Started Cowl Baffle (Section 47)

Screen Shot 2020-06-13 at 6.34.10 PM

Picked, Inspected, and deburred all of the cowl parts.

Trimmed and deburred the cylinder baffle doublers and riveted to the cylinder baffles.

Installed nut plates and oil cooler flange and assembled aft baffles. Added strips of RTV to the mating surfaces.

Trimmed the air cleaner frame, added nut plates and fit to the inlet ramp. Assembled the left inlet ramp.

Attached the SCAT tube flange and screen for the heater air inlet to the right inlet ramp. Assembled the right inlet ramp. Added RTV strips to the mating surfaces of the inlet ramps.

Today’s Time (hours):	8.0
Finish kit (hours):	285.0
Total Time (hours):	1019.0

Completed Cowling

Drilled the screw holes on the bottom of the cowling

Attached the inlet ramps with epoxy and flox. Filled, sanded and sealed the areas where the baffle seals will seal against the top cowl.

Installed the heat shield foil in the lower cowl and sealed the edges with epoxy.

Today’s Time (hours):	10.0
Finish kit (hours):	277.0
Total Time (hours):	1011.0

Work on cowl continues

Match drilled the top and bottom cowls to the cowl hinges.

I disassembled the cowls, deburred all the holes in all the hinges. I coated the inside of both cowl halves with thin coating of resin to seal it all up.

Riveted all the hinges to the cowl halves

Trimmed and sanded the fiberglass inlet ramps and fit them to the top cowl. They gat match drilled to the cowl core just deep enough to hold a cleco to clamp it in place for bonding with epoxy and flox. I didn’t get any pics of the bonding process and I put it back on the fuse to cure before I could get a shot of the finished product.

I did decide to get the oil door done once the epoxy set up sufficiently. It was a pretty straightforward process.

I reinstalled the spinner. She’s coming along!

Just have to drill the attachment holes on the bottom of the cowl and blend in the inlet ramps and the cowl will be complete.

Today’s Time (hours):	14.0
Finish kit (hours):	267.0
Total Time (hours):	1001.0

Started work on cowling

screen-shot-2020-06-06-at-7.25.04-am

Another busy week at work. Didn’t even have a chance to post last weekend’s build sesh. So here it is a week late.

Fabricated and installed the cowling hinges

Trimmed the top and bottom cowling with a cut-off wheel in the Dremel and some course sandpaper on a long sanding block. Cut out the landing gear hole and the oil door.

Clamped the cowl halves together and fit, trimmed and sanded the spinner and air inlet areas. This took several iterations to fit properly.

Had to do a couple of iterations of trimming the aft edge of the top cowling to get it to fit in place. Marked the rivet locations on the cowling and drilled them. Then match drilled those holes to the cowling hinges.

Several iterations of trimming and sanding the bottom cowling aft edge, then the top edges. Marked the rivet locations and drilled them. The match drilled to the cowl hinges.

Clamped the hinges that join the top and bottom cowling in place. Layed out the rivet line and match drilled the bottom cowling to the hinges. Located and cut out the notches in the top cowling for the tabs that secures the hinge pins.

Today’s Time (hours):	12.0
Finish kit (hours):	253.0
Total Time (hours):	987.0

Progress continues on wiring

I’ve neglected to post over the past week. Been a busy week at work. I have made some good progress though.

I vinyl-wrapped the fuse block panel and screwed the fuse block into it. I made a bus bar from a strip of copper to tie together the upper and lower buses of the fuse block.

I drilled some system holes through the left seat ribs, installed snap bushings, and ran the pitot and AOA lines from the wing root to the panel.

Drilled a couple of system holes in the lower sub-panel. Routed the the wires for the battery backup. Terminated the grounds for the the IBBS and the IBBS master switch.

Made up the connectors for the GTX 45R transponder and the GTN 625 GPS. I also started on the GTR 200B COM radio but didn’t get a picture.

Today’s Time (hours):	6.0
Finish Kit (hours):	112.0
Total Time (hours):	842.0

Began wiring the panel

I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching and documenting a plan to make the wiring easy. I complied a list of wiring nodes in a spreadsheet that I can use as a checklist to work my way through the project. You can see my work here… Wiring Plan

Didn’t actually wire anything today but rather did a lot of the prep work. I fabricated a center panel that will hold the fuse block in the center pedestal. I purchased the power panel option from Van’s which included the sheet metal for the center console. I purchased the 32 position Busman fuse block from Waytek.

Prepped everything up and painted it to match the interior.

Removed all of the avionics and the panels. I probably could have left the stuff mounted to the sub panel and left the panels in place. But when I had mounted everything with black oxide steel screws and subsequently learned that they would rust over time. So I purchased black oxide stainless replacements. This was the most opportune time to replace them all.

I installed a ground block being careful to remove all the paint and scuff up the sub-panel to ensure a good electrical connection. I re-mounted the backup battery, the GAD 27, GAD 29, and GEA 24 to the sub panel.

I drilled a couple of new wire holes through the bottom of the stand-offs and installed snap bushings. The original holes interfered with the GTX and the switches in the bottom of the middle panel.

Today’s Time (hours):	8.0
Finish Kit (hours):	106.0
Total Time (hours):	836.0

Finished Seat Backs (Section 39)

I bolted together the lower corners of the seat backs. I drilled holes in the top angles using the template provided by FlightLine interiors. I blind riveted the snaps to the angles using those holes. I attached the seat back cushions to the seat backs with the snaps and the velcro provided.

Love the way the seats came out.

I also repainted the aft canopy frame. I wasn’t happy with my first attempt. It was splotchy and had spots of pretty bad orange peel. I wet sanded it and reshot it. It still looked awful. So I ended up stripping it down using acetone and repainting the bare metal. It came out quite a bit better. I’m wondering if the problem is the P60G2 primer. I’m going to shoot the remaining interior parts over bare metal.

Today’s Time (hours):	3.0
Finish Kit (hours):	60.0
Total Time (hours):	790.0

Drilled the canopy some more

I removed the canopy side skins. Final drilled them to #27. Clecoed them back on and final drilled all the hole sin the canopy and substructure #27.

Today’s Time (hours):	1.0
Finish Kit (hours):	45.0
Total Time (hours):	775.0

Drilled the canopy

The plans have you tape the template pictured below on to the canopy skin in order to locate the canopy. Rather than ruin the one in the plans I took the time to have a couple copies made when i went out to pick up Sophie from work this morning. When I went to tape it on, I realized that the scale was off. I assumed that it was the copy until I measured the original and found that the scale was not 1:1. Thanks Van’s! Not only is it not 1:1 none of the lines on the drawing that actually matter are dimensioned. I could have gone back and had it printed at 103% but decided the whole thing was a waste of time in the first place. I used the rivet locations on the drawing to draw intersecting lines at the centerline that corresponded to the canopy line on the drawing. Then used that spot to locate the forward edge of the canopy. It worked just fine.

Put the canopy on the frame and fiddled with it to get everything lined up evenly on both sides and aligned with the mark on the skin. Sanded down the edge where it tucks under the skin to help it lay flat. Removed and reinstalled to do the sanding. Took a couple of attempts. Inserted the shims and clecoed on the side skins.

Realized I didn’t have anything to weight down the front of the canopy with. Tried using a ratchet strap but didn’t like the way it looked. I couldn’t get the forward edge to lay flat. So took a ride to Cabela’s and picked up a 25lb bag of lead shot. Made up two ten-pounders and one five and taped them to the canopy. Worked like a charm.

Triple checked that everything was properly situated and drilled all the #40 holes. I used a plexi bit on the aft section. On the sides I used a plexi bit to get through the plexi and then switched to a regular #40 bit in a second drill motor to go through the shim and side frame.

Today’s Time (hours):	3.0
Finish Kit (hours):	44.0
Total Time (hours):	774.0

Riveted the canopy frame

Riveted the skin to the canopy frame assemblies. Riveted in the splice plates. Clecoed the closeout in place. Riveted the skin to the support flanges and riveted the support flange splice plate. Final drilled and then riveted riveted the closeout in place. Riveted the forward rails in place. The plans call for a rivet in every hole and frequently checking to ensure that there is no twist in the structure. So the final drilling and riveting was pretty tedious. But the frame came out laser straight. So I can’t complain too much. The process worked.

Clecoed then riveted the side rails in place.

Riveted the aft canopy frame to the side rails. Riveted the switch mount to the frame. Machine countersunk and screwed the pin blocks to the aft side of the aft frame.

Installed the canopy jettison handle. Placed the assembled frame on the fuselage. In the full open position, it hit the ceiling. I had to lower the tail so that I could lift the canopy enough to engage the hinge pins. But finally managed to get it in place. I carefully closed the canopy while watching to ensure that it didn’t interfere with the forward top skin. It fit perfectly and no filing was necessary.

I shimmed up the side rails so that they are parallel to the side skins. I cut four clamping blocks/spacers and taped them to the aft of the aft frame and clamped it to the roll bar.

Tomorrow I’ll start fitting the canopy to the frame.

Today’s Time (hours):	6.0
Finish Kit (hours):	41.0
Total Time (hours):	771.0