. I etched all of the parts and the instrument panel, then primed them. On the items that will need both sides painted, I only painted one side today.
Still More Fuselage Reassembly
Today I tied up a few more loose ends of wires. I started with the ELT remote. The remote uses a cable that looks just like a phone line. I wanted to shorten it, so I clipped off the old end several months ago. This also made it much easier to fish the cable through…
Fuselage Reassembly Continued
It’s nice to have enough painting done so that I can start putting things together again. This morning I started with the firewall. When I painted the fuselage, I just balled up the wiring and wrapped it in a plastic bag. Today I untangled that big ball and started reconnecting the connections on the firewall….
Reinstalling the Landing Gear
This morning I used a little bit of fuel in a steel bowl to clean the old grease out of the wheel bearings. Then I packed them with fresh Aeroshell grease and put the wheels back together. While I had the wheels in my hand, I checked to be sure that they would fit in…
Preparing for Landing Gear Assembly
This afternoon I finished assembling the cargo door latch that I started yesterday. I also made a little aluminum plate that will cover the center of the mechanism, hopefully reducing the odds of getting a finger caught in there on a cold and windy night somewhere. Then I drilled the holes in the front cargo…
Assembling Parts
One important mental changeover is switching from a temporary assembly mode to a more permanent assembly mode. In the past, I knew that anything that I put together was going to have to come apart again. Now I’m starting to assemble some parts that will probably be together until at least the first flight. Today…
Spraying the Interior
I’m thankful for being able to spend some serious hours in the shop this month. Today was a good painting day, at least in the afternoon, so I spent the morning wrapping up a few more prep tasks on the fuselage interior. I couldn’t come up with an easy way to mask the floor area….
Prepping the Interior
The fuselage paint has had plenty of time to crosslink, so today I started masking so that I can spray the interior. I didn’t spray it back when I was spraying the white on the outside of the fuselage, in part because we hadn’t decided on the interior color. In retrospect it would have been…
Painting Little Parts
I’m taking advantage of this relatively warm weather to get as much painting done as possible. Today was a long but productive day that started with getting the ailerons and right flap safely stored in the ceiling. I covered those parts with plastic to protect them from dirt and overspray that might escape the booth….
Blue Paint for the Rudder
Today I moved the fuselage out of the paint booth. In the cool hours of the morning I finished drilling the rear cargo door skin holes to final size (#30) and prepared the rudder and right flap for painting this afternoon. I also have a new paint gun to try. The previous coats have been…
Spraying the Fuslage Blue
This afternoon the weather was finally good enough to paint again. I sprayed the blue coat on the fuselage, then removed the tapes to check for problems. The paint ran under the tape a little at each point where the pinked edges intersected the tape seam. I was able to remove the larger part of…
Firesleeve Clamp Tool
Today was a short session, but I wanted to try out my new tool for installing the steel bands on firesleeve ends. It came from Aircraft Spruce, but is branded as a CV joint band tool. This is it from Amazon. It works very well.
Door Frame Preparations
It has been too cold to paint, and I haven’t been spending many hours in the hangar. Today I finished cleaning up the tiedown rings, and started drilling the door skins and frames to final size. They were all drilled to #40, but I’m planning to use 1/8″ rivets to hold the skins on the…
Making Tiedown Rings
I have always had some reservations about the durability of our Maule tailwheel, so when Georg was selling his lightly-used Bob-designed tailwheel for a good price, I was glad to buy it. Today I did a trial fit to the spring to make sure it would fit, then disassembled it. I’ll paint it white to…
Wingtip Prep
It was too cold to paint today, but I was able to work on preparations for the wingtips. I filed some of the filler off, and also cut out the aluminum skin on the front cargo door for its window.
Fuselage Blue Prep Continued
This afternoon I continued with preparations to the fuselage for the next coat. This kind of work is more time consuming and tedious than I had anticipated. Since I’m painting in parts, I have to make sure that all of the stripes are located very precisely. We decided to use a pattern as follows: starting…
Fuselage Blue Prep
Today I removed the masking tapes from the fuselage, and started adding paper to the front end of the fuselage for the upcoming blue painting. Here’s the result of the taping:
Spraying White on the Fuselage
This afternoon my Mom was in town, so we all came out to the hangar to get a few things done. They helped me move the fuselage into the paint booth. I later learned to put wheels on the front wood pieces, but back then it was still a three person job. After they left,…
Spraying White Parts
Here’s a picture of yesterday’s masking work: This afternoon I cleared out a few small parts to make room for the fuselage. Today’s parts include the main landing gear legs, shock struts, rudder, right flap, elevator trim pushrods, tailwire brackets, and the right hub cap.
Laying out Fin Stripes
Today we both came out so we could get the wing moved out of the paint booth. Then we spent a while laying out the white stripes that will go on the vertical stabilizer and rudder. We’re using Bob’s measurements so that our stripes will match his, but even with those measurements it was still…
Organizing
Today I organized the hangar for a while and finished cleaning up from the previous paint jobs. This included cleaning up the big piles of paper and masking tape and reassembling the paint gun. It has been surprising to me to see the amount of garbage that covering and painting generate.
Wing Blue Paint
Today was a fun day, removing the tapes from yesterday’s paint. It’s nice to see the two colors together with crisp lines. Tabitha and my dad both helped. We also removed the tapes from the fuselage, since I won’t be spraying any more silver.
Spraying Blue on the Right Wing
Today I carried on with the spraying theme. I put the new tapes on the top of the wing in the morning, and then wet sanded that second coat of Polyspray. Later in the day when the temperature was back up I sprayed the final coat of Polyspray, then sprayed the blue paint on the…
Second Coat of Polyspray
This afternoon I did a little bit more prep and sprayed the second coat of Polyspray on the fuselage, landing gear, rear seat back, scrap panel, and the patches on the tops of the horizontal stabilizer. I also removed the tapes from the right wing and started taping for the blue coat.
Sanding the Fuselage
Today I had a visit from local EAA friend Skip. Skip is thinking about building a Bearhawk LSA and wanted to try some welding practice. While he did that I sanded the fuselage Polyspray, ironed down a few bits of tape that lifted, and in general got ready to spray the next coat.
White Paint on the Right Wing
As promised, I added paper and masking tape to finish preparing the right wing for spraying. Then I sprayed the first of our Aerothane. I learned several things, some of which I’ll include here. First, I set up the fresh air box inside the hangar, near the HVLP turbine. This was acceptable, but it makes…
Polyspray on the Fuselage
This morning Tabitha came out to help with laying out the masking tapes on the right wing. We are planning to only paint the areas that are going to show, so instead of painting the whole wing white and then masking off the blue areas, we’re going to mask off the white areas, spray white,…
Wing Paint Prep
While the Polyspray is drying a little I worked on wing preparations. I built the left wing rotisserie so that I could get the wing off of the rack, and made a few parts for the pitot tube mount. I’ll see if I can get my friend Alan to weld the aluminum parts, since that…
Last Polybrush
The pile of empty cans is getting bigger and the pile of full cans is getting smaller! Today I did a little bit of touch up ironing and sprayed what will hopefully be the last of the Polybrush on the fuselage and landing gear.
Spraying the Fuselage
This afternoon I finished the last bit of heat smoothing in the interior. I had to add a little bit more reinforcing tape to one spot on the left side of the cabin where the large window is. That’s a complicated transition and a seam in the fabric makes it more complicated than it should…
Interior Smoothing
I only had a few minutes to work today, but I was able to finish the smoothing on most of the interior. All that remains is the left side of the baggage area.
Fuselage Smoothing
Today I finished heat-smoothing the exterior of the fuselage and one side of the interior. I found that the iron shoe was getting pretty gummy with baked-on Polybrush, so much so that MEK wasn’t really getting it off. The green scotchbrite pad in the die grinder worked pretty well though, and left behind a nice…
Repairing the Small Iron
One downside of using model airplane irons to smooth covering imperfections is that they really aren’t designed for that kind of pressure. I’ve damaged a few of them now. This wooden handled iron failed right in the very thin spot where the shoe top joins the handle. To reinforce that area, I brazed in a…
Still More Fuselage Tapes
A full day of adding fabric reinforcing tapes to the fuselage has just about finished that process. I have just a few left to do. After applying the last of the 1″ wide reinforcing tapes, this is how much I had left on the roll.
Priming the Right Wing
This morning I added some fabric tapes to the right side of the fuselage, then prepared for a round of priming. Since we have a complicated striping pattern, I’m priming the access hole covers now, so that we can apply the top coats with them in place.
Wing Masking
Since I’m not planning to paint the wing root, tip, or trailing edge areas, I added some masking paper and tape to block them off. I finished the metal prep on the top of the wing: Then I moved it into the paint booth with some help from Tabitha, Danny, and Jeff. I finished the…
Wing Preparation
Today I continued with paint prep for the right wing, while Tabitha worked on more fuselage taping.
Wing Rotisserie Continued
Today we were both back out at the hangar. Tabitha continued with adding tapes to the fuselage, while I continued with getting the right wing onto the rotisserie. Here’s what one end of the rotisserie looks like. The double 2x4s stick into the wing by at least two center ribs to spread out the load….
Wing Rotisserie
Tabitha came out today to help get the right wing ready to go on the rotisserie. That involved riveting the tip rib back onto the skin, since I recently drilled those rivets out to remove the flush mounting strip. My strategy for getting the wing onto the rotisserie was to start with it on sawhorses….
Paint Booth Details
Previously I wrote about building the paint booth, but today I added the airflow system. There was an old furnace under our house that had a nice big blower. I spent some time under there with the reciprocating saw and extracted it for the paint booth. A couple of 2×4 scraps and a stub of…
Inspection Rings and Tapes
Note from the future: I had to add several more rings than you see here. For example, I had to add another hole in the top of the cabin, another three or four holes in the tail area, another on each landing gear leg, and that’s not to mention that I forgot to account for…
Fabric Taping
Now it’s time to start down the long road of reinforcing tapes. I started with the round doilies for the inspection rings. I found a good deal on some of these fancy pinking shears: Danny stopped by and tried them out, and liked them so much that he cut out all of the doilies for…
Building the Paint Booth
It will be time to start painting soon, so I built a paint both out of plastic and PVC pipe. I used 10-foot lengths of PVC electrical conduit, which was cheaper than the white stuff. I found a roll of plastic that was 10-feet wide, so that made for easy layout. Update- The booth isn’t…
Polybrush on the Fuselage
It’s finally time to start putting some new colors on the fuselage. I wiped the fuselage fabric with MEK and then brushed on a coat of Polybrush. Next I applied the reinforcing tape to the VS ribs. I finished the lower rib, and will pick up with the upper rib next time.
Visitor Day
I hadn’t planned to have so many visitors today, but it sure was nice! I started out early in the morning with the rest of the remaining fuselage cementing. Skip stopped by in his Kitfox and visited for a little while. I had sent a message out to our EAA chapter members to invite folks…
Still More Cementing
The new can of cement came in so Tabitha and I resumed our covering. While Tabitha finished the fuselage edges I started to prepare the horizontal stabilizer for a new patch. This was an area that I’ve patched before, but needed to patch again after grinding off the sharp edge on the elevator trim mechanism….
Cementing Continued
This covering stuff takes a while! Today I worked until I ran out of cement (two quarts so far in the project). I installed a piece on the lower right side under the cargo door. Since I’ll have to order more cement, I spent time today to make sure I have enough reinforcing tapes too.
Envelope Continued
Today we continued with cementing the envelope. Once the bottom was cemented for most of the back end, I did some preliminary shrinking on alternating sides of the seam to help smooth out the most severe wrinkles and make sure that we’d be able to get a good final shape. I’m planning to finish this…
Installing the Envelope
Most of the fuselage fabric is in a one piece envelope from Jim and Dondi at Aircraft Technical Support. The envelope is made of two pieces of heavy duty fabric, sewn together so that a seam runs along the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer and the left top stringer. The best way to start…
Fuselage Covering
This morning I finished cementing the belly fabric in place. I shrank the fabric to 225 degrees and it looks much better. With the distractions of the rest of the fuselage hidden by the fabric, I see that the stringers aren’t quite straight. I probably managed to bend the standoffs a little while handling the…
Shrinking Interior Covering
I started off by installing those two remaining triangles in the cabin area roof. Those were the last pieces of the interior, so I started shrinking those areas to make sure that it was all going to work. I didn’t shrink the ceiling pieces yet, since they aren’t stitched. Next I started cementing the belly…
Interior Covering Continued
Today I continued with the fabric covering for the interior. I divided the cabin area roof into four sections, with the first being as shown below: I didn’t account for my back seat shoulder harness tab when I did this piece. When I do the other side I’ll cut a small slot and slide the…
Interior Covering
Today we were both out at the hangar to get started on the fuselage fabric covering. The first step was to cover the interior, since some of the interior pieces need to overlap under outside pieces. After our work session I read back through Eric’s manual and saw that he was also bogged down a…
Wing Repair Continued
Picking up where I left off last time, I finished the wing repair While I had the air drill over on that side of the hangar, I also removed the metal strip that I had installed in the wing tip to allow for flush mounting of the fiberglass tips. At this point it just makes…
Anti-Chafe Tape
There are a few more things that I need to have done before we can start covering. For example, the lower fuel lines that cross under the front door sills need to be in place. I installed those lines and added a nutplate for a clamp that will support the right rear vertical line. With…
Covering Prep
This morning I mixed up a batch of epoxy, which I used to laminate a strip of unidirectional carbon fiber to the inside of the wingtip. Hopefully this will keep the scalloping down. I also used the epoxy to secure the wooden ribs to the vertical stabilizer steel rib. Here are a few more nutplates…
Wooden Ribs
There is some discussion in the Avipro building manual about adding spacers to the ribs. I made these out of poplar on the bandsaw and belt sander. I thought these turned out pretty well.
Installing Stringers
I was glad to be done with painting for a little while, and ready to start reassembling things! I sanded the filler on the wingtip and applied a coat of gray automotive primer to check the progress. I installed the stringers with long blind rivets. These were all aluminum and are very lightweight. Since we’ve…
Priming Small Parts
The new can of catalyst arrived today, but I couldn’t get the top off. The neck broke free from the can and was spinning with the lid. I poked a hole in the cap and forced the cap and neck off in one piece. I had a clean empty can from another product and was…
Cleaning Stringers
This morning I shaped some of the filler from yesterday. Over the past few years the stringers have gotten pretty nasty, and the texture of the paint was a little rough, so I cleaned them with some fine sandpaper. Now they are clean and smooth. This should help prevent catching and fraying the fabric when…
More Priming
I went out today to touch up a few more paint spots, but when I reached for an unopened can of catalyst I was surprised to find it was empty! Unfortunately it leaked sometime in the past couple of years, so I’ll have to take a break from painting until I can get more. Instead…
Priming Continued
When I got back to the hangar today I found a few spots where the paint was a little thin. I also saw that the texture under the paint was pretty rough in areas where the sandblasting started and ended. I sanded those spots in areas where they would show, then sprayed another coat.
Sand Blasting
We had a great time at Oshkosh as usual. We saw several old friends and met new ones too. It was hot, as you can see in this picture: I found a great deal on a set of Cessna style wheel pants. I’ll have to make the inboard brackets, but that shouldn’t be too hard….
Wingtip Light Mount
I stopped by today for one more measurement to make sure that the landing gear alignment is within tolerance, and it is. I cleaned up the hangar in preparation for round 2 of sandblasting, and applied a coat of smurf extract to the right wingtip position light mount and the stringer that required a relief…
Final Gear Alignment
Today was the day to bend the landing gear to fix the alignment. Here’s a picture of the measuring jig: Can you spot the problem with this arrangement? The right side sawhorse is in the way of the right axle. It’s going to be hard to get in there with the BATPISS to bend the…
Gear Alignment Continued
Today I was able to try measuring the main landing gear alignment with more sturdy steel angles. When I was shopping for them, I tried to find the straightest two in the store. The tiles on the store floor made a nice straight edge. Just to be sure that I didn’t have any bends in…
Main Landing Gear Alignment
Today I was able to start in earnest on the main landing gear alignment. I used three tiedown straps per side to make a rigid mount for the fuselage. One strap runs from the firewall station to the floor tiedown (which is right about where it would need to be to serve as a wing…
Soda Blasting
This is the third and final day in my bachelor building binge. The girls have been out of town and my goal was to press on to get the fuselage primed and ready for covering. Unfortunately this hasn’t worked out for a few reasons. The first is that I’m out of reducer for the expoxy…
More Disassembly
Today I carried on with the disassembly, in a marathon building session that would indicate that Tabitha is out of town. I took out the control sticks, elevator bellcrank, rudder pedals, headset wires, and other things like that. The wiring was going to be too much trouble to take out completely, so I just balled…
Taking it All Apart
My last session in the shop included putting almost all of the parts on the airplane, and my last entry here included flying in Dave’s Bearhawk. From those two highs, it’s time to carry on with progress and see a few lows. First I dug through my tubing scraps and was pleased to find one…
Dave Lenart Visit
Today was a real treat- I was able to catch up with Dave in Vermont to spend some time talking about his Bearhawk. The weather was perfect and it was a great way to spend the morning. Dave let me pick his brain with all sorts of questions about his construction. We’re using almost the…
Photo Session
This morning I reinstalled all of the sheet metal on the front end, especially the tunnel and lower boot cowl. This is all part of the plan to make sure that I don’t have any interference problems. With those parts and the cowl on, I rolled the airplane outside for a few photos. It looks…
Antenna Planning
I was only out for a little while today, but I cleaned up the hangar and measured for a few of the coax cables. I was planning to use RG-58, but it turns out that some of the low-cost cable that I found wasn’t very good quality. Additionally, Bob Nuckolls has a pretty good deal…
Adjust Seatbelts
I found a great deal on a set of seatbelts on eBay. These are military surplus Amsafe units that were stocked by the military for off road vehicles. These are almost the same as the ones that I use in airliners, with the only difference being that these don’t have a release option for the…
Tech Counselor Visit
This afternoon our technical counselor came for an official visit. It’s still very early in the process, but it was certainly good to get his input now when it’s still easier to change things.
Seatbelt Tabs
This morning I made and installed some mounting tabs for the front seat belt crotch straps. I used 1/8 inch 4130 steel. I removed much of the metal to save weight. I had a hard time coming up with a good mounting method that would put everything in the right place. This is the best…
Brake Lines
When I changed the configuration of the parking brake valve, my old brake lines became obsolete. I made new ones today out of 1/4″ 5052 aluminum tubing. I also reinstalled a few more of the floor panels in the front part of the cabin.
Final Fuel Lines
Tonight I finished making the last of the fuel lines, hopefully for the last time. I put the stainless steel tunnel in place and it looks like it just barely touches the fuel valve: I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to try to make a bump in the tunnel or try to secure the…
Fabric Aft Cabin Bulkhead
Back when we picked up the seats we had Russell save us a yard or so of the tweed fabric that he used. This will make a fabric version of the aft bulkhead, which will be lighter and quieter than the current aluminum version. My mom was in town to visit, so we put her…
Mounting the Fuel Flow Transducer
I’ve decided to put the FT-90 Gold Cube fuel flow transducer aft of the firewall, between the gascolator and engine. It will end up being right under the pilot’s left foot. The wires come out of the top, so I made a bracket that will provide some space between the floorboard and the cube. I…
Measuring for the Seatbelts
Now that the seats are in I was able to measure how long our seatbelts will need to be. I used the form from the Aero Tuff website. A few entries ago I made the oil cooler lines. Today I applied some high-temp RTV to the ends to help keep the oil and debris out….
Installing the Seats
I only had a few minutes free today, but I had to take out the seats and see how they looked in the airplane. They fit just as they were supposed to, and it was nice to see them back home again. Back when I made the headrests I intentionally left the vertical pieces a…
Picking up the Seats
Today and yesterday I have been driving over to Mississippi to pick up our seats from our upholsterer. When I was younger I flew model airplanes with Russell Wood, and he’s been an upholsterer for a long time. Since our seats were already in Mississippi, I dropped them off with him a few months ago…
Oil Hose Pressure Testing
I purchased some surplus reusable hose ends from B&B Aircraft Supplies a few years ago at Oshkosh, so I figured I would use those. They were new and very inexpensive ($5 each), but I didn’t know much about them. It turns out that they were Stratoflex 676 fittings. A few hours of research turned up…
New ELT Antenna Bracket
Back a few years ago when I made and installed the antenna bracket for the ELT, I never got around to putting in a fairlead bushing. Now that I have, it’s a pretty loose fit. This is the third strike against this setup, with the incorrect height and limited cable clearance being the other two….
Preliminary Control Rigging
With the flap cables in place, I was able to work on adjusting the flap rigging. I adjusted the pushrods until the flaps came up to zero degrees under spring tension. I started to adjust the aileron cables and realized that my loop is just a little bit too short, and I’ll need to make…
Oil Cooler Lines
A few days ago when I finally got the right oil filter installed, it became pretty obvious that the straight AN fitting that I was going to use for the oil cooler line wasn’t going to clear the filter. I swapped it out for a 45-degree nipple instead, which works much better. I made the…