Shop
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Yay - the boxes have arrived. I can inventory and organize.
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Another photo - cause its fun.
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I've labeled all of the HS parts to prevent confusion.
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The HS spar stiffeners need to fit inside the spar with the prepunched holes lined up.
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Getting ready to drill the spar.
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The HS spar gets match drilled.
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The HS stiffener needs to be radiused to remove tooling marks and fit against the spar.
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Before priming I use a scotchbright pad and alumiprep to prepare the surface of the aluminum parts.
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Now the HS parts are primed.
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Match drilling the HS fore spar.
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Now that things are all primed the HS411 bearing can be assembled.
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Done drilling.
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The bearing is now match drilled to the spar with the AN3 bolts.
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A shipment from Avery arrived, so I can use my pnuematic squeezer.
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I needed to make a jig to measure the 7 degree bend I need to make in HS710/714.
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Bending HS710/714 per plans.
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I drilled the holes at the end of the bendline slightly outboard of the specified location. I sent email to Van's and they say it is fine.
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A close-up photo of my mistake.
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HS404 needs to be trimmed to clear HS710/714.
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The VS spar reinforcement and brackets are match drilled to the spar.
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The ribs are match drilled to the VS spars.
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The skeleton has now been match drilled.
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I've now match drilled the entire VS skeleton and skin. Ready to disassemble, debur, dimple, prime.
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The optional lightening holes are drilled in the VS reinforcement - per plans.
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The VS spar gets dimpled to match the counter sunk holes in the VS reinforcement.
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My pretty lightening holes. I used a fly cutter to make these holes.
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I have no idea why I took so many of these damn pictures.
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The HS 405 to spar holes need to be drilled based on dimensions in the plans.
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The inboard rib is not fully prepunched, it must be lined by using a sharpie line and the holes in the skin.
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The right skin goes on for match drilling.
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The right side gets drilled ver much like the left.
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The right side of the HS now gets drilled. I forgot to take pictures/record time for all the rib fluting and straightening - so I'll make a note here.
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Taa daa! The right side has now been driled.
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The left HS has now been drilled.
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I match drill the left elevator skin to skeleton.
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This is beck disassembling the match drilled left HS.
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Another photo of the right HS drilling.
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Still more match drilling.
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Why did I take this picture? I don't remember.
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Everything comes apart for deburr, dimple, prime.
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Beck looking cute while we rivet the HS aft spar.
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About to rivet on the hinges.
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The forespar is clecoed together for riveting.
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The fore part of the skeleton is now riveted.
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A photo of the pretty dimpling table I constructed.
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Lots of dimpling! HS and VS skins. Ugh.
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A photo of the HS708 blind rivets.
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Ugh - we made a painful mistake. Beck accidentally removed the bucking bar while I was driving a rivet. This really tore up the left HS706 bulkhead. Van's says I can still use it if I add a doubler.
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One of the holes is screwed up because of our mistake.
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I purchased an installed but unused Terra transponder on eBay. This will go in storage for a while. I've placed connector diagrams elsewhere on this website.
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At this point I've placed the rear spar assembly into the Horizontal Stabilizer. The next step is to squeeze the rivets holding the spar to the skins.
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Another shot of the rear spar installation process.
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Ugh. I realized I inadvertently installed a few rivets in the left stab that should not be installed until the fairings are being attached. I've drilled these rivets out and a couple of the holes are now slightly oversize - I may need to use 'oops' rivets here. I've also marked one rivet which is a little undersqueezed, I'll buck or squeeze it to have a correct shop head.
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Taa daa! Really pretty! The HS is done (except for fiberglass).
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I've installed the blind rivets called out for a couple of the ribs.
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The VS skeleton has now been primed (forgot to take pictures of the priming). I'm riveting it together per plans.
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Cleco the skin on so it can be riveted.
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Part way through riveting - the fore spar is half done.
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I've now riveted the fore spar and the middle rib of the vertical stabilizer.
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The aft spar is now riveted in - pretty! The VS is now basically done.
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I had some time so I've fabbed the spacer needed for the rudder.
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Now cleco in the rudder horn/spacer and bottom rib per plans.
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Cleco in the nutplate reinforcements, top ribs, and counterbalance skin. Match drill the various skeleton parts.
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The forward edge of the siffeners must be trimmed so they will come close to the spar (but not too close). I've marked reference lines on the skins so the trimmed stiffeners can be placed.
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Assemble the right elevator counterbalance so it can be match drilled to the skeleton/skin. Also get ready to drill the holes in E714.
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Install and match drill the right elevator skeleton parts.
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Now time to match drill the stiffeners to the rudder skin. I was careful to place a flat/smooth board under the skin. As we drilled we stuck clecos into the plywood. Beck is so cute!
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The elevator stiffeners need to be match drilled much like the rudder stiffeners were.
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This is the left elevator skeleton coming together for match drilling.
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The left elevator E714 holes are now drilled. Not quite as straight as I would have hoped, but acceptable.
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The right elevator inboard skeleton match drilling.
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Match drilling the rudder horn assembly.
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I've made a smooth table with a recessed hole for my back riveting plate. Damn that router sprays out a lot of sawdust!
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This is Beck in an action shot - squeezing elevator stiffener dimples in her bathrobe.
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I've assembled and match drilled the brackets/plate that make up the electric trim assembly. Unfortunately I later learned that the placement of the brackets was too far rear on the (non prepunched) cover. I ordered a new E 616 from Van's and rebuilt the assembly.
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Misc elevator and rudder parts getting ready for priming. Priming happened later out in the garage, after alumipreping.
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I arranged to meet a flat-bed towtruck to pick up my QB kit at the San Jose depot. They didn't show until 6 hours after our appointment.
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Depot picture. The folks at the depot were amazed it was an airplane in the crates.
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All loaded - notice how things are getting dark.
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My picture in case the trucked crashed on the way home. Fortunately things turned out okay. Rus, Beck and I worked until nearly midnight unpacking the crates.
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I hate using the C-Frame dimpler, but had to go dimple all those rudder stiffener holes.
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Spent a long time organizing QB parts - these are just the rivets.
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Spent a bit of time doing the Duckworks landing light preassembly. I.e. taking apart the car lights.
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This is just a picture of the careful flap/aileron wrapping by Van's.
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Begin work on the dreaded trim tab. Here I'm match drilling the brackets that attach to the trim servo.
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Match drill the trimtab hinge, spar and the upper elevator trimtab. Doing this now will allow me to back-rivet the bottom rivets later (a good idea from the mailing list).
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The trim servo reinforcement plate is now primed so I can rivet in the various nutplate for the access cover. Later on I realized I needed to grind off a small amount of this plate so the complete servo assembly could be installed once the elevator is closed.
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Here is a dumb move. For my first back riveting, I was like - hey this is great! Very smooth. Till I realized that I hadn't put the stiffener on the rivets. Dumbass. I later drilled out the four rivets I screwed up.
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I also screwed up one rivet - I must have missed some burr under the stiffner. I drilled out the rivet and replaced. I've labeled the stiffener in this photo so that if this rivet ever starts smoking I'll know why.
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These are the four screwed up rivets I mentioned in the first photo.
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Now that the stiffeners are in, the skeleton can be match drilled to the skin. I'll still need to disassemble, deburr, dimple, prime.
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This is Beck making funny faces while she back rivets the left elevator stiffeners. Beck is a really good riveter.
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The rudder skins have now been deburred/dimpled.
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I wanted to work on something different for a while, so I started assembling the wing aileron brackets. Lots of scotchbright wheel/drilling action.
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It took the good part of a morning to break down all the QB boxes and take them to the dump. I kept some pieces that can be used for scrap wood.
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The right elevator now has all of the stiffeners back riveted in.
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The skeleton gets clecoed on so that it can be match drilled to the skin.
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I felt like working on something different, so I started fabricating the brake peddals.
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The aileron brackets and elevator trim cover are now primed and I just did the riveting.
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Now that priming is done I can start riveting together the elevator skeletons.
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Damn this is fun, the nutplates are in, the rivets turned out real nice.
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Detail photo for the inboard inside of the right elevator. Notice the primer on my fingernail. ;-)
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Yay! The right elevator is now nearly completely riveted.
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I've completed the rudder spar now riveting on the counterbalance. The sequence is important if you want to build the rudder without needing to use any blind rivets.
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A detail photo of the bottom rib of the rudder riveted onto the spar.
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The inside of the rudder spar - detail on the nutplate.
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The rudder counterbalance weight is installed and the screws are torqued.
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The other side of the rudder has been to the skeleton, and this side is now half riveted.
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Another angle on the rudder riveting.
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A photo of the inside of the servo. Cause it is kinda interesting.
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The left elevator is clecoed together so I can match drill the skeleton to the skin.
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Another photo of the left elevator.
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After waiting for the proseal to dry for a couple of days, I can finally rivet the rudder trailing edge. I'm very pleased with how the shop heads look. Also of note is that somehow during storage I've scratched the skin, though I think it can be polished out.
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The left elevator has been primed. Now I can assemble the skeleton now.
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A photo of the inside/inboard photo of the left elevator skeleton.
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I've started the dreaded elevator trim tab bend.
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The trim tab turned out 'okay' almost perfect trailing edge - I'll do better on my next plane. ;-)
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I really hated the process of bending the leading edges on the rudder and elevator. But it is now done, with only a couple of small dents.
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The trim tab is now riveted to the left elevator. Per plans I've used a bit of aluminum angle to make sure the trailing edgs line up.
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Beck is actually much better than I with the leading edge bends. Here we bend the left elevator LE.
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I'm tired of bending leading edges so I spend a bit of time fabricating the tail tie down bracket.
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I also make the tool I'll need for safely installing the Heim bearings on the trailing edges.
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I install the Heim bearings placed per plans.
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The Aircraft Spruce catalog contains Heim dimensions so I can use the proper gap from the spar.
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The HS can now be removed from storage so I can mount the elevators.
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I converted a couple of AN3 bolts into drift pin so we can install the elevators more easily.
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Now I've drilled the holes for the center bearing on the elevator.
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A square aluminum extrusion is attached to the AEX extrusion and rudder trailing edge.
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After building wing cradles I was able to remove the access plates and begin installing the servo bracket.
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Per a warning letter from Van's I checked each of the bolts length and torque of the fuel tank attach brackets.
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I've now match drilled the aileron brackets to the wings.
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The access plates I've remove from the wings.
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I've now cut the aileron/elevator pushrods to length.
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I've now rivetted the aileron brackets to the wing. Getting the bottom flush rivet riveted was a huge pain in the ass. The problem is that I couldn't use the mushroom rivet set - I had to use a smaller/crummier flush set.
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I need to use a rasp to expand the AN3 holes on these brackets and remove some of the welding bead from the inside of the shaft.
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The aileron brass bushings have to be drilled out so the bolt can fitted into the bushing. This is all per plans.
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The left aileron bracket has now been installed. It fits perfectly and has been torqued to spec.
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The right aileron bracket/belcrank has now been installed and torqued.
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I've now drilled the pushrod ends to the pushrod. I then went and primed the inside of all pushrods.
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The flap reinforcement needs to be trimmed so I can cleco it to the trailing edge.
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The aileron gap fairings are clecoed into place so I can match drill them to the wing.
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Beck clecos the flap reinforcements to the wing.
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Becky is drilling the aileron gap fairings to the wing.
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A bunch of small parts collected for priming. I've switch primer to the PPG 1792 self etching wash primer.
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The bottom rivets of the aileron brackets are flush - so I need to counterskink the hole. Unfortunately the microstop csink set doesn't fit this close to the bracket, so I have to do it carefully by hand.
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The parts have been primed and dimpled, so I can now rivet in the aileron fairing.
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As I mentioned the flush rivets were a real pain without being able to use the mushroom rivet set. I smilied one of the rivets and one other is a hair to high.
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I've attached the Heim bearings to the aileron belcranks.
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All of the pushrods are nicely primed on the inside.
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The right bearings are now installed installed into the belcrank.
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Becky is drilling/pop riveting the pushrods ends.
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Another action photo of assembling the pushrods.
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More pushrod fabrication.
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The ailerons are match drilled for the aileron bracket.
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I've decided to assemble the Gretz pitot bracket.
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The outboard aileron brackets are now installed. I'll need to ask someone how to get a torque wrench on these puppies.
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The nutplates are now riveted to the pitot bracket.
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I've modified the right aileron bellcrank so that I can attach the roll servo.
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The aileron pushrods are now riveted.
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A new box from Van's the passenger grip, wingtip nutplates, and flap positioning switch.
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The nutplates are now installed on the inboard side of the ailerons.
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A blurry picture of the nutplate.
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I've fabriated the spacers for the aileron brackets. (Beck's alternate description: The photographer of this picture was clearly all about sex. The juxtaposition of the slightly curled hand and the long straight ruler and that fat sharpie - on top of screws - lots of screws. There is no question this is a highly sexually charged photograph.)
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Beck is now drilling the aileron trim servo bracket. (Beck's alternate description: This scene describes an immigrant woman who has been enslaved by her evil overlord husband. She is clearly forced to work in sweatshop conditions - after coming home from a full time job. She still has to cook dinner.)
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The drilled servo trim bearing.
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The ailerons are now mounted to the hinges, with appropriate spacers. A couple of the spacers are too loose - I'll probably need to remake them.
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Detail photo of the aileron pushrod connection.
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The ailerons are lined up using the tooling holes in the wing. After being sure the end of the aileron is inline, the pushrods to the aileron bellcranks can be adjusted by using the Van's supplied jig.
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This is the right pushrod installed and tenatively adjusted. The roll servo is also temporarily installed - I need to get drilled head bolts before I can permanently install and safety the servo.
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A shipment from Steinair arrived - they have great prices on milspec wire. They even through in a bunch of small things for free.
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The skins get clecoed on so they can be match drilled to the skeleton.
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The flaps need three of the center eyelets removed so the pins can be inserted and eventually safetied.
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The flap reinforcements get match drilled to the spar.
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Before drilling the flap hinges to the wing, I needed to carefully ensure 1/4" of clearance between the flap and the aileron. Thus the little cardboard guages. I also used dental floss stretched from the outboard tip of the aileron to ensure that the fore to back placement was correct.
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Now I'm midway through drilling the right flap to the wing.
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I turned the flash off for an arty self portrait.
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Of course I must get a picture of the beautiful cobuilder.
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Removed flaps for deburring and countersinking of the flap reinforcements.
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Damn - drilling all these holes took a while. Lots of cleco moving. In this photo I'm part way through removing the clecos from the drilled wing.
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Deburring the flap reinforcements.
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The left wing skins are now drilled.
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Following the Gretz pitot bracket directions - adding a bit of angle and drilling to the rib and spar.
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Drilling the recommended pitot bracket rivet pattern to the wing.
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Done drilling.
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Closeup photo.
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Done deburring the gretz mount holes - still need to deburr the rest of the skin.
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Drill the access panels to the final sized holes. 4 came finished with quickbuild - I just finished the remaining two.
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Dimple all of the ribs and spars in the left wing.
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The finished access plates - now dimpled.
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Dimpled and countersunk the flap reinforcements - now they go to the garage until priming day.
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The aft wing spars need to be countersunk for the three countersunk pop rivets called out in the QB plans.
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I started fabricating the roll servo wiring harneess so I can close up the wing.
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My friend Shannon was over yesterday - she is an A&P and shamed me into fixing a couple of smilies on the aileron bracket rivets. This photo shows me half way through replacing the rivets. I drilled off the heads then punch the shaft out.
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Pretty. I've now repaced three ugly rivets - no hole enlargement involved.
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My neighor Joe helped me move the wing rack and left wing down into the garage. This gives me space to do finishing work on the right wing.
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This was scary - cutting into the wing to install the Duckworks leading edge light.
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I've now bent the right and left fuel level floats. For the right wing I've used a nylon tie to make sure that the float can reach empty and full.
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This is a detail on the tie I used while measuring the travel of the float.
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After futzing for a while - I realized there is no good way to attach the servo wires without possiblity of rubbing against the control system. I'll drill a new hole for the wiring closer to the top skin - at least for the rib closest to the right aileron bellcrank.
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I went ahead and fabricated the left fuel tank sender/float.
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Becky is using the scotchbright wheel to carefully shape the landing light hole. Nice reflection.
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Folloing the Duckworks directions - I've installed nutplates into the right wing and now I'm fabricating both the left and right landing light brackets.
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Eww - I hate proseal. However, I needed to mix up a batch in order to seal the right fuel tank sender onto the tank. I also decided to add proseal on the fuel tank inspection hole cork.
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A photo of the finished fuel tank.
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Countersinking the duckworks light brackets.
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Following the duckworks directions we used gaffer's tape to pull in the right lens and drill it. Becky is so cute!
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Countersinking the duckworks lens nutplate brackets.
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The usual soldering iron dance to remove parts of the outboard bottom wing skins that I will soon be dimpling & riveting.
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Done removing plastic.
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Today was priming day - I try to do priming in big batches. Did the light fixtures, some misc. small parts, flap reinforcements, pushrods, and spotty - our cat. ;-)
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I've now riveted the nutplates into the light fixtures.
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I riveted on the flap reinforcement and hinge for the right wing.
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The right wing reinforcement being pop riveted to the aft bracket.
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The access plates for the outboard skins need to have nutplates installed. However, the nutplates do not come dimpled for the rivets, so I've dimpled them so they fit a bit better.
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Riveting on the nutplates.
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I don't like using the dimpling table - but I needed to dimple the various holes in the left and right wing skins.
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This shows the conduit brackets clecoed into the right wing lightening holes.
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I've cut and drilled 5" long brackets to mount conduit in the right wing. This turned out good, but it was a bit over engineered. For the left wing I think I'll just use nylon ties - per Van's latest service letter.
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Pretty. The Duckworks landing light brackets are now fully assembled. Riveting is fun.
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The conduit brackets now have nutplates riveted in place.
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Beginning the right wing riveting task. I've made a point to mark rivet lengths to prevent accidentally using the wrong sized rivets. It will be tricky to make sure there is no gap over the outboard spar - the skin tends to 'walk' outward as it is riveted.
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Max and I have started riveting the bottom outboard right skin. Really nice so far.
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The first part of the day Max drove the rivet gun while I bucked. Beck finished the job in the evening. This is Beck making a silly face as she is about to drive the last rivet.
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Starting on the left wing - the flap reinforcement is clecoed in place.
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The left landing light hole cut begins - I'll wait for beck to finish this up, she does a better job than I at the scotchbright wheel trimming.
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Yuck. Proseal again - Installing the left fuel level sender and access port.
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Pretty. I'll do a leak test someday.
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I had some time to kill so I began the axle nut mods called for in the Avrey jack kit.
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I've begun the preassembly on the control sticks.
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I don't remember why I took this picture... ;-)
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I brought in the long .75" x .75" angle from the garage so I could precut all the fuse pieces that are made from this piece.
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The brass bushings inside of the control sticks need to be ground down until they are short enough to fit into the horizontal cross piece. The plans recommend using a drill press and a flat file.
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The QB builders installed too many rivets. I used the plans and marked the rivets that must be drilled out.
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Becky does a real nice job with these landing lights.
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Per plans I needed to grind down the aft spar. The stock spar is for an RV-8 and needs to be trimmed to fit the RV-7.
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I've drilled out the extra ring rivets. I use a slightly undersized drill bit and a punch to break off the head.
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I've finally gotten around to making the passenger brake peddals.
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For some reason I don't really enjoy countersinking. However, I had to go countersink a zillion holes in the brake peddals.
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To kill some time I fabbed the rudder peddal bearing blocks.
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The control sticks now fit together nicely.
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I'm going to ask Van's about this. It seems like there is room for one more 960-10L washer in the control sticks. It also seems like we are not given enough of the special AN3 sized washers.
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The rudder blocks are now fabricated.
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After a trip to Home Depot for a 1" bi-metal hole saw the ends of the axle nuts can get cut off.
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I don't have a manual mixture cable so I'm able to cut off the big mounting bracket from the fuel selector plate.
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I used a bit of scrap 0.063" 2024 to fab the spacer that gets installed into the elevator bellcrank.
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Per plans I've made a handle out of tape to install the left wing duckworks light.
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I used a tap to add a bit more thread to the wing tiedown holes - so the eyelet can fit close to the skin and be parallel to the airstream.
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Not too bad - I can put the eyelet away until painting time.
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The left wing flap reinforcement is now riveted to the skin. I used 4.5 length rivets, the plans call for -4, but that was too short according to the gauge.
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The flap reinforcement gets pop riveted to the trailing edge.
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Bonus picture. Nothing to see here. Move along...
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The right wing top TE skin was not fitting to the flap. The underlying problem was that the QB folks didn't bend the aft spar flange sufficently. Fortunately Van's kicks ass and sent me this great custom tool to fix the problem. I'm done with it now, so I'll send it back tomorrow.
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I bent a short length of tubing and flared it so I can test my tanks for leaks.
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More fuse pop rivet removal and checking off plans to mark parts already completed.
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Assembling the fuel valve assembly - unfortunately it looks like I'll either need to mount the fuel valve with an odd rotation or fabricate my own fuel valve plate. The Andair valve doesn't quite fit in the Van's enclosure.
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Disassembling the valve so that I can change the fitting orientation.
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Valve serial #5175.
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This is what I mean about rotated - I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do.
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Riveted the pitot bracket reinforcement to the nearest rib.
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Drilled the holes for the left landing light.
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Countersinking the landing lens for the screws. I think I might have used the wrong dimple dies on the hole in the wing - FIXME - redimple with a #8? dimple.
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Begining the wing riveting.
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The vent openings are fabricated.
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Did a bit of riveting.
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Drilled the landing gear to the bracket per plans. Had to borrow the neighbor's 3/8" chuck drill.
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Installed and match drilled the brake flanges.
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Drilled the first hole in the flap brackets. The other hole is match drilled in the fuse.
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Placed a bit of aluminum screen on the vent openings with some JB weld. Per plans.
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Drilling lightening holes in the seat back braces.
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Deburring the braces.
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Max helped rivet today - finished up the left wing.
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Part way done.
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This crummy picture is my attempt to show where I needed to add an extra rivet to the inboard bottom skin of the left wing. This skin was tending to lift up, because I over countersunk a hole on the flap reinforcement.
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Since I decided to add this hole after the wing was assembled, I needed to countersink rather than dimple. It worked out okay because there is extra material behind the hole.
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Pretty - the gretz pitot mount is installed. I'll remove it again someday.
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This is about half of what I fabricated today.
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Drilled and dimpled the forward skin/instrument panel supports. This will allow me to match drill that whole portion of the fuse.
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A little more tha 8" from instrument panel to bulkhead. These support arms eat away up to 3.25" of space if you go 8" back. I'll need to be careful on instrument placement.
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Playing with ideas on the instrument placement.
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Drilled out four rivets so I can match drill the pitch servo for the auto pilot.
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Fabricate F741B - a small bend is needed.
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Match drilling the upper flap bracket.
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Drilling lightening holes in the rudder peddal support.
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Lots of cutting aluminum brackets, sheets, and hinges. Here I'm cutting the Z channel for the seat cover.
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Drilling holes in the Altrack bracket. Later on I used these #40 holes to match drill the skin on the fuse belly.
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Transferring hole patterns from one seat to the other.
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One seat is now all drilled.
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Finish drilling the second seat.
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Drilling the seat braces to their hinges.
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Two complete seats with braces, ready to rivet. I'm going to wait until I have the floors in before riveting these seats, Dan Checkoway mentioned that the plans hinge location left inadequate clearance. I think I'm okay, but I want to check before riveting.
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I got this strobe on eBay, just checking to make sure it works. It is a 28V model, so I was expecting to need a DC-DC converter, however 14V looks to work fine. I'm going to take it to a lab at work so I can compare 28V with 14V.
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Match drilled holes for the aft bulkhead.
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Done drilling the Altrack bracket to the floor. I need to dimple the skin and prime the bracket before riveting.
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Match drilled the F-824B covers and accidentally screwed up the aft bulkheads. This is the second part I'll need to replace in this project (the first was the elevator trim tab cover). My mistake was the QB bulkhead had shifted on the bottom before I match drilled, and I didn't realize the bottom of the bulkhead was already prepunched. I drilled holes that overlapped with the bottom bulkhead holes.
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Max came over and fabricated these rudder stops. Later on I finished them up.
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A bunch of misc brackets fabricated per plans.
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Match drill the seat back support channel/socket thing.
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Align and drill #19 the ELT bracket. By placing parallel to this bulkhead, I'm within 2 degrees of level flight. The ELT manual requires 10 - so we are good to go.
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ELT brackets installed and torqued. I'm using torque seal from now on to mark bolts that are torqued, better than my old purple paint marker.
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Drill out the nutplates per plans for the electric aileron trim bellcrank.
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These two brackets go at the top of F-705, but they need a 2" diameter shape cut out for the slider plans. I used the flycutter.
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This was fun, putting the aileron bellcrank into the block of plastic. Per plans.
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Drilling and dimpling the aileron bellcrank bracket - now it is ready for priming.
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Match drill the heat baffle.
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Finally rivetting the brake peddals.
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Match drill the F-824 covers, rudder stops, and the electric flap pivot.
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Counterskink the electric flap reinforcement.
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Rivet the flap breinforcement to the central flap cover.
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I've gotten tired of accidentally leaving the air disconnected from the shop. So I've put together this manifold so air can both go to the shop and garage.
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Drilled and installed the static ports.
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Install static tubing and seal it to the ports with RTV.
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Drilling the flap pushrods to the correct inner diameter. However, in the process I screwed up one of the pushrods by letting it spin in the vice. I'm going to order a bit more of this aluminum tubing.
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I fabricated the electric flap spacer - just testing the fit.
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The bottom angles for the electric flap cover are ready to rivet now.
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I used the hand seamer to bend the center cabin reinforcement flanges - the stock bend was insufficient to tightly mate with the skin.
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This is me being dumb and spilling wine on my plans. Doh!
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A bunch of center cover parts are straightened and ready for match drilling.
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Using hole saws to drill access holes in the skin.
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More center cover parts ready for match drilling with the skin/fuse.
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Riveting the nutplates on the forward baggage covers.
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Match drilling the baggage floors.
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Match drilled the F-724(?) covers.
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I don't remember what is going on in this picture.
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Drilling holes for conduit under the floor of the baggage compartment. Eventually I'll be routing static line, strobe wires and ELT control wire.
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I considering using these tubes for my wing conduit, however they are crap - too inflexible.
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Begin drilling the main landing gear holes.
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This could be bad. Both of the bottom firewall weldaments are cracked between the four bolts and the five rivets. I suspect the QB folks broke this weld on purpose to make it fit the angle of the bottom longeron. This picture shows the right weldament. Update: Van's says that seam is not intended to be welded - it is just cracked power coat - all is well.
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This picture shows the other bottom weldamnt, on the left of the firewall.
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An accidental extra picture.
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One more picture.
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Not much happened today - because I needed to get parts out of storage for my EAA tech visit. Irwin came by and seemed generally happy with the work. He will do the paper work on his next visit. He has been quite helpful with my various evening phone calls.
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Rivet the electric flap cover.
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A blurry picture of dimpling the baggage floor and aft cover.
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Today I began rivetting the baggage floor/aft covers.
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Part way through the floor.
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Showing the conduit that passes under the baggage floor and seats. One on each side.
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Pretty - the floor is done. It took a lot longer than I expected - mostly due to keeping nutplates aligned.
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Since I was permanently attaching the aft baggage covers, I needed to install the rudder cable. This was a bit of extra trouble because the QB folks forgot to drill two of the bulkheads to full size for the plastic inserts. Now that the fuse is together I can't get a drill in to fix the mistake, so I used a dremel grinding tool.
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Pop riveted the right seat in place. Damn - all this installing nut plates and pop riveting really took longer than I expected.
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I began riveting the seat backs together. I had planned to disassemble for priming, but I'm just going to prime the assembled piece.
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Position the aileron trim servo midway (per plans) so that I can temporarily install the bellcrank and drill holes for the servo (underneath the left aft seat cover).
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Everything is clamped in place and I can use the angle drill to drill the four holes for the servo screws.
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Drilled now.
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Now the left seat bottom can go in.
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All of the seat back rivets that can be squeezed are done. The rest will need the rivet gun (i.e. noise).
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The flap weldament is temporarily installed so I can drill the three flap bearings.
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Started the painful process of drilling the skin holes for the landing gear. This turned out to be a real pain in the ass - cause the template was a bit too small and you are under the plane with a dremel tool getting covered in aluminum shavings.
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The left gear hole is part way drilled - lots of grinding, fitting, grinding, fitting...
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While these EF-661 bearings were in the plane I drilled a small amount of the second hole. I removed the bearings and moved to the drill press to finish the hole cause I wanted to make sure the hole was square to the surface.
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Bent the seat back channels so that the support can easily slide in.
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The seats are finally done. I dinged one of the upper hinge rivets pretty good, but a repair turned out to be reasonably effective.
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This fuzzy picture shows me drilling a hole for safety wire at the end of the electric flap mechanism. The safety wire ensures that the assembly can not unscrew itself if the jam nut gets loose.
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For some reason I don't enjoy countersinking. However, I needed to countersink the tops of these seat back supports - cause they are right where people rest their hands entering the plane.
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After a fair amount of nutplane futzing, the flap mechanism is permanently installed (at least until interior painting).
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The forward elevator pushrod is in - to insert you slide in from the aft, between the seat back and backage bulkheads. Also, the center seat back support is drilled for nutplates at the top.
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Begining the flap motor channel install - so I can drill/rivet the upper flap bracket in place and attach to the seat back channel.
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This install took a bunch of clamps and drilling various holes (per plans).
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I used a 14V bench power supply to test the flap mechanism - cause it makes cool noises.
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Match drilling the flap control electronics to the back of the seat channel.
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The various bits of the flap channel are riveted in place - now ready to prime the whole assembly.
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Installing nutplates into the upper side of F-785A.
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Reassemble enough of the flap channel so that F-785A can be match drilled on the side for nutplates.
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The F-785 seat bulkhead support is now drilled for nutplate install. Joy - more nutplates. Ugh.
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Max trimmed the F-7109 rib reinforcement.
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Max drilled a hole for the ELT antenna, but he was a bit careless. I needed to slightly move the hole to the correct location. This will work out okay, because the antenna will hide the boo-boo.
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I've countersunk the longerons where the seat bulkhead attaches - per plans.
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More work installing the landing gear. At this point I needed to stop and remove the gear - because the QB folks incorrectly used a AN470 rivet where a AN426 was called for.
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Pretty.
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I've replaced the incorrect rivets - notice the countersunk pop rivet.
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The landing gear is now drilled to match the fuse.
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Wow - look at this pile of tools. This is an example of how a little thing like drilling and mounting gear can equate to a lot of work. I needed all of these tools to perform this task.
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This is an example of 'making lemonade cause you have lemons' - I needed to install a shim for the area my helper messed up. By using a bit of alclad I can ensure a good ground plane connection for the ELT antenna.
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Drilling and installing the side nutplates on F-785A.
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Match drilling the F-7109 stiffener to the center forward rib.
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Cutting a bit of clearance for the center rudder peddal support.
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Match drilling my replacement aft bulkheads.
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Match drilling the aft bulkhead to the fuse.
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Today is priming day - look at this mountain of stuff I've fabricated and been waiting to prime.
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The aft bulkhead is now riveted together, the aft side must be flat so that the vertical stab can be attached.
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Now I'm attaching the side nutplates to F-766A.
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Install the top left handed nutplates on F-766A.
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More nutplates - installing F-983C.
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The rudder stops are ready to install after the tail is on.
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This is cool - now the electric aileron trim is fully assembled.
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The seat back supports are now riveted in place.
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The central control weldament is installed - at least temporarily. At each bearing I needed two -10 and one -10L washers.
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Drilled a hole for control stick wiring - per max size specified by Van's.
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I've finished the rudder pedal assembly. Pretty. Nothing tightened all the way down, but enough to put into the fuse.
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Drilling the brake pivot holes in the rudder peddal 'ears.' I've angled the brake peddals slightly forward to prevent accidentally applying them during landing.
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The peddals are now drilled to the brakes.
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Measuring instruments and marking holes on the 'affordable panels' subpanels.
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Over the last few weeks I've been building this audio panel during lunch at Apple.
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This is my lame attempt to record my Dynon serial number - it didn't work out so well.
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I cleaned the garage and shop - brought up a bunch of tools I had scattered.
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I've drilled pilot holes in the panel for the various holes I'm going to punch out.
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I went over to Leland's house in Pleasanton - he was kind enough to let me use their EAA chapter's instrument punch. This tool is really cool.
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A beauty shot of Leland and his plane.
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Drilling the rudder peddal bearings to the side of the fuse.
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Drilling the center rudder support to the firewall and central bearing block.
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Previously I had copied the screw hole locations to these forward tunnel cover pieces. Today I drilled the tunnel covers.
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The forward tunnel covers fit well.
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I've dimpled and riveted the firewall recess. The dimpled stainless fit the rivets better than I expected.
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Drill pilot holes in the F-741B tunnel cover, so I can match drill with the Z channels already screwed into the fuse floor.
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Using the unibit to make holes for mixture, throttle and carb heat cables.
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Dimpled the F-982D heat baffle so I can prime it.
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My firewall forward kit arrived, this is just part of the shipment. It took a while to inventory.
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I purchased this great Dotco angle drill on eBay. Only $90! The going price new is $500. This drill is a real joy to use, much better than that crummy angle drill kit that clamps onto my Sioux air drill.
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Another photo of the firewall forward kit.
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I finally completed all the prep needed to match drill the center top bulkhead to the firewall. I've also match drilled all the other holes in all the top bulkhead components.
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I've drilled the forward tunnel cover so I can countersink and rivet.
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For some reason I don't really enjoy countersinking. However, the panel needs a bunch of countersinks for various 5 and 3 size rivets.
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The countersinking of the tunnel cover is complete.
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I've now riveted the vent portion of the subpanel. It can now be primed.
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The forward tunnel cover is now done - so it can be primed.
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I've drilled and dimpled the battery box. Here I'm drilling lightening holes.
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The battery box is now completed. Squeezing the last few rivets needed some extra washers underneath the rivet set - to prevent bending the bottom flange on the box.
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Drilling the battery hold down plate lightening holes.
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Marked the rivet positions on the F-7172D solenoid reinforcement plate, trim the F-688 top gusset.
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Painting the battery box with Rustolium high temperature black paint, so the lightening holes I drilled won't rust.
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Assembling the belcrank to the fuse. After fitting, I remove the spacers for priming.
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Match drilling the VA-161 gascolator reinforcement bracket to the firewall.
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Part way through the firewall drilling.
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Drilling the F-782C floor cover to the stiffeners - per plans. Btw: I love this eBay drill!
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Match drill the firewall recess so I can install nutplates to F-782C. I was sloppy and let the rightmost drill hole 'wander' but I think my boo-boo will be covered by the screw head.
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Using a 2 1/8" hole saw to drill the heat vent opeing. The plans call for 2", but I don't have a hole saw of that size - but it will fit the heater box just fine.
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Temporarily bolting the heat box in place. Before final assembly I'll add some high temp RTV, but this will need to wait for the recess riveting.
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Dimpling the bottom skin for the auto pilot servo bracket.
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This is my 'art' photo - from the bottom of the skin after riveting the four auto pilot bracket rivets. Beck was bucking from the other side.
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Done riveting the autopiliot bracket.
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The last two rivets on this longeron had to wait a couple of weeks ago - cause I didn't have the correct sized rivets. The correct rivets arrived from Van's - so I could finish up the riveting today.
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The battery box is totally finished now - i.e. I just installed the nutplates.
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The nutplates for F-782C are now installed in the firewall recess.
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I've countersunk all the holes in the VA-161 gascolator reinforcement.
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Drilled the remaining nutplate holes in F-782C - now this goes to priming.
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Bent the heat baffle openings.
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Drilled the right forward seat cover to #19 and installed a nutplate for the forward tunnel cover to attach.
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I did a pretty crummy job riveting these nutplates into the firewall recess, but stainless is such a pain in the ass - I'm not going to replace them.
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This morning before work I temporarily installed the battery box.
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I finally cut the schedule 125 tubing that my tech advisor recommended for wing conduit.
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After fitting the 'snowboard rack' angle, I marked approximate rivet locations as a prelude to match drilling.
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Match drilled the various stiffeners to the forward center rib.
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I deburred and dimpled a bunch of misc. forward fuse parts.
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Soon I'll be installing these vent inlets, I used a scotchbright pad to remove various molding marks.
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Marked the screw holes for most of the instruments in the panel.
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The screw holes are now drilled to #21 size - some may need enlarging or slight adjustment.
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The F-688 gusset is supposed to be quite beveled to the aft, this was my first attempt. After drilling I decided I needed to remove a bit more material.
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The F-6111 skin stiffeners have been trimmed to fit. On the Matronics archives a bunch of folks said this took a long time, but mine fit in rather easily.
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Pretty! The turtledeck is now match drilled.
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A shot of how the F-6111 stiffener turned out - I think I might need to twist it a bit more.
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The various turtledeck related holes are now dimpled.
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Getting ready to bevel the various turtledeck and forward fuse covers.
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Part way through beveling all the edges that have lap joints with other skins.
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The 'easy' dimples are done - i.e. things I can reach with the squeezer. Tomorrow will be dimpling table day.
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I was thinking this dimpling would take a while, but I'm definitely faster at this stuff. Here, I'm doing the turtle deck.
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A bit of fuellube and the gascolator quickdrain is installed. I discovered Van's is one plug short for an extra gascolator output, I'll order that someday.
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Today was priming day - I primed a bunch of parts (including the inside of the skins), here are the parts I chose to take back upstairs.
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A photo for the record: The inside of the gascolator is nice and clean. I'll check it again after running some fuel through the system.
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I started riveting the bottom piece into the heat baffle, but I had to stop cause the primer is still too fragile.
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Installed fuel and oil fittings on the transducer manifold.
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Riveted on the gascolator refinorcement bracket.
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Riveted on the center rudder pedal bracket.
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A photo of the installed gascolator - pretty.
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Countersink the front main gear mounting brackets.
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My Garmin GNS-430 and CDI arrived today from John Starck avionics. John did a great job with the harness.
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The right gear is bolted in place, however I need crows feet before I can torque where the gear attaches to the spar.
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I've made cardboard templates for the areas on the floor and side where I'll lose access once the gear is installed - this should make cutting sound proofing easier in the future.
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The left gear is now bolted in place.
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Installed the brake fluid resovour.
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A bit of high temp RTV to prevent CO leaking in from the firewall.
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Installed the elevator bellcrank. I noticed that my autopilot servo had been damaged in shipment, sent it back to Trutrak - they did a great job of sending back a new servo without even waiting for my damaged servo to arrive.
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Installed the polyflow fitting onto the brake resovour.
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Installed nutplates (per plans) for the oil pressure hose.
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Installed the brass polyflow fittings onto the brake cylinders. Used a bit of peramtex #2 on the NPT threads.
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To make room for the fuse I needed to ditch some old shelves from the garage.
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Uh - this is where the roof that our house builders installed leaked. Dumped a bunch of water on my instruments, fortunately everything was sealed in bags.
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The static tubing is now installed - this was a royal pain in the ass. Needed to use hot water to expand the tubes for the T fitting.
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The four rivets in the middle were only installed as pop rivets by the QB guys for some reason. I drilled out the pop rivets and installed the rivets in the plans.
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The horizontal stabilizer is now installed. Pretty F'n cool.
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The rear snowboard support is now bolted in place, as are the seatbelt cables.
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More pretty pictures.
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I made this cool aluminum drill block to hold the two arms perpendicular and drilled the two arms.
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The aft spar is drilled - I used a 3/16 bit as a spacer.
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Now that the elevators are temporarily installed I can install the elevator pushrod and set the exact length, per plans.
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I've drilled the back of the stab.
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I used a 12 inch #30 drill bit to help ensure that the hole is perfectly perpendicular.
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The plans say to trim 5/8 inch off the bottom of the VS front spar. I'm a plans following monkey.
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Clamping the front VS spar bracket in place.
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Drilled, countersunk and riveted the aft tiedown bracket.
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Countersunk the top two aft skin holes so I can rivet this someday.
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Clamping the elevator stop in position - I needed to trim a bit off of the longerons so the VS would be able to sit flush with the bulkhead and this stop.
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Pilot drilled the front VS bracket.
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Damn - it kinda looks like an airplane.
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After lots of measuring I'm ready to drill the bottom four bolt holes for the VS.
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Also after centering the VS on the offset front bracket, I could drill the holes for the rivets. I was only able to reach seven holes while on the fuse. The others will have to be drilled later.
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Oops - that previous entry was wrong, now I'm preparing to drill the bottom four holes.
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The bottom VS holes are now drilled.
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Now the front VS bracket can be drilled to full size and removed.
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The top four rivet holes needed to be drilled off of the plane.
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The plans call for adding two rivets to the bottom hinge bracket, so I drilled and countersunk these holes. Later I riveted these two rivets.
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Pretty - However, the middle bearing needs to be adjusted slightly.
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I used a unibit to expand the openings for the VSI and altimeter.
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Turned out pretty good - I needed to cut a slot for the CDI knob as well. This picture makes the holes look kinda rough but they are really quite nice.
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Started mating the rudder bottom fairing by first trimming to the lines on the part. This was kinda a mistake, cause the cutout they have marked for the rudder horn isn't quite in the right place.
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Installed a few MK 319 pop rivets on holes that were inaccessible for bucking. About four on the rudder.
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Trimmed the bottom fairing.
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Fortunately my old composite airplane tools included a long angle aluminum sanding block.
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Today went to fly in my friend Hedley's Pitts. Alas, had to bail cause a couple of the plugs were severely fouled.
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However, I did notice a Grob at the field, it has the ELT remote control mounted on the back of the baggage bulkhead. Exactly where I had been considering it for my RV. If my DAR has questions about this location, I'll point to this Grob as an example. You can dimly see the ACK control panel through the canopy.
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I could have done a better job jigging the fairing. However, this is my first time mating fiberglass to metal - I picked this part cause it won't be so visible. A bit of micro and all will be well (I think).
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Mating the filler pieces to the panel, match drilling per the Affordable Panels plans. Very fun.
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Drilled first with a #27 bit, then expanded to #19 after using the filler piece as a drill jig for both sides.
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Countersink for the screws.
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Countersink for the rivets that hold in the nutplates.
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I match drilled the NACA air inlets to the fuse walls.
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I made a bunch of these little aluminum 'washers' to go behind the pop rivets when they attach the NACA ducts to the fuse. Otherwise the pop rivets would pull right through the plastic.
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Eww - the dreaded proseal. Used to seal the NACA ducts to the skins.
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Done - it turned out real nice.
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The plug I needed for the unused gascolator outlet arrived a few days ago, so I installed it with a bit of fuel lube.
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All the various battery box bits are now fully assembled. I had been waiting for the last parts to get painted.
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The pitch servo can now be bolted into place. I used drilled head AN3 bolts - I'll safety these later.
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In order to fabricate the flap pushrods I needed to make a jig to hold the rod while tapping. I drilled a slightly undersized hole then cut this block in two.
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Taping away...
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Two finished pushrods.
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The pitch servo pushrod is now installed - I needed to fabricate a spacer first. The adjusted length of the pushrod still isn't quite right. I'll need to make sure there is no way the controls can jam.
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Pretty.
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Test fitting the Dynon mag compass bracket I have fabricated.
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Begin rough triming the fiberglass end piece for the hstab.
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Expanding a hole in one of the aft bulkheads so I can route wires to the tail.
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After much net reading I chose this location to install a plastic grommet for the tail light wiring.
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Began installing the rudder stops (per plans). Some filing will be needed later.
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Beginning to install the crotch strap kit.
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I removed the VS so I could squeeze the aft two rivets on each rudder stop.
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Drilling the crotch bulkheads for nutplates.
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Countersunk the various rivet holes in the crotch kit.
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Fabricated the PA-1 panel stiffener, match drilled, and countersunk holes for the 1/8" rivets that hold the stiffener to the panel.
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Drilled the panel filler pieces for the headphone/microphone jacks.
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Match drilling the radio stack brackets to the panel.
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A bit of scotchbrite action was needed to let the garmin tray fit into the radio stack opening.
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Just making sure the radio fits in the opening.
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I've just match drilled a couple of rivet holes in the switch panel for the angle that mounts it to PA-1 stiffener.
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Cutting openings for the vents into the switch panel bracket.
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Drilling the switch panel brackets for the skin holes. Later I installed these brackets then match drilled these holes into the skin.
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I don't remember what I was doing in this picture, but damn that is a nice job of riveting.
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Drilling #40 holes in the switch panel stiffener for the rivets that will hold this stiffener to the panel.
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Match drilling the stiffener to the switch sub panel.
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Not a bad job of riveting. I've learned that for best apperances you should err on the side of countersinking a bit too deep rather than too shallow.
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Begin fabricating mounting brackets for the strobe powersupply. I'm going to mount the supply just aft of the baggage compartment, but I want to raise it up from the floor to make room for nutplates. I did a bunch of other stuff today, but it was down in the garage and I forgot to take pictures (mostly panel install stuff).
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Match drilling the air panels.
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Match drilling the side brackets to the panel.
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Getting ready to rough cut the subpanel for the radio stack.
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Subpanel now cut for the radios - I'll add angle to stiffen things back up.
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Almost looks like a radio stack.
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Drilling the strobe mount bracket.
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Cutting the boost pump stiffener panel.
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Fabricating the parking brake bracket by match drilling from the standard bracket.
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The parking brake bracket is now countersunk.
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Drilling the wheel nuts for the axle lift.
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A bunch of parts ready for priming.
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The panel brackets are now match drilled to the fuse and can be countersunk.
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Countersinking.
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Adding screw holes for the PA-1 angle.
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Drilling the nutplates for the switch panel support.
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Pretty - the center support for the switch subpanel is attached.
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Adding nutplates to the PA-1 panel stiffener angle.
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The strobe brackets are now ready to be match drilled to the bottom of the fuse.
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Countersinking the rivet holes for the radio stack brackets.
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Drilling the various holes in the switch panel - slowly working up drill sizes and using a bit of angle as a drill 'fence'. I've used a center punch to mark optional holes for future switches on the back of the panel.
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Part way through sub panel drilling.
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The panel is drilled! Cool beans!
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Used a 10-32 tap for the axle nut/nutplate bracket.
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Riveted the nutplate to the axle bracket.
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Pretty. The axle nutplates are on.
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The parts are now primed.
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A bit of Rustolium dark machine grey for the panel and pedals.
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Riveted on the panel nutplates and radio brackets.
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Today was priming day. Oh joy. (Yuck!)
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I've installed the crotch strap brackets for good. My crotch feels safer already.
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Installed the boost pump per plans, the ground wire attaches to one of the AN4 bolts holding the pump.
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Installed the parking brake mounting plate.
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Riveted on the panel support brackets, however later I needed to remove these to bend them to the proper angle (duh).
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The panel test fitted into place.
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You can see here where the brackets don't line up - I didn't account for the slight angle of the sides.
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Riveted the front bracket onto the VS.
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Fitting the fuel selector into place. I needed to drill the hole slightly off center to allow for the fittings on the bottom of the valve.
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My first disaster bending tubing - I called Ed D. from the EAA and he says I really need to use the lever type tubing bender rather than the crappy spring bender. Threw this piece in the scrap pile.
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Pretty - the panel now fits pretty good with the cleaned up brackets.
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Installed the Dynon so that I could level the remote compass.
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This is the compass rack - it seems level within .1 degree.
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My neighbor Joe helped me use a hammer (yuck!) to dimple the rudder cable hold downs.
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Fitting the ground terminal plate in position.
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Post riveting on the firewall side.
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I fabricated aluminum spacers for the elevator horn/pushrod bolt. The washers would have been a nightmare to deal with. (Done per plans)
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Adjusted the length on the pitch servo pushrod - I think this is good for flight, except for torquing jam nuts.
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Drill holes for the brake lines between the passenger and pilot peddals.
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Installed the bulkhead fittings where the brake lines go to the wheels.
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Much better results bending the tubing today. This is the right brake line, turned out pretty good.
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A photo of the run to the wheel bulkhead.
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Becky was able to fight her video game addiction long enough to help rivet the strobe brackets to the belly.
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The left brake line is now installed - not quite as nice as the right line, but not horrible.
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Installed brake fittings to peddals.
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All fittings now in.
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Fabbed the master/starter solenoid stiffener plate.
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Installed fuel vent fittings on the side.
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A huge pain - bending, installing the fuel vent line.
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Nice - right vent line installed.
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Done with the right.
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The left vent line turned out even nicer.
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The main fuel line is installed from pump to gascolator.
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Look at the immense amount of crap generated/needed to bend these tubes.
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The fuel line from the selector valve to pump is now in. Certainly safe, but I might make another with prettier curves.
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Not a plane picture - somehow a picture of my leaking roof showed up here.
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Riveted in the radio stack.
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The initial cut for the flap pushrods.
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Put the panel back in.
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Partially installed the aileron electric trim.
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I forget what this photo is for.
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Install some wire supports in the elevator tunnel.
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Use a few pop rivets to install some inaccessible nutplates that I've been meaning to put in for a while.
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Fabricate and install seat hinges.
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Cut cardboard templates for acoustic insulation.
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Install fuse panel.
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Install padded clamps for wires.
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Making a support panel for the radio stack.
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Drilled the radio support panel.
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Jigging the radio stack panel for cutting.
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Used a router to cut off the bottom part of the radio stack panel. Looks great.
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Fuse panels labeled.
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The audio panel is now in.
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Install the transducer manifold.
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Installed brake lines between the pilot/copilot.
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I used my air saw to cut the upper radio stack panel.
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A couple of days of trimming were needed to fit these aluminium panel pieces. I was gone for eight days on vacation, but I'm glad to be back.
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I drilled a hole for our parking brake control cable.
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Cutting hole in baggage bulkhead for the ELT control panel.
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Fabricated a couple of per plans copper bars to connect the master and starter solenoids.
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Solenoids installed - I still need to install the OV protection solenoid, but want to see where space is available after installing the engine mount.
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Bus bar installed.
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Yuck - proseal needed for the firewall recess install.
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Firewall recess mostly riveted, but I dinged the bottom corner pretty good before I realized I had forgotten a stiffener. Ugh.
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I really did do some building today - but forgot the camera.
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I really did do some building today - but forgot the camera.
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A couple of spacers fabbed for the elevator middle bearing. Wanted to do this before I needed to take the tail off.
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Okay - the tail is off - it was taking up too much space, I'll leave it off till it comes time for final installation.
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Installed a last troubling brake line fitting - this tube seemed a little fatter than the others.
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Install a bnut on the cabin heat, and fab two radio panel support nutplates.
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Fabbed the damn stiffener I forgot for the firewall recess.
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Install the radio panel supports and match drill them to the frame.
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Install fuel and oil pressure lines.
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Now that the tail is off, I can rivet the aft two rivets for the longeron.
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Also rivet four places that were not preriveted in the QB kit.
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More tedium making patterns for the soundproofing panels - almost done with this crap.
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Spend a bit of time supporting the tail pieces from the ceiling of the garage.
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Begin running wires to the tail.
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Strobe power supply is partially wired.
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Wires going through the hole I needed to expand in one of the aft bulkheads.
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I had to wait at home much of the day to meet the shipping company.
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The fedex guy did a good job unloading this large crate.
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A bunch of stuff tightly packed.
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Unloaded temporarily in the garage for inventory.
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Huge quantities of packing paper for recycling.
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Running nav light wires to the panel.
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Trying to install the lamb tire in the nosewheel - someone on the web said you can use a bunch of clamps to preclude the possibility of pinching a tube. Didn't work for me - I killed one tube.
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From now on I'm going to use a small piece of metal (feeler gauge?) to push any rubber from between the two halves of the nosewheel before tightening.
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|
Drilled the engine mount for the nose gear.
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Deburr the various holes in the gear/mount.
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Install nose gear stop.
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Deburr the edges on a bunch of finish kit parts, including these wheelpant supports.
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Start installing the brake brackets on the main gear - I'll need to make some spacers before I can finish this.
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Put a wheel on so I can check sizes on spacers - I need 1/16" clears between the disc and the wheel pant bracket.
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The dead tube from my first nosewheel attempt - pinched in three places.
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Retrying the multi clamp technique, eventually I gave up and went to the 'push in some smooth metal to keep the tube out of the crack technique'.
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Much better - worked real nice.
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On one of the brake calipers I swapped the bleed fitting so that both fittings will face towards the floor (duh). A little bit of permatex #2 on the threads.
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I checked the calipers to make sure they were installed in the correct direction - apparently some cleveland brakes were misassembled. I presume based on that problem the've now started stamping in this warning.
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Installed the 90 deg aero fitting on the break calipers.
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Finished wiring the strobe, so I can rivet on the turtle deck.
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Tail wiring bundle complete (added a few more ties after this photo)
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Snowboard rack is rivetted in and covered with a bit of the protective UMTW (or whatever the hell) tape.
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Drill and rivet the baggage bulkhead to longeron gusset.
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Started riveting all the turtledeck rivets I can reach by myself. Tomorrow Max is going to come help rivet, cause this riveting needs more 'man juice' than Beck's little arms can offer. ;-)
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Pretty - started riveting.
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Start match drilling the slider roll bar per plans.
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A slight amount of squeezing was needed to get the roll bar to the proper width (1/16" too wide)
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Really nice - pretty much done, I'll need to fix a few little things tomorrow. Thanks Max!
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After lots of fitting, drilled #40 pilot holes for the roll bar.
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My belt sander exploded and sucked in one of the C-668 parts I was working on. After a fair amount of dissasembly I was able to extract the part - it had a few scratches but they were easily removed with the scotch bright wheel.
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It seems that the C-668's as supplied by Van's don't match the full size blueprint drawings. After trimming two to match the size of the drawing I found that they did not fit tightly in the plane.
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The problem is that the middle line in the C-668 detail view on dwg. 42 is drawn at the wrong location. I guess I'll be ordering two replacement C-668's.
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Assembled the canopy slide rollers (per plans)
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Rough cutting the canopy slider rails to size.
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Checking the bend on the canopy slider spacer.
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Received the aeroshell #5 grease I ordered from some web supplier, I needed it for the wheel bearings but this will be enough for twenty planes.
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I feel like I'm in a bugs bunny cartoon - using my 55 lbs anvil to bend my top/aft slider rail.
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Drilling pilot holes in the slider spacer for the various rivets and screws. For the screws I intentionally did not drill all the way through the spacer, cause it looks to me that the screw positions might change slightly from plans.
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I was worried about making sure that the slider spacer was centered exactly below the slider rail when drilling, but then I thought of using the 'doghouse sealer piece' (forget the part number) as a jig. It worked great, just slid it along the rail as I match drilled #40 holes.
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Close-up on the rail.
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Another close-up.
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A bit of countersinking - Countersunk the spacer, rail and an old firewall stiffener.
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Drilling pilot holes in the slider tracks (per plans).
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Match drilling the engine mount to the firewall.
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Finished match drilling the engine mount to the firewall. Broke a crap drill bit so had to go to home depot and buy a quality 3/8" bit and a non cordless drill.
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iPhoto is a piece of crap - it ate three days of pictures. However today I worked on the steps and removing the baggage compartment floor. Originally I had thought I wouldn't need steps, because RV-6A's I've seen didn't seem too high and Van's called the steps optional. However, looking at the gear made me do some math and on the RV-7A the plane is much higher. 28" from ground to wing trailing edge when measured at the fuse. I could barely make that step, and most others certainly could not. So I ordered the step kits and started the painful process of installing them. Installation would have been easy if I did it before the floors were in. Ugh.
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Ugh - thus begins the hell that is the steps. Spent many days on something that would have been a couple of evenings if I had done this before installing the baggage floor. When Van's says that the steps are 'optional' they lie.
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Marking rivet holes in the steps prior to drilling #40 pilots.
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Done drilling.
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The other step also.
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Drill #30 pilot holes in the center step bearing blocks, drill to final size in assembly.
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Both blocks now drilled.
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Drilled the steps to the fuse, big pain repeatedly fitting removing, bending, fitting.
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Because the access under the floor sucks, I used a 12" drill bit to drill the step to the bearing block.
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Expand step holes to final size once removing from fuse.
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Now that the blocks have been match drilled to the god damned baggage bulkheads, expand to #10 cause plastic will shrink back to #12.
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|
The steps now go in the 'to prime' pile.
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This is me trying to be arty as I photograph drilling these C-668 roll bar spacers.
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Start at #40 down in the garage, then expand to #30, #19, #12 and for the aft spacers 1/4" inch.
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The spacers look great. Nicely deburred.
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Marking the rollbar to avoid confusion when I drill out these holes to full size. The aft holes go to 1/4"
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Rollbar holes drilled.
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|
Today is priming day, the parts have been alumiprepped and are drying.
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Various parts are primed and drying. Also painted a few panel pieces.
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Not sure why this picture of my badge is here.
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Making sure the step bearings fit.
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Match drilled the aft slider bearing with the frame.
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Bolted bearing to frame - now that I think about it this part will probably come on and off thirty times over the next few weeks. Shouldn't have bolted it in place.
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I've been meaning to fix this for a while - I didn't sufficently countersink a few nutplate rivets on the flap cover. Finally drilled out the rivets, countersunk a bit more.
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Pretty. The flap cover is now done.
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Bolted the rollbar in place, making sure it is square with the longerons. My level is +/- .1 deg, so I guess this is 90 degrees. ;-)
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Shot a bunch of LPS 3 inside the steps, cause I doubt my spraypaint totally covered the inside of the tubes.
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Assembling the steps to the fuse, this _really_ sucked. A full day to get 20 rivets and six bolts. Lots of pain too.
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Van's claimed I could install the steps without removing these rivets. I think the cuts on my arms prove otherwise. Screw it - drill out the rivets and reinstall later.
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This little gap under the floor was my only access for installing the step bolts.
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Better photo.
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My reflection as I'm working on the steps.
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Finally done with the steps. Tomorrow night, I'll reinstall the floors and conduit.
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|
Since I had the flap channel out, I took the opportunity to permanently attach the motor.
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I've attached the flap switch mechanism. Will need to finally adjust after the flaps are on.
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|
The right wheel is together enough to go on the plane and allow fairing adjustment.
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|
I needed to reuse these nutplates that I drilled out for the step installation.
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Using a dremel I expanded a hole for the moved conduit. Now that the steps are in I need to route the conduit differently.
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|
Yay, the right baggage floor is back in.
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The left floor baggage floor is in also.
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|
Pretty - a lot of pop rivets.
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Riveted in the aft VS bracket, also torqued the nuts.
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Finally put in the 'missing' firewall stiffener, so I could rivet the bottom of the recess.
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|
Rivetted in the radio support rack.
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Feed the static line fortward into the conduit.
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|
Reinstall the GNS-430 tray.
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Drilling the spring holes into the canopy handle.
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|
Assembled the handle.
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Making spacers for the wheel fairing bracket (U-810?)
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Installed the left wheel fairing support.
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Installed brakes.
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Install brake on other wheel.
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Permanently installed the conduit I've been meaning to get to.
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|
Bending brake lines for the wheels, I think I'm actually no longer crummy at this.
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The other brake line/wheel. These bends are too big - I replaced them later.
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|
Another damn wheel picture.
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Spacers for the brake line.
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Both brakes have now been rebent to fit the gap behind the brakes.
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|
I hosted an open house today, also got a technical councilor visit.
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|
The first trimming of the canopy slider frame, to make the two sides equal in height at the front.
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Initial track positioning. My hopes of lucking out and getting a frame that don't need bending are dashed. I'll need to somehow lower the rear side a bit at the top and simultaneously raise the bottom of the aft side.
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|
More boring pictures of slider fitting.
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|
Installing nutplates to hold the nav antenna triplexer.
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Installing the marker beacon receiver - however reading an IFR newsgroup makes me realize that my GPS can replace this. I'm also real tight for space in the spar wire passthroughs, so I don't want more RG-400. I'm not going to install this initially.
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Nutplates for the soon to be unused receiver.
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Install the Altrak under the left instrument panel deck.
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Triplexer installed.
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Marker beacon receiver installed.
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|
Radios installed again as a prelude to wiring.
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Installed a bit of nylon edge guard on places cables will pass through.
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|
More slider trimming, this side needs to come down 1/16"
|
Fucking slider bending. ;-)
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|
More bending.
|
|
Sorting through left over parts from the steps, so I can put them in the correct bins.
|
About to drill a hole for the Altrak switch.
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|
The dynon EMI errata says to be sure there is good ground contact on each of the four mounting screws. So I've removed the primer on the back of each of the Dynon holes.
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Installing nuts on the VSI, I'm installing a bunch of the steam gauges now.
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|
Pretty - gauges are in. Waiting for the wing leveller and engine instruments. My custom avionics will go in the lower left hole.
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|
Fabricating a bracket for extra support on the transponder.
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Panel pieces back in.
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|
Match drilled the transponder support bracket.
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Installed the overvoltage protection contactor.
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Installed the alternator fuseable link bracket.
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Switch subpanel installed for wiring.
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|
Other side of the panel.
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Working on anything I can to avoid the damn slider bending. Here are the snap bushings for the control cables.
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|
Engine controls installed. Not sure how to fabricate the support bracket.
|
Firewall side of the control cables.
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|
Control cables down near the peddals.
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|
Nice wiring bundle under the baggage floor.
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Bundle going to the pitch servo.
|
|
Feeding in pitot/static/AOA tubes.
|
Battery can go in now.
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|
Drilling a different than stock wing wiring hole. This allows a straight shot into the conduit.
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The left spar passthrough is getting a bit tight, so the left wing antenna wire needs to come through the seat ribs.
|
|
The left antenna wire is in.
|
Misc fuse side wiring - this mess looks better later on.
|
|
Begin wiring the switches.
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|
Install zerk fitting in the nose gear.
|
Install nose wheel into the nose fork.
|
|
Put grease on the nose bearings - per plans.
|
My avionics project received the wrong part - returning.
|
|
Recieve the silka adhesive I think I'm going to use on the canopy.
|
Install the compass in the right panel.
|
|
Apply tung oil to make the stick grips a bit prettier.
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|
More jig work to bend the canopy.
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|
Bending the square canopy frame.
|
|
Using a countersink bit as a 1/2" drill for the seat ribs.
|
Drill holes for the fuel level sender wires.
|
|
Using a DB-25 connector for the pilot's stick.
|
Stick wiring connector in.
|
|
Feeding in coax for the belly comm antenna.
|
|
Permanently attach aileron trim servo.
|
Wiring bundles over the floor.
|
|
Forward floor bundle.
|
Making sure the center floor cover fits in.
|
|
More switch wiring.
|
Pilot side switch wiring.
|
|
Firewall to floor bundle.
|
|
The copper bars between the starter and master solenoids were too fat to allow wire connections to those solenoids. Therefore I've fabbed this jumper out of 6AWG.
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OV contactor connected.
|
|
More fuseblock wiring.
|
More pilot side switch wiring.
|
|
Replacing the AN4-12A bolts with AN4-13As - the bolts Van's called for were too short. Huge pain in the ass.
|
|
The new main gear bolts torqued.
|
|
The other me, and my neighbors Jay and Diane tried to put on the gear. Too dangerous just lifting the heavy fuse. Therefore I've assembled my old engine hoist.
|
Scary - lifing the fuse, but everything worked fine.
|
|
Cool! The main gear is in. I've also realized I can't put in the nose gear until I have more weight up front.
|
Alas, this needs to come off.
|
|
Today I did misc electrical stuff - but forgot to take a better picture.
|
Installing the brake lines to the wheels. Pretty.
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|
More wiring... ;-)
|
Wiring...
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|
Firewall wires in.
|
|
Garage cleaning day.
|
A small sample of the crap I've created.
|
|
Fuse turned around for better firewall access.
|
Installing belly antenna with a bit of dilectric grease.
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|
Torque the main gear to the gear mount.
|
Pretty - Belly antenna in.
|
|
Installing the cabin heat valve - with a bit of high temp RTV.
|
Torque the engine controls to the panel.
|
|
Cabin heat valve mounted to firewall.
|
Drilling holes for the parking brake cable bracket.
|
|
Cutting parking brake cable to length.
|
|
The parking brake cable is ready.
|
Rivetted the frame stiffener to the frame.
|
|
Made a spiffy joggle for this bracket to mount the backup radio.
|
Put a bit of tape around the gear, to keep me from tripping over the gear brackets.
|
|
Finished riveting the subpanel radio brackets. I had been waiting till the instrument panel was apart.
|
Add a bit of nylon webbing around the pitot/static/AOA tubes, to provid a bit of protection when this is mounted down behind the carpet.
|
|
Added a bracket to keep the transponder from sliding around. Used pop rivets so it is easy to drill out for future avionics upgrades.
|
Realized I needed to drill a hole in the sub panel for the CDI cable to not have a nasty bend.
|
|
Working on radio wiring.
|
|
Subpanel passthroughs for Dynon and CDI. A bit of nylon combing for wiring protection. A bit of RTV to hold in the combing.
|
More fuse panel wiring.
|
|
Begin making a bracket for the audio panel speaker.
|
Cut down the copilot stick to compensate for how much longer the teak stick grips are.
|
|
Remove a bit of the copilot stick powdercoat to make the grip fit. For the pilots stick I'm going to remove a little of the grip instead.
|
Cut the speaker bracket.
|
|
Finished wiring the various coax connectors (except GPS). Fun crimping.
|
Drilled the speaker brackets.
|
|
Make a stiffener for installing the primer solenoid nutplates.
|
Drilled for AN3 nutplates.
|
|
Match drilled the speaker to subpanel.
|
Drilled primer stiffener to firewall.
|
|
Riveted the primer nutplates to firewall.
|
Installing primer solenoid.
|
|
Primer solenoid installed.
|
Primer solenoid tubing attached - I'll probably remake this piece.
|
|
Drilling a couple of the aft slider track holes all the way through so I can test fit on the fuse.
|
Bending canopy - repeat this picture about a zillion times over the next few weeks.
|
|
The canopy track support threaded bar seemed too short at first, but if I'm careful to use the shear nuts and no washers it just barely fits.
|
|
Pretty - the GPS is GPSing.
|
More panel wiring harness work.
|
|
Setup GPS antenna for a test run.
|
Primer solenoid is in.
|
|
Testing the VOR reception for primary and backup radios.
|
Installed correct copper fuel line between the primer valve and the gascolator.
|
|
Making a fusable link for the battery bus feed.
|
Blew a fuse testing the overvoltage protection. Obviously you need something a bit bigger so that the slower 5AMP breaker gets a chance to open.
|
|
Diagnosing problems with the audio panel. After a bit of probing it became clear I had swapped a PNP with an NPN transistor. Not good. ;-)
|
|
Completed wiring harness for Altrak.
|
Switch electrical wiring looking neater.
|
|
Poking at the innards of the audio panel.
|
Making a DB9 connection so that the altrack switch can be disconnected for panel removal.
|
|
Working on the Dynon D10 wiring harness. Since the D10A won't have parallel style encoder output I'll need to buy a standalone encoder.
|
|
EFIS working, Altrak working.
|
Connecting the fuel pump and an unanticipated odd lens flare effect.
|
|
A less arty version.
|
Why so many damn pictures of this?
|
|
The Dynon is pretty readable in sunlight.
|
Drilling the hole for the Dynon OAT probe.
|
|
Wiring the remote compass into the harness.
|
Compass is in. The next time I need to crawl in the back I'll align and permanently attach.
|
|
Install the aux audio (iPod) jack. I used a couple 500 ohm resistors to sum the stereo output.
|
|
Installing the ELT control panel. If the FAA gives me flack about it's position, I'll point out that this is identical the the certified Grob installation.
|
The transponder needs isolation diodes so it won't pull down the encoder outputs when it is off.
|
|
Yay - the transponder is on and seems to be responding to queries.
|
|
Installed the correct screws for the fuse blocks.
|
Drilled and mounted the encoder tray.
|
|
The canopy track support now fits better.
|
More ineffective canopy bending tricks.
|
|
Cutting the AS&S fire proof acoustic foam - per Sport Aviation sound proofing article.
|
Performing my own (non scientific) burn test - even with a torch this stiff stops burning almost instantly, without nasty smoke.
|
|
After removing the torch the fire stops quickly and leaves this sort of skunged up version of the foam.
|
Recently I moved the rudder peddals to their final position. This photo also shows some early foam fitting.
|
|
More canopy bending.
|
|
Per Dan C's web site - install a few nutplates in each of the fairing that gets permanently installed above the spar. For eventual headset straps or notepad bracket.
|
Nice rivets. ;-)
|
|
Garmin says an avionics fan is 'optional' but that it will decrease the MTBF. So, I'm using a small muffin fan and an aluminum box to make a plennum. Should give about 16 CFM. $10 vs $110 for one from aircraft spruce.
|
Here you can see the output tubing to the radio.
|
|
Installing nutplates, after match drilling a couple of holes to an appropriate rib.
|
|
Making a sturdy bracket for the removable oxygen tank. I found a perfect D size bag (with pockets for cannulas) on the net for $22. This bracket fits the 2" webing on the bag and will mount to the back central seat brace.
|
|
Installing a passthrough for flap wiring in the baggage tunnel cover.
|
More bending canopy.
|
|
Finally wiring in the electric flaps. Tested and they work good.
|
Trim the left electric flap cover for the bolt at the top of the pushrod.
|
|
Today was a real bad day. The canopy was _almost_ right, just 1/8" off on one side. Tried bending a bit more and cracked an aft bow near the center member. Later went to Ed D's house where he was kind enough to fix the crack by welding. Unfortunately the break allowed the canopy to 'untwist' from tension in the original welding process and I think this bow is best replaced. New bow on the way from Van's.
|
Here is the break.
|
|
Match drilling the oxygen bracket.
|
|
Taking the canopy to Ed's for his kind help. Also cutting a bit more acoustic foam.
|
Foam cutting almost done.
|
|
Done cutting foam - total weight of all the foam is 2 lbs 13 oz. I'd say that a quieter plane is worth it.
|
Bag of cut foam, soon going into storage.
|
|
Finished the avionics fan.
|
Installed the avionics fan.
|
|
Crummy photo of the panel lighting for the switch subpanel. EL tape + inverter. Looks good, dims nicely.
|
|
Made this little LED mock-up to test placement and panel coverage.
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Trimmed the remaining untrimmed aft spar. Been meaning to do this for a while - and doing this allows me to avoid the canopy work. ;-)
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Add a bit of protection for wires near the firewall - prevent rubbing on the center floor cover.
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Canopy bending crap.
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Drilled rudder cable fairings so I can install later.
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Making gear fairings - saddly all of this work will need to be redone, I used the wrong P3 hinge. In theory I could leave it this way, but I like the more flexible pin on the correct hinges.
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Marking the cut lines
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More marking.
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Test fitting
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One of my brake lines wasn't so nice, so I made a new one.
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Cutting a hole for the brake line.
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Yay! Prop arrived - pretty blended airfoil.
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I did a _great_ job on these fairings, right until I installed the wrong hinge.
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More fairing work.
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Countersunk for the rivets.
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Pretty - this is about the time I realized I was a dumbass and used the wrong hinge.
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Holds together nicely though.
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Begin fitting the fore to aft gap on the main wheel fairings.
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Sweet - after a fair amount of fitting the pants are drilled.
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Nutplates installed after countersinking for rivets/screws/washers.
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Pretty rivets.
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Begin the rough cut for the left axle.
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Approximately fits, exact fit will depend on leveling the plane and lifting the gear.
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It turns out the left axle fits a bit too tightly to the wheel bearings. I had to diassemble the bearings to get things partially off.
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Since I used a fair amount of thin lubricant and had the wheel apart, I figured I had better clean and regrease with Aeroshell 5.
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Drilling the cotterpin hole in the axles. Per a tip from a Van's employee on the matronics list, I used a 12" bit to drill the hole while the nut was still on the gear. Results were very nice, and much easier than the involved 'punch/remove/drill/punch' dance.
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Nose gear installed.
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Initial fitting of the nose pant. Basically just following directions.
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Match drill front to back and drill the dimples for the axle.
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After countersinking and riveting the front can be attached to the back.
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After trimming the pilot stick by 3.6" length (making up for the 2.6" added by the teak grip and shortening by 1" for panel clearance) I marked the 'natural' clocking with a sharpie. Spent a fair amount of time with a bastard file slightly expanding the hole in the teak.
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Someone asked for pictures of the excellent work by classicaero on the seats - here ya' go.
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Another shop of the great work they did on the seats. The hole in the middle is for the crotch strap.
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Drill and tap the stick #8 for the grip, to prevent rotation.
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Pilot stick wired, no connector yet.
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On the matronics list a few folks were talking about how the nose spacer tends to spin and wear on the fork. The Van's recommended fix was to tap for a countersunk #8 screw just to keep things from moving. Since I have have good access now, figured I'd do it.
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Drilling the other spacer.
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Countersink for the #8 screws.
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Per plans - installing the nose axle spacers.
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Drilling the axle nose fairing attachments.
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Countersunk now riveting the nose fairing.
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One washer is needed on each side of the fork to fit the fairing mounts.
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Pretty. Test fitting the forward fairing attachments.
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More test fitting of the nose fairing.
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Match drilling the forward bracket to the nose fairing.
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Another picture - for some reason.
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Covering the holes so I can put a small amount of flox under the bracket - to fill any small gaps. (This worked real nice btw)
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A crummy picture of flox.
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Pretty- it wasn't till later I realized that I was dumb and you can't just use the measurements for mounting the pant. You need to pivot the aft down a fair amount wrt. the plans value to ensure the nose stop clears the pant.
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I made a pattern to plan my initial cut in the nose of the nose fairing.
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Lots of trim and fit action.
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Permanently install the cockpit speaker (mostly for ATIS).
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Match drill the filler panel.
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Finally riveted in the oxygen bracket.
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Install the fire extinguisher bracket.
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Parking brake cable now installed (FIXME - still need to bend a safety).
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Use the spinner stiffener as a pattern for the cut-out in the spinner.
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Make up the plumb bombs I'll use on the wing mounting.
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Using a router and dremel to cut the spinner bulkhead.
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Make a pattern and drill the rivets in the spinner bulkhead.
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Pretty - rivet holes in the spinner bulkhead.
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Deburring the spinner bulkhead.
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Almost finished with the pitot static tubing - need to order some fittings from aircraft spruce.
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Grind the alternator bracket per plans.
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Numerous folks on the vans mailing lists say a little bit of non acidic RTV on the wing root area will keep water out of the fuse.
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Ugh. Adjusting the audio panel - I think there is a resistor that is too large in the antifeedback circuit.
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Tried riveting the aft panel nutplates, but neither my squeezer nor rivet gun will reach. Fortunately I've found a cheap hand squeezer on eBay - I'll wait to use that.
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Pulled out my misplaced nose fairing brackets. I'll even need to reglass the hole I drilled for access.
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Making a pluggable passenger stick PTT switch - hidden in the removable stick.
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Working on the stick.
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Install the 1/4" plug for the hidden PTT jack.
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Finally received my Pictorial Pilot auto pilot - plugged it into my panel and it just worked. I still need ot get real screws.
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Work has been stressful lately (leaving Apple soon) - so not much plane progress. However, my engine arrived today. Too cool!
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Pretty - Aerosport rocks.
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Another picture of this pile of money.
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Nice! A new O-360-A1A with Superior and ECI parts.
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Installed flared fittings for the two primer ports - the two front cylinders.
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Remove NPT plug on cylinder three, I had originally planned to use this as my manifold pressure tap - but then decided that the other 1/8" plug on this cylinder is a better choice. This plug was in really tight. I had to pot the allen key in a bit of epoxy to ensure I would not strip the plug while removing it.
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Remove the blank cover plate that Bart installed on the governor pad.
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Begin test fitting the governor.
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The plans recommend doing the initial governor travel adjustments be done before mounting on the engine. Here I'm doing those adjustments while leaning the governor on my fancy trash can based bench.
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The manifold pressure port is installed on cylinder three - however, later I moved it to the other port on this cylinder.
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Installing the mag harness.
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All installed - trying to find if the torque for these screws are specified somewhere.
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Yuck - the proseal returns - for sealing a few gaps in the firewall recess.
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Drill/countersink and install a #12 nutplate for the vent hose.
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Proseal in these corners.
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Using my new (cheap Boeing surplus) hand squeezer, finally installed these aft nutplates.
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Install a few rivets that will be inaccessable once the engine is in.
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Take a picture of this crank part number - because it will be hard to see once the prop is on.
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Remove the governor oil line temporarily - so I have access to bolt in the engine to mount bolts.
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Remove the steel shipping supports from the engine.
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Make some fiberglass tapes to fill in the nose gear fairing. Kinda fun.
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Install the tapes I made - with a bit of peel ply for a nice/bondable finish.
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Drill the brackets in the correct position on the nose fairing.
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Safetied the two prop governor control arms.
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Use a bit of flox to glue in the brackets (thus filling small gaps between the aluminum and the fiberglass). After the expoxy cures, I'll install the four rivets.
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Per the prop governor's manual - clean the mating surface 'reel gud' with MEK.
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Crummy picture, but the governor is approximately in - with DC 7 to dress the gasket.
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My thin washers arrived, so I could finish torqing the firewall bolts and safety.
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Bonus picture.
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Somewhere in the plans they say to drill a 1/8" hole just aft of each bulkhead to let water that gets into the fuse (presumably mostly via the empenage fairing) a way out.
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Finish up the forward static tubing.
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Install static run to the altitude encoder.
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Install the DB25 connector for the 'kevin' avionics box.
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I've decided to change from my surplus Whelen power supply to a more modern automotive strobe unit - but I need to make a short adapter cable.
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Getting ready to hang the engine - lube up the lord mounts with DC 7. Oh yeah.
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Move the engine into position for when people come over to help hang it.
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Cut the safetywire and remove the oil filter, so the engine will fit into the mount.
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Pretty - the oil filter is obviously new - I guess Aerosport installed this one after running on the test stand.
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I was able to put the first bolt in myself.
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The FAA supposedly wants pictures of me building the airplane - but I usually don't have anyone to hold the camera. In this case Sta took a photo.
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Group photo of the three engine hangars.
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Alumiprep a few misc pieces for priming.
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Putting the filter back on (with some DC-7)
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Finally bolt the the governor to 95 inch/lbs - now that the bracket can go on.
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Install the carb control bracket on the sump - a bit of dremel action was needed expand the bracket holes to match the studs. I put the usual DC-7 on the gaskets.
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The carb is now approximately in (bolts not torqued yet).
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This manifold pressure hose is a bit too long, but couldn't really find any place better on the firewall so I went ahead and installed the hose/bulkhead in the plans specified positions.
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Bummer - Van's firewall forward kit calls for a straight fitting on the inlet of the fuel pump. However, there is no way for the Van's hose to clear the prop governor boss on my constant speed engine. Fortunately I had an extra 45deg compression fitting - story continued below.
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A photo record of hte fuel pump install before I remove the pump. I need to remove the pump to install a 45 degree fitting on the inlet.
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Just cause I had it open - take a picture of the inside of the fuel pump mount hole. Presumably that peg on the left moves when the engine is running.
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Photo of the removed pump.
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Don't remember what this photo was about.
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Safety the fuel pump bolts after reinstallation. I'll probably replace this safety wire at some point, not the prettiest ever - but the access sucks.
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Test fit the lightspeed coils.
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Grind down the lightspeed bracket so it fits the recess that was so handily included in my engine.
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Prime various parts.
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Adjust and torque the mixture pushrod.
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Put a bit of antiseize on the various exhaust pipes where they mate with each other.
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Lightspeed bracket installed.
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Part of the exhaust is in - though not torqued anywhere near final values.
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Cabin heat muff temporarily installed - to check clearances.
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Throttle cable pushrod attached to carb and torqued.
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Temporarily install the lightspeed coils.
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Installed the heat shield that protects the fuel line from the exhaust stack.
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Per plans - put a joggle into the alternator bracket.
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Rivetted the spinner bracket together.
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Installed the carb heat baffle. However, I'd like to move it down to a pipe that has two cylinders worth of heat.
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Torque the pushrod bearing onto the prop governor.
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Measure the depth of the spinner to make sure the prop hub will fit.
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Temporarily mounted the spinner on the prop.
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Now that the engine bolts are torqued I can bend over the cotter pins.
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Reinstall the prop governor oil line (not yet torqued).
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A small amount of grinding was necessary to get the tach cover to fit onto the engine.
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A documentary photo of the alternator belt that seems to fit best. Top Cog 15360 - After I fit the cowl I'll know better if this is truly the correct fit.
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Fabricated the exhaust supports.
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Per plans fabricate the bracket that goes from the alternator to the starter.
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I've recently heard the FAA wants to see your face in these photos, so I'm trying to put myself into the picture more often.
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Tightening the prop bolts to the crankshaft.
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Pretty - photo of the front of the fuselage.
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The prop is on now (not yet torqued).
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Now the prop is on!
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Clean out the garage so I can move the fuse to the other side of the garage (proto wing mounting).
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Begin fitting the cowl
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Remaking the main gear fairings, because I used the wrong hinges the first time (dumbass!). This picture is the remove twist/clamp/mark/trim stage.
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All trimmed now.
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Wearing a mask because I'm doing fiberglass.
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Using a bit of plastic tube as a drill spacer for the #42 bit when drilling the fiberglass.
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Pretty - the fairing is now drilled to the hinges.
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Photo from above.
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Riveting the hinges to the fairings (after upping the sizes to #40).
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Cutting the slots so the fairing can get clamped to the gear leg.
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Bent and installed the hinge pins.
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The fairings are virtually done.
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Using a copycat tool to get an initial idea of the cutout needed on the spinner.
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Goofy photo to keep the FAA happy - cutting the spinner.
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One of a zillion trips to trim a bit more out of the spinner.
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Spinner approximately fits (as long as the prop blades don't go to fine pitch).
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Clamping on a board so that I can twist the prop to fine pitch for more spinner trimming.
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Rough cutting the trailing edge on the main fairings
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Draining the preservative oil from the cylinders. There was a _lot_ of oil. Necessary so I can start spinning the prop to check tracking on the spinner.
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Cool photo of more oil coming out.
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Per plans - check the track of the spinner. Mine is within 1/16" inch - beyond that I'm not certain. Seems spot on.
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Another keep the FAA happy picture of me actually showing my ugly face. Drilling the spinner to the spinner bulkhead with #40 bits.
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Everything now drilled to #30.
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Countersink the spinner for the numerous tinnerman washers.
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Clecoing on nutplates so I can match drill the rivet holes.
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Expanding all the screw holes to #19.
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Begin squeezing rivets on the nutplates. Later I changed to the hand squeezer, which worked much better in this situation.
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More nutplate rivets.
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Torque and safety the forward spinner bulkhead.
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Test out all the nutplates by torquing all the screws.
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I started with a cardboard template then moved up to this .016 aluminum template for the aft cutout fill piece. Eventually I'll transfer this to .040.
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I slid the aft filler back a bit to get an idea of how much trimming is needed for the fine pitch condition.
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A close up of one of the AN4 bolts holding on the OV protection relay.
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Detail photo of the nuts holding on the overvoltage protection relay. If I had been thinking I would have used nutplates here.
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A detail photo of the nuts holding on the current limiter. I used the existing gascolator stiffener as a backing plate.
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Shaping the spinner filler piece with a drum sander.
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Making the backplates that are used to screw the spinner to the filler piece.
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Testing the fit of the nutplate to the spinner.
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One spinner filler done, working on the other.
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Cut down a 3/4" wrench so someone can weld it to a socket.
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Ready to weld my prop wrench.
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Unbolt the spinner backplate so I can rivet on the nutplates.
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The spinner is looking pretty good.
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Remove the #3 oil return line so I can fit the baffles.
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Storing away the return line and the constant speed pil line.
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Deburring the baffles.
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Rough cut the cowl oil door.
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Marking the initial cut lines on the oil door.
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Fabbed the oil door hinge - test fitting for the cut.
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The oil door is now sanded to size.
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Test fit of the oil door hinge - spacers will be needed.
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The hinge is drilled to the cowl, about to drill to the door.
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A scary picture of me to keep the FAA happy. Notice the spacers on the oil door.
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Begin cutting the hartwell latches in the oil door.
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The latches are mostly done - a little bit more trimming.
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Making the initial cut in the cowl for the nose gear leg.
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The bottom cowl can now slide on far enough to mark trim lines
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Rivet the latches and hinge to the oil door.
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A photo of me doing nasty fiberglass work on the nose fairing.
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This was fun. Using a metal cutting circular saw blade I made fast work of cutting the camlock backplates.
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Raise the nose up so I can put the nose fairing on for one last fit.
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Nose leg fairing now riveted together.
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The bottom of the nose leg fairng.
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Test fitting the screen for my custom avionics box.
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Cutting the hole for the avonics screen.
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Drill the mounting holes for my little atmel micro controller.
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Screen temporarily installed.
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From the front.
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Match drill the camlock supports.
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Dimple the firewall flange.
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More camlock match drilling.
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A zillion clecos to put in the forward top panel without messing up any holes.
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Done drilling the right camlock panel.
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Drilling the top camlock panel.
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More camlock drilling
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I'll try to make this gap even while fitting cowl.
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More cowl fitting.
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Drill/countersink/dimple the camlock panel/spacers.
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Countersinking the camlock panels.
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Dimpling the camlock spacers.
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Done with the dimpling/deburring.
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First cowl rough cut and a really ugly picture of me.
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Lots of sanding/grinding to get the top and bottom cowls to fit together.
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Marking the real trim line on the top of the top cowl.
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Airplane jinga. First attempt at a spacer for the vertical position of the top cowl. Later on I switched to clecoing a bit of angle to the cowl and resting it on the spinner - worked much better.
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One of a zillion test fittings of the cowl.
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Really slow - sanding 1/32" off at a time.
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A little bit of twist to get the cowl in position.
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Cutting lightening/bend holes in the camlock panels.
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More bend holes.
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Drill a few #42 pilot holes to hold the cowl for remaining assembly.
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Pretty.
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Beginning to fit the bottom of the cowl.
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Mating the top and bottom together so I can drill four temporary holes for clecos.
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Marking the trim line on the bottom cowl.
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Trim the bottom of the cowl.
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More fit and trim of the cowl.
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More trim and fit of the cowl.
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The cowl looks pretty good - this photo was at an angle - I think the plane is actually straight.
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More fitting on the bottom cowl.
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For the first time the bottom of the cowl can be in place by itself.
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Remove the dessicant plugs and recharge.
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Squirt more oil in the cylinders and do a few turns per lycoming preservation note.
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Clecos to hold the sides together for installing the camlock stiffener.
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Add cutout in the FAB top plate for the carb float bowl.
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The FAB airbox kit calls for a different plug in the float bowl.
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Fabbed a .040 spacer for the FAB to compensate for the dimensions of my carb.
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Flute the airbox top plate to keep things nice and flat.
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Begin test fitting the FAB box, to set the intake to match thw cowl.
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Nice photo in the air intake opening.
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Match drill the FAB top plate to the carb plate.
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Bend the FAB plate to match the location of the intake in the cowl.
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Test the bend in the FAB box.
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Match drill the FAB box.
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Drill the FAB for nutplates and the filter retainer.
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A nice self portrait of my FAB airbox.
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The FAB box gets trimmed for the nose gear.
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Working on the bottom lip of the FAB box and its match to the cowl.
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Crummy photo of the airbox.
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Pretty.
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Trying to lock in the correct angle for the bottom of the airbox.
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Begin cutting baffles.
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Baffle trim.
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Test fit the inlet ramps - so I can trim baffles.
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More baffle trim.
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Forward baffle floor trim.
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Match drill the right baffle floor stiffener.
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Right floor drilled.
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Left baffle stiffener.
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Misc baffle stiffeners.
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Setting the height of the left inlet.
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Left baffle floor support.
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Initial right inlet fitting.
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FAB airbox bypass hole
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The hinge for the FAB bypass.
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More hinge work.
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FAB bypass magnet mount.
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Epoxied in place and riveted.
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Begin fitting the baffle just aft of the spinner.
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Oil and fuel pressure senders installed (but not wired).
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Fabricate various angles for the forward vertical baffle.
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Forward baffle fitting.
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Drill the arm that holds the forward baffle to the engine.
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Match drill the two halfs of the forward baffle.
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Support angles for the foward baffle.
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More baffle fitting.
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Baffles forever...
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Crappy safety wire job on the lightspeed coil bracket - I'll replace this at some point.
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Final forward FAB airbox trim.
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Install hinge on FAB airbox.
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Cool! The carb heat door.
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Back side of carb heat door.
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The hot air inlet for the FAB box.
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Trimming the forward baffle.
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Fix the broken epoxy place holders on the foam inlet plug.
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Baffles removed for more fitting/drilling off engine.
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Match drilling baffle reinforcements.
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Match drilling the cabin heat inlet on the aft baffle.
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Installing a stiffener on the right rear baffle.
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Begin mocking up the oil cooler location.
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Match drilling angles on the forward baffle.
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Drill the cabin air hole in the right rear baffle.
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Use scotchbright wheel to make the cabin heat hole real smooth.
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Match drilling the oil cooler bracket to the baffle.
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Match drilling the two left baffles together.
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Some of the rivets sit below the cooling fins - so they must be countersunk. Unfortunately not enough room for the microstop cage so I did it by hand.
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Oil cooler opening is rough cut.
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Stiffeners for left aft baffle.
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Glassing in a recess for the gear into the FAB airbox. Also glass the sides where the airbox needed to be cut to fit.
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Oops - need to make a bit more space, so I'll cut this extra area out of the FAB.
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Precut the 9oz BID glass that I'll use for the airscoop extension. Need to add 1 1/4" to reach the FAB.
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Pretty - glassed in my extension. Later I'll chip away the foam.
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More baffle trimming.
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In order to go from stop to stop on the throttle, I needed to drill a new hole 3/8" in from the old carb throttle arm hole. From talking with Van's this is apparently the standard solution.
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Drilled/dimpled a bracket for mounting my GPS antenna under the cowl.
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Riveted the GPS antenna bracket.
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Reinstalled the carb linkage and adjusted travel. After taking this picture I safetied both nuts on the linkage.
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Cut a bit out of the nose leg fairing to clear the FAB.
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Cut a slot for the left bottom cowl - so I can adjust the shape of the cowl to fit my fuse. I'll glass in a reinforcement after jigging the cowl to the firewall.
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Extend the nose gear slot slightly forward - so I can remove the bottom cowl without removing the leg fairing.
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Cool photo.
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Remove the foam from the air inlet extension.
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Drill the inner #8 screw holes for the cowl.
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Remove excess material from the center bottom of the cowl - I was keeping it around, but I now see it needs to go.
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|
Drilled the side holes in the cowl.
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Cut backing plates for the side camlocks from .050 2024.
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Match drill the camlock plates to the sides.
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Mark where camlocks will need to go on the side plates - for the remaining area, drill some holes so the flox can get a good bond to the plates.
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Glassing in the side plates.
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Becky's so cute - emergency fiberglass asssistance.
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The skybolt folks provide handy drill jigs for the camlocks. Drilled a zillion holes on the cowl and plates.
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Drilling the upper cowl plates.
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More drilling.
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This is the second skybolt jig - it marks where an 11/16" Unibit goes.
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Rivet in one of the camlocks - to see how it fits.
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Final attaching of the exhaust stack.
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Temporarily install the top plugs - while I recharge the desicant plugs.
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I had this extension welded so I can torque the prop studs.
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Rivet in the cowl camlocks.
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Pretty.
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Install the central nutplates for the cowl.
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Pot the hall effect sensor for the current sensor onto the battery cable.
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Installing more camlocks on the cowl.
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Pretty.
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Camlocks mostly installed between the top and bottom.
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Install camlocks on the firewall brackets.
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Fabricate a GPS antenna bracket and match drill to the firewall.
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The baffle hole for the prop oil line is nicely drilled.
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Match drill one of the left baffle floor brackets.
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Finished the GPS bracket.
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Match drilled the left floor to the spinner baffle.
|
Rivetted the oil cooler/baffle corner.
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|
Vetterman recommends a 25 deg angle between the exhaust stack and the bottom of the plane.
|
Grind away one corner of the oil cooler so it will fit the engine mount.
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Begin installing the steel fittings to the oil cooler.
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Pete N told me of a good trick to prevent the safety wire from pulling through the baffles. I've installed stainless steel pop rivets and then driven out the mandrel to make a nice fairlead.
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Rivetting brackets onto the spinner baffles.
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|
Drilling holes for right floor baffle bracket.
|
Rivet the stiffeners onto the aft right baffle.
|
|
A bit of screen will keep bugs from getting sucked into the heat duct.
|
|
2" heat flange is pop rivetted to the right aft baffle. A bit of RTV keeps the screen in place and leak free.
|
The fruits of my latest baffle work.
|
|
Attach a fitting to the alternator B lead.
|
|
Shortening the exhaust supports.
|
Cut out the gascolator drain hole in the cowl.
|
|
Here I'm using a dental pick to tweak a few camlock's depth.
|
Cutting some extra fiberglass off of the shims I added to the oil door. These shims ensure the hartwell latch fits nicely.
|
|
Add the stiffener to the left front side baffle.
|
Rivetted on the second left floor to engine bracket.
|
|
Torque the prop to spinner bolts.
|
Test fit the left front floor.
|
|
First test fitting of the engine vent line.
|
|
A bunch of misc. baffle work.
|
The front baffle floors/sides are finished - RTV used to seal any places where air could leak through.
|
|
A copper chore boy bad is recommended to increase the efficency of the heat muff.
|
|
Lock tabs are installed as part of the final alternator install.
|
The alternator bracket bolts are safetyed with stainless wire.
|
|
Safety the starter to alternator reinforcement.
|
The starter is now connected to its 4AWG wire.
|
|
Install a grommet in the left fore baffle for the LSE hall effect wire.
|
|
Install the door and arm on the FAB airbox.
|
|
Somehow I must have been dumb and drilled this cowl hole in the wrong location. I'm about to glass in a plug and redrill.
|
Glassing in the two messed up holes.
|
|
A little bit of peel ply to make a nice finish.
|
Hook up the alt and starter feeds - later I moved these wires to the back side of the engine mount - to prevent rubbing on the heater SCAT tube.
|
|
Alternator electrical connections.
|
Clamping spark plug leads to the cylinders.
|
|
Torque the prop oil line.
|
I forget what was up with these pictures.
|
|
Hooked up the oil return line for cylinder three - I think the baffles are in for good.
|
|
Recharged the dessicant plugs.
|
Fabricated and installed primer lines to cylinders 1 and 2.
|
|
Pretty. Torqued primer line to the solinoid.
|
The primer line has a vibration loop because it goes between engine and plane.
|
|
Move the electronic ignition coils forward by one bolt - to prevent interfering with the aft baffle. Because of this I needed to move the engine hook to a nonstandard location. I've folded the hook forward for clearance with the cowl. If the engine needs to be hoisted at some point, it will need to be folded back up.
|
Completed moving the coils.
|
|
Used some DG12 sized adel clamps to hold the upper sparkplug wires.
|
|
Used a bolt on the engine to hold down the spark plug wires after they leave the magneto.
|
|
Now that the bad holes are glassed in, I can redrill and install the camlocks.
|
Install the upper air seal on the FAB box.
|
|
All the camlocks fit nicely now.
|
|
Wire up the carb heat sensor.
|
Wire up the current hall effect sensor.
|
|
Yuck - proseal. I needed to use a bit of proseal to seal the firewall when rivetting on the cowl strips.
|
Pretty - right side cowl strip.
|
|
Screw in the oil temp sender and safety.
|
Left side cowl strip rivetted in.
|
|
Expand the baffle holes with a 17/64" reamer - the plans say this prevents cracks.
|
Sealing the inner baffles with a bit of RTV.
|
|
Making baffle seal templates.
|
Cutting baffles seal per template.
|
|
Drilling baffle seal to the aft baffles.
|
A bunch of baffle seal cut out...
|
|
Torque the fuel line - later I had to loosen it one more time, to get access for installing the SCAT tubing to the hot air vent.
|
Torque prop control cable.
|
|
Oil filler neck installed and safetied.
|
Drilling aft baffle seals.
|
|
Install the fuel diaphram failure vent.
|
|
Torque oil cooler line.
|
Oil cooler lines are pretty.
|
|
The front baffle seals are drilled.
|
|
Cutting the right panel for the EIS.
|
Finished cutting the right panel.
|
|
Cut out my poorly done snorkel.
|
Glassing in reinforcements for the two slots I cut in the cowl.
|
|
Pretty - cut the new foam for the new opening.
|
Glassing in the 'elephant ears' into the top cowl.
|
|
Test the LED I'm going to use for EIS attention - yep, looks bright enough.
|
Drill holes for EIS LED and power switch. For the power switch I've drilled a key hole half way through the panel.
|
|
Yep - EIS still works.
|
|
Clean epoxy off of the clecos I used on the elephant ears.
|
I'll need to fill with some micro, but the ears look good.
|
|
I used a _lot_ of epoxy on the foam this time no shifting position.
|
Glass in the new FAB snorkel - I used a ballon to hold the glass in place.
|
|
Peel off the blue plastic to make sure corrosion won't occur.
|
Countersink the bottom rudde fairing.
|
|
Dan Checkoway posted a helpful message about cracking on his oil cooler flanges. These washers should prevent that. Retorqued.
|
Rough up the outside cowl corners so I can fill with micro.
|
|
Cleco the top rudder fairing.
|
I'll need to expand various fairings with alternating hot and cold water baths.
|
|
Trim the elevator fairings.
|
|
Dimpling the upper rudder skin.
|
Countersink the upper rudder fairing.
|
|
Pop rivet the upper rudder fairing.
|
Torque the rudder hinges.
|
|
Drill the VStab fairing.
|
VStab fairing is drilled.
|
|
Fabricate the final elevator trim hinge pin.
|
Hinge pin safetied in place.
|
|
Bend the bottom cowl bracket.
|
Using a reamer to make the hole for the elevator trim wires.
|
|
Final torque the various stick bolts.
|
Cut the passenger stick wires, so I can install the connector without them getting twisted.
|
|
Connector pre solder.
|
Pilot side stick wiring.
|
|
Installing a few AN3 bolts where the QB folks missed some rivets (per Van's advice).
|
|
Installing nutplates for the lightspeed brain box.
|
Installing nutplates for the GPS antenna.
|
|
Convert my unused marker beacon bracket to be a MAP sensor bracket.
|
Lightspeed screwed in.
|
|
GPS antenna screwed in.
|
MAP sensor screwed in.
|
|
Installing EIS wiring harness.
|
Pairing wires that the EIS requires being spliced.
|
|
Crimping splices because supposedly these crimps deal better with vibration than solder.
|
|
Mag kill switch wiring - test to ensure that when the mag is off the P lead is grounded.
|
|
Mag P lead installed.
|
EIS thermocouple wires tied to the engine mount - using these spiffy standoffs using hose and quick tie. A tip from Sport Aviation.
|
|
EIS oil and fuel pressure wiring.
|
Wiring for the right panel DB-9.
|
|
I forget what this picture was for.
|
LSE main connectors are all wired up now.
|
|
This is the connector for my custom avionics harness.
|
|
Using a dental pick to pull appart the leads for the LSE ignition coil wiring.
|
|
I pass the ignition leads through using unshielded wire for the last few inches - per Dan C's advice on vibration. I'll RTV in snap bushings later
|
|
Ignition leads connected to coils.
|
|
The DB connector for the right panel power.
|
I forget what this connector was...
|
|
Attach carb heat cable to a bulkhead to prevent vibration.
|
Tie prop cable to the rudder bulkhead to prevent vibration.
|
|
Wire the few remaining EIS runs, the P lead pickup goes through a resistor to the left mag switch.
|
Install an adel clamp for the left sub panel wiring run.
|
|
Begin filling pinholes with epoxy thinned with acetone.
|
Add some micro over the areas I'll need to sand to fit the fuse contour.
|
|
Add some micro to fix the places where the mold wasn't quite right for top to bottom cowl.
|
|
EIS is in and running.
|
Remote debugging on the speaker feedback problem with my RST audio panel. Which pin is a collector again? ;-)
|
|
More poking at the audio panel.
|
|
The right side thermocouple junctions.
|
Left side thermocouple bundle.
|
|
SCAT tubing for the heater feed - I bent the wire back to prevent ripping holes.
|
Getting the SCAT tube on the heater box was a royal pain - I even needed to disconnect the fuel line.
|
|
Temporary ties on the SCAT heater runs.
|
|
Filling the inner weave just a little - so cleaning oil off the inside won't be hell someday.
|
|
I reinstalled the belly COM antenna BNC connectors, because I wanted to be sure they were perfect.
|
|
Installed the aft 12V outlet - which will also serve as my red LED map lighting.
|
Running the 18 awg wire for the 12V outlet down the right center bundle.
|
|
Passenger stick now completely wired.
|
Wiring harness now final - so I can rivet on the top skin.
|
|
Floor pans can now go in.
|
Attaching the firewall soundproofing that I had fabricated long ago.
|
|
Measuring/cutting carpet for the foot area. This carpet is kinda cheap, at the first annual I'll take it to an upholstery shop and they can use it as a template.
|
Fitting the forward carpet.
|
|
Forward carpet is finished.
|
|
Adding brake fluid
|
Try moving the fuel pressure port onto the carb, unfortunately the angle isn't quite right. I'll need to buy a 90 deg fitting.
|
|
This fitting isn't quite right, but I tried it.
|
Drill an AN3 hole to bolt on the oil breather line.
|
|
Oil breather now installed.
|
Make a nice bracket for the fuel flow sensor.
|
|
Testing the fit of the fuel flow bracket - looks good.
|
|
Borrow this old transponder test rig from a local EAA member, it seems that my transponder is working correctly.
|
|
Found this great carpet at home depot - cutting it for the baggage compartment. At the first annual, I'll probably redo the forward carpet with this stuff.
|
Pretty - the aft carpet is in.
|
|
Another photo of the nice carpet.
|
Safety the top of the flap mechanism, now that it seems in for good.
|
|
Bond a flat head rivet into my new fuel pressure fitting. I'll drill it with at #54 bit to serve as a flow restrictor.
|
Drill the FAB bolts for safety wire - it would be real bad to have one of these sucked into an engine.
|
|
FAB air box bolted to carb.
|
Grease the nose wheel via the zerk fitting.
|
|
Reinstall the nose gear pant bolts, to prevent losing them.
|
Match drill the bottom cowl bracket to the ldg gear gusset.
|
|
Install an oil proof hose from the engine to the breather tube.
|
RTV in the magneto cooling tube
|
|
RTV in the alternator cooling tube
|
|
Cool beans! Put my N number on for phase 1 testing.
|
Perfect.
|
|
Finish the aft static line install.
|
Install the forward end of the ELT antenna lead.
|
|
Run ELT antenna aft and finish tieing the aft cable run.
|
|
Safety the pitch servo bolts.
|
A better photo of my safety wire job.
|
|
The FAB air box is now safetied to the carb.
|
The carb heat cable now permanently attached and a bit of loctite on the b-nut.
|
|
The Dynon compass is now installed in the aft of the plane.
|
Reinstall the baggage wall now that I've vacuumed the skunge out of the aft.
|
|
Cut and install the center baffle seal.
|
Trim the center baffle for a better fit.
|
|
Bleeding the brakes - but I was dump and forgot to bolt on the calipers first, so I blew one off.
|
Here's where I sheared the caliper seal by bolting the ejected caliper back onto the brake. Fortunatly I had extra Viton seals that I intended to install.
|
|
Clean the caliper and install the new viton seal.
|
A little bit of DC 5 to lube the seal and it is as good as new. Better actually - viton won't overheat.
|
|
Pop rivet in most of the baffle seal.
|
Boltl in the upper spark plug wires to prevent them bouncing around.
|
|
Match drill the center roll bar support.
|
|
Now that my new hoses (the blue one on the left) have arrived from aircraft $pruce, bolt in the fuel flow sensor for good.
|
Torque down all fuel lines forward of the firewall.
|
|
Torque the fuel pressure line to the carb.
|
Match drill the center roll bar support to the center bulkhead - I used a bit of al sheet as a spacer to make sure the bar would clear the glare shield.
|
|
Bolt in the center roll bar support (temporarily).
|
|
Attach the fuel flow sensor to the wiring harness.
|
Attach the b-nut to the parking brake bracket.
|
|
Match drill the forward wing reinforcement angle and countersink as needed.
|
Aerosport power made a typo on the dataplate, my engine is an O-360-A1A, but they listed it as 160 HP. That is not correct, they confirmed that it was 180 HP and sent me a new dataplate. Remove old dataplate.
|
|
Drain the crap oil I've been using and replace it with my brake in oil (so I can label the dip stick).
|
Recharge the dessicant plugs.
|
|
Test the LSE wiring per plans - a big spark across coils A and B at the appropriate crank positions.
|
Install the 100 break in oil.
|
|
Reminder to finish labeling the dipstick - I have kinda crummy marks running down from 8 qt to 2 qt.
|
Install this STCed oil quick drain. I've verified the cowl doesn't come anywhere near it.
|
|
Clamp one of the push controls to the subpanel to make things a little bit stiffer.
|
Crummy photo of my dipstick markings, I used a tubing cutter to mark each of the lines.
|
|
Installed the corrected dataplate. I broke one of the rivets on removal - I'm going to JB weld in a replacemnt rivet head on the upper left hole.
|
|
Sanding the bottom cowl a bit.
|
|
Fabricated aileron pushrod boots.
|
Sanding the cowl (again).
|
|
Mount the ELT antenna underneath the emp fairing (like the Van's planes).
|
Bleeding brakes (again)n
|
|
Paint prep for the cockpit.n
|
Masking the fore cockpit.
|
|
Laying out parts for painting the cockpit.
|
|
Post painting.
|
More paint photos.
|
|
Trimming the inlet ears.
|
|
Fitting the canopy frame (again)
|
Bending the canopy side bows.
|
|
Reinstalling the slider track.
|
|
The canopy frame fits pretty well now.
|
Cut the aft left bow to make for easier bending.
|
|
Bolt in the bottom of the flap pushrod.
|
Install the crotch belts.
|
|
Feed in the rudder cable fairings.
|
Install the vertical flap cover.
|
|
Clean off the tape that was holding down the aft track.
|
Beginning to trim the canopy cover.
|
|
Marking the center line on the canopy.
|
Marking first trim ines.
|
|
Beginning to cut the canopy.
|
Marking the windscreen cut line.
|
|
Note the hole for the handle.
|
|
The front of the canopy seems to fit well.
|
Marking the trim line for the canopy where it fits the side skirts.
|
|
Cutting the sides of the canopy.
|
Drilling pilot holes in the side skirts
|
|
Um - more drilling.
|
|
Drilling side skirts to frame.
|
More drilling.
|
|
The other side.
|
|
Masking for the skiaflex primer. In retrospect I should have masked off like 1.5", I only masked 1" or so.
|
Test fitting with 1/8" spacers.
|
|
Prebending the forward top skin.
|
Rivet in the forward wing support angle.
|
|
Rivet in a rivet I was keeping open until the central roll bar support.
|
Torque the bottom structural screws in each forward wing support.
|
|
The forward top skin is now bent appropriately.
|
Begin trimming windscreen.
|
|
Ugly photo of me trimming the windscreen.
|
More windscreen trimming.
|
|
Done with windscreen trimming for now.
|
|
Begin fabricating the fuel lines that lead to each side tank.
|
The side seatbelts are now installed.
|
|
Labeled the fuel selector with quantities.
|
The right fuel line is now installed.
|
|
Done with fuel line fabbing.
|
|
Match drilling the HS tips.
|
Trimming the HS tips.
|
|
Elevator tips are installed.
|
All my emp tips are done (except the HS tips)
|
|
Installing HS tips
|
Cut a few more aluminum strips for the tips.
|
|
Shoe Goo makes good temporary/quick dry glue to hold on these strips.
|
|
Finished the bottom cowl support bracket.
|
Trimming HS tips to fit the elevator.
|
|
More HS tip cutting.
|
|
Instaling foam gap seal between fuel lines and cables.
|
Clean up the place I had the welder fix my intentional cut in the canopy frame.
|
|
Prime canopy parts.
|
Prime the canopy frame where the weld was done.
|
|
1/8" aluminum spacers between the canopy and the frame.
|
More canopy spacers.
|
|
Spacers...
|
Canopy frame reinstalled so I can test fit one more time before doing Sikaflex.
|
|
Looks okay.
|
|
Per the Sika instructions - use scotchbrite pad to rough up the area prior to the 209 Sika primer.
|
Done with the scotchbrite.
|
|
First I apply the Sika cleaner/prep.
|
Now the Sika Primer 209N goes on the canopy.
|
|
Pretty - this primer is black. I used about a 1" area for each line of primer, if I was doing it again I would do 1.5"
|
Now I prep the canopy frame with the 226 cleaner.
|
|
Rus came over to help with the big 'glue the canopy to the frame day' - thanks Rus!
|
More Rus goofiness.
|
|
A rare opportunity to have a picture with me in it - someone else to hold the camera.
|
Looks good.
|
|
I should have masked off the sides of the bars, but this is going to get covered anyway.
|
A horrible photo of myself.
|
|
Touching up more canopy Sika.
|
|
With aluminum tape it seems like these Sikaflex 295-UV tubes can be sealed temporarily.
|
Fill out a bit more of the canopy frames.
|
|
Begin working on the wingtip lenses.
|
Trim
|
|
Cut
|
Done with the first wingtip lens.
|
|
Beck hates when I take pictures of her. Here we were doing the last few rivets on the top skin.
|
Climbing under the panel for riveting.
|
|
Ugh. Horrible pain.
|
|
I rivetted in these camlocks a few days ago, forgot to take pictures.
|
Rivetting the skin rivets I can reach by myself.
|
|
A few left over firewall rivets squeezed.
|
Bucked a few more rivets.
|
|
Pretty - the sides of the top skin came down perfectly, no gap.
|
|
Will come back to these rivets when Beck can help.
|
On the right side this little gusset was incorrecly installed by the quickbuild folks, just bent in at the top rather than match drilled. I'll need to fabricate replacements and install.
|
|
Roll bar off so I can trim it to fit the side rails (per plans).
|
Roll bar back on and my list of things to do in sharpie.
|
|
Rivet in the removable panel frame.
|
|
I'm going to mask off the front so I can paint the dash top black...
|
Grid down the side tracks so they clear the skirts.
|
|
Scotchbright the area I'm going to paint, then clean with the PPG cleaner.
|
I think I've finally learned to mask everything that paint might hit.
|
|
First the self etching primer.
|
|
Put on my experimental sticker, though it is slightly askew. I suck. ;-)
|
|
RJ comes over and saves the day with side skirt drilling.
|
Drill and countersink the remaining holes in the aft track.
|
|
Cut a little step (per plans) in the side skirt.
|
|
Countersink the appropriate holes in the side skirt. Also, due to clearance issues with the canopy pins, I countersunk a few holes that I would normally have dimpled.
|
More test fitting of the side skirts...
|
|
I forget the purpose of this picture...
|
|
Using the $%^& edge rolling tool to bend in the skirt where it holds in the plexi.
|
Dimple the side skirt where dimples are needed.
|
|
A little bit of sika touch up on the frame.
|
|
A bit of touch up paint on the seats too...
|
Final paint on the canopy bits.
|
|
Priming misc canopy pieces.
|
|
Permanently attach the skirts per plans (a little bit of sika in the area that the plexy is held.
|
Sweet - very nice side skirts - they fit perfectly
|
|
Using clay to shape the windscreen fairing fit.
|
Finish reinstalling my new electronic compass.
|
|
I forget what is up with this photo.
|
|
Cutting glass for the windscreen fairing.
|
A bit of peel ply and micro to fill gaps.
|
|
Fairing glassed in, and my 'face of beauty'
|
More photos of the fairing.
|
|
Trimmed the windscreen fairing.
|
More pictures...
|
|
more photos...
|
Me freaking out while following the fuse.
|
|
Yay! EAA to the rescue, folks to help move my plane to the airport.
|
uhm - more photos...
|
|
More photos.
|
crap photo...
|
|
The moving crew post move - notice how dark things are. Beck looks cold.
|
The nephews of something...
|
|
Pushing back into the hangar.
|
|
My Element was packed solid with tools for transport - this is after I half emptied it.
|
The rest of the stuff packed into my Element.
|
|
Tools unloaded.
|
Pretty.
|
|
Adjusted the servo travel. Might need a bit more later...
|
The emp is on for good.
|
|
The wings are moved and in the cradle.
|
|
Removing the wheels so I can take off the fairing mounts till post phase 1.
|
Wheel cruft.
|
|
Had to remove this cotter pin.
|
Brake calipers safetied.
|
|
The other emp seal.
|
Trimmed and drilled the emp gap seal.
|
|
Using the hole duplicator to drill the emp fairing. I learned on the other side that it is better to start by drilling one hole on each end of the piece, rather than walking from front to back.
|
Emp fairing clecoed in place - fits pretty good.
|
|
Drilling the top emp fairing to the fuse
|
|
Tap the longerons for the emp gap seal (also a bit of countersinking for #6 screws).
|
Measured and fabricated these steel rudder cable links (2 3/8" hole to hole). Once dry I can permanently attach the rudder peddals. I initially tried a few different lengths by using scrap aluminum, but this seems to fit a range of pilot sizes.
|
|
Cutting the fuel lines to the _incorrect_ length. I calculated 3 1/4" but somehow cut _both_ fuel lines to 2 1/4". dumbass. I'll need to spend threeish hours replacing the tubes.
|
|
Removing the wheel cotter pins because I was dumb and didn't realize I'd need to be jacking them up again.
|
Leveled in roll by using jacks and some wood blocks - my hangar floor is sloped sideways.
|
|
Becky being annoyed that I took her picture while she was hanging plumb bombs for the wing sweep check.
|
The upper corner of the wing aft spar ear needed a bit of trimming to clear a rivet on the fuse.
|
|
I drilled this 1x2x2 block of aluminum to serve as a drill jig for the aft spar hole.
|
Hell yeah! Wings mated to fuse, incidence good, no twist, fitting/trimming flaps before drilling the aft spar hole. Becky shows off her juggling.
|
|
Trimming the wing tips
|
Drill flap brace to safety the flap pins
|
|
Making the vent line that goes between the fuse and the wing.
|
Vent lines installed temporarily.
|
|
The per plans aileron stop.
|
Wing can come off now to install nutplates.
|
|
Installed the rudder cable linkages.
|
|
Freaky - today the fire deparment was doing a controlled burn outside the hangar. Unpleasant.
|
smoke.
|
|
More smoke.
|
Installing the wing root nutplates.
|
|
Installing the foreward wing bracket nutplate.
|
Use a manometer to 5' above the wing to make sure no fuel tank leaks.
|
|
The manometer connection to the tank.
|
another pict
|
|
Gretz pitot mount installed
|
|
Countersink a bit until the pitot will fit in the mount.
|
Install more root nutplates.
|
|
Test the other wing for leaks.
|
|
Add nutplate for forward brack.
|
Safety the roll servo and mark that the pushrod length is correct.
|
|
Joy - replacing the fuel lines that I had previously cut too short.
|
Add boots to keep drafts from coming in through the aileron openings.
|
|
The new fuel lines are sexy.
|
Prime the aft spar where I had to trim away extra material.
|
|
The main aileron pushrods are now set to the correct length.
|
The wing root covers are finished and dimpled.
|
|
Installing nutplates for the emp fairing.
|
Pretty - more nutplates.
|
|
Mix up some JB weld to make sure the snap bushing for the rudder wiring can't pop out.
|
Rudder wires in.
|
|
Rudder cables safetied.
|
|
The best build log picture ever.
|
Beck doing the noble task of getting the last wing nuts on. Very difficult access. Beck rules.
|
|
The forward wing bracket bolt is intentially a loose fit, just tight enough to keep the washer from moving, then hit it with the safety wire.
|
Screwing in the bottom of the wing skins.
|
|
Beck fighting with more wing bolts.
|
So cute - showing the special wing nut installation tool.
|
|
I forget what was happening here.
|
I forget.
|
|
Aft spar bolts in and safetied.
|
All forward wing bolts are in.
|
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Begin putting in nutplates on the spar cap covers.
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Attach the aft end of the elevator pushrod.
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Attach the fuel level senders.
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Wire up the landing lights.
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Install air filter and close up FAB box.
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Put in 5 gal of gas to do some initial testing.
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Beck takes a picture of me with the newly drilled wingtips.
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Beck hooks up the roll servo.
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Vent lines on for good.
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Mark rivet holes for the wing tip rib.
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Expand wingtip holes to #30
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Begin fitting wingtip antennas
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Put connectors on for the wingtip strobes.
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Pretty - inside look at the wingtip wiring.
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Finished strobe wires
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Drilling the wingtip ribs.
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Countersink and rivet the tip ribs.
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Installing tip nutplates and antennas.
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Drilling the rivet holes for the nutplates.
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Lots of #6 countersinking.
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Ugh - rivetting these rivets was hard.
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Lots of nutplates done
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Add a couple more nutplates to make the lenses more stable.
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Beck got me a new fridge.
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Install strobes and nav lights for good. Carefully mark polarity for the nav light. The wiring has a black stripe on the cathod (-) side.
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View of nav light. I tested the arc of this light per plans.
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Wire aft lighting.
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Red
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Green
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So cute, as we begin to make the new aft skirt.
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Put as much vertical polarization as I could into the COM 2 antenna.
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Wire up the elevator trim, if the elevator comes off, these connectors can be easily cut open and reused.
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Adjust nose breakout force to about 23 lbs.
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One layer of tri-ply and some light (3oz?) BID for the aft skirt
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Laying up the aft skirts - use a bit of mylar to fill the gap.
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Pitot static testing shows that the pitot/static system is great, very accurate and no leaks. Unfortunatly we learn my terra xpndr is broken. Hurredly order a new GTX330.
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Install the last spar cap pop rivets.
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Try fabbing aileron stops from delerin - per rvaitor. However, need bigger rods.
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Bolting the rudder in for good.
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Installing a correct flame proof nut to replace the botched rivet (countersink too deep).
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Sweet. These aileron stops work out perfectly.
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Um - I forget.
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Safety wiring the flap hinges in place.
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More photos.
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Install the flap pushrods for good.
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Gap the LSE plugs at .038"
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Torque the plug inserts to 25 ft/lbs.
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Verify the mag plugs are .016" gap
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Use the starter to pump up the oil till it flows out of the oil pressure line.
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Getting ready to test run the engine. Nice picture. Note the chain to the Element...
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The alt breaker blew due to inrush current on the field coil (I think - will investigate more when I return to the airport)
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