I started off today pulling the “map” & document case off the wall.  Thankfully, it came off without too much of a fight.  I quickly pried away the entombed maps, freed them and threw away the ton of tape from this endeavor.

I then inspected it to see how it came out.  It looks pretty good, with some obvious cleaning up required, especially on the inside.

I then pulled the peel ply and trimmed up the “map” & document case and using a couple of pieces of duct tape did a quick mockup on the fuselage sidewall.

I also checked its depth.  In the pic below it’s sitting at about 0.45″ from side wall to “map” case wall.  But remember, there’s tape under the tabs, and I’ll be able to control at least the top depth by the cutout in the right armrest.  The end result is that it should be around 0.4″± ~0.2″.

With the “map” & document case looking ok, I moved on to the right arm rest.  With the “map” case on the side wall I was able to determine where my top armrest screw attach points would be located.  I then determined the rest of the attach points for the right arm rest, except the very top front and very bottom front areas.  These will need special attention based on what kind of stuff traverses these spots.

With my armrest screw attach points known, I used a mounting tab to mark up where the screw hole would be (a very close approximation did fine here).  I then dug the foam out so that when I filled in the resulting divot with 30/70 flocro, I would have a nice hardpoint for each screw to mount into.

Finished with my armrest screw hard points, I vacuumed them out & filled them with flocro using fast hardener (results shown later below).

I then set my sights on the GIB thigh support sump tanks.  My first quest was to ensure that I didn’t damage my embedded brake lines that traverse the bottom of the fuselage, one on each side.  I placed a level along the outside of the fuselage and determined the distance that the brake line was away from the sidewall.  I then marked the inside with an extrapolated, but close, measurement for the brake lines on each side… both using this method.

With knowledge of my brake line locations in hand, I could then more accurately draw out my thigh support sump design on the floor of the back seat.

Just as a point of historical note: these pics below are the last two pics showing the area on the seat pan that I was most proud of . . . and then destroyed!  Such is the way of composite homebuilts eh?

Another quick side note:  To implement my sump design I needed some 1″ Divinycell for a mini-bulkhead in the right front corner of the sump assembly.  Well, I didn’t have 1″ pieces large enough so I micro’d these two pieces together to make this bulkhead piece, which I plan to use in the next few days.

I then put on my mask, drew a big breath, fired up my Fein saw and started cutting! Here’s the front border line of the sump(s) that I started cutting first.

I then cut the interim sides of the sump area.  I moved the cutting lines in about 0.5″ to ensure I didn’t cut into the brake lines.  I’ll then slowly moved my way out to ensure not to damage the brake lines.

I then cut the back line to complete the major glass cutting of this operation.

Then, using a utility knife, I slowly pried off the top glass of my GIB seat glass.

I started removing the foam by hand, but that lasted for about 5 minutes.  This stuff is tough!  I then employed the services of the Fein saw once again and went to town on the foam.

I then employed another power tool: an orbital sander and sanded down all the remaining high tops of the foam.  It did a great job as you can see, but man did it produce some nasty dust…. and a lot of it too.

In the pic below you can see on the right side (top of pic) where I’ve started to remove the foam slowly under the fiberglass, about a half inch in.  This is to ensure –again– that if I hit the brake line, it’s only by hand with a razor knife moving somewhat slowly.  I did not however, encounter the brake lines which should be about where the top/right set of dashed lines are.

Having removed the foam from each side, I then carefully used the Fein saw again the trim away the half inch edge of glass.  I then resanded the edges and in the forward outboard corners as well, which I obviously couldn’t get with the orbital sander.

Here’s a final shot of the freshly contoured GIB seat area ready to be glassed in prep for the thigh support sump build.  You can also see in the pics below & above the marked locations for the sump drains.

After I took this shot, I met a buddy of mine for dinner.

Upon returning home, I checked out the flocro in the right armrest.  Here’s a couple of shots (albeit crappy!).

I then drilled holes into the armrest and riveted up 5 tabs with nutplates.  To limit my variables when installing the armrest, tonight I only floxed in 4 of these 5 mounting tabs (the one at the far right –which is the front side mounting tab– didn’t get floxed tonight).

Not only did I flox 4 of the mounting tabs in place, obviously attached to the right armrest, but I also filled the gap between the armrest and pilot seat bulkhead with micro.  This was planned and I had already placed a long piece of clear plastic tape on the seat in position.

Just a slightly closer shot.

Here’s a shot of two of the armrest mounting tab screws.

And here’s the same one on the left, and another one just to the right of the intercom bracket.

At about 1.5 hours into mounting the right armrest with flox I started prepping 4 x 1-ply BID prepreg setups.  I was checking the flox in the cup and after almost 2 hours had passed I unscrewed the armrest and pulled it free.  With all that micro on the aft side that in itself was a bit of a chore.

Then I whipped up some flocro since I wanted some strength but not a lot of added weight.  With the flox still just slightly tacky (green state) I cut off the flox fingers and covered the tabs with flocro, then laid up a ply of BID over each tab.  I was planning on peel plying these layups, but it’s really late and I’d rather just hit the edges with some sandpaper later on.

I probably won’t layup any glass on the other right armrest mounting tabs and will let the flox just stand for itself.  I did want to get about half of these with a ply of glass on them just for securing the armrest’s sake.

Tomorrow will be a light build day, but over the next few days I do plan on finishing up the thigh support sump assembly as well as the pilot seat area components.  Again, this is all part of the push to be able to have a good assessment, knowledge and fitting of all the nose components.  Once those are in place, I’ll work on finalizing the nose and concurrently knocking out those pesky wheel pants (nope, I haven’t forgot about those!).

. . . is the bomb!

I seriously couldn’t have been nearly as effective in building this airplane if it hadn’t been for so many people, but two that I would like to point out to thank specifically are Marco & Dave. They’ve been the source of so many great ideas and wonderful sounding boards for what I’m trying to accomplish here.  Thanks guys!

Now for the post.  First, off I’d like to apologize for the pics.  I’m not really sure what is going on other than my phone camera is struggling, and that’s all I have at my disposal right now.  It either seems in focus at the time, then looks a bit fuzzy later.  Or really just wants to be difficult when it comes to focusing.  I’ll see what I can do, but please bear with these at least passible pics.

Today fairly early on I got my 2 Holley Hydramats delivered.  Again, each of these will go into the sumps that I will glass under the GIB thigh support.

Here’s a shot of them out of the box.  I bought the 3″ x 8″ version.

Here’s yet another device that Dave B. brought to my attention.  These very lightweight Optic-Electrical sensors warn of low fuel levels in the sumps and send that info to my EFIS.

Before heading out of for the afternoon & evening, I cut some scrap wood and mocked up my GIB thigh support sump setup.  I used two ribs only because I was merely trying out the feel of the thigh support.

As I was cutting out the pieces for the thigh support, I wondered to myself what I was going to use as the top of the thigh support, which makes up the seat.  With some scrap wood pieces lying on the ground I realized that I could simply use strips of wood Adirondack chair style and screw them in place.

Here’s another shot of the thigh support sump from the front looking aft.  I have to say this is amazingly more comfortable than the original plans seat.  I did note a couple of minor dimensional tweaks that I’m going to make, but I think my design is good.

After returning home from my social outing, I decided to knock out a fairly quick layup.  I want a thin map-style pocket on the side of both armrests right against the sidewall to hold checklists, documents, and yes, even maps, if need be.  To verify what kind of documents would fit in this area of the side wall, I pulled out an 8-1/2″ x 11″ piece of standard paper, a small binder, maps, a checklist, etc.  I then checked each one to see what would feasibly fit in this area.  After some messing about and pondering each one, I kept coming back to the map size, which of course would easily hold a standard sheet of paper folded in half.  Or a checklist for that matter.

I didn’t want the pocket to be too thick, and was shooting for around 0.370″ deep from side wall out.  I took 3 maps and pressed them together: too thin.  I added a 4th map and it was too thick.  So, I took one of my old maps and cut it in half and that made the pile very close to 0.370″ thick.  To ensure the maps didn’t get messed up, I wrapped them in shipping style plastic wrap, then taped them with clear packing tape.

I was about ready to lay this up on a work board when I realized that the work board is totally flat, but most likely my fuselage sidewall is not.  So, I checked the sidewall and sure enough, it wasn’t totally flat & straight.  Thus, I decided to simply slap this map-packet up on the wall and glass it there.  At first I had some issues with the vertical edges after I duct taped it up on the sidewall. I added the 1/4″ round dowels to help formulate the edge shapes better.  I then covered the hole thing with aluminum foil tape, which helped smooth out a lot of the issues I was having with my duct tape base tape.  I then quickly applied 1 coat of wax to the aluminum foil tape before starting in on cutting out the glass for the layup.

Since I have a ton of spare UNI laying around, I decided to put some of it to good use.  I determined that I needed plies 8.5″ wide x 9.5″ high to cover all the areas with a little extra overhang.  When done, the overhang will get trimmed down, but will provide a mounting edge that will allow me to mount this using RTV (or flox if desired).

The resulting layup schedule I decided on was 2 plies of UNI, biased in opposite 30° directions, and 1 ply of BID.  Now, since the more robust glass should be where the docs are in contact, I put the BID on the interior side, with the 2 plies of UNI on the exterior side.  I then prepregged (big surprise) the whole thing, added a strip of 2″ peel ply along each vertical edge of BID, and then laid this sucker up.

To be clear, with the tape already acting as a barrier, obviously I’m just looking for a good general shape here before I pulled the cured glass of the wall/tape, trim it to good dimensions, then slap it back up using either RTV or flox.

Tomorrow I plan on really focusing on the GIB thigh support sump tank build.

When I noted I didn’t have any pics last night, I failed to mention that I did in fact get something done… albeit not very well!  I clear coated the aft NG30 cover with 3 coats of clear coat, but apparently there was some contamination on the surface because I had some issues.

As you can see on the front, I had a bit of an adhesion problem.

And, to add insult to injury, a nice run on each side.  Ugh.  So, I’ll try to just wet sand it and see if I can buff it out after I wet sand, or I may have to re-clear it.  More to come on this.

With my investigation on my haggard looking NG30 cover complete, I then got to work mocking up the GIB thigh support sump tank assembly, which will include separate left and right sump tanks.

I used cardboard to mock up the forward wall and center rib.  Obviously, this isn’t exact, but my main goal here was to get a general idea of size and dimensions . . .

and check out two different sizes for the Holley Hydramat fuel pickup mats that I decided to purchase for the sump tanks (thanks to my buddy down in Oz, Dave Berenholtz…. I think he owns stock in Holley!).

Why the Hydramats?  Well, the really cool feature for these mats is that as long as any part of it is touched by fuel, it will get it to the fuel pump.  But for me the overriding selling point is the fact that it also pulls double duty as a 15 micron filter.  With Nick Ugolini and other builders warning me of installing filters to catch all the bad fiberglass stuff that will inevitably rear its ugly head, I want that assurance that at the last main point that is composite: the sumps (with of course the composite fuel tanks preceding the sumps), that good filtration for the nasty bits before/as the fuel departs the sumps is occurring.

Since I have both a left and right sump tank, I of course require 2 Holley Hydramats.  Now, these things will work fine bent at an angle, say 90°, so I test fitted the available 3″ x 8″ and 3″ x 15″ versions by using paper templates.  These things aren’t overly cheap, and the latter version is only $10 more, so for almost double the surface I was really trying to make it work.  But, with the internal configuration of my sump, it just didn’t fit well and would be wasted surface area.  Thus, I went with what fit well and pulled the trigger on a pair of 3×8 mats.

Here’s another shot of the 2 sizes in the separate sump tanks.

Moving on.  As I noted last week, I did a fair amount of investigation on my final paint choice for my Long-EZ.  Taking all things into consideration: cost, availability, ease of application, color, workability, and roll on ability, etc., I decided to go with Pettit EZPoxy polyurethane.  Now, com’n!  Seriously?! How can I pass up a paint named “EZPoxy”??

So today I took back a quart of paint to a local marine supply store and traded it in for a quart of top coat and a quart of primer.  A note on the primer:  I will only be priming top side areas for a better looking finish and added UV protection.  And no, again, I will not be flying in primer starting off.

After getting back from the marine supply store, I dropped a small order with ACS for the remaining required fuel system fittings from the firewall forward.  In addition, due to a free shipping special, I also dropped an order with Jamestown Distributors (another marine supply vendor) for the Pettit roll-on thinner, a Pettit topcoat enhancer, and some big Stikit sandpaper for my longboard.

With the acquisition phase of the day complete, I did over an hour’s research on fuel system related topics.  I then went down to the shop and decided to knock out all the 1/4″ 2024 aluminum hard points for both the pair of sump tank fuel drain valves and –while I was at it– the pair of main fuel tank fuel drain valves that exit the front of the strakes.

I marked up my 4″ wide (convenient eh?!) piece of 2024 into 1″ squares.  Then, knowing my Sharpie lines would be gone in 3 seconds after I started, I scribed the lines. I then center punched the crosshair for each hole for a nice starting point for my drilling.

I then drilled subsequently larger holes . . .

Until I finished drilling the holes out for the final diameter required for a 1/8″ NPT Tap: 11/32″.

I then started tapping all the holes in old skool fashion with the tap and a crescent wrench — and of course some cutting fluid.

Yes, I really wish I had a nice tap handle for larger taps, like the one I have for smaller taps because each one of these holes took at least 15 minutes.  Below is a shot of the first hole finished.

I then rounded up my SAF-AIR SA-187 fuel drain valves that will grace the bottom of the fuselage with their presence…. although, to be clear, they are quite shy so must be hidden away somewhat!

I then mounted the first fuel drain valve.  As you can see, I needed the hole just a HAIR deeper since I want these drains to seat very close to the metal hardpoint.

I then mounted my first fuel drain valve to full depth.

Here’s a profile view of the GIB thigh support fuel sump drain valve.

A bit later I finished hole #2 . . . and mouned sump drain valve #2.

After a good bit I finished tapping all the holes with the 1/8″ NPT tap.  I then cleaned up the 2024 aluminum piece in order to test mount all the drain valves.

I then rounded up the pair of main fuel tank drain valves that exit the front of the strakes.

I then mounted all the fuel drain valves that will be on my Long-EZ.

Here’s a profile view of all the fuel drain valves.

And, lastly, an “inside the tank” view of all the fuel drain valves.

Tomorrow I’ll cut all the fuel drain valve hardpoints from the 1/4″ 2024 aluminum plate.  I’ll then continue working on the GIB thigh support sump tanks.  I know it seems a rather circuitous route to get the nose completed, but to really finalize the pilot seat area I need to know the true configuration of the fuel lines. Once I get the sump complete and fuel lines in place, then I’ll knock out the pilot seat area.  In turn, I can then finitely determine component mounting requirements & locations in the nose to prep the nose for getting its top and getting glassed.

that you end up spending a ton of time on during these builds!

Today was, in fact, all about a bunch of little things. Yes, again!  If you get tired of reading about ’em, trust me, I get tired posting about ’em!  Ha!  But, of course, the myriad of little things combined is what creates an airplane in the end.

I started off by prepping the two hard points for the pitch trim actuator to be glassed over with 2 plies of BID.  Here’s the before pic of how it looked when I started.

And then after a few minutes of good sanding.

I then cleaned it up & prepped it for glassing.

I was going to use foam to fill the space in-between the two hard points and the around the aft side of the small hard point, but it turned out to be more trouble than what it was worth.  At least in my opinion.  So, I just made the flocro a little dryer so it wouldn’t run and used it as the filler all the way around.

I then prepregged 2 plies of BID and laid them up.  I also peel plied those areas that would easily take peel ply without a hassle.

With the leftover epoxy I added a little more to the bit of flocro I had and made primarily a micro mix.  I spread the micro on both the left & right side nutplate assemblies used to secure the upper fuel pump attach bolts in place.  I then laid up 1 ply of scrap BID over each of the nutplate assemblies and peel plied the BID.

After I knocked out the fuel pump nutplate assemblies layups, I did do one more task (not pictured) with the leftover epoxy: I mixed it into thick flox –only flox– and sealed the parts of the bolt holes in the pitch trim bracket where I had drilled them out in search of the right position.  Their latest position had each of the bolts covering about 60-75% of there own hole edges, so instead of cutting a whole new bracket, I decided to flox up the open areas of the holes and leave the bolts alone in their own holes.

Then, while all the composite stuff cured, I set my sights back onto the Andair fuel selector valve. I took the valve lever and cover off to assess how it will get mounted to the fuel valve bracket & cover.  I also wanted to double-check that the K1000-3 nutplate mounting holes were countersunk for the rivets, which they were.

I then riveted 3 each K1000-3 nutplates to the Andair fuel selector valve.

I set the fuel selector valve back in place and will assess it more fully later on.

I ran out to run some errands and when I returned all my composite tasks of the day had cured.

I pulled the peel ply from the pitch trim actuator mount hardpoint layup and cleaned it up a bit.  I then redrilled the holes and removed the protective saran wrap I had placed in the holes to keep unwanted epoxy out. I then tweaked the glass around the holes just a bit more to allow for each respective bolt to fit back into their hole.  I then test mounted the pitch trim actuator bracket back onto its new hardpoint base.

If you’re thinking 2 plies of BID might not be robust enough for the pitch trim bracket, no worries!  When I glass the nose top in place these hard points, being right on the edge, will get another 2 plies of BID over them.

Here are both the left & right side nutplate assemblies used to secure the upper fuel pump attach bolts after their layups cured.  I realize it looks like a lot of micro is covering these nutplate assemblies, but there really isn’t that much.   The thickness of the phenolic combined with the back side of the nutplate, rivets, etc. makes it look like there’s a ton more micro than there really is.  Admittedly, there is a bit more micro on the right side nutplate than the left.

I actually assembled the tool box earlier in the day, but since I made a video showing its operation I put these tool box pics at the end of the post.

The following video discusses not only the tool box operation, but I also cover the pitch trim actuator hard points layup for a bit.

I still have number of small task items on my list, but I’ll keep pressing through to get them done.  Eventually I’ll of course get back to the big stuff!

Tonight I continued my roundabout quest to get the nose components in place with the prerequisite task of finishing up the pilot seating area to be able to determine –with a high degree of accuracy– where those nose components should be placed for knee/leg clearance, ergonomics and reachability.

I started out by drilling out the front side mounting holes on the fuel pump to 5/16″ diameter to allow me to slide the hex head cap screw through the front to then hold the fuel pump in place.

After drilling the front side of the fuel pump frame for the 2 top side mounting screws, I mounted the fuel pump . . . officially for the first time!

Here’s a close up of the hex head cap screw/bolt securing the top of the fuel pump in place.  As you can see, I still need to micro & glass the nutplate assemblies into place.

Here’s a shot of the aft left side mounting hole that I drilled out to 5/16″ & tapered with a large 3/4″ countersunk bit for ease of getting the mounting bolt inserted.

I wanted to ensure that all the pieces of my fuel hobby project here would fit together, so I cut a 3″ piece of 3/8″ 3003-0 aluminum fuel line tubing and collected up some fittings to connect the fuel pre-filter OUT to the fuel pump IN line.

With such a small piece space in the flaring & bending tools were TIGHT, but as you can see I was able to get the flares made & tubing bent to connect the pre-filter to the fuel pump.

Here’s another shot after I rotated the tubing downward about another 1/2″.

I then took a break from all this fuel system stuff and gathered up my tool box lid, located the upper latch piece and the requisite rivets.  I then drilled out the half-painted-over holes and proceeded to rivet the upper latch piece in place.

Before assembling the tool box for good, I taped up all of the lower tool box body to protect it from paint except the hinges.  The hinges required a bit of touching up since I had previously broken through to gray primer while wet sanding the lower tool box.  I then prepped the hinges by sanding them lightly (again) and then cleaned them for paint. Finally, I took it outside and hit the hinges with a couple coats of gloss black paint.  [No pics for this task].

With my sideline tool box endeavor out of the way, I wanted to get one more major task completed tonight: run the fuel line from the Andair fuel valve OUT port to the EFII fuel pump pre-filter IN port.

In reality, this task was a 2 part process.  I ended up nearly destroying the first piece of tubing I tried to install here, but then ended up using it as a prototype model to then craft the second tubing with the tubing bender vs. my ham-fisted manipulations of the tubing.  I figure this will the be the most difficult fuel line tubing connection that I’ll have to make on my fuel system.

Beside just getting this tubing piece configured and in place, my actual main goal here was to figure out the positioning of the Andair fuel valve.  As per my norm, you’d probably not be surprised to learn that I am NOT putting this valve in the plans position!  Close, but it will sit over an inch higher and well aft of the plans position.

Why?  Well, in talking to current Long-EZ flyers, and having sat in Marco’s Long-EZ, I can tell you with all certainty that I want to have the ability to SEE what position my fuel selector is set on versus only being able to FEEL the position of my fuel selector valve.  I will of course check this out and ensure I have enough seating room, but beyond any other issues, this is my main goal as far as the fuel valve configuration & installation is concerned.

My last official build act for the evening was wet sanding both the aft NG30 cover and the Garmin GNS480 GPS antenna cover.  I set aside clear coating the NG30 cover until tomorrow since there’s a couple of areas on the cover that I want to assess.  However, with the GPS antenna cover, I hit it with 3 good coats of matt clear coating (yes, crappy pic).

With that, I closed up shop for the evening and left the lovely paint fumes to themselves.