Chapter 21 – Sump front wall installed

Today I took the 2x boards and weights off the end of the front side BID layup on the fuel sump front wall.  I have to say, the weights worked great to straighten out the sump front wall.

I pulled the peel ply and razor trimmed & sanded the edges.  I then cut out the hex holes on the left side of the wall for the oil heat line reducer fittings.  Also, I drilled the two 11/16″ holes for the low level fuel sensors.  Finally, I added a spot of micro in the areas where I had the toothpicks holding the Nylaflow in place.

I then test fitted both the oil line reducer fittings and the low fuel level sensor fittings.

I ran out to Harbor Freight today to get my new “Fein” saw, which has increased in cost by a whole $5! (bummer).  I picked up a few other things I needed for the build and headed back home.  The traffic was unusually heavy today, so it took well over an hour longer than I expected.

Upon returning home, I checked out the new “Fein” saw and actually used it to cut a small notch in front right sump wall extension piece that will adjoin the front wall piece that I’ll be glassing in… the notch is for the 2 Nylaflow lines so that they can smoothly transition out of the wall.  BTW, if you caught the Nylaflow lines’ positions, you may have noted that they are at the same level (waterline) as the small wire bundle that will be traversing down the side of the fuselage (as could be ascertained by where I drilled the hole in the front right sump wall extension piece).  Thus, the position of the Nylaflow puts them in the perfect spot to merge right into the small wire bundle.

After I sanded and prepped all the areas that would be receiving glass, I then spent a good 45 minutes cutting Kevlar, BID and plastic to make up BID tapes and a BID/Kevlar tape for glassing in the sump front wall.  After I got all the prepreg setups ready, I mixed up some E-Z Poxy epoxy and wetted out the first few BID and BID/Kevlar tapes (the one with Kevlar went on the inside of the tank along the junction of the floor and the front wall).

Over the next 3 hours I proceeded to glass in the fuel sump front wall.

It’s definitely not the prettiest or smoothest layup I’ve done, but so far I think it’s solid as far as meeting fuel tank requirements.  Here’s a shot from the front looking aft.  I should note that I placed the left sidewall piece in its spot merely for spacing & alignment, and if you look closely enough you can see that I put a nail through the top corner of the sump sidewall into the sump front face to secure it.

To make things EZ I of course used E-Z Poxy on the entire layup, including the left side extension tying the sump front wall into the left sidewall.  After I got all the BID (and Kevlar) tapes laid up, I the peel plied all my layups and took care to keep the internal tank layups very wet.  You may have noticed that the outboard sides of the inside corner tank tapes seem to curve up (i.e. “smile”), while towards the center it “droops” down.  I did this on purpose to not completely cover up the fuel drain valve holes.

Tomorrow I’ll shoot to get all the sump walls glassed in, and then start working on the hardware for the fuel sump top inspection hatches.

 

Chapter 16/21 – Fuel sump progress

I started off today glassing the outboard/exterior side of the fuel sump’s right wall.  I then peel plied the 1-ply BID layup.

I also pulled the peel ply and cleaned up the layup on the right side of the fuel sump’s middle rib.  After I cut the notch for the left sump fuel line access, this will be ready to install.

Quite a few hours later I pulled the peel ply, knife trimmed and sanded the edges on the outboard/exterior side layup on the fuel sump’s right wall.

I finally decided after assessing the oil heat feed and return lines that I am going to run them through the fuel sump front wall’s left extension tab.  There won’t be a lot of space for working and mounting these lines, but once in they should be good for quite a while.  I was going to use 1/4″ Finnish Birch plywood, but since I have some spare bits of H250 high density foam on hand, I decided to use it instead.  I made two hex holes in the H250 to flox in the AN -8 (1/2″) to AN -6 (3/8″) reducer fittings.  This is required since the oil heat exchanger only comes with -6 fittings, so at some point each of the lines needed to be reduced/expanded to work.  And that point is here, about a foot away from the heat exchanger.

I then micro’d in the H250 reinforcement foam and also the 3/16″ Nylaflow lines that the low fuel sensor wires will use to exit the front fuel sump wall.  To be clear, I didn’t put in these Nylaflow lines just to be fancy or make it look cool.  I wanted to ensure that these wires in an area that is subject to feet sliding against it –literally every time the GIB gets in or out of the airplane– were protected.

I then laid up 1 ply of BID across the entire front face of the fuel sump front wall.  I also added a reinforcement ply of BID both over the left fuel low level sensor mounting point, and all around the entire Nylaflow line area, which includes the right fuel low level sensor mounting point.

When I glassed the aft / interior fuel sump side of the front wall, it had a distinct bow to it afterwards.  I wanted to get the fuel sump front wall as straight as possible, to facilitate ease of glassing it in, so I weighed down each side with taped 2x pieces of wood with a 5-pound weight on each one.  That should do the trick!

I actually did this earlier in the day, but since my blog posts are getting a bit long, I decided to put it here for topic flow.  To finalize the fuel line installation from the Pulsation Damper aft into the Hell Hole, I need to know what clearance I have.  Yes, knowing how to get around or skirt by the GIB right armrest storage pocket is great, but there’s another factor at play here: the armrest itself.  I decided a week or so ago that since I had fuel line fittings that I may need to get to after the plane is operational (plus, 98% of my wiring runs are on that side) that I should make the right GIB armrest removable.

First thing this morning, with the same MGS epoxy that I used to glass the outside of the right fuel sump tank wall, I filled in 3 divots with flocro that I had made previously in the exact spots I had chosen to be the screw hardpoints on the armrest.

Realizing that with a lengthy storage pocket the possibility for vibration between the top edge of the pocket and the inside edge of the now cut armrest was very likely, I decided to mount a screw hardpoint at the center point of the pocket.  I determined where the hole should be, and mounted a small RivNut there with flox.  Thus the clamp you see in the pic, holding the storage pocket firmly against the armrest to obtain the correct spacing on the hardpoint.

[oh, yeah, I cut out the notch for the storage pocket . . . and burned up my trusty “Fein” saw in the process . . . but it pushed on until the very end!  Literally smoking as I put it out in the driveway and opened up the garage door to clear out the stench of its gruesome death!  Well, back to Harbor Freight to plunk down another $14.99!  Hopefully this next one lasts 6 years of punishing work like this one did . . . a moment of silence please]. 

Since I only had 3 drilled brackets from my right front armrest installation frenzy, I decided they would do fine for now.  I do intend to install at least 2, if not 3 more mounting brackets.  One off the front CS118 control stick bulkhead and one off the middle of the aft angled part of the armrest, about mid-point onto the GIB seatback.

On the left you can just the midpoint screw in place, and on the right I snapped this pic as I was removing it to show a clear shot of where the midpoint screw will be installed.

And here’s the midpoint RivNut hardpoint secured in place on the right GIB armrest with flox.

Here’s a shot of all the new right GIB armrest brackets in place, secured with flox.  Again, I want to give a shout out to Dave Berenholtz for doing the 1/16″ thick aluminum angle mounting brackets.  I honestly would have never thought seriously about using aluminum . . . brilliant Mate!

Also during today’s adventures I floxed a RivNut hardpoint in place over the left GIB seatbelt bracket for the oil heat lines.

Here it is after cure…. looking a bit lonely, eh?

So I gave it some friends. . .  2 Adel clamps for the oil feed and oil return lines to/from the oil heat exchanger that will reside on the left sidewall, immediately aft of the pilot’s seat, about midpoint up the wall.

For the final push of the evening, I then set my sights on cutting out the fuel line notches in the fuel sump right wall and middle rib.  Below you can see that I’ve struck gold!  I started on the freshly glassed exterior side of the right wall and started removing the plug that provides access to get the fuel lines into the wall before the plug goes back in, and it all gets slathered with all varieties of flox –slurry, wet, paste, dry– and sloppy wet bid tapes.

I then mocked up the right wall by setting it in place.  I did have to spend a good 10 minutes fine tuning the fit by some judicious sanding, but in the end . . . like a glove!

Here you can see the lower foam/glass plug in place that will help seal up the fuel line access hole.

I then did pretty much the same thing with the middle rib/wall by cutting out the access notch to slide the rib in over top of the left fuel line.  Again, I configured the left fuel line going through the right sump tank to support this oft heard statement when flying: “Passengers: Please keep the aisle clear of any fuel lines!” . . . yes, in short I didn’t want any high-heeled Vixen (you know who you are!) digging their heel into my fuel line, or any of my other ham-fisted, Neanderthalic friends (and you guys know who you are too!) doing the same —well, Good Lord, hopefully not with high heels! … haha!

Here’s one last shot of all the fuel sump walls glassed and ready for install.  With the front side of the fuel sump wall curing tonight, I should be ready to start assembling this beast within the next day or so.

Yes, tomorrow the fuel sump tank work continues, so ‘Tune in tomorrow folks for yet another fun-filled adventure!’

 

Chapter 21 – Glassing sump walls

I started out today by pulling the peel ply and trimming up the edges of the layups on the wall sides that essentially make up the left sump tank, left & middle walls.

I then promptly glassed the right side of the middle wall, or sump rib, with E-Z Poxy to get it curing.

I then glassed the outside of the left sump wall using MGS, since this wall will not be in contact with fuel… hopefully!

When I did this layup, I also glassed a strip of BID on the bottom of the GIB right armrest storage pocket going to the sidewall.  Once cured, the GIB storage pocket will be glassed in once and for all.

I then marked up and did an initial cut on the right side wall to start the trial & error process of getting it to fit.

Here I’m about halfway through the process of fitting the right sump wall to the sump / fuselage floor.

And here’s when I finally got the shape along the bottom of the sump right wall dialed in.

Here’s an aft shot of the fuel sump’s right wall. Note that you can also see the fuel pulsation damper mocked up in these pics as well.

Once the shape of the right wall was good, I glassed it with a ply of Kevlar first, then a final ply of BID, just like I did with the inside layups of the other walls that make up the exterior perimeter of the sump tank.

One thing I was going to account for that slipped my mind until after I hurriedly glassed the interior side of the right sump wall, was that this wall needs to be a bit shorter due to it butting up against the back side of the right front sump wall extension.  I was so dialed into getting the difficult shape on the aft side of the wall completed, that I missed the front edge needing to be back 0.55″.  Since I had already configured the right side wall, I was going to merely trim the aft edge so it’s profile would match the other 2 walls.  But again, I jumped the gun in glassing the right sidewall so I didn’t get it done.

Fast forward many hours later, and I marked the left wall with 0.55″, aligned the two sides and then marked the aft/top of the right sump.  I trimmed the right sump wall immediately after this pic was taken.

As the interior layup of the right sump wall was curing, I decided to knock out making the oil heater pump base.  I started with the 1/4″ Finnish birch plywood plate I cut out the other day.  I rounded over the edges and then drilled 4 x 3/16″  holes.

I then marked the heads of the only 2 AN3-12A bolts I have onto the back of the mounting bracket and dug the wood out to keep the bolts from spinning.

The bolt heads are flush with the bottom, can’t spin, with still a good amount of wood to keep them in place.  Still, this plate will get about 5 plies of glass to hold it in place.

Here’s a side view showing the bolts in place.

Since I didn’t have any more AN bolts, and I wanted to get this mount finished, I stole the two 1-1/4″ bolts from the fuel pump and mounted them in the oil pump mounting base.  I then taped up the bottom of the vibration mounting pads, floxed the bolts in place and then set the oil pump in place over the floxed bolts.

And here’s a couple more shots of the oil pump on its mounting base.

I then used the oil pump attached to its mounting base to figure out where in the world I was going to mount this thing in the Hell Hole.  Since I just recently discovered that it is best to mount it horizontally (interesting, but that’s what it says!) I found a spot centerline of the aircraft, immediately forward of the gear bow and just aft of the GIB seat.

This all ties into the sump in that before I glass the front side of the fuel sump front wall, I need to know if I’m going to mount the oil heat line fittings into the LEFT sump front wall extension.

To figure out my oil heat oil lines, I needed to make some.  So I did.  I made the feed line that feeds the oil to the heat exchanger from the oil pump.  It all looked good on the top side . . .

. . . as you can see here . . .

But since I don’t have a 1/2″ tube bender, I resorted to a spring kit for bending the 1/2″ tubes.  The spring works well enough on simple bends, but it just can’t handle really tight turns without crimping or flattening the tubing — as you can see in this real tight turn to the right.

I’ll assess further, but right now I’m thinking at least the oil feed line will most likely need to be a braided cable to provide me the flexibility that I need.

With that, I then made up an oil return line.  Since it doesn’t need to make a hard right turn to get to the oil pump, I didn’t think this one would have as much of an issue as the oil feed line.  And it appeared not to.

One interesting point in the pic below: I played around with the spacing and tubing run for a bit before deciding on exactly where I wanted the Adel clamp to be located to hold the 2 oil lines (feed & return).  Well, I reached into my pocket to get my trusty Sharpie, but, uh, no Sharpie.  So, I picked up a small Phillips screwdriver and gave it a nice sharp rap to make a mark…. well, it was a bit harder than I thought and it made a nice dent in the wall. So, another wiggle and another rap, and in she went…. I guess this will be a RivNut hardpoint vs a Clickbond!

A shot of the oil return line from below.

For now I’ll just count the oil return line good, and then later when I finalize the firewall configuration I’ll cut the oil return line and terminate it with a fitting.

Tomorrow I’ll continue working on the fuel sump.  I’m hoping to have it done in the next few days.

 

 

Chapter 16/21 – Uphill slog . . .

This morning when I happily went down to check out my layup, I didn’t stay happy very long.  As I was ripping off the peel ply, which is admittedly one of the best ways to start out a morning, a couple of areas still seemed a bit soft and not fully cured.  This was not really what I was expecting since I had used fast hardener.  Ironically, I had just had a discussion within the preceding days on fast hardener, as I extolled its virtues.

There is of course a possibility that I jacked up the ratio, but I am usually pretty good at ensuring those are correct.  Regardless, I decided to cook it for a while and set my sights in at a good post cure temp: 140° F for 4 hours.  Over the next couple of hours I checked various spots and never had the IR thermometer go past the mid 150° area, and only in a couple spots.  And I was checking just about every area in each heat lamp’s path (more on this below).

Besides the heat lamps, in this pic below you can see that I glassed the aft side of the GIB armrest storage pocket with 2 plies of BID.

Here it is a bit later after it cured.  Note the yellow spot at the front side.

And below you can see the yellow spot again.  After establishing that my average temps on all the stuff I checked being in the heat area, including the sidewall and the storage pocket, were in the high 120s to high 130s, I ran out to grab a bite to eat and go to the store. When I checked the heat lamps a bit later I saw this discoloration.  I immediately checked the temp as I was pulling the lamp away, and it was 162.9°.  I also did a quarter test and could find no delamination.  Since a good portion of the yellow will get cut out when I open up the sidewalls for the baggage area, I’ll check the foam & glass again then.  But for right now, nothing seems odd except the color change.  Moreover, MGS 285 epoxy should have a multi-hour post cure over 170°.  I guess just that high of heat concentrated on that one spot over time caused the discoloration.

Moving on.  Note that the right front sump wall extension piece layup is complete!  The heat lamps did there job and the spots I was concerned about cured nicely . . . except one.

The area on the aft side of the foam at the bottom didn’t seem to be fully cured.  If this were slow hardener I wouldn’t have worried about it, but since the other areas were cured, this concerned me.  Now, it still looked like a solid layup, but the overhanging glass was just a bit too pliable for my liking.  I decided that in the 1 inch area that I would be laying up the BID tape for the outside of the right sump wall, that I would remove this glass.  Since I had laid up 2 plies over just the one on the sump wall extension, I broke through to foam in a couple spots.  No worries.  I’d rather have fresh foam for the next layup then putting good glass over some that is a bit suspect.  As for the rest of that layup, it’s in there and sticking, but I have so much other glass around it, I’m not concerned if its strength is a little less than normal.

In the right pic you can see the front side of the layup.

I wanted to show the access holes on the outboard side of this layup: the top hole is for the bundle of small wires that will traverse this bulkhead heading back to the aft areas of the plane.  The bottom hole is for the 2 big power wires to go through.

You can see that I also made the big power wire channel on the foam fuel line bracket as well.

So here’s a shot of all the layups I did last night, after I cleaned it all up. One good thing that happened is that weighing down the fuel lines worked.  The fuel lines are in the correct position and have no tendency to try to rotate upwards.

I then finalized my dimensions and shape for the fuel sump profile.  I took some scrap 3/4″ thick Divinycell foam and cut the pieces for the left & right sump walls.  I then micro’d the pieces together.

I then cut out the middle sump rib from 3/8″ Divinycell foam.  I loaded everything in the backseat for a quick mockup to see how it all looked & fit.

I then spent a good 25 minutes shaping the left fuel sump wall.

I figured out the fit on the middle fuel sump rib as well.  If you’re wondering why the bottom of the middle rib is cut, there is a technical term for that: it’s called being unfocused, not concentrating on the task at hand and having a major brain fart!  I noted on the left side wall that the base of it matches the base of the front wall.  I then inexplicably picked up the middle rib and had it cut and was putting it back in to check before I even realized the mistake I had made! Luckily, this is foam and composites, and it’s all easily fixed!

I started with the interior left wall and laid up the first ply, which is Kevlar.

I then laid up 1 ply of BID on the interior left wall (ply #2), and then –after reattaching the bottom strip– I laid up 1 ply of BID on the left side of the middle fuel sump rib.

I then trimmed the overhanging glass down.

And peel plied the layups.

Previously, I had laid up the forward side of the GIB armrest storage pocket with 2 plies of BID and a 1″ strip of BID down the front face of the foam fuel line bracket.  I then checked those to ensure that they were good to go.

Finally, since my garage is in the low 70’s I decided to put the freshly glassed sump wall pieces under heat.

Then I realized it was a bit too much heat and turned off one of the lamps and moved the sump wall pieces a bit farther away.

Tomorrow I’ll continue to work on the thigh support fuel sump and try to get this thing knocked out . . . hopefully a bit more error free!

 

 

Chapter 16/21/22 – Crossing the Rubicon

Today I crossed the proverbial Rubicon in my initial steps of the thigh support fuel sump by glassing the fuel lines into place, but more about that in just a bit.

I started out today by trimming up the GIB right armrest storage pocket and removing it from the foam plug.  The pics below show both the front and inside of the storage pocket.

Here it is again, solo.

I then mocked it up in place to see how it fit.  I can say I’m happy with it, so it will soon be getting glassed into place so I know exactly how to route all my stuff around it!

I had to lower it about 0.20″ for the iPad to fit, while in its case.  But mounting it just a tad lower also helps me with some lid ideas that I have.

Moving on: I’m happy to report that the big pair of yellow cables are finally secure from the nose to the back seat.  Again, I will most likely have to secure them in one or two places in the Hell Hole, but beyond that, the task of routing these big suckers and securing them is complete!

Starting from the front part of the aircraft, here are the two newly mounted Adel clamp hard points in the pilot seat area: one Clickbond (forward) and one RivNut (aft).

Here’s a closer shot of the Adel clamp Clickbond hardpoint.

And a closer shot of the Adel clamp RivNut hardpoint.

I also mounted a Clickbond just aft of the pilot’s seat as you saw in yesterday’s post.

Here’s a clearer shot of that hardpoint with an Adel clamp mounted & in use to keep the big power cables secure.

And here’s the RivNut Adel clamp hardpoint in the lower right side opening of the back seat.

A little wider shot reveals the Clickbond that I floxed in place last night.

A bit later, I covered the Clickbond addition with 2 plies of BID and some peel ply.

I had an issue with the right side armrest today that needed some cutting to solve.  I simply couldn’t get the armrest mounted since the fuel lines were in the way.  I wanted to be able to mount the armrest since I was going to install the “map” pocket permanently to get a final idea of fuel line routing… and just to get it done!

I taped in my 12″ flexible decimal ruler to get a good estimate of what the pilot thigh support ribs profile will be, and then cut it out.  Of course, I also wanted to get this area cut out in my continuing effort to get the pilot area sorted out as well to allow me to move on to the nose build.

I did flox in the map pocket at this point (final pic is below) during the same round of glassing that I did the big power cables’ “final” Clickbond above.

I then moved on with the prep to start glassing the fuel sump right forward wall extension piece to get it installed tonight.  This may seem like not such a big deal, but this piece is a major lynch pin to the entire fuel sump build.  Not only is it a part of the front wall –making the front wall a bulkhead by traversing from one fuselage sidewall to the other– but it also ties the sump to CS118 for added strength.  Finally, it secures the 3 fuel lines heading aft: one to each sump tank and the other to the engine.

One of my tasks was to make foam fuel line mounting brackets that –at least the bigger one– will need to be glassed in place when the fuel sump right forward wall extension piece gets glassed in.  I’ll most likely wait on the smaller bracket.  If you’re wondering why I went with foam and am using fiberglass to secure the fuel lines, I actually got the idea when I queried Nick Ugolini on it.

To use Adel clamps, I would have had to spread out the fuel lines much farther apart (unless I grouped them together, which was not something I was so keen on doing). Plus, the way the fuel lines go through the pilot seat back opening, they either have to have a significant bend or slant to get them to the sidewall an inch away to use the Adel clamps, or they still need some type of bracket built to provide the required standoff from the sidewall.

Yes, if my “map” pocket wasn’t installed I could have possibly drilled or removed the edge of the pilot seat back that sticks out from the sidewall, but I wouldn’t prefer to do that anyway . . . and of course it’s not an option in this case.  To be clear, I have been researching this topic online and talking to folks for over a week now regarding the securing of fuel lines, and when Nick mentioned this, it was simply an Aha! moment.

After a grinding few hours, here’s the final glassing-in of the fuel sump right forward wall extension piece. Obviously in the pic you can see where I’ve also 5-min glued the right armrest storage pocket.  As for the sump wall extension piece, I floxed it in place first after sliding the 3 fuel lines into the initial slot I created on this 1″ thick Divinycell extension.  I then used a clamp as a spreader to keep the extension piece firmly pressed against the right sidewall.  A bit later I had to remove the clamp for a bit while I mounted the foam fuel line bracket, but then it went right back into place.

I used a couple of pieces of the original foam I cut out of the wall extension piece to place back under the bottom fuel line.  To lighten up the fuel line install I resorted to using flocro with a bit more micro than flox.  I flocro’d the bottom foam piece back into place under the  bottom fuel line, then had to add another 0.4″ thick foam piece to get the height correct.  I then slathered up the channel for the middle fuel line with flocro and added a 0.35″ foam spacer between the first and second fuel lines.  Again, I added more flocro and then another 0.40″ foam spacer between the middle and top fuel lines. Finally, I closed up the space above the top fuel line with another foam piece flocro’d in place.  The top fuel line has a tad more space between it and the middle fuel line to provide just a bit of clearance for the fitting that’s right there.

Once I knew the wall extension piece was securely in place, as were the fuel lines, I then carefully used sandbags to weigh down both fuel lines going to the Hydramats in an effort to have them cure in the correct position.  I of course am hoping that there is minimal spring back and that this works . . . to make it easier when mounting the middle and right side walls. Not a huge deal if they don’t, but again, it would make the upcoming wall installations easier.

Besides using 2-ply BID tapes to secure the sump wall extension piece to the right sidewall & fuselage floor–respectively, I also laid up 2-ply BID tapes between the CS118 mini-bulkhead and the sump wall extension, also on both the front and aft sides.

In the pic below you can also see the foam fuel line bracket that I floxed & glassed in place.  For this I simply used 1 ply of BID on each side.  After I ensure the fuel lines are in the correct position, tomorrow I’ll secure each fuel line in place with flox in its respective notch, then I’ll layup a 1″ wide ply of BID over the entire edge of the fuel line bracket, from floor to sidewall.  I’ll most likely mount the other fuel line bracket, and probably even get the fuel lines nice and situated, then mounted at the pilot seat bulkhead opening.

A few hours later after I finished the layups above, here’s the floxed in place and 90% cured pilot right armrest “map” pocket.  I ended up mounting it about 0.050″ lower than I had marked, which actually works out perfectly because there is literally no sign of the actual “map” pocket visible when the armrest is installed.

I actually did this early evening before it got too dark, but I placed it here in the blog for better topic flow.  I went out to my shed and pulled out the big miter saw to cut this 2.5″ x 2.5″ x 3″ wide 6061-T6 angled aluminum bracket piece for the initial fuel selector valve bracket.  This bracket will be the base for the “S” curve bracket that will attach to it. In turn, the “S” curve bracket will be what the fuel selector valve actually mounts to.  The position shown here is way low since I just have it setting there.  However, the left/right position shown is pretty much spot on.

Here’s a shot of it free & clear.

Tomorrow I’ll continue to work on the thigh support fuel sump and should get the front side of the front sump wall glassed, and then actually get the front wall installed tomorrow night.  Then I’ll start working on getting the 2 side walls & 1 interior rib cut out, shaped and glassed.

 

Chapter 16, 21, 22 – GIB Prereq’s

Today I started out by trimming the right front corner piece of the fuel sump’s front wall extension.  I had glassed the aft side last night, and now I trimmed it up in prep for glassing a ply of BID on the front side.  I did leave the glass over the channel in the middle alone for now just to maintain a little bit more strength in the piece while handling it.

I then micro’d up the foam and laid up 1 ply of BID on the front side.

Something I didn’t mention from last night is that I took the small bit of left over epoxy that I had, whipped up some flox, quickly prepped 2 Clickbonds, and floxed them to the corner of the fuselage in a couple spots to secure the pair of big electrical cables going from nose to aft.  I also embedded a RivNut (not shown) in the pilot seat bulkhead, for an additional Adel clamp for these big battery cables.

So, before I mixed up the epoxy to glass the 1 ply BID layup on the fuel sump right front wall extension piece above (today), I made up two small 2-ply BID pre-preg setups with ~2″ x 2″ plies to secure the Clickbond assemblies that I floxed in place last night using the leftover epoxy.  I laid up a 2″x2″ 2-ply BID layup over the first Clickbond, which is located in the area below the pilot control stick.

Here’s a closer look.

The 2nd Clickbond lies halfway between the pilot seat bulkhead and CS118, aft control assembly mounting mini-bulkhead.  It also got a couple plies of BID.  As you can, I also peel plied both of these Clickbond BID layups.

Still using the same epoxy as the above layups, I whipped up some more flox to attach yet another Clickbond for the big battery cable pair, and also embedded another RivNut in the GIB seat bulkhead for the same purpose.  I know that I’ll need one more Adel clamp in the Hellhole for the big battery cable pair, perhaps two, but that will be it for securing these mondo cables up to where they either attach (-) or pass thru (+) the firewall.

I realized that I was remiss in showing a pic of the fuel selector valve with all the fuel lines in place, so here’s a shot.  Also, to the right you can see one of the new Clickbonds.

I then pulled my table saw out of the shed and cut a 1/4″ thick piece of Finnish Birch plywood for the oil heat pump mounting pad.  I also beveled the edges in prep for it getting glassed into place.

I then tried out the fit of the oil heat pump on its new mounting pad.  The 4 each AN3 bolts will stick through the pad –with the heads embedded in the plywood on the back side– to secure the oil heat pump.  In addition, before I glass all this I’ll sand the beveled edges of the pad to remove any sharp corners.

While I had my table saw out I took the opportunity to cut up some 2″ thick urethane foam for some plugs.  The 2 longer strips on the right will be plugs for the heat & air ducts, while the block in the center is the GIB right armrest storage pocket plug.  FYI – this storage pocket is somewhat like the “map” pocket in the front right pilot’s console, only much bigger.

I hate wasting dead space in this plane, especially since storage space is a premium in Long-EZs.  Since I have just a hair wider back seat bulkhead (around 0.8″), combined with the Cozy Girrrl’s Cozy style control sticks [which straddle the control tube vs. attaching just on the inboard side], I needed to move my control tube assembling inboard about 3/4″ if I wanted the configuration to match that of the plans.  All these minor mods served to create a significant gap between the aft control tube and the right fuselage sidewall.  A gap that I of course exploited to use as storage.

I had jotted down some initial configurations last night, and further dialed those in today to come up with a storage pocket measuring 12.5″ long x 1.7″ wide x 6″ deep (tapering up to 5.2″ deep on the aft side).

This configuration not only provides a fair amount more storage, but it also allows all the engine fuel feed line, main tank sump feed line, big power cables and a smaller electrical bundle to all traverse around or under it.

Thus, with my design good, and wanting to dial in the engine fuel feed line, specifically, I decided to go ahead and glass this baby up.

I started by taping up the urethane foam plug with silver duct tape.  For a smoother interior pocket surface after it has cured, I then followed that up with a layer of clear packing tape.

I used BID as the first ply down, followed up by 2 plies of UNI biased in opposite ~30° directions.  To add a little bit more stiffness than my “map” pocket, I added 1 more ply of BID that covers the entire side and about half of the bottom and each end.

Here’s the glassed GIB right armrest storage pocket.

I then peel plied the bottom, front and back sides to allow for future glassing in place with BID tapes.

I then left it to cure as I went out for the evening.

 

Chapter 21 – Building sump ‘n stuff

I started off today doing a bunch of research on the Silver Hawk EX fuel injection system to figure out the mechanical lever configurations and how the throttle handle and mixture lever would control the fuel injection servo.  I needed this info to get a good approximation of where the throttle and mixture cables would be run down the fuselage sidewall.  This allowed me to better figure out where my oil lines will go inside the cabin for the oil heat system.

I also did a fair amount of research on the FT-60 “Red Cube” fuel flow sensor installation, as well as the Matronix pulsation damper I have on hand.  Finally, I took a good look and assessed the placement and installation of the oil pump for the heating system.

Upon finally getting back into the shop, I figured it was time to drill out & clean up the currently glassed over fuel sump drain valve hard points.  After carefully drilling the overlying glass and then cleaning up the holes, I then ran the 1/8″ NPT tap back through them to clean them up (although not a great pic, I wanted to show the general task).

I then did a quick install to check how the fuel sump drains looked and felt from both the outside of the fuselage and inside the fuel sump.  Although these are –again– just a quick install to see how the overall fit is and if there are any problems, I’m already very happy with the elevation of the fuel drains.  Once I clear out some more foam and dead flox, they’ll mount even farther up inside the outer skin exterior.

I had to use a light to get a shot of the right fuel sump drain valve.

Here are both drain valves together.  Take note were that green line is next to the left drain valve in the foreground.

And here’s a pic showing a straight elevation shot from the left side of the fuselage looking right.  And what can you see?  If you look at that green line shown in the pic above, you can’t see the drain valves from the side.  And again, these are very initial installs.  Thus, I think the final installs will be exactly what I was looking for.

Here’s a shot of both drain valves protruding up through the fuel sump floor.  I drilled these out now because when the sump walls get installed I figured it would be much more difficult to drill these out & clean them up.

Here’s the right sump fuel drain valve.

And the left sump fuel drain valve.

I spent a good half hour creating a wire template and then bending, shaping and cutting the fuel line that goes from the right sump tank up to the fuel selector valve.  As I was finishing up flaring the front side tube for the AN-6 fitting, I though I should document my flaring the fuel tubing for a fitting, so here it is.

Below you can see the flaring tool ready to go on the aft fuselage floor.  The tubing that I’m going to flare looks like a 3/8″ cobra ready to strike!  In prep for flaring, I taped up the tubing on the front side in the pilot’s seat area to keep it upright.

Here I’ve clamped the tubing into the flaring tool.  For every flare I ensure the cutting edge on the flaring tool gets a small drop of oil.

And here’s after I screwed in the flaring cone into the end of the 3/8″ fuel line tubing.  If you look closely you can see the flared end of the tubing.

And here it is all nice & clean after I removed the flaring tool.

And with the sleeve up nice & snug with the flared tubing.

Finally, here’s the nut in place and the fuel line ready to be installed.

Again, I just flared the right fuel line tubing that connects the Holley Hydramat fuel feed to the right intake on the Andair fuel selector valve.

Here’s another shot of both left & right Holley Hydramats connected to their respective fuel lines.

With all the fuel lines completed (as far I need them to be thus far) I could then configure the front right corner 1″ thick Divinycell foam piece that will make up the right front sump wall extension that actually connects the thigh support fuel sump to the right fuselage wall. I needed the fuel lines to be completed so I could know how to configure them in & through this block of foam.  I also needed to account for the 2 big power cables that weave their way through the length of the fuselage from nose to engine compartment.

As you can see, I cut a groove for the 3 fuel lines and little notch that will allow me to thread the big power cables through this bulkhead later on.  Again, the sump front wall piece that I just glassed will tie into this piece and make up the front sump wall & mini bulkhead across the fuselage at this point.

Moreover, once I configured the right front sump wall extension piece, I was then able to measure the exact length of the fuel sump front wall piece that I had just glassed yesterday, and trim it down a bit.

Also, as you can see in the pic below I made a couple of channels in the foam to run Nylaflow conduits for the sump low fuel alarm sensor wires for each side.

I added a hole in the upper right hand corner of my fuel sump right side wall extension piece for the routing of all the wires heading back to points aft that ARE NOT the 2 big power cables.  I cleaned up the foam and prepped it for a 1-ply BID layup.

After micro’ing the foam surface, I then laid up 1 ply of BID on top and then peel plied it. Tomorrow I’ll do the other side.

In addition, tomorrow I’ll continue to work on the sump and all the prerequisite items that I need to complete to be able to finalize the sump build, and then subsequently the pilot seating area configuration.  Of course this all leads to the final component install in the nose area, which in turn will allow me to finish closing up the top of the nose and get it glassed.

 

 

Chapter 16/21/22 – Apollo 13

In the movie “Apollo 13,” Gary Sinise’s character –who was an astronaut left on earth and didn’t go on the mission– is trying to find an optimal way to save as much electrical power as possible for his buddies in their damaged spaceship…getting slung around the moon and heading back to earth.  He tells another character that efficiency they’re looking for can be obtained as long as they get the correct sequence…. and that, my friends, is exactly what I’m trying to do!  Get the right sequencing down in order to be as quick and efficient as possible on this build in the long run.

You may have noted that it seems like I’m all over the map on this build, and I may be a bit.  But what I’m really trying to do is to get all the prerequisites to certain tasks completed so that when the original task is complete, there’s no rework or lost optimization.  That methodology of course entails quite a few rabbit holes that can take hours, days or even a week or so to complete as a prerequisite task for the original task. The original task of course is still there, waiting to be completed, and it will be . . . after the prerequisite tasks are all finished.  I hope that was all clear as mud!

I started off today checking out what was an extremely wet, epoxy-laden layup on the interior side of the fuel sump front wall.

I pulled the peel ply and trimmed the edges.  Not too bad.  I’ll probably leave the epoxy ridges unless they present a problem.

I started off trimming the fuel sump floor layup with my razor knife for a while, then grabbed my “Fein” saw to trim the remaining overhanging glass.

Although it doesn’t look that much different from above, I trimmed all the excess glass away.  As you can see, I also took a few minutes to run the big yellow power cables back to the hellhole.  I need these power cables ran so I can verify the size and shape of the front right side sump tank wall mount, since the front sump tank wall is essentially a bulkhead that goes from one sidewall to the other.

I then needed to figure out my spacing and configuration under the right front armrest for my fuel lines and big power cables, as well as the other smaller wire bundle as well.  To do that, well, guess what?  I needed to mount the map pocket in its position.

So I worked for about a half hour shaping and dialing in the exact spot it would get mounted.  I then transferred the opening shape over to the right armrest, and trimmed a notch in it the size & shape of the map pocket.

Here’s a test fit and a shot at how the map pocket looks with the intercom installed.

And a pic of the lower map pocket and the big power wires heading for the firewall.

Although I hadn’t finished with the right side forward sump wall edge configuration, I wanted to get some glass curing, so I worked on the left side a bit.  The pic below shows a small opening in a slight depression in the side wall at the lower left edge of the pilot’s seat back.  This opening will carry 3-4 antenna cables to the aft fuselage and eventually the wings.  The blue rectangle is where the heating duct will come forward from the oil heat exchange behind the pilot’s seat on the left sidewall.  [The oil heat system is another system that I pretty much just finalized the configuration for.]  So before the fuel sump front wall goes up, there needs to be some accounting of the items that will traverse across the left sidewall edge of the front fuel sump wall.

Additionally, the heating duct that I will be putting in actually needs to be run right over the channel that the antenna cables were meant to go.  Thus, to protect the antenna cables, make them removable, and still keep them in the same place, I cut out about a third of a side of one of my German “PVC” pipes.  These things are really thin, but fairly strong.  I weighed the piece that I used and it came out 0.92 oz.  Not bad.

Here’s a shot of the other side of the piece of pipe that I’ll be using.  I cut it length ways using a utility knife (that’s how thin it is), so it’s not a perfect cut.

After a fair amount of sanding to expand the opening a bit on the lower left side pilot’s seat, I was then able to slide just a peek of the antenna cable channel cover into the opening.  I wanted just enough poking out to feed the antenna cables through.

I taped the antenna cable channel cover to the side wall groove in the GIB area, and then 5 min glued it in place.

Using dry micro, I then covered the depression that ran the length of each side of the antenna cable channel cover (above & below it), which is caused by essentially having a segment of smaller circle sitting inside the segment of a bigger circle.

I then laid up 1 ply of BID in two separate pieces onto the antenna cable channel cover. Installing & glassing this antenna cable channel will allow me to account for it when I mount the fuel sump front wall.

I then started back in on the right side cockpit.  I flared the tubing for an AN fuel line fitting, shaped the engine feed fuel line and ran it off off the fuel boost pump.  I then did the same thing for the left sump tank feed line running it aft from the fuel selector valve.

Here’s a closeup of the fuel selector valve with the left fuel sump feed line freshly attached.

I swapped out the clockable 90° AN fitting for a 45° fitting on the fuel boost pump to get a better exit angle to the sidewall and then aft.

I then spent some time bending and shaping the left sump tank line to get it into place and flared with AN fittings to allow it to connect to the Holley Hyrdamat fuel intake.

In looking at these pics I realized that I should have done a zig or zag with my left fuel sump line to give a little elbow room for the right side fuel sump tank Hydramat.  I’m not too worried since I’m sure I can finagle some space somewhere!

Here’s a shot of the left fuel sump feed line connected to the Holley Hydramat.  Also, you can see the cured antenna cable channel layup in the back as well.

Here’s a closer shot of the glassed antenna cable channel.  I still have maybe a foot left to glass on the forward side, but I wanted to get the lion’s share of this laid up tonight.  With the really dry micro and the lightweight conduit piece, I’d be surprised if this whole antenna cable channel weighs more than a couple of ounces.

Tomorrow I’ll continue figuring out –and laying out– those components that affect the configuration of each side of the fuel sump front wall.  Once those items are complete, I can then best design the openings on each side of the fuel sump front wall/bulkhead, and then glass in the front fuel sump wall.

 

Chapter 21 – Sump’in’s happening!

I started off today assessing mounting hardware, components and configuration for the FT-60 “Red Cube” fuel flow sensor and the oil heat pump.  I also reviewed my plan & sequencing for the sump build and all the stuff that needs to be mounted in the aft seat area.

Meanwhile, I checked the temp on the curing GIB thigh support fuel sump base glass, which appeared to have held steady at around 125° F all night long.   This was the last check I did before taking off this afternoon to go visit some friends.

Before I left though I grabbed a fresh sheet of 3/8″ Divinycell foam and marked it up to cut out the front wall of the fuel sump.

Here’s a shot of the actual foam piece I’ll be using for the fuel sump front wall piece, next to the highly modified (from initial version) cardboard template.

I then cut 2 plies of BID out (one ply each for the front & aft side, respectively) and a ply of Kevlar for the initial ply on the aft side (interior) of the front wall.

After returning later this evening [including a couple of really good conversations with Nick Ugolini on a myriad of topics], I removed the heat lamps and started pulling the peel ply from the fuel sump base glass layup.

I have to say that at the seam of the peel ply pieces a fair amount of it was a bear to remove.  After some perseverance I finally got the peel ply removed, although I’ll still hit that area with some good sanding to ensure it’s all good.  I also took my razor knife and did an initial trim of the excess glass.

I then started in on glassing the aft side/interior of my fuel sump front wall.  I started by whipping up some E-Z Poxy and then some micro slurry for the foam.  After I got the foam surface micro’d, I then laid up the first ply on the interior sump wall: Kevlar.

I then laid up a ply of BID over the Kevlar.

Here’s a shot of the final 2 ply Kevlar & BID layup fully wetted out & trimmed for the fuel sump front wall interior side.

I then peel plied the layup (no peel ply pic except below) and set it under the heat lamps to cure.  I had a fair little bit of epoxy left, so I slathered it on the top of the peel ply, so this guy was definitely laid up WET!

After I got the glassed front wall piece situated under the heat lamps, I then climbed underneath the fuselage and wrestled something fierce to finally pull the plugs out of the sump fuel drain valve hard points.  I should have done it a lot earlier as the epoxy was at a good green stage, but I forgot so these suckers were in there good.  But again, I prevailed!

Tomorrow I’ll continue to work on the fuel sump, and continue planning out the component installs for the area around the sump.

 

 

Chapter 21 – EZ what?!

I started out today by checking the fuel sump drain valve hard points that I had embedded into the floor with flox of what will be the respective left & right sump tanks.  All looked good.

I then double checked the newly floxed-in mounting brackets for the right front armrest. These too looked good.

I then spent a couple hours doing some research and figuring out configurations on both the fuel system and oil heat system.  I pulled the trigger on an order with Wick’s for some fuel system hardware and Adel clamps.

In the late afternoon I finally made it down to the shop.  I cut 2 pieces of BID off the roll in my cutting table, both 10.5″ x 20″.  I also cut one piece of Kevlar 9.5″ x 18″, since I wanted the Kevlar edges covered with BID.

I then pulled out the E-Z Poxy epoxy system that I will use for my fuel system structures, as per Gary Hunter’s suggestion.  Now, if you’re wondering –again, as per Gary Hunter– why I’m using the 84B hardener vs the 87, well, that would be a good question.  I guess simply because it came in a kit?  I’m not sure.  I double checked an email conversation I had with Gary, and in it he states that he refers to using 87 hardener because it was around long before the 83 or 84 hardeners, but any of the E-Z Poxy configurations will work.  Whew!  Ok, again, not sure why I went the 84 route, but glad that it gets Gary’s seal of approval.

Moving on, uh, er, perhaps not!

When I opened up my hardener it was literally a solid block of … stuff!

Since my buddy Marco uses this stuff I know that the hardener often crystalizes, making it unusable until you prepare it by first boiling some water, and then . . .   Ugh, I’m just tired writing about it!  Here, check out Marco’s blog for the inside scoop on preparing crystalized E-Z Poxy!

Thankfully, after 2 sessions of boiling and soaking my BRICK of E-Z Poxy hardener, it decided to join us again in a usable liquid form.  Yay!  Kind of a cool trick to do at childrens’ birthday parties and all, but seriously, when “I gotsta glass, I gotsta glass!” . . . ya know what I mean???

Alright.  With my Using E-Z Poxy in the Kitchen adventures over with, I then whipped up some epoxy (ensuring to use the 100:44 weight ratio) and then some micro.  I remember Marco having some gelling going on his epoxy cups, so I figured (and verified) that this 84 stuff is a lot less viscous than the other E-Z Poxy hardeners.  [Hmmm? I also checked Marco’s blog and he’s using 84 hardener as well… what gives?  Maybe it’s because mine was really warm from having just got out of its hot tub. Always good to have de-stressed hardener before going in on a big layup!]  Anyway, not bad so far.

I then poured some micro slurry on the foam and got to work (sorry, bad pic!).

I then whipped up some thicker micro paste and hit the sides & corners.

I then laid up my first ply of BID using E-Z Poxy . . . look Ma!  No hair dryer! haha!

And another couple shots of BID ply #1:

Ply #2 was the Kevlar, and I laid it up without any issues.

On all the plies, I would lay them up with a good amount of squeegeeing to get a good, air free bond between the top ply and lower foam/plies, then wet it out more to keep it nice and wet.

Here’s the final ply of BID to round out the glassing of the sump tank(s) floor.

I then peel plied the fuel sump tank 3-ply layup and added a bit more epoxy that I had whipped up to keep it nice and wet.  I put the external thermometer transmitter next to the layup so I could track the curing temps.

Here’s one last –slightly in focus– shot of the peel plied fuel sump floor layup.

After cleaning up and grabbing a quick bite to eat upstairs, about 45 minutes later I then created MY own version of the Hell Hole! ha!

I set up my 2 heat lamps to keep my new addition nice ‘n toasty.

And covered it with a couple heat shields.

About an hour later I checked the layup to ensure all was going well, and that a heat lamp hadn’t decided to fall smack dab in the middle of it (or something!).  Well, it looked good and the heat was at a decent level: about 19.8 when first back into the shop.  Then it fluctuated up and down a bit over the 10 minutes I was in the shop: 120, then 119.7, then 120.4, as you can see below.

I figure 120°±1-2° is good.  So instead of post-curing for 4 hours @ 140°, I’ll just let this thing bake for a minimum of 12 hours @ 120°.  It will get post cured again, so no worries on that now.

Tomorrow I’ll start in on cutting & glassing the front, left & right walls & middle rib.  My goal is to have all but the top done on the GIB thigh support sump tank in the next few days, which will require the lion’s share of the fuel system plumbing to be completed concurrently… leaving only the firewall and aft remaining to plumb for the fuel lines.