Monthly Archives: May 2017

Chaps 13/17/21/22/25 – Firing it up!

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And when I say “Fire,” I’m not kidding . . . read on below!

Today I started out doing some planning and inventorying for my fuel system.  Since I’m going to make my new work demarcation line at the pilot’s seat bulkhead, going forward, then I needed to figure out my fuel system in real terms, not just in my head.  I drew out the fuel system on a white board and then did an inventory to see what I had on hand and to see what I needed to order.  I was fairly pleased that I had the majority of stuff I needed on hand, but will need to order about $35 in fittings from ACS.

I also did some research on the exact installation requirements for each fuel system component.  For example, on the Andair fuel valve I could clearly see that the big red selector handle needed to come off to install it, but I hadn’t even truly read the install manual until today to find out how to remove the handle, and install the unit.  I also had some questions on the FT-60 Red Cube fuel flow sensor that I eventually got answered on the VAF site.  In addition, I wanted to double check some info on the fuel pump.

After a few hours I was happy with my progress on the fuel system and was satisfied that I actually knew the direction I was headed with that system once again.

I then my sights back onto the Atkinson pitch trim system.  Having received my reamers via UPS this AM, I was ready to drill and ream a nice round 1/4″ hole in the elevator tube to mount the control arm of the pitch trim actuator.

First, I spent a good 45 min dialing in the new configuration and physical mounting of the pitch trim actuator by redrilling the 2 mounting holes in the mounting bracket.  Not only was I moving the entire unit aft a hair, I was also rotating the front of bracket down a bit more while the aft side dropped down some as well, but not as much as the front.

Once I got the pitch trim actuator assembly newly aligned, and the mounting hole in the elevator tube was ready to be drilled, I set up the control system within the plan’s specs with the elevators at neutral and the control stick at ailerons level, which is actually about a 5° stick grip lean to the left — again, as per plans.  I then drilled out the hole in the elevator tube and mounted the control arm of the pitch trim actuator.

Once I tested the newly realigned pitch trim system, the up trim worked fine but the down trim didn’t work at all.  Apparently, if you’re prone to moments of just being dumb, then you can expect issues like this!  Apparently, in my haste to get this pitch trim actuator in this bird, I forgot to double check its current position.  Since the actuator arm was all the way in, then when I threw the switch for it to push the elevators up, it did so with no issue. But then when I went the other way, well, by the time the actuator throw ended the elevators were merely back at level . . . and didn’t go down below the level line at all.

Another issue I had was just a little battery fire, or so I thought –after I removed the actuator to set it at its midpoint position– as I was coming around the nose and had moved the actuator power wires.  Well, as I rounded the nose I could see a bit of fire right on top of the battery.  Not sure what was actually burning, I yanked the wires off the battery and kicked it across the floor so if it decided to do something violent I had the fuselage between me and it.

Well, the fire went out immediately, but there was a good bit of smoke.  Apparently one of my patch cords shorted out and literally blew apart and started burning.  It’s interesting that none of the mil spec wires had any issues, but a couple of the cheaper leads were destroyed.  A few minutes later I felt the battery to see if it was warm, and it wasn’t.  I then checked voltage on it and it was a bit low at 12.59 volts.  But then again, I haven’t charged it in a few weeks and I have been using it a lot.  An exciting little sideshow to be certain, but with that out of the way, I got back to the task at hand.

After about 10 minutes of having the garage open and a fan turned on to clear out the smoke and smell from the burning battery wires, I went to work to fix the actuator configuration by simply taking the actuator out of the nose and extending it until it was half out (1.5″ out, with a 3″ total extension).  I then remounted it, verified and reset the control system to specs, and the drilled the new hole.  When I tested it the second time around it worked like a champ (see video below).

With the pitch trim actuator install taken care of for the most part, I then turned my sights back onto getting some of these painted parts knocked out.  I wet sanded the tool box lid lightly with 500 grit sandpaper, then 1000 grit and finally 1200 grit.

As I buffed out the tool box lid I was also uploading the lengthy video above.  It took a little over an hour total to buff out the tool box lid by hand.

Again, after the Ultimate cutting compound application, I then wrapped up the tool box lid by hitting it with 3 rounds of Meguiar’s Ultimate Polish.

I then set it on top of the tool box body.

Finally, my last task of the evening was to wet sand & Simple Green wash the GPS antenna cover.

After I prepped it for more paint, I hit with 3 coats of white primer/paint to cure overnight. This antenna cover will not be a gloss color, but rather either semi-gloss or even flat.

I’m heading into the weekend tomorrow and have plans tomorrow afternoon on, but I will continue to try at get all the nose components installed –including the now prerequisite pilot cockpit area– to allow me to build the nose top.

 

Chap’s 13/16/25 – Course deviation

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I started off today sanding down the aft NG30 cover with some 220 grit sandpaper (sorry for the blurry pic).  I then needed to add a tiny bit of Metal Glaze to a few spots for some minor blemish cleanup.

I had also spent a little bit sanding down the GPS antenna cover as well, and it too need a few dabs of Metal Glaze for some blemish cleanup.  In addition, you just might be surprised how intricate the sanding job is on this thing, just to get what is seemingly a fairly simple & basic shape.

Here’s the other side that I also hit at the lower edge with some Metal Glaze.

As the Metal Glaze was curing I then grabbed the tool box body and redrilled the 2 rivet holes on the front face that will be used to mount the lower latch assembly.

Speaking of which, here is the lower latch assembly right here.  I quickly realized that my rivet hand squeezer didn’t have a deep enough arm to allow me to set these rivets.  Guess I’ll have to track down some RV buddies in my local EAA chapter!

Shortly after setting the lower tool box latch in place, I took the dried GPS antenna cover and the aft NG30 cover outside and hit them with high build primer and 3 final coats of paint, respectively.  On the NG30 cover, I was only retouching the left side and front, so I added 3 more coats of paint since I’ll be giving it a good wet sanding before clear coating it.

As I was working on trying to find alternate solutions and locations for the pitch trim actuator unit, I realized that to do this right I really need to be able to test out any potential obstruction or tight fit that a component may pose north of the Instrument Panel.  There’s just one issue with this however: when I sit in the pilot’s seat that itself constitutes an estimated best guess as well, since I have no mounted thigh supports, and no actual seat cushions, etc.  In other words, I’m set to make foundational decisions on what goes where in the nose based on a very loose estimate of my seating position, which in some instances is very critical to figuring out what goes where without having my knee constantly banging into something during a flight.

This drove me into yet another mini-epiphany.  I need to institute a slight change of direction, with a compass heading just a few degrees off of current.  In other words, before I can really press on with getting the nose components in place and dialed in properly, I need to get the pilot seat area squared away.  Thus, I need to work from just a bit more aft forward to get this all right.

So, the first thing I did was to figure and mark up the notch in the right arm rest for the Dynon Intercom unit.

I then cut out the notch in the right arm rest for the Dynon Intercom unit.

Here’s another shot of it.

Since I was in the cutting mode on the right arm rest, I decided to finally finish what I started about 5 years ago and widen the seat belt access opening to the plan’s specs. The reason why it looked the way it did above is actually a little comical: I simply read Burt’s forward dimension as 19.5″ vs the actual 14.5″ . . . resulting in a much narrower seat belt access slot.

Here’s the GPS antenna cover with 3 more coats of primer, which it will need to help finalize its shape.  After I give it a good wash, barring any more shaping requirements, I’ll hit it with a couple of coats of dull off-white primer as the final coat & color.

Here’s a pic of the aft NG30 cover with it’s 3 latest coats of paint on the left & front sides.  I did manage to get one run in the upper left corner on the side, but it should be no big deal since I’m going to give this a good wet sanding, then 2-3 coats of clear coat.

Here’s the front side of the aft NG30 cover.  Again, I’m going to wet sand the entire thing here in the next few days before hitting it with clear coat.

I’ll of course continue to work nose component installations, but to really dial in the nose component placements on such critical items as the pitch trim actuator, I’ll be working on both the left and right armrest consoles, and the thigh support areas in between.

 

 

Chapter 13 & 25 – He’s gone!!!

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Yep, the PROBLEM CHILD FROM HELL is gone!!!  Yeah!

Of course I’m talking about the Tool Box Lid.  Ah, yes, I will regale you with that story in a bit, but first . . .

After updating a few more electrical diagrams this morning I went on a quest to find a reamer to rework the pitch trim actuator assembly arm attachment to the elevator control tube.  I was taking some Meguiar’s cutting compound back to Harbor Freight for a refund since I found it for $7 cheaper at Walmart.  I was also hoping that maybe Harbor Freight might have reamers, but alas, they did not.  But I did pick up some more supplies, mainly for buffing out the paint on my painted nose components.

I also ended up going to Walmart, but I didn’t pick up the exact Meguiar’s (Ultra-cut Compound #105) that I had returned at Harbor Freight.  I had heard good reports on Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound, which Walmart had in stock and for a way lower price I was willing to give a try.  I then tried big Blue and big Orange for reamers … nada.  I even took a long detour on my way home and gave Sears a try.  Zilch.  Ok, look out Internet! I’m coming back to you to order a friggin’ reamer…. (sigh).

Back at the house I only had a few hours of shop life in me, so I decided to put my newly acquired toys to good use and see how well they would perform.  I started by wet sanding the tool box body with 500 grit, then 1000 grit, and finished with 1200 grit.  I could have gone to a higher grit, but I wanted to see if the 1200 wet-sanded surface would buff out nicely.

Well, I have to say I think it did!  Now, I could have used a dual action electric buffer but I really didn’t want to end up cutting through the paint (Rust-Oleum is a bit soft as paints go) so I used the old fashioned elbow grease method on this puppy (or, maybe that’s shoulder grease method because that’s what hurts the most!!)  It took me about an hour total as I worked each section (side, front, corners) with good overlap in-between.  I used a basic wax applicator pad to apply the cutting compound, and a microfiber cloth to remove it.

After I got it all buffed out, I then switched to a new applicator and cloth to finish out the process with a couple of applications of Meguiar’s Ultimate Polish.  I have to say, for what was essentially an experiment this was certainly a success in my book!

Here’s another shot of me doing the ‘ol “can I read the print in the finish?” trick.  Obviously you can, and I am of course very happy with how this buffed out.  I will say that it’s actually difficult in the pics to get the black color to show up.  In person you can really see the black color first, and then the nice shiny reflection in the color.

I then mounted the tool box and grabbed another shot of it, hoping to get more of the black color to show up.  I think it did just a bit more here vs. the pics above.

I then repeated the buffing process for the forward NG30 cover, except since I didn’t clear coat this piece I very lightly wet sanded it with 500 grit before almost immediately jumping to 1000 grit.  I then finished up again with 1200 grit.

Between the white color and this piece not having been clear coated, you can see that the final shine is not nearly as stunning on the forward NG30 cover as it is on the tool box.  No worries at all since this piece still came out very nice, and since it will be down at the bottom of the nose well it really won’t be a centerpiece item or noticed as much.

Also, this finish on the forward NG30 cover does tell me though that I will be wet sanding and clear coating the aft NG30 cover before it gets installed back in place.  Here’s another shot of the forward NG30 cover after I buffed it out.

And one of the forward NG30 cover set in place where it will get installed.

Ok . . . then came the crowning moment of the entire last couple of weeks!!!  I finally was able to get a good wet sanding accomplished on the nose tool box lid!  I then carefully cut and placed the label on the top after measuring it out to ensure it was centered.  I then quickly wiped down the entire lid with some Acetone to ensure I didn’t get a repeat of the mysterious contamination I had last time.

I then grabbed the can of Gloss Clear Coat, shook the living crap out of it, and started with a very light mist coat over the top of the tool box lid to give the clear something to grip to on the slick label surface.  I waited a little over a minute than hit it with just another, very slightly thicker mist coat.  I then waited about 2 minutes before hitting it with its first real coat of clear.  After that, I gave it 3 more good coats for a total of 4 coats of clear, with about 4 minute intervals in between.  Normally I would go with 2 coats of clear, but with the label on top I wanted a little bit higher build for wet-sanding before buffing it out.

I thought I’d leave you with a final before & after shot of the tool box body.   I really am very pleased with how well it turned out.

So, although I didn’t find my reamer (I’ve resorted to ordering it online), I’ll mark today down in the book as a good build day!

 

Chapter 22 – Pitch Trim System Mounting

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I started off today checking the clearance for both sides of the pitch trim actuator and realized that in extreme forward and aft stick situations, the elevator control tube had its motion limited by the corner panel reinforcement plate that I added.  I marked the corner plate and then Dremeled out the offending area (camera side of the magenta line).

As you can see, before actually starting I wedged a leather glove in place above the control tube to keep from inadvertently nicking it with the Dremel.  Before I did any cutting, I also taped a spare piece of small angled aluminum to the blue control stick cable to protect it as well.  Of course, I forgot to get an after pic, but it’s pretty much a shot of everything from the magenta line out simple not being there.

So here’s a shot of the first significant mod of the pitch trim actuator bracket, which I’m calling “Mod 2”.  Note that I pulled the swivel bracket from between the sides of the U-channel bracket and mounted it up top.  This really got the pitch trim arm up where I wanted it, at a line above the big yellow power cables.  Also, I did play around some with the bolt hole positions before moving on to “Mod 3”.

For Mod 3, I redesigned a whole new 1/8″ 2024 aluminum bracket.

I drilled the mounting holes and then removed the area on the top plate where the actuator will fit into.

I then mocked it up and marked where a second hardpoint will go into the sidewall.  This will help alleviate the stress on the front bolt from the forward and aft pushing & pulling action (which places either forward or aft twisting action on the mounting plate).

I then located and drilled the hole for the second pitch trim actuator mounting hardpoint.

After the second pitch trim mounting hardpoint was cured, I then pulled the plate and marked it up for cutting to reduce its footprint and shave off a little weight.

Here’s the pitch trim actuator mounting bracket reinstalled.  Note the second, smaller, bolt holding the aft side of the bracket securely.

I then reattached the swivel bracket atop the sidewall mounting  bracket.

And finally, here are a couple of shots showing the installed pitch trim actuator unit.

And one more shot that provides a good view of the mounting bracket assembly.

I thought this post would contain overwhelmingly good news on my pitch trim actuator installation, but it looks like more mods will be required.  As you can see in the video, since the nose sides curve inward at a fairly decent rate from the instrument panel forward, then aligning the pitch trim actuator in line with the elevator control tube is simple impossible to do in a Long-EZ (it may be doable in a Cozy, I don’t know) . . . at least this Long-EZ.

So, as you’ll see in the video, after trying different ways to mount the aft end of the pitch trim actuator arm to the elevator control tube, I eventually had to settle on mounting the rod end onto the inboard side of the control tube clamp bracket that Marco made for me.  Unfortunately, that created another issue:

Obviously I still have some more work to do to dial in the pitch trim unit so that it will be fully functional as designed . . . thus, the slog continues!

Chapter 13/22/25 – Pitch trim actuator install

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I actually took the first 2 pics yesterday, but since I was heading out to meet some friends, and was trying to field an influx of phone calls, I missed my window to mount the pitch trim hardpoint into the sidewall.

No worries since it just gave me more time to figure out my exact plan on how to embed the pitch trim hardpoint into the right sidewall.  Below you can see that I started drilling out the hole where the hardpoint will get floxed/micro’d/flocro’d into place.

Today I finished the pitch trim actuator assembly hardpoint install, although when I got home my phone was dead, and it being my current camera I didn’t get a few key intermediate pics… and I really needed to proceed with this install since I’m falling behind schedule on this build!

I took a scrap piece of wood, drilled a 1/4″ hole into it, then covered the outboard side with packing tape.  Not shown is the clamp and the wedge that I used to keep the head of the bolt fairly parallel with the aircraft CL, and the face of the mounting hardpoint near 90° vertical.  This pic was taken a little while after I had removed the clamp and the wedge, when clearly my phone was recharged.

While I let the pitch trim mounting hardpoint cure, I wet sanded the tool box with 500 grit wet/dry sandpaper, let it dry, then mounted it, and hit it with 2 good coats of clear coat.

While the lower tool box body clear coat was drying, I then wet sanded the tool box lid, which of course proved to be a bit more stubborn than the tool box body in smoothing out the surface imperfections.  I got to a point where I just needed a bit of clean up around the corners when of course –although being VERY careful– I broke through the black paint to the primer below.  This tool box lid truly is proving to be the problem child from hell!  So, I dried it off and hit the corner edges with 2 more coats of black paint.  I’ll let it dry a few days before wet sanding it again and hopefully getting a few good coats of clear on it!

Here’s another something that I didn’t get a pic of earlier.  Apparently, when I drew my install point target circle, the geometry of how the mounting hardpoint fit into the sidewall was different when I could actually test fit the hardpoint piece IN the sidewall.  The original hole started in the lower left corner in relation to where I eventually mounted the hardpoint, which of course meant backfilling the open area of the hole with spare Divinycell foam.

I also knew that even though I drove the position of the mounting hardpoint as far forward and up as I could, that I still may very well need to rewicker the mounting bracket to get the spacing and/or alignment of the pitch trim assembly correct.  In addition, I know this hard point install won’t win any beauty contests, but just keep in mind that this will all get sanded, floxed, and covered with 2-3 plies of BID when the nose top gets constructed.

Here’s a downward shot of the pitch trim mounting hardpoint showing the mounting face of it straight in comparison to the sidewall.  Also, although hard to tell in the pic, the face is also vertical where the sidewall tapers out slightly as its height increases.

With the micro & flox pretty much cured, I then attached the mounting bracket to test fit this sucker!

I took about 10 minutes to file down both the top & bottom edge of the swivel bracket to allow for a better fit inside the U-channel mounting bracket.  Below you can see it swiveled inboard.

And here it’s swiveled outboard.  If it doesn’t look like it’s swiveled outboard much, you’d be right!  I still need to shave down the width of the swivel bracket on the outboard side by about 0.10″ so that it has clearance to swivel outboard the required amount.

I then mounted the pitch trim actuator and assembly.  I could instantly tell that this entire assembly was sitting about an inch low.  My suspicion when mounting the hardpoint proved correct, meaning I’ll have to rework the mounting bracket assembly.  I’m still very happy with this install though since I’ve refined my target positioning from about 50 meters down to 5 meters . . . meaning that while not in it’s final, spot-on position, it’s very close and very workable!

Here’s a wide angle shot of the entire pitch trim assemble.  In his install directions, Vance Atkinson states to mount the pitch trim assembly at a point on the elevator control tube about 1.5″ forward of where the control tube passes through the instrument panel.  Right now, I’m about 3/8″ (0.375″) forward of that (so, 1-7/8″ forward of the panel).  I’m hoping since Vance had his assembly pretty much parallel with the aircraft waterline, and mine is much more aligned with the actual angle of the elevator control tube, that the added 3/8″ won’t be an issue.

[Note: As I understand it, some Strong pitch trim units installed in the same position where I’m mounting mine proved to be a little problematic, with resulting minor oscillations and difficulty in trimming the aircraft.  Of course I’m not using a Strong unit, but nonetheless I’ll keep my eye on these potential issues and work to correct them if need be.]

Ok, although not a slam dunk right out of the gate, I am –again– very happy with how the pitch trim unit install is going.  I like it up front here because although it’s tight quarters where I’m installing it, it moves weight forward, keeps the aft part of the airplane more clear of components, results in much shorter power wires, and should keep my comms clearer & more noise free due to the motor works being away from any of my comm circuits.

 

 

Chapter 22 – Pitch trim bracket

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A ‘funny’ thing happened to me this morning: Analysis Paralysis!  There is literally SO much to do on getting the interior components and electrical systems emplaced in the nose, that I found myself in the weeds, overwhelmed in which actual direction to charge off into… too many moving parts going on right now!

I decided to focus on getting all the aluminum parts cut that I will need in the near future, and specifically focus on one of the critical completion items on my list before I can move forward with closing up the nose: the actuator assembly install for my Atkinson pitch trim system.

I just got some more 1/8″-thick-sided (1″x1″ overall) 6061 U-channel in from ACS that I ordered earlier this week.  I pulled out the big saw and cut the U-channel 1″ wide to match the diameter of the knurled pitch trim actuator installation hard-point that Marco machined for me (shown below); another fresh bracket lever arm piece for the taxi light actuator (shown getting cut below); a narrow piece of 1/8″ thick 2024 for the other taxi light lever arm; and finally, a somewhat “D” shaped rotating bracket that is the actual attach point for the pitch trim actuator… which gets installed inside the U-channel cut above (all this is shown below as well).

Again, as you can see, these pics show me cutting the bracket lever arm piece for the taxi light actuator.

Here’s the U-channel bracket that attaches to the knurled pitch trim actuator installation hard-point.  I ended up scrapping this one and making another one with the locations of both sets of mounting holes dialed in to better fit the tight installation requirements.

Of course, to figure out the exact installation configuration of the pitch trim actuator, I needed to reinstall the canard.

I quickly collected up yet another Marco-made item (thanks Brother!), the Nose Gear AEM box to verify that my dimensions were correct so that it fit in place with the canard installed, and it does.

Beyond reconnecting the elevator control tube I also verified clearance between the elevator control arm and the big power cables mounted just below it to the side wall. Again, plenty of clearance with the elevator control arm at its lowest point.

Alas, after spending a fair amount of time dialing in the installation configuration and location for the pitch trim actuator, I finally came to the point where I had to sadly cut Marco’s beautifully machined hard point creation in half.  The side wall where this thing will get installed is simply much narrower than the length of this insert.  I would have chosen to keep the lathed flox grooves on the aft side, but since he could only get the 1/4-28 thread tapped down about 3/4″ of the way into the bolt hole, I did’t want to risk not having enough threads left for a bolt to really bite into.  So, I mounted it into a tight-fitting Adel clamp and carefully cut it on the big saw.

I then spent a good hour+ measuring, drilling, filing, sanding, and finalizing the interior pivot bracket & external mounting bracket that physically attaches the pitch trim actuator to the side wall hard-point mount.

You may have seen that in installations on other builders’ projects that this actuator simple gets mounted with the actuator motor oriented vertically, either up or down.  Unfortunately, if I went actuator motor up, I would need to glass in a bump on my nose to clear it.  If I mounted it actuator motor down, then I would have to contend with it interfering with my right foot while working the rudder/brake pedal.  This all becomes paramount with the understanding that the actuator must be able to pivot side-to-side so that the other end of the pitch trim assembly, which is mounted to the elevator control tube, is allowed to freely pivot with the left-right movement of the control stick.

Thus, I note all this because of the way the physical mounting tab is situated on the pitch trim actuator, in its comparative ease of being mounted vertically, either up or down, which allows for the required side-to-side pivoting action.  However, once mounted with the motor positioned horizontally you could easily realize an up-down pivot action –which isn’t needed or wanted– but not the required side-to-side motion.  Obviously then, I had to account for the actuator mounting tab’s configuration with an intermediate bracket that provides this required side-to-side motion for the now “incorrectly” mounted actuator.

Here’s another shot of the pitch trim mounting bracket assembly.

I then detached the pitch trim mounting bracket assembly from the actuator motor mounting tab and snapped a few shots of it at different angles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still need to fine tune the fit & finish of the individual parts, but as you can see, the main configuration design is complete.  And I haven’t noted anything thus far that will preclude this from working as designed.

I’d like to finalize the pitch trim install over the weekend, and move on to other interior nose-located items in prep for closing up the nose.

 

 

Chapter 25 – Big Detour

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Most of this post is simply a copy and paste of an email that I sent to my buddy Dave Berenholtz in response to a question he asked me about flying in primer and paint choice:

I’ve gone off the rails yesterday and today going down a long rabbit hole assessing paint systems. I’m trying to do a good cost-benefit analysis and of course acceptable characteristics of each system.  I have to say that I see a lot of fine cracks on canards at RR, etc. and while most all pass the 10-20 foot fine looking test, but get up closer . . . well, fine cracks start coming into view on a lot of these planes.

And then there’s the inevitable chips and dings that show up as well. I don’t plan on necessarily escaping any chips and dings with ANY certain paint, but one of my main requirements is maintenance. In other words, refnishing the chips and dings with a paint that will hold for another year or two before other chips and dings show up. I also see a lot of these planes that look good from a bit away, then when you look at the edges of cowlings, canopies and hatches, they are dinged up pretty good. Thus, why I want to have quick, VIABLE touchup capability.

I also pondered on the question about flying in primer.  I know many builders do it and it’s the en vogue thing to do, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. I had a good discussion on this with another good buddy of mine, Greg, who isn’t an airplane builder but is very smart in general and very smart on cars. He noted the trend of car restorers to get vehicles restored, on reworked chassis, beautiful engine & awesome wheels, driving around in primer waiting for that “available” weekend to paint it… which of course never comes. The video Nate Mullins just posted on FaceBook of his wife climbing out of the back of his still-in-primer plane is a perfect example. No offense meant towards Nate, he’s an awesome builder and very knowledgeable Canardian, it just shows how with our human natures, we tend towards certain characteristics.  And I just want to avoid that construct altogether.

In other words, I would rather select a paint system that looks REALLY GOOD, is maintainable and easily reapplied if/when I need to do any refinishing for mods or repairs; rather THAN have AWESOME paint that comes a year after I’m flying, requiring me to:

  •  take my airplane offline for a good while, meaning NO flying while I paint it
  •  add complexity, difficulty and logistics in breaking down, cleaning (bugs, oil, tar, etc.), prepping (and re-sanding!) an operational plane for paint
  • be flying for my first 6-12 months in a not-so-great looking plane (e.g. primer)

Moreover, I’m not married to either roll on or spraying, but obviously roll on would be great since I could finish it here at home (without building a makeshift paint booth!). I am thinking seriously, for both cost and weight in going Burt’s route and doing a minimal paint job on the bottom of the wings and canard, then going more serious with top stuff.

Additionally, I’ve added a new categories to my tracking spreadsheet where I’ve accounted for all the major stuff I would need for each system, which allows me to show a head to head comparison for costs, painter characteristics, and vendors (where to buy).

In fact, today I had a long detailed conversation with my boat people up in Rhode Island. I relayed all my specs and requirements (above) and they confirmed that the MONO-urethane would be a really good way to go for me. Yes, it is slightly less hard-shelled and has slightly less glossy-ness than 2-part polyurethane, but it’s MUCH easier to paint without being finicky or needing self-contained breathing apparatus (yeah, I just about killed myself painting my motorcycle, even with gear… not good!), it is much more easily repaired and touched up, and it really does look good. So good in fact, they said that beer bets could easily be won for people trying to pick out the mono vs 2-part systems if they were side by side… very difficult to tell.

Plus, for the garage/backyard builder, both of the paint experts I was talking to said that mono-urethane, or single stage polyurethane, will make me very happy and fit the bill for what I’m doing. Thus, I’ve narrowed my choices down to two boat paints that can either be rolled on or sprayed: 1) Epifanes mono-urethane, or 2) Pettit EZ Poxy polyurethane (com’n, how can you pass up a paint named EZ Poxy?!).

The scratch test on Epifanes beats out a number of harder shelled 2-part polyurethanes, so, it is tough stuff. A little bit more expensive than I was looking for, but not too crazy. Probably about $500-600 out the door for a good paint job. The advantage for the Pettit is it’s less expensive, easier to apply and would be less total weight on the airplane after painting, albeit slightly more difficult to repair and maintain afterwards (doesn’t blend quite as easily as the Epifanes).

With either system I can still shoot some auto paint on top of it for some cool accents. Still, a fair bit more research to do though before I make my final choice.

Ok, back to some “real” airplane building!

 

Chapter 13/22/25 – Shotgunning it!

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Today was all about cleanup actions to finish up what I’ve been working on over the last few days and a myriad of other seemingly small tasks.

I started off with identifying the location of the landing brake relay pack hardpoint just aft & low of the P4 Throttle handle cable connector bracket on the left side of the avionics bay, just forward of the left arm rest.  I then found a RivNut lying around and scarfed it up to press into service to hold the 2 back-to-back metal cable clamps that had once resided on the forward side of the NG30 cover to hold in place Jack W’s EZNoseLift system relay pack.  Since my relays for the new nose gear are nice & tucked away in the RCU, it allowed me to reutilize these clamps to secure the inline relays that Jack W. uses on his landing brake system.

I Dremeled some grooves into the RivNut side for gripping, screwed on a taped-up washer for mounting, taped up the open end with duct tape, and then hit it with some Acetone to clean it up.

I then drilled out the hole and prepped it for inserting the RivNut hardpoint.

I used some fast hardener with the MGS 335 that I still have on hand and floxed ‘er in.  I then clamped a 1×2 stick to the panel to keep the RivNut firmly in place.

While the flox for the landing brake relay RivNut hardpoint cured, I then lightly sanded the problem child from hell (AKA “the tool box lid”) and hit it with 3 coats of gloss black paint. True to form, it was a slightly breezy day outside and the paint had lots of nice little added surface bits by the time I was done.  I had already decided to actually wet sand these and finish them with clear coat and then buff them out.  That’s the major reason I haven’t riveted the latch on the lower tool box.  I wasn’t really planning on going in that direction, but for some inexplicable reason this particular paint has been such a challenge that I don’t see any other way right now… that is if I want decent looking paint on the tool box. And I do.

Another issue, that I discussed with Marco while he was here, is the fine splitting that is going on with the 3D-printed AEM box.  Since Acetone melts –and thus “glues”– 3D printed material together, I clamped up the AEM box on the corners to close up the fine gaps & splits going on, particularly at the corners.  I then wiped down the surface with Acetone.  I waited about 6 hours and did it again, then left the clamps in place overnight to let it really set in.

I always believe things happen for a reason, and one really good thing to come out of my intermittent brown wire goose chase on the new nose gear wiring was that I found a loose terminal on the micro lever switch (sw088) that is 1 of 2 micro lever switches that drives the gear/canopy warning module.  I reterminated that switch (the red FASTON visible in the middle of the pack) and re-secured the wires on that gear actuator motor flange with a zip tie.

I then spent a couple of hours working on the taxi light actuator linkage geometry.  I really dialed it in much closer, but still have some stuff to figure out on it.  The actuator does a good job moving the taxi light assembly down in place and then back up close to seating back into the hole.  With the linkage between the actuator lever and taxi light being variable, it currently doesn’t have enough pull to keep the light up in its bay that last 3/16″. I’m much closer to a solution, so I’ll let this germinate another day or two while I tackle other nose-related stuff.

Back to the landing brake relay RivNut hardpoint: here are the mounted clamps after I pulled off the taped-up washer and cleaned up the flox remnants from around the RivNut opening.

I then used 2 zip ties to secure the inline landing brake relay pack in place.  After about 30 minutes, I then cut these zip ties to allow me to remove the P4 connector to take it upstairs and finish terminating 5 wires (4 to the roll trim relay board with #5 being roll trim reporting to the GRT HXr EFIS … all on the Triparagon).  With these 5 wires terminated, my P4 connector is really officially finished!

I then spent a good 20 minutes assessing the fit & mounting location of my GNS480 mounting bracket, or “tube” as Garmin calls it.  I placed the tube in position against the back of the instrument panel, allowing clearance for the sidewall, then traced around the front edge of the tube onto the back panel surface.  I then made some measurements & annotated those for later use to determine final mounting positions for panel components (Trio autopilot, EFIS, clock, etc.)

With my shop tasks done for the evening, I then removed the Triparagon from the plane and took it upstairs.  You see, when Marco was here I thought I may have inadvertently fried one of my AG6 warning annunciator units.  So, I spent a few minutes hooking them up to test them out, and thankfully both tested out fine (Lesson REITERATED: Always use a fuse… I’m fairly certain its selfless sacrifice saved my AG6!)

I then spent a couple of hours really making the final touches on 6 of my wiring diagrams. As I’m knocking out the physical wiring on these connectors, it really allows me to fine tune the wiring diagrams with wire gauges, wire colors, physical wire routing, connector pin numbers, wire labels, and component IDs (e.g. I just recently finalized my LED indicator light ID’s).  I printed all the newly updated wiring diagrams out and then sent the files to myself via email as a quick backup for each diagram.

 

Chapter 22 – A lighter EZ day . . .

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First off, I want to apologize for the first two pics being out of focus.  It’s hard to tell sometimes how they look on the phone screen until later on.  I think there’s plenty enough detail to get the idea of what I’m on about with these pics though.

I started off today wiring up the remaining cavities in the P5 connector, which routes all the wires for the pilot Infinity control stick grip.  The proof is in the pudding when completing these bigger wiring tasks, as so too it is when you finally get down to wiring up these connectors to the end components.  I spent a fair amount of time working over the pinout diagrams beforehand to make sure they were as spot-on as possible, but when the wiring starts –like any best laid plans– things change. Wiring sizes, wiring colors, wire size or color availability on-hand, routing, etc.

In addition, since my new nose gear system is operational, I’ve been scavenging the longer, terminated wires off of the old nose gear wiring harness to use in both the P5 (and P4) connectors.  This changes the wire colors sometimes since re-utilizing good terminated wires that may have a different random color than the first random color I chose is more important to me than sticking to an arbitrary random color!  To be fair, some colors (power & ground) are a bit more sacrosanct to me, but the other random stuff I swap out in a heartbeat.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of rabbit holes to chase down to get all the wiring accounted for in these harnesses.  With the P5 (control stick) and P4 (throttle) connectors being two behemoths in this wiring system, they really do interface with a lot of system end components. For example, although not a jaw-dropping number, if you look at the wires (there’s 3) in the lower left corner of the pic below of the associated Trio Pro Pilot Autopilot wiring harness, one goes to the P4 connector and the other two are terminated together into the P5 connector.  To terminate these wires, a general idea of the routing and a quick mockup is in order to figure out the length. Obviously the length doesn’t have to be perfect, but longer is always better (EZ’er) than shorter.

After figuring out, verifying, and finalizing all the wiring connections, terminations & routing on the P5 connector, I then set my sights on the P4 connector.  It too deals with a myriad of electrical system end components in and around the panel, including Triparagon-mounted items, GNS480 GPS, and even the Landing Brake (see below).  It took me a bit of time to verify the connections on these wires as well, but I confirmed all that was good, and tweaked a few things that had been superseded yet not annotated (by me!).

All in all it was a good day, and I’m really glad to have knocked these two connectors off of the list of prerequisite items that need to get completed before I start on the nose top.  To be certain, in each connector there are a few wires that I actually didn’t mount into the actual connector cavities.  However, I did cut all those wires to length and terminated them, so they are ready to go.  This might help explain why you don’t see the wires wrapped with flightline tape nor any of the cable clamps mounted.

One thing that finalizing the P4 connector wiring above allowed me to do with minimal extra effort was to test out the operations of the Landing Brake using the throttle-mounted landing brake switch.  I haven’t actually run the landing brake in (I think) going on almost 5 years now!  So, to knock some of that rust off . . .  here goes:

I do have about a half dozen connectors to terminate on the end unit side (mostly on the roll trim relay board), which I plan on getting to later tonight or earlier tomorrow.  I’ll also be mounting some Adel clamps and wire-securing hardpoints in the avionics bay (area between the panel and F22) tomorrow as well.