This will be my last build post prior to Rough River!  And since I’ll be on the road visiting folks in North Carolina and Virginia, I won’t be home for another 2 weeks…. so quite the break in build action.

Today I pulled off the boards that I had clamped in place to help straighten out a rather wavy looking foam piece that I shaped into a curve for the pilot seat floor piece, which also happens to make up the majority of the pilot thigh support.

I then cleaned up the initial Kevlar layup and test fitted the floor seat piece without the boards in place.  It looks good, but still needs just a bit more persuasion to be close to spot on.

I also rounded the aft edge into a radius that I assessed as a “pleasing shape” since I plan on doing all glass to glass edges on this seat floor piece.

I then did the round #2 top seat floor layups on both the front and aft side of the piece, overlapping onto the initial Kevlar layup.  The duct tape squares you see in these pics that you might be curious about are 2 pieces of 1.1″ x 1.1″ duct tape plies covered by another 2 plies of just slightly wider duct tape.  These duct tape pads are to provide clearance on the underside of the seat floor piece for the 2 ends of the EFII fuel pump frame that juts aft. The foam over these 2 tape pads, and of course the tape itself, will be removed before I layup the underside of the seat floor.

So, at the outset of the round 2 layups, I set a square of peel ply over each of the duct tape pads and then laid up a 2″ x 2″ ply of reinforcement BID over each of the pads.  I then laid up the separate front side single plies of glass (1 BID & 1 CF) to reach aft enough to cover the tape pads.

Once I got the layups completed and peel plied, I then set the seat floor back in place and clamped it again to try and knock out some of the waviness incurred by heating it up in the curve-shaping process.

You may note that I used some carbon fiber over on the left side.  This is due to the fact that I had some scraps of carbon fiber hanging around, and I also wanted to really lock in that corner and tame an indention over on that side.

A few hours later, when the glass was about 90% cured, I removed the clamps and checked out the layups . . . all good!  Moreover, the slight indention on the left side was in fact tamed and is no longer an issue.

I then pulled the peel ply and cleaned up the layups.  Here’s a test fit of the pilot seat floor after round 2 of the top side layups.

Then it was on to round 3.  I micro slurried what little bare foam was left, and made some transitions (as I had on round 2) with thicker micro between the edges of the Kevlar and the foam.  I also filled in the divot created in the upper right hand corner where the clamp piece of wood made a distinct edge.  I actually liked the depression, but glassing it could have been a bit difficult, so I simply filled it in with dry micro.

I then glassed the second and final ply of BID on the seat floor top.  For some reason I felt like going rogue again and did NOT peel ply the entire layup, just the inside edge that will have a mini wall glassed in around the fuel selector valve.

A few hours later, after the final BID layup on the top of the seat floor cured, I then razor trimmed and cleaned up the edges, and set it back in place for a test fit.  So far I’m really happy with how this is turning out.  To be clear, it’s not perfect, but definitely good enough for this combat builder!

With the top done I got on with the task of shaping the front edges and sides of the underside of the foam seat floor.  Just like the top aft edge, these 3 sides will have a radius that will allow the glass to curve around the edge in one continuous piece to make up the edges of the plate.  Thus, every side of this seat floor plate will have micro’d corners for strength.  This obviously mandated that I had to spend a bit of time making the angled trenches along literally every exterior edge (minus the center U-shaped notch) of the seat floor plate.

I then spent a bit of time as well pulling the tape & peel ply out of the divots I created for the fuel pump frame jut-outs that I needed clearance for.  Once all the remnants of the last bit of “clinging-for-dear-life” peel ply was extracted (with much difficulty at times I might add!) I then used my ever trusty and ever awesome Perm-A-Grit tools to shape the foam edges of the 2 divots.

I should note that although the top was glassed with 2 plies, relatively there is so little mass in the U-shaped notched area that wraps around the fuel selector valve & bracket, that it was surprisingly “flimsy” for lack of a better word.  I decided to reinforce the center narrow area with a patch of BID on the bottom side, but alas I didn’t have any scrap pieces big enough . . . but then again, I did have one last piece of scrap CF hanging around.  I figured CF would provide even greater stiffness here so I threw it on there . . .  at the beginning of the 1-ply BID layup on the underside of the seat floor.  I know it may look a little unorthodox (read: nasty) but in my defense it’s the MGS epoxy’s fault, since if I had used EZ-Poxy you would have never known what it looked like!  hahaha!

Also, before I laid up the final large piece of BID on the underside seat floor, I also again laid up a scrap patch of approximately 2″ x 2″ BID over each divot & overlapping onto the foam to add reinforcement to these glass-to-glass only areas (5 plies of glass total when all is done).

It took a bit of time just to micro slurry the foam face, and then stuff thicker micro all along the mini trenches I had created along all 4 sides.  After the micro went on, to be honest, glassing up the large ply of BID was the EZ part.  However, getting the glass around the corners and sticking to the edges was a bit trickier, but in the end I got it all in place.

A number of hours later, after it all cured, I then razor trimmed the glass, sanded and cleaned up all the edges.

I have to say that I’m ecstatic with how the pilot seat floor plate layups came out!  I didn’t want bare foam on the edges that I would simply have to fill in with micro anyways, since if you’ve seen older plastic airplanes with bare foam edges on parts… well, they look really old, dry and unattractive (I guess that’s what folks say about us ‘ol dog pilots too, eh?!).

Anyway, here’s 3 pics showing the front, aft and side edges of the pilot seat floor plate:

I then of course mocked up the finished seat floor.  Ah, it fits great!

Here’s a closeup shot of the right underside divot where you can actually see the fuel pump frame jut-out (bottom pic) through the glass.  As you can tell, there’s plenty of clearance between the fuel pump frame and the seat floor plate.

Well, nothing left to do on this thing at this point other than try ‘er out!  So I set the seat floor in place, threw a towel and some padding on the pilot seat, grabbed my throttle handle quadrant and climbed in.

This first shot is exactly what I was aiming for!  The fuel selector valve is aft enough and high enough that I can actually easily see it and manipulate it during flight!  Hoo-ah!  Also, I should point out that my fuel selector valve bracket is only about 1/2″ max total farther aft than the stock plans fuel valve plate.  The difference: my valve is located at the very aft end of the plate, obviously about an inch higher, and not located center of mass on the valve plate as the plans valve is.

I then mocked up the throttle location to test it out.  I messed about with the throttle for a bit and determined that for me I had in fact picked the optimum location for this throttle quadrant setup.

Here’s a shot of the throttle handle/quadrant, fuel selector valve and control stick. Again, I’m extremely satisfied with the location, ergonomics and functionality of all these controls!

And here’s my parting shot of this post.  The throttle handle and quadrant in its planned left armrest location.

Again, this will be the last build post for the next couple weeks.  When I get back –renewed, refreshed and re-motivated– I will continue my quest to finish up the internal fuselage component configuration and install before starting on the nose & canopy!

I started out today by pulling the peel ply and cleaning up the pilot thigh support ribs. I also cut out the glass from the mouse hole on the aft side of the right rib along with the overhanging glass from the layups.

I then trimmed the bottom of the right armrest to provide clearance and eliminate any rubbing on the fuel lines.

I also notched the bottom center of the left pilot armrest with a triangular opening to allow the armrest wall to fit over the pilot thigh support wedge duct when installed.  I also had to narrow the thickness of the wall on the outboard side of it that was adjacent to the air vent plenum duct in order for it to fit in its planned location.

I then got to work on shaping the pilot thigh support seat floor.  First, I copied the thigh support rib profile onto a template.  Then I used the template to mark up a scrap piece of OSB chipboard to cut out 4 thigh support rib jigs.

I then cut out the pilot seat thigh support floor piece from 3/8″ foam, and then clamped the 4 thigh support rib jigs to the bottom of the floor piece.

I then baked the jigged & clamped pilot seat thigh support floor piece in the oven for an hour at 280°.  In hindsight, it may have a been a bit too long to bake it, but in my defense there was no bake time listed in the plans!

I had to run out for a while after I turned the oven off and the floor piece started cooling down.

When I returned, I noted that there was a bit of waviness in the front & aft edges of the floor piece since the heating of the foam apparently produced some sagging in between the clamped rib jigs.  Moreover, these “scalloped” edges were significant enough that I thought about scrapping this floor piece and remaking another one.  But I don’t like wasting foam and to be honest, I kind of like the challenge of fixing a piece that’s less than perfect and make it work.

I pressed forward with the floor piece install and started working it until it proved to be unworkable, to see if it would . . . but it didn’t.

I wanted to lock in the CORRECT floor piece profile, so I decided to do a multi-part layup starting on the top of the floor piece surface (plans has you layup the bottom surface first). Since I needed to clamp both the front and aft edge to lock in the correct shape, I further decided to start with a large central ply of Kevlar –specifically to add puncture strength to a piece that gets stepped on every ingress & egress of the plane– and then add a strip of BID on both the front and aft edges after the center area floor piece profile was better locked into shape.  After these first pieces are laid up, I’ll of course lay up a ply of BID over the entire top surface of the floor piece.

As for the Kevlar layup, I started out by microing the surface of the floor piece top where the Kevlar ply will get laid up.

I then set the ply of Kevlar in place on the top of the pilot seat floor piece.

I then wet out the Kevlar.

And then peel plied the Kevlar layup.

Tomorrow I’ll continue to glass the pilot seat seat floor piece in my attempt to both get it installed, but also to straighten out some of the front and aft edge waviness that was introduced during my heating of the floor piece foam plate.  Still, I think it should be fine.

Yes, 3 attempts it took bending aluminum tubes to make the fuel selector valve to fuel pump crossover line!!! . . . more on that below.

Today I started out doing some research on how to revive some old Chartpak dry transfer lettering sheet that I have.  Apparently, over long periods of time they lose their transfer ability and they simply don’t work. Well, I tried a few of the home brew remedies of the Web and was able to get the letters off at least, but I just wasn’t overly happy with them.

I wanted to use black characters on my red T-handle that I had designated as the Nose Hatch release handle, but it really didn’t look as good as I had envisioned.  So I punted and simply went with the fresh set of white dry transfer lettering that I have on hand.

As you can possibly imagine, it’s difficult enough to get these letters to line up on a flat smooth surface, and another thing entirely to do it on a curved contoured surface.  This is my excuse for the letter spacing not being perfect, but again –in my world– it’s darn close enough!

After getting the lettering transferred onto the red Nose Hatch handle, I took it down to the shop, taped it up and then shot it with about 6-7 coats total of matte clear.

In between the clear coats I started working on the fuel lines that connect to the Andair fuel selector valve.  Since I swapped out the valve fittings with the ones that I bought from Andair, which stick straight down vertically vs straight out horizontally, I hadn’t touched the fuel line connections since I was waiting until the fuel valve was mounted in it’s final position.

I was praying that I had enough length on each line to get to the fuel valve, since I had to lop off a decent amount of the curly-cue terminations of each fuel line in the craziness that I had undertaken to get them into the stock valve fittings while taking up as little space as possible.

In my new present tubing configuration I needed a decent amount of straight tubing just prior to the termination point to allow me to get the coupling sleeve on the line and still have room to flare it.  Yet just another reason I wanted to go with these new vertical fittings vs the curly-cue terminations… which made it really difficult to get a good flare with the coupling sleeve in place.

Well, apparently I had JUST enough tubing left to get to the new Andair fuel valve fittings. Still, it is all TIGHT and I will need to notch the lower right armrest a tad and contour the right underside edge of the thigh support top to allow for clearance with the right and left fuel feeds coming from the thigh support sump tanks to the Andair fuel selector valve.

I then cut and shaped the left thigh support rib to get it ready for glassing into place. Part of that prep involved pulling peel ply that I had applied when I laid up this piece back in mid-2012 … amazing!

Then, through the requisite trial and error fitting and sanding repeat cycle, I finalized the shape and got it into place.  My original location for this rib was very close to the stock location called for in the plans.

I then removed the fuel selector valve and its bracket to mount the fuel pump in place.  I then remounted the fuel selector valve and bracket.  I taped up the fuel selector valve because it’s a nice looking piece, and as I was mounting and removing it I noted that it was laying in a pile of tools, files, sanding blocks, etc. and for a minute thought that I had scratched it pretty good… I clearly needed to better protect the nice finish during the build process.

The fit of the left side of the fuel selector valve bracket and the inside of the left fuel pump frame is about as exact as could be.  Too close actually and I’ll need to trim the left side of the fuel valve bracket by at least 0.050″ to allow for clearance.  The clearance on both the instrument panel bulkhead attach bolts and the upper bracket attach screws is all good.

I then started the multi-hour process of shaping and terminating the 3/8″ aluminum tubing that makes up the fuel selector valve to fuel pump crossover line.  Amazing how many distinct requirements I had on such a short cross-connect tube.  First, I discovered I needed a distinct dogleg in the lower horizontal section of the tube to curve around the left tank feed line coming into the left side of the fuel valve.  Then there was the curve back, at about a 45° angle, to intersect the fuel pump fitting, which is a distinct angle change in comparison to the other side attached to the fuel selector valve.

Piece of cake, right?!  Yeah, after a couple of hours and definitely getting my tube cutting, bending and flaring practice in for the year!  Obviously I finally got it, and it’s the last bit of fuel line tubing bending I have to do on this plane! (I still have the brake cross-connect lines to do…)

Here are the previous 2 failed attempts  . . .

Another shot of the fuel selector valve to fuel pump crossover line, along with the other fuel valve connections.  Note the heater air SCAT tubing I set in place on the pilot thigh support wedge duct outlet.

I then spent a good hour getting the thigh support ribs configured and set in place.  As I stated previously, I had originally planned on having the left thigh support rib set in place at the plans location.  I even started notching the foam out to allow for the fuel pump’s left side fitting and the cross-connect fuel line to the fuel valve.  After pondering it for a bit I realized that it would just take too much work both in configuring, constructing and glassing the left rib simply to keep it in place at the plan’s location.  By kicking it outboard an inch to the left I eliminated all these issues & headaches…. so, that’s the spot!

On the right side there is simply no way that the rib can connect all the way from the aft side thigh support wedge duct to the bottom of the instrument panel bulkhead.  Not unless I never planned on removing the fuel pump.

Now, obviously hind sight is 20/20, but had I NOT used Clickbonds on the lower fuel pump mounting tabs and instead used embedded nutplates, I could have eliminated a LOT of my fuel pump mounting issues.  First, I could take the right side rib all the way to the bottom of the instrument panel bulkhead since I would have been able to slide the fuel pump in vs drop it in straight down. Even more helpful would be the fact that I wouldn’t have to remove the fuel valve bracket to get the fuel pump in or out…. the saving grace being that I don’t foresee having to be installing and/or removing the fuel pump a lot once the airplane is flying.

Here’s a wider angle shot showing all the fuel line runs in the pilot seat area, pretty much close to the original style as per plans, with some obvious distinct configuration tweaks I made on the fuel pump and fuel valve mounting locations.

I should note that the lonely Clickbond on the fuselage floor just aft of the fuel pump was originally for the 90 micron fuel filter supplied (and required) with the EFII fuel boost pump. I mounted this filter, and thus the Clickbond, prior to making my decision to go with the Holley Hydramat fuel pickups in the thigh support sump tanks.  Since the Hydramats filter to 15 microns, and I have one final 32 micron filter [as required by the Silver Hawk fuel injection system] at the firewall, there is simply no need for this 90 micron filter.  So…. out it went!

Between now and next week I do plan on continuing to knock out these build tasks, but admittedly it will start to slow the closer I get in heading down to Marco’s for our flying out to Rough River.  Hopefully I’ll see a bunch of you there!

I started out today having a discussion with Mike from ElectroAir.  I had a few questions on the installation of the ElectroAir electronic ignition system, most being just crosschecks on what I was planning on doing and that I wasn’t going to screw anything up doing it!

There are a couple of connectors on their EIS (not GRT) Controller harness that I inquired about: the first connector –that I want gone– are on the wires running to the coils, and the second just a connector inexplicably (to me) placed on the controller’s ground wire.  The first will get replaced after I run the wires through the firewall to the coil, the latter connector will get removed altogether.  Both with the blessing of ElectroAir.

All this really relates to wire runs both in the hellhole and through the firewall.  That, in turn, relates to space required for wiring transiting holes through the firewall in the D-Deck / Turtle Deck / GIB headrest.

I then had a quick chat with B&C about the mounting requirements for the SD-8 Backup Alternator’s voltage regulator. The new electrical system requirement I picked up from them is that it’s highly recommended that I have a cooling fan for the SD-8 voltage regulator since apparently it runs a little on the warm side.

So, fan on the list to integrate into the GIB headrest.

I then integrated this new fan requirement into the electrical system, as well as moved the ElectroAir MAP sensor from the engine compartment into the Hell Hole, by reworking a number of my electrical diagrams.

Since I was on the computer upstairs updating my electrical diagrams, I took a good half hour to familiarize myself with Mike Beasley’s engine baffle templates.  I cut a few of the template pages into pieces so I could better get them organized, and after I had a decent understanding of what was going on I left them alone & headed down to the shop.

In the shop, I started off by determining the angle for the riser mount I’ll build to house the parking brake T-handle on the left side of the nose gear viewing window, and then a mirror one on the right for the nose hatch release T-handle.

After spending a good hour determining dimensions & drafting up some ideas on mounting these T-handles, I then got to work on cutting, forming, constructing, and mounting the top fuel selector valve bracket to the lower fuel valve bracket.

Although I plan on having some sort of support brace to assist in securing the fuel selector valve, I also had planned on the valve being mounted a little aft and a bit higher than the plans valve.  Thus, the mounting of my fuel valve would incorporate a significant stepped cantilever design for the upper valve bracket.

Allowing for this stepped cantilever design, I chose a 0.090″ thick piece of scrap 6061 for my stepped upper bracket. I don’t have a bending brake, so I resorted to clamps (one of which I broke!), 2x4s, and a couple of different hammers to bend this piece of metal to my will . . .  ha!  Moreover, (specifically for Marco) I started off by cutting the scrap 6061plate to its 3″ width using my Skil saw that was conveniently available.  For the curved aft end of the bracket I used my jig saw with a metal blade installed.

I then clamped & pounded, clamped & pounded <insert choice curse words here!>, replaced a broken clamp, and then clamped & pound some more.  I had my phone charging so I didn’t get any pics of this sequence, but suffice it to say it worked out well enough.  Again, it won’t win any beauty contests, but it’s strong as can be and it’s pretty darn straight to boot!

I then used my new Cleco clamp to help hold the bracket in place (in hindsight I won’t use a Cleco clamp on something with a nice finish –which ironically is why I chose this clamp– since it marred the finish. Since this plate will get covered or painted anyway, it’s a good lesson learned) and drilled pilot holes in the aft row of screw mounting holes, placing a Cleco in each hole as I drilled them.

Due to the width of the drill, I couldn’t drill the forward screw mounting holes without imparting an angle on each of the holes.

So I removed the Clecoed-together upper and lower bracket assembly and widened the screw mounting holes to 1/8″, with the subsequent Clecos getting mounted into each hole as it was drilled.

Due to my haste I also failed to get a shot of the 6 x K1000-8 nutplate assemblies that I drilled and riveted into place.  I had considered simply using 4 x #10 screws to secure the upper & lower plates together, but then after some thought I went with 6 smaller #8 screws.  Again, in hindsight I could have gone either way and now think the 6 screws may be a slight overkill, but it’s definitely secure!  Clearly, I needed 2 standard and 4 corner nutplates for this job.

Once the nutplates were installed, I then mounted the top fuel valve bracket to the lower. I’ll also state that the alignment deamons reared their ugly head here –despite my intense efforts otherwise– and somehow my bracket alignment got off kilter about 0.030-0.040″. To be certain, the left & right edges weren’t perfectly aligned when I started, but the front edge was.  So I ended up filing the front edge to make the edge straight and allow for it to fit flush against the lower instrument panel.

I then rounded up my installation instructions for the Andair fuel selector valve. Now, the Andair install directions would have you install the valve with the Left tank straight 90° left, the Right tank straight up, and the OFF position 90° to the right, like this: ⊥ (L-9 O’clock, R-12 O’clock, OFF-3 O’clock). . . I changed that by rotating the valve a bit clockwise so the my Left & Right tank valve handle positions would be symmetrical, with my Left tank at the 10 O’clock position (45° left), my Right tank at the 2 O’clock position (45° right) in a ∨ fashion, and my OFF at the 5 O’clock position (45° low right).

I then drilled the 1″ round center Andair fuel valve mounting hole, drilled the 3 each #10 screw mounting holes, and mounted the fuel selector valve.

I then removed the valve, countersunk the 6 x #8 bracket screws, and remounted the fuel valve bracket assembly onto the lower instrument panel bulkhead.

I then remounted the Andair fuel selector valve with its cover plate.

I then mounted the fuel valve handle.

And the parting shot of the evening: the fuel selector valve officially installed!

Tomorrow I’ll continue my pilot’s seat area build tasks.  To be clear, I can’t do the final install on the GIB area air & heat ducts until I figure out the cable runs and lengths to the 3 valves installed in the ducts.  To do this, I need to know the mounting configuration of the valve handles in the left pilot armrest.  Thus, in order to get the left armrest installed, I need to get the pilot seat thigh support ribs and cover in place.  So in an odd twist, the fuel valve I finished installing tonight has a direct bearing on me getting the GIB ducts installed!