My main push at the moment is getting the GIB headrest engine components, backup SD-8 alternator, GRT Engine Info System, etc. physically installed and wired up.  Much easier in concept than actual practice… covered a bit below.

First off was one of those minor tasks that I’ve literally had on my to do list for months now.  It took me months to keep remaking updated versions of it in CAD, then 3D printing those…  It’s an ABS plastic safety catch to ensure I don’t inadvertently engage the nose hatch handle in flight and pop that sucker open.

You can see the operation is quite simple: just a U-shaped arm that falls down over the T-handle, physically blocking it from being pulled.  To keep the arm in place is a velcro strap that wraps around both the catch arm and the handle body.

Since it’s ABS plastic, the lettering isn’t the cleanest, but it is functional and VERY lightweight.  I attached it to the large cable securing nut with a slathering of silicone RTV.  So far it’s on securely and works a treat.  Safety task complete!

Then there’s this beast!  The proverbial exercise in herding cats.  Since my shop computer is currently inop, I take a good number of trips into the house to check out my historical records (AKA my website) to figure out how I stuffed all this stuff in there previously… I’ve also had to buy a good bit of hardware as I of course can’t find the original stuff.

But I’m making good progress, albeit slow.  I took a good 45 minutes to test all the sockets in both the P9 and P10 connectors on the firewall, all the way to the opposite ends of these wire connections, many of which were behind the panel or in the nose.

Here below we have probably the 4th time I removed the SD-8 backup alternator components to gain access to the wiring.  It was definitely a slow iterative process to run all the wires and keep them out of the way of other components.

I had to run an 18 AWG ground wire to the hell hole and in the process of removing the wire covering in the CS spar, I inadvertently snipped a yellow fuel tank probe wire, which took 45 minutes and unimaginable physical positions to resplice together in situ inside the CS spar.  Then another crazy half hour just to get ONE 18AWG wire run from headrest to hell hole.  I seriously believe my wire capacity is tapped out!  No more. [Luckily I ran multiple extra/unused wires up to the nose!]

Besides a power and ground wire coming into the headrest for the firewall mounted electroair EIS coils, I also had a quite a robust 4-wire cable that needed to be spliced together between the electroair controller and the coils.  Here I’ve cut off a good amount and then opened the cable on the controller side (pic 1) and then cut and spliced the wires together with butt splice connectors, except the bare wire which I solder spliced (pic 2).

I also collected up all the stashes of wire labels I could find and then entered them into a spreadsheet to get organized for all this final wiring I’ll be doing on the plane.  I’ve also researched some circuits that I’ll get into when I construct them, and ordered cables, switches, relays, resistors, etc. for all the final wiring push.

Gettin’ er done!

With the major painting on the bird complete, I got to work inside the hell hole to finish off the final oil heat hoses and fuel line connections.

I also tightened up the bushing securing the mixture cable into the firewall.

When I originally ran the oil heat feed hose I had not yet installed the mixture cable, which of course crosses —and touches— the oil heat feed hose.  To ensure no issues with vibration between the two, I wrapped a piece of engine baffle seal material around the oil hose, secured it with zip ties, and then used waxed cord to secure it to the mixture cable.

I then spent a little bit reacquainting myself with the automatic gear extension (AEX) LIDAR (laser altimeter) before installing it to its forward mounting tab inside the hell hole.

I then secured all its wiring to ensure nothing was vibrating or flopping freely around.

I ordered some filter material for both the front (pilot) and aft (GIB) fresh air vents to prevent any bugs, etc. from unexpectedly entering the cockpit.  Since I’ll be flying for most likely 2-3 months before I have a passenger in the back seat I’m waiting to install that filter.

I cut and installed it into the front fresh air vent (pic 1) and then re-installed the fresh air eyeball vent (pic 2).

I then got to work on the left wing’s video camera mounting holes on the outboard end.  The aft hole cleaned up fine and I installed a screw to test it out.

But the front hole needed to be tapped to clean it out.

Here is the just-tapped front video camera mounting hole on the left wing.

At which point I test-installed a screw into it to check it out… here’s a couple pics of that.

It was getting late, but I was curious to find a StarLink antenna location, if possible.

Both strake baggage compartments are a no-go, since I have carbon fiber inlaid on the top side of the left strake, and an O2 bottle in the right strake.

I tried putting the 3D printed antenna mockup into the nose substructure opening but quickly found out that in order to install or remove it that I would have to remove at least a couple instruments every time, which negates the entire purpose of that opening.

I then placed the antenna in the nose, just forward of the canard.  After a bit of finagling and assessing, I determined that this was the spot.  I can get it installed and removed with just a bit of minor fiddling, and it has good satellite exposure… so this is the place it will be going.

And with that, I called it a night.

Yes, although I still have minor bits and pieces that will still need paint, with the major parts of the airplane painted I’m calling the paint complete!

First off, we have the bottom cowling in tri-color just as the top cowling, with the white strips on the outside successful painted… finishing off the 3 colors.

Another reason I’m calling the paint complete is that I cleaned up the top of the right canard, which had 2 very visible divots and decent blemish in the paint (if looking with the light reflecting correctly… I couldn’t grab a pic of it though) towards the inboard side, and a row of minor depressions about 3″ aft of the leading edge in the middle and outboard of the canard.

Since these weren’t just aesthetic issues, but rather on a flying surface where airflow is much more critical, I felt that I needed to fix it all before first flight.

So I covered up the middle area and left side of the canard, grabbed my cheap black paint and applied a guide coat.  Even then, I’m a bit surprised you can’t see these blemishes in the guide coat.

But clearly you can after I block sanded the top right canard with 180 grit wet sandpaper.  The round spot towards middle around a third way down from the root and the splotch closer to the leading edge were the 2 primary culprits.  You can also see a decent dip in elevation right at the root.

I then wet sanded the canard top with 240 grit (pic 1) and 320 grit (pic 2).

I’ll note that although there is a decent depression at the root, the majority of it resides inside the aft nose cover, as I’ve estimated with my finger.

It’s common sense, but I’ll nonetheless point out that by merely sanding the majority of the paint layers away the blemishes greatly diminish as well.  My decision was one of using a filler on the blemishes or simply a few coats of hi-build 2K primer.

After sanding to this point, I decided that a few coats of hi-build primer should do the trick.  And of course I wanted to be able to see the blemishes to focus my efforts on them, but also remove as much of the cheap black paint as possible.  So that was my next task.

I then shot a few rounds of hi-build 2K primer in the blemishes and a good 4-5 coats on the inboard canard root to fill that significant dip.  The 2K primer needs 4-6 hours to cure before sanding, unless you force cure it with heat.  Thus the heat lamps under the canard, which knocked the cure time down to 2.5 hours.

It was in the mid-60s when I shot the seal coat on the right canard top, but the temp was falling fast as evening set in.  We are supposed to have a good amount of rain this coming week, so I wanted/needed to get this done today.

By the time I shot the second and last coat of white paint, the temps were in the 50’s, so I employed the heat lamps again for about 45 minutes before moving the canard into the shop.

As you can see (or probably not actually! ha), the paint turned out pretty darn good and the divots are all gone.

I then turned my sights on repairing my GRT Hall Effect amp sensor for both the primary alternator and back-up alternator leads.  I added wet flox to the sensor before inserting it into the gap of the green “donut,” and then dabbed a little bit more flox on the outside and sensor junction with the “donut.”

I grabbed this shot to show the alternator B-lead (bottom red connector), the battery ground cable (lower left yellow cable) with the internal hell hole ground buss (“Forest-of-tabs” left side).   You can also see the big yellow starter cable and smaller diameter alternator F-lead passing through the firewall just behind and below the Hall Effect “donut.”  Finally, the blue split aluminum nut center right is securing the throttle cable exiting aft out of the firewall.

I also finally secured all the major power cables in an Adel clamp I placed years ago, with the task just now getting completed!

Clearly still a myriad more tasks to do, but slowly nugging ’em out.  Rock on!

I started off today by pulling up the taped up black stripes and unpainted outboard strips to reveal the just-painted blue cowling along with the black stripes.

I then taped along the outboard edge of the black stripes inward to cover all the blue and black paint.  I then shot the outboard strips with a couple coats of white paint.

In addition, I had done a final sanding with 320 grit on the elevator weights’ anti-ice shields, cleaned them and shot them with white paint as well.

If the weather holds for at least one more day I plan on sanding down, filling divots, and repainting the top right canard to get it up to final flight standards.

Pressing forward!

Today I pulled all the protective tape, plastic and paper off the bottom cowl to reveal the black stripes.  I had some issues when I shot the sealer (which is exactly why I use it… it’s thin and highlights problem areas before final paint) which I mostly corrected before the paint coats, so I needed to be a bit more diligent in prepping the middle section for blue paint.

I first taped off the black stripes and outboard strips that will eventually be white.

I then shot a good bit of the bottom cowling middle area spots with hi-build 2K primer.  Some problem areas got 4 coats to ensure a smooth fill and transition after sanding.

Which I did next.

I let the 2K primer cure for its minimum 4 hours before DRY sanding it with 320 and 400 grit sandpaper.  This took a good majority of the 2K primer off the bottom cowl (sorry, no pics) with a lot of bare carbon fiber and micro showing through.

After a thorough cleaning/degreasing and another 30 minute minimum dry time for that, I shot a good coat of sealer on it to not only seal the unprimered spots, but also to check for any irregularities that would need to be attended to… thankfully there were none.

I then shot the middle area of the bottom cowling with the blue.

I’ll note that getting into the slotted gaps both inboard and above the air intakes, as well as inside them —with the air pressure and fluid volume turned way down and the spray patterned narrowed— still resulted in a bit too much paint… which interestingly caused a run on the AFT outside of the left air intake.  No biggie as most ALL the painted bits on this bird will get buffed out.

Other than that run, and mixing up a bit too much of this expensive paint in fears of running out mid-job, it turned out nicely.

More to follow… hoo-ah!

Yesterday I used the Icing to fill some divots and major scratches on the bottom cowling.  I then sanded those down and hit them with white primer, and then sanded that.

Today, to get the black accent stripes matching on the front side with the strake bottoms’ black stripes and with the aft top cowling black stripes, I mounted the bottom cowling onto the bird.

Then, for the first time since it’s been painted, I mounted the top cowling to again line up the black stripes with the bottom cowling.

I have to say, my color scheme is coming along as well, or better, than I expected! I’m very happy with it.

Here we have the aft side of the bird with the top cowling in place.

And a couple more side shots.

I then spent well over 2 hours getting the bottom cowling black accent stripes aligned, spaced, and flowing the way I wanted them… and taped up with fine line tape.

I then finished taping off both the center (with plastic) and the outboard stripes (with paper) to allow painting the black accent stripes.

Which I did next.  Here’s both the left (pic 1) and right (pic 2) bottom cowling black accent stripes painted.

If the weather holds tomorrow I plan on shooting the main center section of the bottom cowling blue.

Pressing forward!

Starting off, here we have the painted left wing with all the protective tape removed from the winglet, wing root, etc.  Also, note the Thermo-Tec heat shield applied inside the wing root.

Today was quite the busy day on the firewall and inside the hellhole.

I started by touching up the black paint on the aileron control rods, then permanently installed them onto the CS124 bracket.  In turn, I then installed the CS124 bracket into the firewall-attached bearing sleeve before bolting it to the internal control tube (inside hell hole) with an AN3 bolt as per plans.

With the aileron control system in place, I then installed the “Forest-of-Tabs” ground block inside the hell hole.  On the bottom of the this ground tab block is a 5/16″ brass thru-bolt that is the connecting post on the firewall for the engine grounding strap.

Additionally, in the stainless steel firewall pass-thru for the starter cable and alternator F-lead, I cut a a length of Nyla-flo to serve as a protective sleeve for the F-Lead.  You can see that the alternator cable has a black heat shrink anti-chafing sleeve around it.  Once the cables were protected from any chafing, I then filled up the gaps around the cable/wire inside the stainless steel pass-thru with gray hi-temp RTV.

I then slid a piece of orange fire sleeve over the stainless steel pass-thru extending out from the firewall, after I slathered up the inside with gray RTV.  I then added a Tefzel hi-temp zip tie (not in pic) to secure it even more.

I also connected the alternator B-lead inside the hell hole to the Blue Sea (red block) pass-thru.  While up inside the hell hole I snagged the leads to the GRT CS-01 Hall Effect amp sensor and pulled the sensor out of the donut.  It looks easily enough to repair, but I’ll have to check with GRT before proceeding.

Well, the weather actually held yesterday, and I got the left wing painted.  I waited until today to post it because I wanted to see if my hack worked to keep dew from forming on the wing top.

And it did.

My hack?  Pretty simple actually.  I just placed my 3 heat lamps under the wing to keep the surface temp above the dew point.  As you can see, it worked…

No dew on the left wing top and it stayed nice and shiny… (Although all the painted parts will get buffed out —planning/working on that task currently).

Clearly this is the last of the major big parts of the plane that needed painting, although the bottom cowling is next up on the docket and it’s got some decent surface area.

After I grabbed these shots of the wing, I took it off the 2×8 mount, placed it on the wing dolly and moved it into the shop.

Now, when I painted the right wing I also painted the outboard sides of the rudders.  In the last couple of days I painted the inboard sides of the rudders as well.  Unfortunately the inboard right rudder surface had visible pockmarks after the second coat.  I let it cure, sanded it and reshot the white paint this afternoon.  Although I didn’t grab a pic of it, it turned out much better than before and very acceptable.

Moving forward . . .

The temperature high for today was fine for painting the left wing, but the overnight low was just not acceptable for leaving the wing on its mount overnight.  I don’t want a repeat of the right wing dew shenanigans.

So I did some cleanup tasks on the right wing.

I started by first removing the protective Saran wrap plastic filling the insides of the outboard video camera mounts.  I then taped up the holes and gently drilled them out to accept a 10-32 screw.

Here they are after cleaned out and prepped for use (note the tape on the edge of the leading edge light opening… I had a few white paint touchups I had to do from the tape pulling small bits of paint off).

Near the strake junction on the top right wing I did the same thing for the top two baggage pod mounting holes.  The inboard hole however had some gunk (epoxy?) in it and I had to employ a 10-32 tap to clean it out.

A somewhat blurry pic showing the top baggage pod mounting holes cleaned out and ready for use.

Since I’m not painting until tomorrow, I then did something that some may call controversial.  Ever since I discovered this concept I have really wanted the capability to mount a 360 camera on a pole that will take pics/video in flight that looks like the plane has its own linked drone flying just out in front with nothing showing (it removes the pole in the picture/video editing) but air.

I’ve pondered this for a good while, and made chicken scratching sketches on how I’d do it, but I set that aside for the future since I wanted to get this bird in the air ASAP.  But with a known day and a half weather delay before painting, I decided what the hell… let’s dive in and get it done.

Below is actually from late afternoon yesterday, when I positioned a 1/2″ pole aligned with the aircraft centerline at about 1-2° nose down (since the plane flies 2° nose up).  I then drilled the 6 each 3/8″ holes for the aluminum threaded inserts I made on the lathe late last year (yes, specifically for this mod).  The bottom 3 are all into the lower winglet.  The middle and aft on the underside are actually into the winglet intersection fairing.

The “controversial” part of this mod one could argue is the front underside hard point: it is mounted into the actually wing, along the same line as the hole many builders drill into the wing for a tiedown bolt.  Obviously being more outboard, my hole is into the UNI and BID layups that secure the winglet onto the wing… note that I drilled the hole more inboard so that nearly 2″ of layups are attached to the bottom wing before the insert hole.

My final decision to do this is based on an entry in the plans where it states that we are not to add more plies to the layups since the “winglet joint can withstand 90-degress sideslip flight at 170 mph – considerably over normal requirements.”  Thus, I figured stealing 3/8″ out of the strands, while still leaving a nearly 2″ overlap onto the bottom wing undisturbed —especially since I don’t plan on doing aerobatics in this bird— was wholly acceptable and not causing any safety issues… IMO.

I had removed the screws and popped off the taped wide area washers late last night in hopes it would allow me to scrape off any excess flox if still in the “green” (gummy) stage.  It was not.

So today I took the Dremel tool with a cutoff disc and carefully removed all the excess flox.  I had a couple of the aluminum inserts protruding out a hair, so I shaved those down as well.

I then slathered up the area around each insert with some Icing filling, and after it cured sanded it all down.

I then hit the area with higher quality rattle can white primer, which I’ll wet sand after cure along with the bottom of the wing.  Also, before final paint this area will get a coat of sealer.

Back on the right wing, I grabbed this shot to again show the dull interior paint on the wing top from dew, as compared to the shiny leading edge.

In the early evening I wet sanded the bottom of the left wing in prep for painting it.  Again, if the weather holds tomorrow, I will be painting the left wing white.

Rock ‘n roll!

Today was all about getting the left wing prepped for paint.

I started off by taping up the blue and black accents on the winglet.

And then a final check for any divots using black paint as a guide coat.  I have to say this is a requirement for me since even though I’ve used the “poor man’s guide coat” using a pencil, somehow a few divots had weaseled their way through to final paint… the right top side of my canard is a perfect example as it has a couple small divots that I need to remedy.

Thus, WWII Luftwaffe camouflage looking paint it is on the top of the left wing….

I then wet sanded the top of the wing, with a couple of divots that needed Icing fill and sanding.  One of those divots being the delam repair I made on the inboard top near the BL 55.5 edge.

I then mounted the wing to my temporary 2×8 wing painting beam, facing the other way than the right wing of course.  And since the wings angle aft from what would be the CS spar, I spent a good little bit slowly pivoting the canopy cover over so that the wing would be in the center of it.

At this point the wing is ready to paint, but I may need to hold off a day or two for the weather to cooperate.

Pressing forward.