Chapter 22 – Electrifying Administrivia!

Posted on 16 November, 2016 by Airdog

I didn’t get a lot done on the actual build today, although I did get a TON of administrative tasks done for my electrical system.

First off, I’m going to reiterate the emphasis and importance that I place on the electrical system. Finalizing significant portions of the electrical system may definitely not be as sexy as seeing significant portions of the plane go together, but it in my opinion it is critical for many reasons. First, if the airplane is an aerodynamic housing for these systems, it makes sense to me to know how these electro-whizzies are going to FIT inside the housing before the housing is completed! Second, it is infinitely easier to work on fitting those electro-whizzies into place before the housing (eg fuselage, strakes, nose, etc.) is completed. In addition, it’s nice to be able to track the weight of these components, instruments & avionics to allow for a weight cost-to-benefit analysis of each specific component. There are at least 2 electrical components (StrikeFinder & fuel vapor sensor) that I’ve eliminated from my system simply because the cost in weight to have these installed is simply too high compared to the operational benefit that they currently provide. Finally, I think it’s critical to know what the current draw is for entire system and each of the primary sub-components of the system. Obviously it’s impossible to have any current analysis on hand if the decisions on which components will be used haven’t been made. Clearly just dumping a bunch of components together into the ship, even if they are wired up correctly, won’t cut it from a systems standpoint. For me it’s simple: Better to know all this now AS I construct the airplane rather than later . . . and yes, that’s just my opinion.

Looking forward to after the airplane is flying, with aerodynamics ascertained and airframe structurally integrity verified, then the lion’s share of importance is placed on OPERATING the aircraft. Operating the aircraft relies on electrical systems, and requires those systems and components be optimized and working correctly. Of course there will always be a need for fine-tuning these electrical components and a good ability to troubleshoot them as well. In short: effective & efficient troubleshooting comes down to thorough & meticulous system documentation. This holds especially true later on down the road when equipment upgrades, swap outs, additions or even removal is wanted or required.

I’ve seen a firsthand example of what a royal PITA it can be when system documentation is not on hand and you’re trying to troubleshoot, understand and/or upgrade your aircraft electrical system components. Specifically on my buddy Marco’s recently acquired already-built Long-EZ. I spoke with Terry Lamp, the builder of Marco’s Long-EZ, at Rough River about the lack of electrical system documentation. Terry had created a whole slew of electrical system diagrams & documents for the airplane, but gave it to the new (2nd) owner when the new owner bought the plane. However, somewhere/somehow the second owner never transferred the electrical system info to owner #3. Fast forward to Marco as owner #4, and he’s sitting there doing a LOT of head scratching to figure what was done, installed, modified, etc. on the electrical system. Understandably not Marco’s fault at all, but clearly not a lot of fun. The bottom line is I plan NOT to be an aircraft owner that doesn’t have an in-depth ability to quickly assess, analyze and identify an electrical system problem due to a lack of good documentation (ala owner #2!).

Ok, with all that said (yes, rant over & off soap box!) . . . I spent quite a few hours today updating my electrical system diagrams & annotating them to reflect what was actually wired on the Triparagon. In addition, I also deconflicted a number of grounding positions, and consolidated a few ground paths as well. At times this took digging back through the manuals, and certainly involved cross-referencing and updating a bunch of my different wiring diagrams to ensure they all told the same story. In addition, I annotated the nearly 50 wire label codes I printed out into my wire label tracking spreadsheet. Finally, I really can see how finalizing the Triparagon wiring, which I’ll estimate at a good 30% of the overall aircraft wiring, really helps in synching the remaining wiring pinouts, grounds and wiring circuits in playing well together.

Tomorrow I’ll get back to the physical tasks of build, but today was definitely good for keeping my electrical system documentation up to speed.

Chapter 22 – Electrical System

Posted on 15 November, 2016 by Airdog

Of course at this point my electrical system is analogous with the Triparagon. Since, that being said, it is true too that the majority of my electrical components are mounted, or will be mounted, on the Triparagon.

After spending a good couple of days here & there populating the Triparagon components with wires to & fro the various parts, and finalizing a large number of circuits for the resident things on the Triparagon, it then stood to reason –and begged the question: Does it work? Yes, it was truly time to test install this monstrosity.

So I did a mock up install of the wired-up Triparagon onto its mounting tabs in what I call the Avionics Bay (instrument panel to F22) of the Long-EZ. I also installed the Voltage Regulator to see how it fit into the mix. Below you can see the left side of the Triparagon & the Voltage Regulator.

And a shot of it from the right. I’d like to point out that up to this point the Triparagon has definitely met, or exceeded, my design goals.

To give you all a sense of space…. specifically the space NOT taken up by the Triparagon (aka “legroom”) I took a couple of shots from close to straight in line with the edge of the the NG30 plates that house the nose gear motor. In addition, the nose wheel cover (NB) also provides a “natural” barrier & offers a bit of standoff protection from wayward feet or legs to help keep the Triparagon out of accidental harm’s way. I would like to point out that the current Triparagon wiring is in the initial “free form” stage and has not been organized, nor secured in place yet.

There’s still just a bit of cross-connect wiring that needs to be done on the Triparagon proper, along with some final prep of the mounting tabs and the installation of the top cross shelf before I move back onto installing the wheel pants.

Chapter 22 – Triparagon, et al . . .

Posted on 14 November, 2016 by Airdog

I started out today by undertaking the task of removing part of the TCW Safety Trim box’s lower mounting bracket, which was covering and in the way of the bottom Triparagon mounting screw hole.

So I removed a half moon notch of the mounting bracket and uncovered the bottom Triparagon mounting screw hole.

In other news, I fried my heat gun last night. So after a trip to Harbor Freight to pick up a nice cheap replacement heat gun, the weather was nice so I got to work outside to complete quite a number of cuts that were required with aluminum pieces & stock.

The first task was something that I’ve needed to do for a while now. Since I finally got the correct sized Adel clamp in my latest ACS order, I was able to clamp down the Matco wheel axle nuts (from VANs Aircraft) that are used to mount the outboard sides of the wheel pants. Since I won’t be using them as per their original design, I need to shorten them to 1″ in width from outboard to inboard. Specifically, I won’t be using the cotter pin holes, so those are going away.

Just as I did my LWA9s & CNLs, I clamped the axle nut extensions into the Adel clamp & secured it with a screw. I then took my time to ensure that the axle nut was 90° to the mounting board.

I then used my saw to slowly cut the axle nut down to 1″ width.

The actual width came out to be more like 1.05″, which works fine.

Here’s a shot showing both axle nut extensions cut to 1″ in width.

And a closer view . . .

I then spent a good bit of time cutting the angled aluminum extrusions for the Triparagon upper cross shelf. The 2 extrusions in the foreground of the pic below are for actually attaching the Triparagon’s top horizontal cross shelf to the vertical plate. The larger angled pieces shown left-to-right are primarily additions to the front of the cross shelf that will be used for both mounting smaller components, such as airspeed switches and the warning horn, and also for the diagonal supports for the Triparagon top cross shelf.

Since I was in a cutting mood, I also cut the 4130 steel tubes to length that will be used as bolt inserts in the longeron doublers for mounting the 2 newly acquired AN3-62A bolts. These assemblies will hold the canard in place at the upper mounting tabs in lieu of the plan style pins. The bolts look a bit curved due to the camera angle, but they are in fact straight!

As I mentioned in the Project Update, I’m working on the Triparagon right now and my main goal in finishing it at this point of the build is really threefold:

Ensure the Triparagon concept works & can be incorporated with a minimal (and acceptable) weight penalty.
Install the Triparagon and ensure it fits while I have access to the nose area.
Wire all the resident components on the Triparagon. This is primarily wiring cross-connects for ONLY those circuits on the Triparagon. All other components will get wired as they are installed.

I should state that part of my fit & finish testing for the Triparagon includes the B&C Voltage Regulator, which is not actually mounted on the Triparagon, but immediately forward of it on the aft upper side of F22. So I also wired all the connections from the Voltage Regulator to Triparagon components.

The long pole in the tent for the Voltage Regulator wiring was the wires coming off of pins 3 & 5, since they both connect to main buss power and pin 5 drives the warning signal to the AG6 warning annunciator. The warning circuit required a 1K ohm resistor which I soldered into place.

Here you can see the 1K ohm resistor soldered into place, and the heat shrink in place on the respective wires to help build wire thickness for physical joint strength when the final piece of heat shrink is put in place.

The final heat shrink tubing in place over the resistor that’s tied in between the voltage regulator’s pin 3 & 5 wires.

Tomorrow I’ll continue to finalize the Triparagon components’ wiring cross-connects before moving onto the wheel pants install.

Chapter 22 – Inching forward . . .

Posted on 12 November, 2016 by Airdog

I started off today by taking a pic of the pitch level of the mounted Triparagon. As you can see, the addition of the last 3 nutplate mounting hard points tilted the Triparagon ever so slightly forward. Nothing that can’t be reworked or overcome during the installation of the top “shelf,” but it is something for me to take note of to ensure I get 0° level.

Here’s a shot from the top to show the mounted Triparagon in comparison to the CL. Again, you can see that the Triparagon is very closely aligned, so not bad.

I cleaned up the left side layups on the Triparagon nutplate mounting tabs. In the pic below you can see that the top F28 Triparagon mounting tab still needs to be cleaned up.

I then laid up 2-ply BID layups on the RIGHT side of the Triparagon nutplate mounting tabs. I then clamped these right side layups so that the glass would cure as flat & tight as possible to allow the Triparagon to mount back into place close to its original installed position.

While the right side Triparagon mounting tabs’ glass cured, I took a few minutes to re-drill the GIB seatbelt crosspiece screw holes, since I had inserted G10 hard points to buttress the square cross tube.

Here’s a closeup shot of the initial drilling of the G10 hard point in the GIB seatbelt crosspiece screw hole.

I then started back working on the actual Triparagon by remounting the electrical components to it. I also drilled a couple holes to allow a zip tie to be used for mounting the Trio autopilot Autotrim relay –along with a patch of velcro.

I wired up the G5 avionics ground buss to connect it to the bolt mounting the G4 panel ground buss. Here’s a shot of the left side Triparagon.

Another shot of the left side Triparagon. You can see below that I also wired the E-bus to the Schottky diode.

Below is a shot of the electrical components remounted to the right side Triparagon (with a pic hue for some reason).

And another shot of the right side Triparagon. Again, note that I wired the E-Bus feed by adding a wire between the Main Buss terminal to the Schottky diode (sorry for the slightly blurry pic).

A few hours later I removed the clamped blocks off the Triparagon nutplate mounting points and cleaned up the 2-ply BID layups.

I also wanted to add a shot of my prop extension back from Sam at Saber Manufacturing. As you can see, he added in 3/8″ bolt holes and bushings for the Silver Bullet prop on the prop side, and he also added 7/16″ bolt holes in between the 1/2″ holes for mounting the extension to the engine prop flange.

From here on out my main focus will be on wheel pants until I get those nearly fully installed.

Chapter 22 – Triparagon Mounting

Posted on 10 November, 2016 by Airdog

I started out today by finalizing an Aircraft Spruce order that I’ve literally been compiling for over a month now. I then entered all the ordered items into my tracking spreadsheet.

I then spent a half hour tweaking my main electrical system diagram & grounding matrix list, and then printed them out.

Down in the shop, I started out by bonding the Triparagon phenolic nutplate assemblies to their foam backers. By the way, I used the tough H250 foam for the backers to add some oomph to these Triparagon mounting hard points.

I used 5-min glue to bond the nutplate assemblies to the foam.

Here are 4 of the 7 mounting hard points bonded together with 5-min glue. You may recall that I actually assembled these about a year ago. I have one more rectangular nutplate assembly that I hadn’t fully put together before, so that needs finished. I have another one in this bag that is an odd shaped nutplate assembly for mounting the very top of the Triparagon to the aft side of the F28 bulkhead.

I then verified that the fuselage was level to allow me to match the top “shelf” of the Triparagon at 0° level for the eventual mounting of the GRT GADAHRS.

My next task was to mark the fuselage CL on the nose wheel cover (NB). To do this I dropped a plumb line using my CL marks on the F22 & F28 bulkheads.

Here’s another shot of the plumb line for marking the CL.

After marking the CL on the nose wheel cover (NB), I then ran my plumb line down the CL of the fuselage to allow me to install the Triparagon as close to on-CL as possible. At a minimum, I wanted the Triparagon mounted parallel to the CL, even if off center say 0.1″ or so.

I taped a level in place on the top “shelf” of the Triparagon. I also taped a mixing stick to the top portion of the Triparagon to allow me to monitor its alignment to the CL string that I strung in place. I then mocked up the Triparagon with the 4 nutplate assemblies screwed into place.

I clamped the Triparagon top mounting tab to the aft side of F28. It took some trial & error to dial in the correct spacer thickness between the Triparagon top mounting tab & aft face of the F28. It turned out my decimal fraction ruler was the thickness that did the trick to get the top shelf level with the longerons.

Below is a shot of my mixing stick aligned to the CL string. I intentionally taped the mixing stick on one side of the Triparagon plate so that the actual plate would sit very closely / directly under the CL string.

I marked the areas where the Triparagon nutplate mounts will get secured to the aircraft, removed the Triparagon and then sanded those mounting spots in prep for glassing the nutplate mounts in place.

Then, using 5-min glue on the nutplate assemblies, I glued the Triparagon into place. I re-clamped the top mounting tab to the aft side of F28 while monitoring the Triparagon’s alignment.

I then set a 1″ dia. aluminum tube representing the elevator control spool tube –that will traverse from one side of the fuselage to the other– to ensure clearance between the spool tube and the Triparagon.

I then assembled my last rectangular nutplate assembly (the one that came with some assembly required!) and then made up an entire new nutplate assembly along with its foam backer.

I then cleaned up the 5-min glue on each of the 4 installed nutplate assemblies. I then glassed these 4 nutplate assemblies in place with 3 plies of BID at each nutplate mounting hard point.

Here’s a closer shot of the Triparagon nutplate mounting hard points glassed in place with 3 plies of BID. I then of course peel plied each layup.

After a couple of hours since the entire mounting process started, and with each of the 4 nutplate mounting hard points glassed in place, I double-checked the Triparagon’s alignment… which looked spot on.

As the 4 installed nutplate mounting hard points’ 3-ply BID layups cured, I dialed in the placement of the remaining 3 nutplate mounting hard points. I marked the Triparagon where the bolt (vs screws on the other 4 mount points) holes would go, then removed the Triparagon and drilled the 3 new AN3 mounting holes: one at the very top adjacent to the aft side of F28, another at the very aft bottom side of the Triparagon attaching to the nose wheel cover (NB), and finally one at the forward top edge of the Triparagon where it mates to the aft side of the F22 center strut.

I then reattached the Triparagon with the 3 new nutplate mounting hard points bolted in place, with 5-min glue slathered on the mating side of each of the nutplate foam.

Once the 5-min glue cured, I cleaned up the freshly installed nutplate mounting hard points, then added flox fillets (as I had on the first 4) and laid up 3 plies of BID on each nutplate assembly.

Below is a couple different shots of this. Also note that I had just previously pulled the peel ply and cleaned up the 3-ply BID layups on the first 4 nutplate mounting hard points that I installed.

And here’s a shot looking aft.

I know I underestimated my Triparagon build & install timeline, but tomorrow I should actually get the Triparagon vertical plate install finished. I’ll let these last 3 layups cure overnight, then clean them up tomorrow. I’ll then glass in 2-ply BID layups on the right side of these 7 Triparagon nutplate mounting hard points. I’ll then be finished with the lion’s share of the Triparagon installation, at least where the actual fuselage side is concerned. The remaining mounting actions are getting the Triparagon top “shelf” plate installed with its requisite angled aluminum supports/anchors, which only deals with the actual Triparagon components.

Chapter 22/23 – Triparagon Cleanup

Posted on 9 November, 2016 by Airdog

I started off today with a phone call from Sam Tilleman at Saber Manufacturing to discuss the modifications to my prop extension. Since I found out from my engine builder, Tom Schweitz, that my engine mount bolts are 7/16″ vs the original 1/2″ bolts that they were identified as, I worked out the plan with Sam for him to drill those out as well. Although a bit more money to have Sam modify the prop extension, again this actually worked out serendipitously in that having 3/8″ bolt holes drilled in between the 1/2″ bolt holes on the prop side of the extension, and 7/16″ bolt holes drilled in between the 1/2″ holes on the engine flange side, simply gives me a prop extension with 1/2″ lightening holes machined on each end. Talking to Sam, this is pretty much the same configuration that Klaus Savier has on his airplane…. definitely not a bad model to emulate!

After getting the prop extension configuration settled with Sam, I then spent a few hours cleaning up the lightening holes by hand. I also figured out where my #12 mounting holes for the Triparagon screws will be placed. After figuring out the mounting screw locations I drilled the mounting holes and then countersunk the screw holes.

Here you can see the left side of the Triparagon with the cleaned up lightening holes.

You may have noted that there are a some visible gouges on the edge of a couple of the lightening holes. This is directly attributable to the new style cordless drill batteries in that they twice the batteries seemed to have died while I was drilling and as I was removing the hole saw bit from the lightening holes, the drill surged again causing these edge gouging. Obviously I’m not happy about these unsightly marks, but it doesn’t change the functionality of the Triparagon, it just slightly diminishes its appearance and thus knocks down my cool points tally a bit!

After cleaning up the Triparagon lightening holes I then worked for about 3 hours on redesigning my electrical system by removing the relay that controlled the circuit between the battery buss and E-buss as per the recommendation of Bob Nuckolls. Technically, I repurposed that relay to be used as the heated pitot tube control relay with a net result of one less relay in the system. I then updated the main electrical system diagram & the grounding buss matrix list.

Chapter 22 – Making Swiss Cheese

Posted on 8 November, 2016 by Airdog

I started off today by mounting the main panel ground buss (G4), or “Forrest of Tabs” if you will, on the right side of the Triparagon.

On the left side I mounted the avionics ground buss (G5), and the bridge rectifier used for the Trio auto trim system.

Here’s a closer view of the components on the upper aft side of the Triparagon.

After mounting all the electrical components to dial in their configuration & spacing, I then pulled off all the components to commence drilling the lightening holes. Which I did, spending the next couple of hours drilling the lightening holes.

I’ll note again that after I initially cut out the Triparagon vertical from a panel of 0.09″ 6061T6 Aluminum it weighed just over 1.38 lbs. After drilling all the lightening holes the Triparagon weighed in at 0.71 lb, so almost half of the original weight. I expect that when all is said & done, the installed Triparagon structure with the top cross plate and support struts, will weigh in at just over a pound.

Chapter 22 – It’s Alive!

Posted on 7 November, 2016 by Airdog

My Triparagon that is… or at least I can say it’s getting much closer.

Today I did a fair amount of physical work on the Triparagon, but what’s not seen is the even more work I did in figuring out optimized electrical component locations, hardware requirements, etc. I also took a quick trip down to the Aviation Dept. at our favorite Orange & Blue big box stores to pick up a few stainless steel screws, etc.

I started out on the Triparagon by positioning and then drilling the 4 mounting holes for the two AG6 Warning Annunciators that I’ll be using. The pic below actually shows the Triparagon upside down. I’ll be mounting the AG6 Annunciator boards back-to-back, one on each side of the Triparagon, with a long #6 screw attaching one side to the other at each corner of the AG6 board. Also, although not shown here, immediately following my drilling of the marked mounting holes in pic below, I drilled a fairly large lightening hole in the Triparagon plate immediately underneath/between the two AG6 Annunciator boards.

As for the right side Triparagon, besides the AG6 Annunciator board I also mounted the Schottky Diode with its heat sink, and the X-Bus (just to the left of the Main buss in the pic below). As you can see I also drilled 2 more large lightening holes just above the Safety Trim box.

Immediately after I cut the Triparagon to shape, I weighed the panel at 1.38 lbs. After the 3 total lightening holes that I drilled out today, it’s weighing in at about 1.15 lbs. My goal is to get the Triparagon’s vertical plate weight down to about 0.6 lbs, with a total weight at under 1 pound.

On the left side I added the twin AG6 warning annunciator, as well as the E-Bus that shares the two top bolts for mounting with the Main Buss on the right side. In addition, I mounted the Flight Data Systems’ GD-40 Carbon Monoxide Detector. I’d like to point out that although the CO detector may look a bit bulky in the pic, it’s actually very light and only weighs a few ounces. Today actually marks a pretty cool milestone considering that all my busses are in place and ready to be wired up & installed with the Triparagon into the plane!

You may have noticed a couple of slots that I “machined” (Ha! That translates to “Skil Saw”) along each side of the Main Bus, and thus on each side of the E-Bus. These slots are nothing more than wire management slots that will allow me to secure the wires to the Triparagon with either zip ties or cable lace. They are clearly in a very rough state, as is the entire Triparagon actually, and will be cleaned up later.

Obviously I’m trying to get the majority of electrical components mounted to the Triparagon, which then allows me to determine hardware, space, wiring, and connector requirements now so that I’ll have as much of it as possible on hand for when I hard mount the Triparagon into the front of the plane. I’m thinking one more good day on this baby, then on to working on the wheel pants. I should also point out that once the Triparagon meets my design & operational requirements, I’ll mount it into the fuselage directly behind the F22 center post with around 6 each K1000-3 nutplate assembly hardpoints. The nutplate hardpoints will allow me to remove and install the Triparagon whenever I need to during the build, and of course after the build as well!

Chapter 14/22 – More of the same…

Posted on 5 November, 2016 by Airdog

I started out today by gathering up the upper GIB seatbelt straps to modify them to work with my seatbelt cross bar configuration.

I took a big breath and marked the mounting brackets for cutting with my ‘Dremel’ tool.

Here’s a closer shot of my cut marks on the seatbelt brackets.

I then took an even bigger breath and cut the seatbelt mounting brackets at the lines I had marked.

These brackets are some tough metal and I really had to put some oomph into it to pry the cut sides apart to slide out the seatbelt webbing.

Here’s a shot immediately after I removed the seatbelt mounting bracket from the webbing.

And here’s a shot of both upper GIB seatbelt web straps sans mounting brackets.

Now, obviously I had made a decision and planned on going the route of using a crossbar for the GIB upper seatbelt straps, but before I actually glassed in the support spacers, I did want to ensure that the seatbelt straps would work in their “new” (compared to plans) position. Of course everything looked & worked fine.

I put the firewall up & added the “Vault” (headrest & component housing) to get an idea of how it all looks and fits together.

Here’s some closer shots, essentially the same as above.

One thing that I really like about this mod is that it allows the GIB to strap in with the upper seatbelt straps up to 3″+ inboard of the stock plans strap placement. I really do think this will add a lot of comfort for the rear-seater . . . or maybe better stated: won’t add any discomfort from too-wide, off-angle upper seatbelt straps.

With the final hurdle cleared, the mod was a full go! Time to get the support spacers in for good. I 5-min glued the support spacers in place on top of the CS spar.

Here’s are some aft shots of the support spacers 5-min glued in place.

I then whipped up some epoxy & flox using fast hardener. I added a small flox fillet to the forward & aft sides of the seatbelt crossbar support spacers.

Here’s a closeup view of a flox fillet on the support spacer.

I then prepregged a 1-ply piece of scrap BID and laid up one ply on the forward and aft sides of each of the two support spacers. As you can see, I then peel plied the layups.

Again, here’s an aft shot of the 1-ply BID layups on the seatbelt crossbar support spacers’ layups.

While my support spacer layups cured, I tried to accomplish something that I couldn’t do last night: find & buy a 10-32 threaded tap to allow me to bolt my stuff to the Triparagon. I looked at 5 places near my house, and none of them had one. I then went down to the Lowe’s in Potomac Mills and they had one. I snatched it up before heading out to dinner.

After dinner, I returned home and quickly put the tap to work. I drilled and tapped the 4 holes to mount the TCW Safety Trim module.

I then grabbed a 1/16″ thick piece of angled 6061T6 Aluminum and made 2 small mounting brackets for the 4-port USB hub (used for the GRT EFIS).

I drilled and mounted the L-brackets to the USB hub mounting tabs, then clamped that entire assembly to the left aft side of the Triparagon.

I then drilled 2 holes in each tab for rivets.

And then riveted the tabs to the Triparagon.

I then broke out my German hole saw to drill 2 large lightening holes under the area where the TCW Safety-Trim is mounted. I have two of these type hole saws from Germany, which is a good thing since I broke the first of those tonight. The ensuing drama at the time is why I don’t have a final pic of the lightening holes, but there is a pic later in this post with the lightening holes visible.

After messing around drilling the lightening holes underneath the Safety-Trim box, I then dropped the Triparagon stuff to clean up the cured GIB seatbelt crossbar support spacer layups.

Below are pics of the cured left support spacer, and then the right, respectively.

And another shot from the aft side of both seatbelt crossbar support spacers glassed in place.

After I pulled the peel ply & cleaned up the cured GIB seatbelt crossbar support spacer layups, I then drilled, tapped, and mounted the Main Power Buss and the roll trim relay board onto the right side of the Triparagon. I realize that the 2 pics are close, but one is at a slight angle, so I left it in.

Here’s a pic of the left side Triparagon with both the 4-port USB hub and the lightening holes behind the TCW Safety-Trim box.

Here’s a shot from the aft side showing the aft profile width of all the Triparagon-mounted components thus far. The spacers under the roll trim board will be replaced with the correct size.

Finally, here’s one more shot of the 4-port USB hub mounting brackets riveted in place on the Triparagon.

Tomorrow will most likely be a light build day, plus I need to get back to studying some for flying next week. I’ll be working on the Triparagon a bit here & there, but next week I want to start back in on the Wheel Pants and knock those out!

Chapter 14 – GIB Seatbelt Bar

Posted on 4 November, 2016 by Airdog

My first task of the day was to figure out the exact dimensions of the Triparagon component shelf that will primarily serve as a mounting location for the GRT GADAHRS, Trig TT22 Transponder, and the M760REM COM2 radio. To minimize space, and to allow for a smaller shelf (e.g. less weight), I decided to mount the M760REM radio on the bottom side of the Triparagon component shelf. As you can see, looking at the Triparagon from either straight aft or from the front, it looks like a big “T” . . . thus, it has three main mounting arms, which is the reason for the “Tri-” in the name. Moreover, weird names are conversation starters & keep life less boring! Right?!

I started off my shop work today by figuring out the exact dimensions & locations of the support spacers for the GIB seatbelt crossbar. The spacers will be a couple of inches from the CS spar CL on each side. Since the right side arm rest and right side horizontal part of the engine mount extrusion are both wider than their left side counterparts, I decided to skew the seatbelt straps over about a quarter of an inch to the left as well.

I marked the spots where the initial holes would be drilled for the eventual installation of AN3 countersunk screws.

I then drilled my marks with a small 1/16″ bit through the square upper seatbelt crossbar tube and into the top of the CS spar, but not all the way through.

I then drilled a series of holes with increasingly bigger sized bits… again, only down until I felt the tip of the drill bit hit the bottom side of the upper inside CS spar skin (on the inside ceiling of the spar).

Once the holes were decent sized, with still a bit more to go for the screws to fit, I stopped drilling for the time being.

And pulled off the seatbelt crossbar to expose the holes. I then spent a good 45 minutes using a scribe to dig out the foam through these holes and shop-vac’ing the chunks out. I essentially created an open cylinder under each hole all the way down to the bottom/inside CS spar skin (remember, I DIDN’T drill all the way through). I would say the resulting air pocket I made for each hole was about .6″ to .8″ in diameter.

I then made up some wet flox with fast hardener and poured it into the air pockets I created under each hole in the CS spar. As you can see, I’m simply making hard points in the CS spar to secure the center GIB seatbelt cross bar screws.

With the leftover flox I then installed the right side modified AN970-4 washers after slathering them with flox. After the washers were in place I installed the AN4 bolts. As you can see in the pic below, I have some trimming to do on some of each washer peeking out, but overall I’m very pleased with these washers and am very glad I did this mod.

Here’s the flox curing inside the GIB seatbelt crossbar inboard mounting screw holes.

I grabbed a bar of G10 Garolite that I had on hand and sanded down one end so that it was the same thickness as between the top surface of the CS spar and the bottom side of the GIB seatbelt crossbar (approx. 0.2″).

I then flipped it over and marked it to make 2 support spacers for the inboard crossbar screws.

I started by making a center cut that will result in 2 x 0.75″ wide pieces.

I then cut across the G10 to give me the 2 support spacers measuring 0.75″ wide x 0.4″ deep x ~0.2″ thick.

I then set the spacers in place and clamped the GIB seatbelt crossbar over them to secure them in place.

I then drilled a series of holes starting from smaller to larger both through the G10 and also down all the way through the CS spar into each of the hard points.

I then actually drilled the holes out all the way with a #12 bit to accept an AN3 screw.

I drilled countersinks into the freshly drilled crossbar mounting holes and then installed a couple of AN3 screws into the holes. You may also note that the left side bolts are installed securing the engine mount extrusion to the longeron –utilizing the modified AN970-4 wide area washers of course!

It took a bit of fiddling about with the holes to get the screws to slide in without being “motivated,” but after a good 10 minutes everything was working fine.

Here’s one last shot of the temporarily mounted GIB seatbelt cross bar & the 6 (six) permanently mounted AN4 bolts securing the upper engine mount extrusions to the CS spar and the longerons, respectively.

Tomorrow I plan on floxing & glassing the support spacers into place for the GIB seatbelt cross bar. I’ll also be doing a fair amount of work on the Triparagon as well as prepping for starting back on the wheel pants install next week. I failed to mention that at one point today I drug the table saw out and cut the top component shelf for the Triparagon. I took a pic of it, but it was horribly blurry . . . so imagine a rectangular aluminum plate 6.1″ x 9.4″ and your minds eye will have it! ha!

A Long EZ Push

The Building of Long-EZ N916WP

Monthly Archives: November 2016