Today I started off by finalizing the cleaning up & initial round of micro’ing some divots I had made (during cleanup) and the minor gaps between the wood pieces on the GIB right kick plate.

I then let the micro cure a bit as I cut the BID and peel ply for the layup.  I then laid up the 1 ply of BID using MGS 335 with fast hardener.

I then peel plied the layup.

I then took a break, grabbed something to eat and uploaded my pics to this website.  A bit later the layup was cured so I razor trimmed it, pulled the peel ply, cut the notch for the roll trim spring assembly, and then test fitted the kick plate in place.

It took a few iterations of trimming both the front and the aft edges of the kick plate to allow it to slide into place, but I eventually got it to settle in quite nicely.  Towards the front side top you may notice a square patch where I cut out the interior glass and wood to thin the top out for clearance with the underlying Adel clamp.

I then made up a brand new 6061 mounting tab for the aft edge and riveted a K1000-8 nutplate to it.  I also riveted K1000-8 nutplates to some existing mounting tabs I had made up earlier for the armrests.  I then added some protective tape around the mounting holes and mounted the brackets with #8 screws.

I then whipped up some flox, floxed up the 3 mounting brackets and set the kick plate in place.  To ensure the brackets were pressed into place nicely, I rested a weight against the kick plate.

A bit later, after the flox cured, I pulled the kick plate off the installed mounting brackets and cleaned the protective tape off of the kick plate.  Here are the 2 upper mounting brackets floxed in place to the fuselage sidewall.

And here’s the kick plate’s aft mounting bracket floxed in place to the front thigh support sump front wall bulkhead.

Before I pulled off the kick plate I drilled an 11/64″ hole through the bottom aft phenolic hardpoint in the kick plate.  I then widened it out in the fuel line bracket to accept a RivNut hardpoint that I’ll use for this mounting point.

I cut a few grooves into the RivNut to add some gripping power and taped up the end with duct tape.

What’s not seen here (you’ll see it when I remove the kick plate) is the 1/4″ thick Divinycell foam spacer that I floxed into place between the kick plate interior side and the fuel line mounting bracket.  The inboard half of the RivNut is floxed into the foam spacer while the rest of it is floxed into the fuel line mounting bracket.  The spacer itself is floxed on the outboard side to the face of the fuel line mounting bracket.

Later, after the RivNut & foam spacer flox cures, I’ll layup 1 ply of BID around the spacer to secure it and the RivNut to the fuel line mounting bracket.

I then used the same 12-pound weight pressed against the lower RivNut hardpoint (and foam spacer) to keep it securely in place.

After I finished writing the majority of this blog post, I went back down to the shop to catch the flox on the lower kick plate RivNut hardpoint in its “green” stage of curing –where it’s still just a little pliable– and I was able to do so [Incredibly easier when the epoxy/flox/micro is in this stage… it has the consistency of caramel candy and can be cut and removed without much difficulty].  I removed the screws and pulled the kick plate off its mounting tabs, and then cleaned up the flox that had oozed out from around the sides of the 1/4″ Divinycell spacer.  Here’s the (nice & clean) result:

Tomorrow (Sunday) I’m leaving for North Carolina for a few days.  Then I’ll spend a couple of days with Marco.  Thus, I will not be building (although I will place some orders!) during that time.  Once I get back I plan on working full bore —in maniacal fashion— without a break until Rough River.

This morning I trimmed the cured layup on the underside of the GIB kick plate.

I then cleaned up some areas of dead epoxy that had seeped through to the front side.  I then sanded the corner edge down to create a nice, pleasing radius.

I would have liked to have laid up the 1 ply of BID on the entire exterior face of the kick plate, but I had to get on the road to help my friends in their move to North Carolina.

I started off today spending about 45 min updating my cockpit lighting electrical diagram and printing it out.

I then removed the GIB RAM mount to inspect the mounting holes and do an initial cleanup.  I still need to fill some areas around the inserts with some more flox/micro, but they all look good.

I then remounted the RAM mount to see how it fit and how it looks.  I’ll say that I’m very happy with this install.

I also checked out my other hardpoint insert from last night.  This hardpoint is for the small wire bundle [meaning a bundle of small wires, not necessarily a small bundle . . . ] that will be routed just under the top edge of the kick plate that will run along the right side.  I was going to put an Adel clamp here, but with the slant of the top of the fuel line mount, it would just be too bulky.  So instead I mounted a metal tab that I’ll then be able to secure the wire bundle to.

Here’s a shot a bit later after the 2 plies of BID that I laid up over the forward small wire bundle Clickbond cured.  I then set an Adel in place to check out the fit.  And yes, I realize that I still need to get in there and clean up the forward fuel line mount since it’s looking a bit messy.

Here’s another shot of the forward small wire bundle Adel clamp.  This too will be hidden from view when the kick plate is installed.

I then tweaked the scrap cardboard template I made up last night to determine the dimensions of the GIB right sidewall kick plate.  As you can see, it runs from the aft edge of the pilot’s seat to the front edge of the thigh support fuel sump front wall . . . specifically the right side bulkhead.

After I got the kick plate dimensions squared away, I then cut up a couple of pieces of 1/16″ thick Balsa wood that I had on hand just for this purpose.  I determined where my lower mounting hard points would be, then cut 0.7″ x 0.7″ phenolic pieces and inserted them into the Balsa kick plate to reinforce the areas on the kick plate that will get screwed in place to the sidewall.

Here’s a shot of the other side, but with all the phenolic hard points and the two strips of Balsa wood micro’d in place.

I then laid up 1 ply of scrap UNI on the interior side of the kick plate.

I actually had a lot more planned to knock out today, but late in the afternoon my friends that are moving to North Carolina called and requested my assistance, so I was out most of the evening.  I did manage to trim up the layup on the interior kick plate when I returned many hours later.

I then cut more Balsa strips for the top, inserted 2 phenolic hard points and prepregged a couple of 1-ply BID layups.  I then laid up 1 ply of BID on each end, overlapping in the center.  This overlap helps reinforce the center a bit since I used 2 pieces of Balsa for the top, which precluded me from having to use an entire new strip of Balsa wood (remember: I’m cheap!).

I of course used a micro fillet and micro’d the phenolic hard points in place before glassing the interior of the top.

The top is 1.6″ wide, so I used 2.5″ for my width on the first ply of BID to glass both the internal top surface, but also overlap onto the kick plate side piece 0.9″.  In addition, I laid up an extra BID tape in the corner that was 1.5″ wide, so it overlapped about 3/4″ onto the top and side pieces of the kick plate.

In addition to my kick plate shenanigans, I also laid up a ply of BID over the Clickbond I floxed into place last night onto the heat exchanger’s upper duct, to be used for an Adel clamp to secure the heat restrictor valve cable in place.  I peel plied that layup, and below is a shot after it cured and I pulled the peel ply.

I then attached an Adel clamp to ensure the fit & finish was right… so far, so good!

Tomorrow is a planned day to help my friends moving to NC, so I don’t think I’ll get any building done at all.

Today I started off by Alodining the cooling/heating air valve plate.

And Alodining the heat restrictor valve (butterfly) plate.

I then installed the heat restrictor valve (butterfly) plate (note the 2 new standard screws used to install the plate).

I then mounted the upper/inlet duct to the heat exchanger body using RTV silicone.  I used RTV to make it easier to remove the upper/inlet duct if required in the future to tweak or repair the heat restrictor valve.

A few hours later I removed the clamps and cleaned up the excess RTV silicone from the upper duct attachment.  In addition, I floxed a Clickbond in place for the heat restrictor valve control cable Adel clamp.

I also marked & drilled the last 2 holes for mounting the GIB RAM mount.

I then floxed the last 2 of 4 hard points for the final install of the GIB RAM mount.

Finally, during my flox frenzy I floxed in a Clickbond (just above the forward fuel line mount) and a hard point (under the 10-pound dumbbell) for securing the small wire bundle that will traverse the fuselage from the front to the back of the fuselage.

Tomorrow I’ll continue working on the getting the GIB area components, including the oil heat & fresh air ducts, configured and installed.

Today I started off by heading out to my local hardware store to buy another clevis pin to be converted into my heat restrictor butterfly rod (round 2!) and some other miscellaneous hardware.

Last night I already bought another 4-40 tap set to replace the one I broke.  I also looked for the same style clevis pin that I am converting for the butterfly valve rod, but none of them at Lowe’s or Home Depot, which were the only stores open, would work.

Upon returning home, I then floxed into place the rubber grommet that I configured to go in the hole between the main duct outlet into the heat exchanger’s upper duct (heating air inlet).

Here’s the backside of that same grommet.  This is the surface of the grommet that will actually interface with the gasket that I place around the matching hole in the heat exchanger’s upper/inlet duct (see below).

I had pondered a while last night and this morning on how to fill in the minor gaps between the heat exchanger duct entry & exit holes and the associated holes in the main duct.  I mounted the heat exchanger on its ductwork mounts and assessed the widths of grommets and/or gaskets (which I stumbled across during my pondering) that would be required.

I decided on using gaskets to mate up with the grommets I had just floxed into place. [Actually, I cut out this gasket below for the heat exchanger upper duct and floxed it in place at the same time as the grommet above.]

I also went ahead and floxed an AN960-416 1/4″ ID washer in place to use as a reinforcement sleeve for the heat restrictor butterfly valve.

A bit later I floxed on 1.5 gasket rings on the outlet hole on the heat exchanger’s lower duct.  I floxed in place one entire gasket ring first, then a half of one shaped basically in a backwards “C” in relation to the pic below.

When I floxed in the gaskets above, I also floxed in the 1/4″ washer on the other side of the heat exchanger’s upper/inlet duct.

The vast majority of the day was spent on constructing the heat exchanger’s upper duct heat restrictor butterfly valve.  After snapping my 4-40 tap off in modified clevis pin #1 (which was heat restrictor valve rod #2), I vowed to go super slow and clear the tap at every step this go-around.  Well, I got half way through the 2nd hole and wouldn’t you know it: my new 4-40 tap snapped in half!  Oh yeah, and this time I was fortunate enough to impale myself on the top of my thumb!  Ugh!

Well, after about 15 minutes I was finally able (and fortunate enough!) to remove the snapped off tap piece.  I then very carefully was able to use the two broken tap pieces to thread just enough of the remaining hole to mount a screw into it.

Later on, in the same hole –after using countersunk screws all day and well into the evening– as soon as I switched to my new standard stainless steel phillips head screws, the head snapped off immediately as I was just finalizing threading it into place.  Ugh!

After another 30-40 minutes of drilling out the snapped off screw, I was again thankful that the slightly undersized drill bit that I used didn’t wipe out my threads in that hole.  Going back to my CS screws seemed to do the trick and was definitely the safe option at this point.

Instead of taking a myriad of pics (which I failed to do anyway amidst all the mayhem!), I decided that I could better explain what I was doing with a video… so here you go:

I thought I would also knock out a quick side task and mount the GIB RAM air mount on the aft upper center of the pilot’s seat.  Now, I already have one that I mounted on the aft side of the pilot’s headrest, but I need to assess that one further since it may very will get moved or removed altogether depending on how well it plays with the canopy’s reinforcement crossbar.

Since I don’t have any extra of my preferred CG-style aluminum hard points, I simply used 2 RivNuts diagonally opposed in opposite “corners” and floxed them into the holes I made below (I’m using 4 screw hard points on this mount).  Later I’ll add the other 2 screw hard points.

Here’s a shot of the RAM air mount with the RivNut hard points mounted and floxed into place.  As you can see, I used my handy German clamp to keep the RAM air mount in place while the flox cures.

A couple hours later, after the flox had cured, I pulled off the clamp to reveal a nice “half-mounted” GIB RAM mount installed on the back of the pilot’s seat.

I then removed the ball mount and did a quick cleanup on the RivNut hard points.  Again, I’ll add 2 more hard points when I have them on hand.

Tomorrow will be a half build day since I’ll be helping my friends that are moving to NC.  But I do still intend to get a few things knocked out.

As far as building, today was one of those kluge days from hell….

I’m still not feeling 100%… it’s really hot here… and unexpected mishaps have reared their ugly heads again: specifically, on the heat exchanger upper inlet duct heat restrictor butterfly valve.  As you can see below, I have the butterfly valve on top with the 2 drilled holes (I finished the 2nd one tonight), then the first stainless steel rod which proved virtually impossible to drill, then at the bottom the converted drift pin that I handily snapped off the 4-40 tap in the second and last hole . . . After repeated attempts to remove the snapped off tap piece, including knocking it out from the opposite side with a hammer, I was left with only a bent, misaligned butterly valve rod.

So I digressed and did a fair amount of research on different components and upcoming build tasks.  I then went out and picked up another 4-40 tap set and a couple of large grommets.  Upon returning home, I tested out a grommet in the fresh-cool/heat air transfer vent hole.  Amazingly, in light of the total SNAFU with tapping the butterfly valve rod above, the grommet fit in the odd shaped hole perfectly!

Below is another shot of the grommet more from the side.  You may note that I cut the grommet to taper down towards the top side (left in pic) and then sanded it to smooth it out flat.

I then drew up a cardboard template for the actual fresh-cool/heat air valve plate and then transferred that over to a piece of 1/16″ 2024 aluminum, which I then cut out.  The valve plate is curved on the top left corner to seal asl best possible with the PIC seat back corner.  It’s also curved on the lower right corner to seal up that curved corner as well.

Here is the fresh-cool/heat air valve plate and the rubber vent hole grommet from the opposite (inboard) side.  In the center of the valve plate showing here is where the valve actuation control arm will get mounted.  This will be the control arm that when the lever is moved forward or aft at the pilot’s station, the fresh-cool/heat air valve will be opened or closed for either cockpit cool ventilation air or cockpit heat.

Tomorrow I’ll try to regroup and get much more accomplished, including version 3 of the upper inlet duct heat restrictor butterfly valve rod.

I started out today by buying and then swapping out the GIB lower eyeball vent mounting screws to stainless steel hex buttonhead screws.  The other ones worked fine, but they were just too industrial looking for my taste,  Yes, minor point, but might as well make it all look nice, eh?

Here’s the another inside shot of the GIB lower eyeball vent mounting screws.

After sanding down and prepping all the mating surfaces, I then whipped up some wet flox and floxed in place the GIB lower eyeball vent & base to the lower horizontal duct.

About 8 hours later I pulled off the clamp and cleaned up the minor bit of flox that had oozed out.

The flox spread was nice and uniform, meaning this GIB lower eyeball vent mounting to the lower duct was a success.

Tomorrow will pretty much be a non-build day, but I’ll be back at working on the vent system and oil heat system on Monday.

I started off today by figuring out where my heat exchanger air will enter from the main air duct into the upper heat exchanger duct . . . which of course is the inlet duct for the heat exchanger.  After figuring out where my perimeter “no-go” areas were for both the main air duct and the underlying upper/inlet duct [as it’s positioned in this pic…look upper left] I marked off the inlet hole.

I then drilled the center mass of the marked hole out with a 1-1/4″ hole saw bit.

I then used a sanding drum on my drill to shape the rest of the hole.  This inlet hole is a fair bit larger than the rest of my standard sized 1.5″ duct area since with the height of the duct at only 0.75″ tall, the air inlet ramp created by the opened valve –to divert the incoming air into the heat exchanger– will be longer and flatter, requiring a bit more open hole area for the equivalent amount of air to flow through.

Here’s a shot of my current left side wall mounted GIB area ductwork, with the heat exchanger and the GIB low eyeball vent mounted as well.  If you look closely, you may note that I chopped off 0.4″ of the aft end of the horizontal duct (bottom right of pic), and moved the hole forward 0.4″ to allow moving the low eyeball vent forward for clearance with the 2 oil lines.

Also, for a bit better understanding of what I’m doing here, I took the pic above and turned it into a quick labeled diagram of all the major parts of the ductwork & oil heat system located in the GIB compartment.  Yes, it’s not the best graphic…. and not to sound overly snarky, but my goal is to get this airplane finished, not to build stunningly beautiful charts!

Below is a closeup shot of the 2 heat exchanger-related holes in the main air inlet duct. The top one is the one I just created, and again which allows the outside ram air to flow through the main inlet duct and into the heat exchanger –WHEN THE HEAT AIR VALVE IS OPENED.  Otherwise, if the valve is closed the air simply passes over the valve and continues on its merry way into the ductwork both in the GIB area and forward to the pilot’s seat area.

The lower opening is strictly used only when the air is flowing through the heat exchanger and is the inlet for warm air to flow from the heat exchanger into the ductwork system.  An important note is that the valve that diverts the air to the heat exchanger lies in-between these 2 openings.  Thus, when the valve is open and the air is flowing into the upper opening, it stops any air (or the vast majority of it) from passing into both the rest of the ductwork system (since it’s being diverted into the heat exchanger) or into the lower opening (which will have warm air exiting out of it from the heat exchanger into the ductwork).

You might be wondering about the lower air opening when the heat exchanger is not being used for heat, or stated another way, is not in the “on” state.

Well, some air will certainly flow into the heat exchanger in the opposite direction through this lower hole.  First, the hole in the main air inlet duct (on the left side) will be covered by the valve plate so no air can flow backwards into the main air duct from the heat exchanger.  Then, if you look below you’ll see a bright shiny lever on the side of the heat exchanger’s upper duct, which is the inlet air duct from the upper hole to the heat exchanger.  This lever controls the heat restrictor butterfly valve.  When the heat exchanger is not being employed to produce heat, this valve is closed, and thus also restricts any air from passing in the reverse direction through the heat exchanger.

Here’s a shot of what the GIB is more likely to see sitting in the back seat.  This is a good shot of how the heat exchanger will look in its final constructed state.  I just floxed the lower outlet duct (on the right) onto the heat exchanger.  Once I finish constructing the butterfly valve (I just ordered a 1/4″ 2024 rod from ACS) I will also flox the upper inlet duct into place atop the heat exchanger.  On the left side of the pic you can of course see the GIB lower eyeball air vent.

I then started work on prepping the main air duct glass for mounting the Fresh Cool Air OR Heat Feed Air Valve into place (I’m going to have to come up with a standard name for these valves!).  I sanded the interior duct glass where yet another 0.5mm aluminum reinforcement plate will be glassed in for mounting the valve assembly.

I cut out the 0.5mm piece of aluminum (from my German consumables stock!) for my reinforcement plate and then wet floxed it into place with one ply of BID over it.

Although I had made up a minuscule amount of epoxy for the layup above, I still had a decent bit left over.  So I quickly moved onto my next layup –earlier than I had planned– and laid up 1 ply of BID on the opposite side of the aluminum reinforcement plate, this ply of BID also glassed in place merely for reinforcement purposes.

I then started working on the G10 Garolite lid for the right GIB armrest storage pocket. After I trimmed and sanded it for a bit, I was able to set it in place on the very slight lip that I created on the inside edge of the armrest storage pocket cutout.

By this point my glass had cured on the valve mounting reinforcement layups, so I pulled the peel ply and cleaned them up.  I then spaced out & drilled 6 holes for countersunk rivets through the lower valve assembly plate and duct wall.  I then floxed the lower valve assembly plate into place and riveted the 6 rivets into place.

Tomorrow I’ll continue my quest to finish the air ductwork and heating system, as well as get as much installed in the GIB area as possible before 1 August.

My goal today was to get the GIB low air eyeball vent base glassed up, which I’m happy to report I was able to accomplish.

I started out today by marking the aft end of the horizontal duct (which is upside down in the pic below, and subsequent pics . . . just think of it as how you would you view it when looking into the GIB area from the left side of the plane down) with a 1-3/4″ diameter circle to drill it out with the same diameter hole saw.

I forgot to take a pic of the hole after I drilled it out, but it came out fine.  I then measured out, cut and shaped a piece of urethane foam for the base of the eyeball vent.  I then taped up the foam and surrounding duct to create a form for the lower GIB eyeball vent base.  As you can see, the base is angled towards the front of the plane in order to warm up the feet area of the GIB.

I then drilled a 1-3/4″ hole in my German 0.5mm aluminum sheet and then cut out a 2.1″ x 2.1″ piece centered on the hole.  This aluminum piece will serve as reinforcement for the eyeball vent assembly.  I then sanded the aluminum reinforcement piece to texture it for a better grip with the epoxy & flox.

I then laid up 1 ply of BID over the taped form before wet-floxing on the aluminum reinforcement piece.  I then laid up 2 more plies of BID over the aluminum reinforcement piece and the first ply of BID.

This was a bit of a complex layup with all the angles, so to keep the top flat I weighed it down with a taped 2×4, and then lightly clamped that in place as well.

I worked on the heat exchanger top duct butterfly valve plate that I cut out of 2024 aluminum (sorry, no pics) and after a bit of filing it down I finally got it to fit in both the upper inlet duct & the notched flat on the 1/4″ butterfly valve rod.  However, when I went to drill the holes through both the butterfly valve plate and the rod, I realized after about a half hour of drilling into the rod that my stainless steel bit was not, in fact, working well.

By the time I got done unsuccessfully messing around with drilling the butterfly valve rod, the glassed eyeball vent base was cured.  I pulled the weighted board off the top.

And then redrilled the 1-3/4″ hole for the eyeball vent.

I then set the eyeball vent in place in the freshly glassed base.

As you can see below, I used the eyeball vent assembly as a guide to drill out the 4 corner mounting holes into the glass and reinforcement layer of aluminum on the vent base.  I then cleaned out the foam inside that made up the form and gave the cured layup a quick trim.

And then pulled the eyeball vent base off of the end of the horizontal duct.

I then quickly checked the fit by placing it back on the duct without the tape.  It fit fine.

I also marked the raw eyeball vent base for trimming.

And trimmed ‘er up with the Fein saw.  I then set the vent base back on the duct.

Here’s another shot of the vent base placed onto the duct.

I then mocked up the eyeball vent.

Here’s a shot showing the interior clearance with the eyeball vent in place.

I mounted the eyeball vent into place in the vent base using 4 screws & nuts.

I then mocked up the eyeball vent & base along with the heat exchanger mounted to the duct network.  As you can see, I also terminated the fittings for the oil line hoses that run from the left front wall thigh support fuel sump bulkhead to the heat exchanger.

Here’s a closer shot of the GIB lower vent that I just glassed & configured tonight with the heat exchanger and oil lines in place.  I will assess, and most likely move, the eyeball vent (and base) about 1/4″ to 1/2″ forward towards the heat exchanger for better clearance with the oil lines.

In addition, the actual lengths of oil line hose used was about 4″ and 4.5″ for the respective hoses.  In other words, not much as far as the thinner 3/8″ lines go.

Tomorrow I’ll continue working on the oil heat system and fresh air ductworks, as well as my push to get the GIB area tasks completed before moving forward in prep for finishing the nose.