Besides finishing up and tweaking yesterday’s post, I did a fair amount of research today on upcoming tasks.

I also received the MM-4 1/4″ rod ends a day earlier than expected.  I went ahead and mounted an MM-4 on the end of the left wing aileron control tube, CS125.

I then did the same on the right side, installing an MM-4 rod end on the end of CS126 aileron control tube.

In the wing roots, I installed the MM-4 rod ends, tested the aileron geometry good before then drilling and riveting the rod end inserts into place on the end of the left and right CS129s.

Note that I also marked a considerably number of the hardware with orange torque seal.

I also pulled out my TIG welder and a bunch of welding accessories in prep to welding the wing bolt bracket U-channels tomorrow.  I may need more nitrogen shielding gas so will deal with getting some more of that if required.

After returning back later this afternoon from my quick overnight trip to Raleigh, NC, I got to work sanding the left bottom winglet to allow for attachment and micro finishing.  I had missed a couple of spots on the right bottom winglet that I touched up as well.

Here’s a front head-on view of the bottom winglets.

My next sanding task I intend to knock out this week are the wheel paints.

I need two things before I mount the wings back onto the bird: 1) Rework the internal CS spar wing bolt brackets for the outboard pair of bolts.  This is the wing bolt mod that a lot of EZ owners/builders do that have the wing bolts captured internally sticking out of the spar facing aft to make it EZ to put the wings on… especially with just one person.  Most bubbas use a low-profile piece of aluminum U-channel, but since I have to have a “bridge” to get over the internal cable conduit, I’m going to need a couple of 1″ square coupons of steel U-channel.  That will requite some TIG welding.  More to follow on that, which I plan to focus on tomorrow.

Item #2 is the MM-4/HM-4 rod ends that I need for the CS128 aileron control tube bell crank that came with 1/4″ bolt holes (I’ll note all the other components had 3/16″ bolt holes).  When I mount the wings I want to test out the aileron travel on each side and be ready to knock out linking up the entire firewall-aft aileron control system.

With delivery from ACS set for Tuesday, that gives me the next day and a half to get the welding knocked out before the MM-4s go in.  I plan on having the wings on Tuesday night, and start shaping the top strake skins Wednesday.  Then planning on having top strake skin layups complete by this coming weekend.

My next task after the strake top skins are glassed is mounting the winglets to the wings.  Not wanting to jump into the welding fray tonight, I finally decided to figure out the winglet lower template and get the bottom edge of the winglets trimmed in prep for mounting to the wings.

My first task was to find and mark the centerline of the upper winglets leading edge (no pics).

The next step per plans is to use the paper template from the plans and glue it to the inboard side, as explicitly stated in Chapter 20 of the plans.  I had grabbed a copy from a build buddy that has a real set of plans, since mine are the PDF version.  In my ignorance and naivety back in Germany early on in this build, I thought it was a template like all the others (canard, elevators, etc) so I put it on a piece of 1/4″ thick plywood.  Probably a good thing in the end since it survived all these years!

Now, in assessing this entire template fitting deal, my buddy Dave Berenholtz discovered that the template fit a lot better on the flatter outboard side of the winglet… obviously counter to what the plans say.  And we all know there are errors in these plans… they are not infallible.  Since I was using my wood template to make up blue tape template “appliqués” I decided to test Dave’s method as well as follow the plans.

OVERVIEW: If you set the pair of winglets upright in front of you looking at the leading edges, you would have 2 left sides and 2 right sides.  If you broke down, say the left sides (in relationship to sitting in the plane), one would be the inboard of the right winglet and the outboard of the left winglet.  Since I do everything exactly as Burt says to (haha!) my primary focus is on the inboard edge (plans method).  Thus as per my example I labeled my blue tape template “R” for the inboard right winglet (“primary”), but also used it on the outboard LEFT winglet (“secondary”).  Clear as mud?

Using my example above for the other side, the LEFT blue tape template above is applied to the right winglet’s outboard side (secondary).  I then marked the edge of the tape template and carefully removed it.

I then used the same LEFT template for its primary purpose, marking the left winglet’s inboard lower edge (primary).  After the tape template was in place I then marked the cut line and removed the tape.

Here we have pretty much my initial example in action.  The RIGHT blue tape template is applied to the outboard edge (secondary) of the left winglet… I then marked it and removed the tape (no pic).

I then used the same RIGHT blue tape template and applied it to the inboard edge (primary) of the right winglet (note the leading edge centerline marks)….

And marked the edge of the blue tape template onto the winglet with a narrow point Sharpie before removing the template.

Well . . . I could stair at these lines and wonder if they were right or not, or in my bull in a china shop fashion I could just cut the damn things.  As Tony Stark so aptly states in the Iron Man movie, “sometimes you gotta run before you can crawl!” … ha!

It was early evening and since it’s Fall here we lose daylight much faster now.  If I was going to cut these things today it had to be sooner vs later (unless I wanted a messy shop!).

Here we have the marked pair of winglets, ready to trim the bottom edges to allow them to fit the wing tips.

I put flat tip screwdrivers over the RG-58 radio antenna cables (shows you how long ago I started this project… I would have used RG-400 had I built these 6 months later than I did) to protect them.

I then used my ever-trusty Fein saw to trim the inboard cut line just below and inside the line on the right winglet.  With a little coaxing (pardon the pun) I removed the glass skin piece.

And then did the same thing on the left winglet.

I then slowly —in 3 phases— used my Fein saw to cut down into the foam, perpendicular to the cut line.  The real focus here is that inside line since the outboard side doesn’t have to be exact since it hangs out into air and doesn’t mate with anything other than the Block ‘A’ piece of foam and eventually the lower winglet… both trimmed to fit the outside edge, not vice versa.  Which is why I’ll note that the plans state, “Mark the trim line then saw the piece out (coping saw) sawing roughly perpendicular to the mark.”

Once all the foam was removed to the other/inboard side, I used a long 1/8″ drill bit to drill just slightly below (aka towards the original bottom winglet edge) the foam’s new rough contoured shape.  I then flipped the winglets over and drew the line along the top edge of drilled holes also using the marked template line as a general guide for the shape.  I then cut the outboard sides of the winglet bottom edges, before using a narrow sanding block to clean up the new bottom winglet surface.

I’ll note that my resulting outboard cut line was about 3/16″ below the cut line of the outboard template, on both sides.  This tells me that using Dave’s method works fine (it obviously did for him!) with just around a negligible 3/16″ less height on the winglets… in my armchair engineering assessment!

Here are some shots in the lit shop of the freshly trimmed right and left winglet bottom surfaces.

I did a quick check of the right winglet on the end of the right wing to see how my cut line came out.

Pretty spot on considering I haven’t even really cleaned it up or sanded it smooth yet!

Now that my curiosity was abated on the lower winglet template fitment, I then propelled myself into another issue that I find somewhat perplexing with the build process on these birds.

BACKGROUND: LPC #131 in CP 49 is a mandatory ground plans change that mandates using 4130 steel control tubes for the ailerons aft of the firewall.  As an aside, I know some Long-EZs that are still running aluminum and that is a risk assessment we all must make. To be clear, I say that with zero judgement. Since I will have a titanium wing root cover plate I personally decided to go with aluminum CS129s inside the wing root, but where my control tubes are exposed I went with 4130 steel in line with this CP change.

But wait, there’s more.

LPC #131 specifically addresses replacing aluminum components that are less than 0.1″ thick.  That’s why the aluminum CS128 bell crank and CS131 spacer are still used since they meet this requirement.  CP 50 provided further clarification on this plans change and gave more specifics for its implementation, including using “four (4) stainless steel pop rivets, such as Cherry #CCP-42.”

I will note that this last statement is easier said than accomplished in the real world.  I’ll also note —let me be clear that I AM NOT FRAGGING ANYONE!— that I still see a lot of folks with steel control rods and solid aluminum rivets… which I’ll point out are 1/8″ diameter so should technically meet the 0.1″ LPC #131 requirement, if it weren’t for the CP 50 SS pop rivet comment.

I will again state that I have no dog in this fight.  I am not a deputized member of the Canard Police Force that tells everyone how their stuff is not per plans and to proclaim 50 “hail Burt’s” for redemption…. I ask because I’m curious or will say something if it looks really dangerous. My notations and questions are ones of interest and curiosity.

Now, as any good military officer will do during Operational Planning, I’ve framed the problem as I see it.  If any of you have any other info or methods, please feel free to give me a shout.

Here is my take on how we use solid aluminum rivets to mount a Rod End insert into the end of a control tube… EZ/PZ:

CP 50 states to use four (4) cherry pop rivets, #CCP-42s.  Ok, but hold the phone Bucko!  There is an inherent clearance issue here (remember, this is even before we went to 1/4″ rod end inserts!) in that one drilled through-hole with pop rivets going in at 180° out from each other has the first one going in fine, but the second one —although it will go in— does not seat 100% against the surface of the control tube.  Is this acceptable?  I guess that’s a personal choice. In my book not as a standard practice for every rod end getting installed.

So how about if we offset every hole for all 4 pop rivets getting installed?  Well, we need 1/8″ between the holes (and with the way pop rivets flair internally that’s even a minimal clearance spacing… it’s tight).  Ok, so check this out.  Note how we eat up our available depth to thread the rod end into the insert.

I’ve learned that in negotiations that compromise is actually the least beneficial to both parties… but here in the technical world I think it worked out ok.  This is my method of dealing with this internal clearance/crash issue with the pop rivets… I simply did a personal risk assessment and pressed forward.

I’m using two stainless steel cherry pop rivets (CCP-42) and one solid aluminum rivet.  As I note in the graphic below, that gives me 2x non-melting securing points in case of an engine fire… and let’s be honest, those are not an overly common event.  I place this in the realm of remote possibilities, but let’s still be prudent and as safe as possible.  Right?

Here are my aileron control tubes —CS 125 & CS126— painted black with the rod end inserts riveted into place as per my hybrid method.  I’ll note that these are way longer than required and will be trimmed to length at final install, and the quick disconnect components installed to allow for EZ wing removal.

The firewall side ends have XM-3s installed since the CS124 pivot tab has holes drilled for AN3 bolts.

Here we have a side shot of the rivets securing the rod end insert.  Note the solid aluminum rivet facing the camera, perpendicular/90° to the stainless steel pop rivets that, while 180° apart from each other, are also stepped 1/8″ away from each other . . .  as is the aluminum rivet from the SS ones.

Here’s the longer left SC125 control tube test-fitted in place.

As well as the shorter right CS126 control tube test-fitted in place.

And both control tube rod ends secured to the CS124 pivot tab with AN3 hardware and wide area washers.

Knowing I had a fairly lengthy task of getting all these explanations and examples in this blog, I called it a night!

I started out today by swapping out the temporary nuts on the bolts securing the CS127 brackets to the aircraft grade nuts to make the install permanent.

I then knocked out a seemingly sideline task of aligning the trailing edge of the ailerons with the trailing edge of the wing… that seem to get askew once the aileron is cut out of the wing and remounted,

Here’s the inboard aileron trailing edge seam with the right wing, before and after I sanded down the wing to bring the edges into alignment.

Here’s a view down the trailing edge of the right wing.

I then did the same on the left wing.

The outboard edges weren’t that bad, and with some minor sanding were back into alignment.

I then rounded up my CS125 and CS126 aileron control tubes that connect the CS128 bell crank to the aileron control tab on the firewall.  There was a tad bit of surface rust on the 4130 steel control tubes after all these years, so I decided to do a bit of corrosion control and prevention.

The first pic on the left is the raw aileron control tubes.  In the middle pic the shorter tube has been sanded and cleaned up, whereas in the last pic on the right both control tubes have been sanded, cleaned up and acetone-wiped for painting.

I started to prime the aileron control tubes with Zinc Chromate, but I guess the paint can had gone bad since after a couple of passes it just wouldn’t fire anymore.  I tried with no avail to get it to shoot but no joy,

So I brought the partially primed control tube back into the shop and cleaned off the Zinc Chromate I had shot onto it.

I then grabbed my trusty can of Rustoleum self-etching primer and hit the tubes with that (left pic).  After a good hour-plus cure I then shot the control tubes with flat black exterior automotive paint…. which cures to full hardness in 48 hours.

My last task of the evening was taking the right lower winglet outside and sanding it in prep for further glassing and micro finishing.

Tomorrow will be a light build day since I’m leaving mid-day for Raleigh to attend an overnight Halloween party with Jess.  Upon returning I intend to upgrade my CS spar wing bolt brackets and get the wings installed in prep for shaping and glassing the strake tops.

I started out today by whipping up some dry micro using EZ-Poxy and filling in the remaining gaps in the fuel probe wire channels on the tops of the strakes.

I then grabbed my CS132 weldments and marked the center line on each part.

I spent a good little bit of time riveting up one side of the CS129 control tube, for both wings, and then taped the other rod end insert into place since I wanted some wiggle room on determine the final length of the CS129 tubes.

I had to run out and get some errands knocked out, and I returned later in the afternoon.  While it was still light out I sanded the left winglet (about an hour) to prep it for install, subsequent glassing and micro finishing.  Next up on the sanding docket will be the lower winglets.

I then got busy installing the wing aileron control system components.  As I was working the initial task of determining the 90° angle between the CS132 weldment and CS129 control tube, I set the CS128 bell crank and brackets in place (bottom of pic).

On the recommendation of Wayne Hicks in his write-up, I had also left my CS129 at 9.3″ vs the plans 9.1″ to ensure I had enough length if required.

Well, I could tell that my CS129 was way longer than it needed to be… something didn’t seam right.  I did a little looking in the plans and realized that the original rod end inserts did NOT have the 0.2″ tall end caps that the new ones do.  So with 0.2″ extra on each end plus my 0.2″ inches for some wiggle room on length, I was sitting at a minimum of 0.6″ too long on the CS129.  Even with the rod ends bottomed out I was too long to have any semblance of getting the required 90° between the CS132 & CS129, or the next 90° between CS129 and the CS128 bell crank.

I trimmed my CS129 control tubes down to 8,5″ each and pressed forward.  Although the rod ends are still threaded in more than what I would think is “normal,” I could at least dial in the required angles with these components in the wing root.

[Note the hash marks on the end of the CS152 tube aligning it to CS132]

Again, although I was focused initially on the 90° angle between CS132 and CS129, I worked the angles as a system to keep the CS129 tube distance off the rib wall consistent and the angle of CS129 with the lower inside wing root surface consistent as well.  And before finalizing the CS132 to CS129 right angle, I also made sure the CS129 to CS128 90° angle was fairly close to final.

I’ll note that keeping these 90° angles on track resulted in pushing my CS128/CS127 bracket assembly more inboard and further down than I saw in plans or other builders’ installs.  I worked it for a good bit to make sure I wasn’t screwing anything up, but given the components I had on hand while maintaining those two 90° angles drove the placement of CS127 brackets to where they are in these pics.

After ascertaining the right wing’s CS132 right angle with the CS129 control tube, I removed the aileron assembly and then subsequently removed the CS151/CS152 combo off the aileron.  I hand drilled the top marked bolt hole into CS152 that would be used to attach CS132 to it.

The hole through CS132 was not straight, and being offset a hair required me to hand drill the holes on each side separately… and when I say “hand drill” I mean without the use of my tube alignment block that I normally tape and clamp to a tube to get a near-perfect straight and centered hole.

Here we have the right wing CS132 bolted to the CS152 tube, thus connecting the CS132/CS129 components to the aileron…  another significant segment added to the linkage (yes, here my clocking marks are off by about 0.015″ and while not perfect, were a good bit closer when the bolt was fully seated and tightened).

I reattached CS151/CS152 to the aileron and then reinstalled it into the right wing.  I then bolted the CS132/CS129 combo to CS152 that enters into the wing root area through the root bearing.

My next task was dialing in the 90° between CS129 and CS128.  While doing this, I slowly started securing the CS127 brackets into place by drilling out the bolt holes and securing the CS127 brackets in place as I kept verifying the 90° angles were good.  I will note that the third bolt that went in knocked my CS132-to-CS129 right angle off a degree or two, but in assessing this setup I just chalked it up as the cost of doing business… I don’t think I’m going to get much closer than that.

Now, I’ve blathered on about focusing on my two plans-required 90° angles inside the wing root… and as any military planner knows all plans may be perfect up until first contact with the enemy.  A primary goal in this setup is to have 20° up-travel on the aileron that is noticeably ensured when the CS128 bell crank hits a hard stop bolt across the CS127 brackets.  I was getting that until I secured my last couple of mounting bolts on the CS127 brackets —even though they were clamped tightly in place while I set the component configurations.

It took me a good 45 minutes of slowly dialing in the rod end in/out threaded length and thus negating my oh-so-conscientious focus of nailing the CS129/CS128 90° angle.

To get my 20° aileron up travel (above… 180-160 = 20) —which equates to a hair over 2″ swing/gap between aileron trailing edge vs wing trailing edge— I had to come off my CS129/CS128 90° angle by an estimated 2-3°.  Again, the cost of doing business IMO.  If anybody out there has any insights or a better technique, please let me know.

I then repeated the whole affair on the left wing.  Being better mentally prepared and knowing how to initially set everything up fairly close to my final configurations not surprisingly made this exercise go much quicker and smoother on the left wing.

After all the aileron control components were installed on the left wing, and with again needing to sacrifice a degree or two off my near perfect CS129/CS128 90° angle, I was seeing almost 21° on my aileron up-travel and 2.1″ gap between aileron and wing trailing edges.

I’ll note that the last half inch up travel on my left aileron is marked with the inside bolt squishing into the interior wing foam… so I still have a bit of house cleaning on the inside of that channel to accomplish.

Early next week I’ll receive, mount and dial-in the MM-4 rod ends at the CS129/CS128 connections, where the black electrical tape is currently and temporarily securing the rod end adapters in the pics below.

It was quite late, but excellent progress on the day.  Although I do have a couple minor tasks to complete, I can finally say that I’ve finished Chapter 19!

As par usual, I headed in for a late dinner and to check over my notes.

I started out this morning by whipping up some EZ-Poxy dry micro with E-Z 87B hardener and laying it into the fuel probe wire channel on each strake top.  I have taped-up stir sticks and toothpicks in place to secure the wires at the bottom of each channel to keep them as far away from the surface as possible… for when I eventually sand the foam tops of the strakes, pre-glassing.

I then got busy drilling out the outboard ends of each CS151 aileron torque tube to allow me to bolt it to the aileron Universal Joint.

I got both CS151 aileron torque tubes drilled and bolted onto the aileron U-joints using the plans called-for AN3-11A bolts… more on those below.

A wide angle shot of the CS151 aileron torque tubes bolted to the ailerons.

I then took a “break,” grabbed my right winglet and sanded it outside in front of my shop. It cleaned up nicely and is now ready for install, subsequent glassing and micro finish.  I plan on sanding the left winglet tomorrow.

I

I’ll first digress for a bit in saying that while I was in the Air Force I was part of a number of multi-month/year long deployments, exercises, etc.  An odd feature that us deployed bubbas recognized was that things were bearable up until the last few weeks of the deployment.  When you know that you’re rotating back stateside in just a mere few weeks, things that you dealt with for a year suddenly became irritating as all get-out. The closeness of normality just out of reach caused all the idiosyncrasies of the current crappy situation to magnify all the crappiness of each little thing.

So just maybe I am getting really close to finishing this bird, because my irritation level for seemingly unwarranted BS is pinging rather high.

Now, I’m not trying to make this ‘Bash Cozy Girrrls’ week or anybody else, but another issue that Ary pointed out on his blog was that the CS152 through-root-bearing-tube      —that attaches the CS132 weldment inside the wing root to the CS151 aileron torque tube inside the inboard wing channel— comes pre-drilled and set inside the CS132.

The issue is that per plans the CS132 must be set at 90° to the CS129 control tube WHILE the aileron is at 0°.  If the aileron/CS151 combo is installed and the aileron secured at 0°, then setting the CS132 weldment at 90° to the CS129 needs to all occur inside the wing root… in other words, the variable being manipulated needs to be the CS132 placement (clocking) onto the CS152 tube.

With the CS152 pre-drilled and attached to the CS132 weldment, this variable is now moved BEHIND (read: out of sight) the wing root bearing at the CS152 attachment point to CS151.  Clearly this infuses a level of complexity that could very easily result in aileron control system components being misaligned… Ary solved this issue by simply using another piece of tubing for the CS152 tubing and eliminated the pre-drilled issue that way.

Having more time to ponder on it, I simply decided to reverse the CS152 tube and pre-mount it to the CS151 aileron torque tube.  This moves the CS132/CS129 90° angle finding exercise back into the wing root and puts the CS152-to-CS151 as a known quantity (aka ‘constant’).

[As a point of note and to be fair, I wasn’t sure if I was missing something so I talked to Chrissi about this exact issue a couple months back… with no real resolution.  We had a long conversation about a multitude of other things and I am truly extremely fond of both her and Randi… but these build issues still need to be dealt with and addressed, IMO].

I measured the width of the wing root bearing, the attach tube portion of CS132, the 1/4″ spacing on each side of the wing root bearing, and the remaining portion of the CS152 tube that would be left to insert into the inboard end of CS151.  I then marked CS151 for drilling.

And prepped CS151 for drilling to mount CS152.

Once I drilled CS151 and bolted CS152 into place, I test-fitted the wing root bearing and CS132 into place to get a visual on if my measurements were correct.  They were… Bingo!

Here we have the CS152 4130 steel tubes bolted into the inboard ends of the CS151 aileron torque tubes using the plans called-out AN3-11A bolts… again, remember these bolts!

Why remember these AN3-11A bolts?!  Because they are TOO friggin’ long!!!! At least for my set up.  When I finished out the wing aileron cut out shear web I naturally overlapped it into the entrance of the channel where the CS151 runs inboard to the wing root rib.  Well, the AN3-11As are so long that on my right aileron it literally locked the CS151 into this channel and in forcibly removing the aileron I inadvertently dinged one edge.

I hadn’t yet put the left aileron/CS151 combo into the left wing yet, so I immediately swapped out the two AN3-11A bolts for the only two AN3-10A bolts I had on hand… and yep, 2 threads showing!

Even then I had clearance issues with my left aileron inside that channel.  Not nearly as bad as the right side.  When I pulled out the right aileron I lopped off that excess crap with my Dremel Tool.

Now, my wing cores are Feather Light, so I am not entirely sure what is going on… since 1-2 plies of BID inside the entrance to that aileron torque tube channel shouldn’t be causing such hate and discontent with these bolts… but it is/was.  And I can’t imagine I’m the first builder to have this issue.

Regardless, I shoved my Dremel Tool cutoff disk down into the opening of the channel and ground away the interior glass to remove what was the glassed wall of the channel —again, just a few inches into the channel— to allow clearance for these damn bolts!

After this round of playing Johnny F— Around in my naivety of following the plans (I’ll note those bolts just looked way too long when I installed them) and correcting even more needless BS, I then installed the aileron/U-joint/CS151/CS152 assembly into each wing, capped off by then mounting the wing root bearing with CS152 exiting into the wing root as it should.

I then set the CS132 weldments in place.  Tomorrow I plan on getting those, the CS129 control tubes and the remaining wing root aileron control tube components mounted.

I’ll further note that I checked the swing of the ailerons and for each wing the minimum I’m getting from aileron trailing edge to wing trailing edge is about 2.25 inches.

And with that, I closed up shop to have dinner and a well-deserved libation.

Now the prerequisite tasks are all focused on glassing the strake top skins.  Although that being said, I have some personal preferences in what I’m calling prerequisite tasks and the order in which they are completed.

The bottom line is that the wings need to be mounted in order to finalize the shape of the strakes and the interface between the outboard strakes and the wings.

Thus, I started out the first couple hours this morning getting organized and planning for the next steps in this build.  I want to have Chapter 19 – Wings completely closed out as I start on the final glassing of the strake tops.  While I glass the strake tops I’ll also start the process of attaching the winglets.

To finish out Chapter 19 I need to rig the aileron controls between the aileron and the wing root rib area.  I gathered up all my aileron control components and got them ready for install.

I then took the right wing outside and spent about 2 hours sanding down the top of the wing in prep for finishing.  I plan on doing the left wing top tomorrow.  Then the winglets probably the day after that.

After taking a break from the seemingly endless sanding on the right wing top, I then opened my package from Mountain High Oxygen: 3 foot length of blue oxygen tubing.

The routing was of course a bit more involved than anything should be, but after about half an hour I finally got the new Mountain High blue oxygen tubing ran from the left to the right strake, via the pilot’s seat back cap… ready to be connected up to the O₂ bottle’s regulator and the Y-splitter for the pilot and GIB cannulas.

I then spent another half hour swapping out the wires from the old GRT EIS-4000 engine management system D-Sub connector to a new one.

Again, the old one had a socket position that simply wasn’t securing one of the sockets in place.  So far I don’t see any issues with the new 25-socket D-Sub connector.  This task is done and off the list!

Again, tomorrow I plan on sanding the other wing top in prep for both mounting them to prep and shape the top strake skins, but also to add the winglets to and be ready to finish at any time.

I started off this morning checking the mode my fuel probe electronic control modules are running in… to do so you need to hold down the button and look at the 3-LED bank to ascertain what mode it’s in.  The 3 constantly lit LEDs tell me that these modules are operating in the 5S (set point) mode, which means it will be expecting me to program EMPTY, 1/4, HALF, 3/4 and FULL fuel level set points.

When I queried Nick Ugolini on which mode is best for my Grand Rapids EFIS/Engine Management system, he told me that 2S is the best for GRT.  The 2S mode is looking for basic EMPTY and FULL fuel level set points, and then the other fuel levels can simply be programmed in the GRT EFIS software.

To swap from the default 5S mode to 2S mode, the yellow data wire out of each fuel probe electronics module must be grounded before the sequence to switch the set point mode can begin.  And although my fuel probe electronics modules are just inside the GIB back seat access hole, they are wired up all the way to the GRT EIS-4000 25-pin D-Sub connector residing in the GIB headrest.

I pulled the cover off the headrest to reveal somewhat of a rat’s nest of wires, but found my 2 wires in a matter of seconds.  As an aside: I actually discovered that my current 25-pin D-Sub connector was unable to hold one of these data wire D-Sub sockets securely in place, and the entire connector will need to be swapped out.

With the data wires grounded, I proceeded to follow the steps to swap the fuel probe electronics module into the 2S mode.  This is denoted by the outboard LED lights constantly on, while the middle one flashes red.  I grabbed a few pics to get one showing the middle LED light “blinking” … step one complete: now in 2S mode!

I had gone to the airport earlier today to grab a gallon of 100LL.  The weather today was light rain which was perfect since the airport was very slow and I was able to get right in to get my AVGAS.  I then stopped by my local convenience store to pick up some Corona Lights to use as my requisite fuel container <wink>.

I pre-calibrated my fuel probes one side at a time by starting with just enough fuel in the bottle to have the tip of the probe just barely into the 100LL.  Note that I’m using a wooden disk to secure the probe so as not to have anything conductive touching the probe and potentially throwing off the reading.

The initial EMPTY fuel level set point takes about 16 seconds to process, whereas the FULL fuel level set point is finalized in just a couple of seconds.

With the fuel level set points programmed into the electronics modules, I then got busy physically wiring up the fuel probes.  I had pre-terminated the included ground ring terminals on lengths of wires to connect to the wires exiting out of the CS spar… in my rushing around to get the probes installed, I had mixed up these wire leads on the left and right probes, so just the wires coming off the probes are actually the color of the opposite side.  No big deal, especially since these will get buried in the foam and no one will know except you and me… shhhhh!

I had meant to switch the wires back to the correct side, but didn’t realize the wire color swap again until after I had cut this wire to length to splice and solder it in place.  Oh well… again, it will all get buried and works.

Here’s the left fuel probe ground wire spliced and soldered.

And the left data wire cut to length and soldered to the center sensor probe.  The left fuel probe here is ready to be floxed into the strake skin, as is the the right fuel probe in the second pic below.

Using somewhat dry flox, I placed it around the perimeter of each notch in the strake top foam… the goals here are to keep the flox from squeezing through the hole and clogging up the vent holes at the inside top of the probe, to seal the edge of the probe base plate to keep the later wet potting flox from seeping into the tank and thus potentially clogging those vent holes, and of course securing the fuel probe in place.

I kept the probes down in their respective notched holes with toothpicks and left them to cure for a few hours.

While the fuel probe flox was curing, I fired up the fuel site gage LED lights and turned off all the lights to see what they would look like in near total darkness.  Pretty cool… I love ’em!

I then wanted to see how they looked in more ambient lighting, so I flipped on a far light. Again, they look great.  I’ll note that in the original install instructions, Vance noted that the LED lights were red… thank God he decided to go with this color! Much better than red! (IMO)

Speaking of red LED lights, I then wired up the GIB map light and fired it up as well.  The default light color I have set when this comes on is red… of course to save night vision.

Here’s the GIB map light on its white setting.

Again, nearly 4 hours later I pulled the toothpicks, whipped up some wetter flox (all EZ Poxy on these fuel probes is with 87B hardener) and finalized the potting of the fuel probes in the strake skins.

I left a couple toothpicks in place to keep the wires down and secure, and thus the center probe nice and snug against the base of the fuel probe body.

I then left the freshly flox-installed fuel probes to cure overnight.

Today was a short build day in that pretty much all I got accomplished was the installation of the GIB map light.

I determined the final location of the GIB map light inside the right strake baggage compartment before drilling the first 2 of 3 holes from the inside.  With the GIB fresh air vent in the way I couldn’t drill the 3rd hole from the inside, so I set up the mounting base on the top of the strake skin and drilled it from the outside.

I created 2 threaded nubs to secure 2 of the 3 screws by cutting a #6 RivNut in half. Really these are just to snug up the base to the underside strake skin to allow the securing flox to cure.  Clearly they do add some securing strength, but it just made it easier to flox the darn thing in place by using these (after I sanded the underside strake skin at the mounting site, of course).

Of course I had to keep these threaded nubs from spinning while I threaded the screws in place, and for that job I used forceps.

Here we have the GIB map light installed in the right strake baggage area with flox.

I actually did do just a bit of touch-up painting with the gray granite paint to cover up some of the ugly dark brown/brick red EZ Poxy layups in the upper corners at the aft opening of the baggage compartment.

As I mentioned in my last post, here are pics of the internal strake baggage layups.  First, the aft right strake baggage area.

And here’s the aft left side.

I also temporarily mounted the aft left and right armrests.

I then grabbed a shot of each side forward baggage opening underside layups.  First the right side.

And then the right side.

With this, I called it an afternoon and headed to New Bern for dinner with my girl.

I started out today knocking out the most difficult layup left that faced me to finish out the interior strake BID tapes.  This BID tape is the last in the baggage area that seals the seams between the rib/bulkhead T-hats and the floxed-in-place upper strake skin.

Specifically, this is the right side layup between the top of the BL23 rib T-hat and the underside strake skin.

That being said, I did do a few more layups inside the strakes, although I didn’t get pictures of those.  I guess I really wasn’t in a picture taking mood today but I’ll grab some pics and detail those tomorrow.

I did get the base mount for the GIB map light figured out and constructed.

I simply used a 1-1/2″ hole saw to cut a disk out of 1/8″ thick phenolic.  The reason for this disk is that I need a spacer to allow for a channel for the wires to run through… which I cut in the disk with the Dremel tool.

I then drilled the 3x #6 mounting holes in the base.

Here we have the #6 screws securing the map light to the 1/8″ thick phenolic mounting base.

And another shot of the map light secured to its mounting base.

I had planned on floxing in and installing the GIB map light later this evening, but when I wetted out the prepregged ply of BID for the right longeron-bare fuselage side foam-strake skin layup at the GIB strake baggage opening, I had a brain fart and used half slow and half fast hardener.  This added hours to the cure time so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to install the GIB map light.

With some epoxy left over in the cup from this layup, I quickly prepregged about a 2″ x 2″ ply of BID and laid it up in the right front corner between the original fuselage sidewall
—just off the front seat face— and the underside of the top strake skin.  I then peel plied that layup.  This finalized all the internal strake BID tapes except the left side longeron-bare fuselage side foam-strake skin layup… which I’ll do after the final exterior top strake skin layups.