I started off today with a phone call from Sam Tilleman at Saber Manufacturing to discuss the modifications to my prop extension.  Since I found out from my engine builder, Tom Schweitz, that my engine mount bolts are 7/16″ vs the original 1/2″ bolts that they were identified as, I worked out the plan with Sam for him to drill those out as well.  Although a bit more money to have Sam modify the prop extension, again this actually worked out serendipitously in that having 3/8″ bolt holes drilled in between the 1/2″ bolt holes on the prop side of the extension, and 7/16″ bolt holes drilled in between the 1/2″ holes on the engine flange side, simply gives me a prop extension with 1/2″ lightening holes machined on each end.  Talking to Sam, this is pretty much the same configuration that Klaus Savier has on his airplane…. definitely not a bad model to emulate!

After getting the prop extension configuration settled with Sam, I then spent a few hours cleaning up the lightening holes by hand.  I also figured out where my #12 mounting holes for the Triparagon screws will be placed.  After figuring out the mounting screw locations I drilled the mounting holes and then countersunk the screw holes.

Here you can see the left side of the Triparagon with the cleaned up lightening holes.

You may have noted that there are a some visible gouges on the edge of a couple of the lightening holes.  This is directly attributable to the new style cordless drill batteries in that they twice the batteries seemed to have died while I was drilling and as I was removing the hole saw bit from the lightening holes, the drill surged again causing these edge gouging.  Obviously I’m not happy about these unsightly marks, but it doesn’t change the functionality of the Triparagon, it just slightly diminishes its appearance and thus knocks down my cool points tally a bit!

After cleaning up the Triparagon lightening holes I then worked for about 3 hours on redesigning my electrical system by removing the relay that controlled the circuit between the battery buss and E-buss as per the recommendation of Bob Nuckolls.  Technically, I repurposed that relay to be used as the heated pitot tube control relay with a net result of one less relay in the system.  I then updated the main electrical system diagram & the grounding buss matrix list.

My Triparagon that is… or at least I can say it’s getting much closer.

Today I did a fair amount of physical work on the Triparagon, but what’s not seen is the even more work I did in figuring out optimized electrical component locations, hardware requirements, etc.  I also took a quick trip down to the Aviation Dept. at our favorite Orange & Blue big box stores to pick up a few stainless steel screws, etc.

I started out on the Triparagon by positioning and then drilling the 4 mounting holes for the two AG6 Warning Annunciators that I’ll be using.  The pic below actually shows the Triparagon upside down.  I’ll be mounting the AG6 Annunciator boards back-to-back, one on each side of the Triparagon, with a long #6 screw attaching one side to the other at each corner of the AG6 board.  Also, although not shown here, immediately following my drilling of the marked mounting holes in pic below, I drilled a fairly large lightening hole in the Triparagon plate immediately underneath/between the two AG6 Annunciator boards.

As for the right side Triparagon, besides the AG6 Annunciator board I also mounted the Schottky Diode with its heat sink, and the X-Bus (just to the left of the Main buss in the pic below).  As you can see I also drilled 2 more large lightening holes just above the Safety Trim box.

Immediately after I cut the Triparagon to shape, I weighed the panel at 1.38 lbs.  After the 3 total lightening holes that I drilled out today, it’s weighing in at about 1.15 lbs.  My goal is to get the Triparagon’s vertical plate weight down to about 0.6 lbs, with a total weight at under 1 pound.

On the left side I added the twin AG6 warning annunciator, as well as the E-Bus that shares the two top bolts for mounting with the Main Buss on the right side.  In addition, I mounted the Flight Data Systems’ GD-40 Carbon Monoxide Detector.  I’d like to point out that although the CO detector may look a bit bulky in the pic, it’s actually very light and only weighs a few ounces.  Today actually marks a pretty cool milestone considering that all my busses are in place and ready to be wired up & installed with the Triparagon into the plane!

You may have noticed a couple of slots that I “machined” (Ha!  That translates to “Skil Saw”) along each side of the Main Bus, and thus on each side of the E-Bus.  These slots are nothing more than wire management slots that will allow me to secure the wires to the Triparagon with either zip ties or cable lace.  They are clearly in a very rough state, as is the entire Triparagon actually, and will be cleaned up later.

Obviously I’m trying to get the majority of electrical components mounted to the Triparagon, which then allows me to determine hardware, space, wiring, and connector requirements now so that I’ll have as much of it as possible on hand for when I hard mount the Triparagon into the front of the plane.  I’m thinking one more good day on this baby, then on to working on the wheel pants.  I should also point out that once the Triparagon meets my design & operational requirements, I’ll mount it into the fuselage directly behind the F22 center post with around 6 each K1000-3 nutplate assembly hardpoints.  The nutplate hardpoints will allow me to remove and install the Triparagon whenever I need to during the build, and of course after the build as well!

I spent a good majority of yesterday studying to get back into the groove for an Instrument flying lesson I had this morning.  Me and my new instructor flew south out of the SFRA, did a couple of holds off of Stafford before flying an approach and practice missed approach at Stafford.  If felt good to be back flying, even if it is training.  But enough about that . . .

Today I started off by shipping my 8″ prop extension back to Sam at Saber Manufacturing so he can drill the holes & insert the required 3/8″ bushings (in-between the 1/2″ holes I currently have) in order for me to mount the Silver Bullet prop.  Of course, originally, I had planned on going with a 3-bladed Catto prop which required 1/2″ prop bolts as per Craig Catto.  In addition, Sam will swap out my 1/2″ prop bolts for 3/8″ ones and swap out the crush plate with one that has 3/8″ holes.  It’s never-ending on these adjustments, eh?!  One change is never without its 2nd, 3rd and 4th order affects!

I then finalized the dimensions of my cardboard Triparagon template and then traced it out onto my 0.090″ thick sheet of 6061T6 Aluminum (the same sheet that I used for my gear heat shields).  I didn’t get the Triparagon cut out tonight, but will do so within the next day or two.

What I did get cut tonight was the 1/2″ x 1/2″ square 6061T6 Aluminum tube that I’m using in lieu of the plan’s GIB upper seatbelt mounts.  This tube will allow the upper seatbelt straps –with the webbing merely wrapped around it– to slide inboard and outboard to allow the GIB to have a much better variance in adjusting the upper seatbelt straps to their comfort.

I started the process of drilling the holes for the seatbelt tube by marking the extrusions on each side with lines that extended beyond the sides and edges of the square tube.

I then carried those lines back onto the top of each end of the tube to mark the center point for drilling on each side.  I finalized trimming 3/8″ x 3/8″ square 2024T3 inserts, each about 1.25″ long, that slide into place on each end of the tube with the outside face of the inserts close to flush on the each side.

I started with a small drill bit about 1/16″ thick and then stepped my way up until I had a 1/4″ hole drilled down through the seatbelt crosstube ends into the extrusions and then through the Spruce hardpoints embedded in the CS spar, respectively of course.

Here’s a closer shot showing the forward bolt hole on the right extrusion very close to the same spot as my original mark.  Up on the longeron is the end of the GIB seatbelt cross tube with the 1/4″ bolt hole drilled through it as well.  In this pic you can see the 2024 insert in place (very snugly) in the end of the tube.  I’ll remove the inserts and Alodine them before re-inserting them before the final mounting of the seatbelt cross tube.

With the GIB seatbelt cross bar mod and the fact that my longerons are wider in the back than stock, it took me a good 20 minutes to figure out the best length of AN4 bolts to use in all but the aft horizontal bolt position on the extrusions (which is the stock plans size bolt obviously).

Here’s another shot of the bolts that will get mounted into the upper right engine mount extrusion, right longeron, and CS spar hardpoint.

Here’s a shot of the all the upper extrusion mounting hardware.  As you can see, I also put the firewall back in place.

I then did a quick check to see how my GIB headrest / component shroud fit & looked (maybe I’ll start calling it something a bit catchier like, “the vault” or something).

It fit fairly well.  Of course some minor tweaking will be in order, but so far I’m happy with the configuration back here with the D-Deck and all.

Tomorrow I’ll continue to work getting the extrusion mounting bolts installed.  First, I’ll prep the holes in the wood using epoxy with a little bit of alcohol added to it as per the latest CSA newsletter (Oct 16).  I’ll also work on the GIB seatbelt upper strap bar and try to get the Triparagon cut out and maybe work on that a bit.  As soon as I get the bolts installed and the seatbelt cross tube finished, I’ll then finally start back on the wheel pants before rolling into the nose and canopy builds.

Today was another light build day since I went to a Fall Fun Festival with some friends.  I did get a bit done, starting off with some of what I worked a little bit on yesterday, then finished up quite a bit today: my “Triparagon”.  Or, basically the big motherboard for the vast majority of all my electrical system components: busses, grounding blocks, etc.

Since I now know exactly how my canard controls fit into the forward fuselage/nose, I was able to tweak the size & dimensions of the vertical Triparagon plate.  I recut another fresh, updated cardboard mockup and then set about figuring out the placement of my electrical components.  I’m extremely pleased with the fact that I’ll easily fit virtually my ENTIRE electrical system on this one plate.  And the only reason I say “virtually” is due to any future potentiality that I may have a component that doesn’t fit on the Triparagon, but currently EVERY piece of the electrical system fits on it!

I then spent a good half hour between removing the peel ply off the firewall front face 1-ply BID layup and then razor trimming the edges.  The firewall looks good and is very close to getting  mounted.  I do have to do some minor sanding along the edges and a couple places on the front face, and quite a bit on the aft side since I didn’t peel ply it for some odd reason (that was back in 2011, so my memory is foggy on why I didn’t peel ply it! . . . )

I then spent another good 45 minutes looking at the configuration of stuff on my D-Deck area.  The 1/2″ square 6061T6 bar that you see will traverse across the fop front side of the CS spar, attached at the front corners of the top engine mount extrusions.  Yes, this is a modification of the GIB seatbelt mounts and is NOT per plans.  This bar will be mounted with the AN4 1/4″ extrusion bolt on each end (with 2024 inserts inside each of the bar for strength) and also have center mount countersunk screws to keep it secure.  That will allow the GIB to simply slide the upper seat belt shoulder straps inboard or outboard for comfort.  I weighed all these components, and this modification is within an ounce (probably less) weight-wise as the plans configuration.

The black GIB headrest and components shroud cardboard mockup (that I made in Germany) is a modification I’m doing ala Wayne Blackler (see second below).  I like this configuration INFINITELY better than the plans shroud that has the GIB with their essentially in coffin or something…. Blech!  With my GIB upper seatbelt bar mod I did have to trim the depth by about 3/4″, but it still looks as if everything I had planned to get mounted inside the headrest will still fit comfortably.

Wayne’s GIB headrest and component housing:

The next couple of days I have an out of town visitor coming in, so between football, cooking out, visiting, beer drinking, etc. not a whole lot of work will get done.  Plus, I’ll be prepping to get back into my flying lessons which start this Wednesday.  Of course I’ll still be working on the build, but it will be significantly less with all the flying I’ll be doing!

I started off today with something I was curious about, and that had nothing to do with the engine mount.  I really just wanted to see where a good location was for the fuel pump, and in relation to the fuel valve.  I played around with a few different locations, stopped at this one since I really like that the pump can be mounted vertically here, thus driving as much of the pump weight forward as practically possible.   It also gives some nice space to the fuel valve.

I then moved on to measuring the top engine mount posts to take 0.32″ off the end of each side.

Here is one of the posts after I trimmed it 0.32″.

I then started marking up the firewall to cut the slots so each engine mount extrusion could transit the firewall.

Here’s a shot with both upper and lower engine mount extrusion slots shown marked for cutting.

I started each extrusion slot by drilling a few 1/8″ holes for the top extrusion slots and 3/16″ holes for the bottom extrusion pass-through slots.  I then transitioned to using a saber saw to finish cutting the holes.

After finishing each hole with the saber saw, I then sanded down the pass throughs with 32 grit paper.

Here’s a shot of the firewall mounted with all the engine mount extrusions pass-through slots cut.

I then set the engine mount extrusions in place to see how they looked & fit.

Here’s a closer shot of the engine mount extrusions.

I then tested out my trimmed engine mount by clamping it in place on the upper engine mount extrusions.

Again, here’s a closeup shot of the upper right extrusion.

Ahh, trimming the top engine mount posts did the trick.  Now I can dial in the upper engine mount rings to FS 134.2 as per plans.

I then pulled the firewall off and mocked up just the upper engine mount extrusions before I glassed them in place.

After verifying that the extrusion spacing was good, I then went to town sanding the areas that will get glass during the mounting of the engine mount extrusions.

I then vacuumed up all the sanding dust.

I have to say that this is quite a detailed layup.  The time lapse between the pic above and below is over 4 hours.  Regardless, here are a couple of shots with the upper engine mounts glassed & floxed into place.

And a shot from the aft side , , ,

I then verified that the left side extrusion’s firewall alignment mark was good, which it wasn’t.  So I spent a few minutes tweaking both side, then once I got them straight, I snapped this shot.  The line at the top equates to the forward side of the firewall, while the bottom line equates to the aft side of the firewall…  Thuss why I paid so much attention to getting these marks aligned properly.

Here’s the right side extrusion firewall alignment mark.  Due to the angle of the camera, the extrusion and the spar, it looks a bit off.

But if you look at it from this angle, it’s spot on.

Wth my upper ending mounts aligned properly, I then wanted to better align the bottom engine mount rings.  You’ll note in the pic of the plans below, the upper engine mount ring ends at FS 134.2, while the bottom engine mount ring ends at FS 134.45… 1/4″ aft of the upper engine mount ring.

I used my level and a 1/4″ block of aluminum to check the lower engine mount rings for the proper fuselage station.  They were just a bit aft on the bottom side, but a slight push forward got them to the proper fuselage station.

I strapped the bottom of the engine mount to the center of the landing gear to create just a slight bit of pressure, which got the lower engine mount rings to the correct fuselage station.  Since the epoxy will still a bit pliable and not cured yet (I used slow hardener for this layup), this should set up the correct fuselage stations for the top & bottom of the engine mount.  At a minimum, it will get the engine mount rings very close to the required FS settings so as to minimize stress when the mount gets bolted into place.

Here’s a shot of the aft end of the fuselage with the engine mount being used to ensure the upper engine mount extrusions are set in their correct positions.

Tomorrow I’ll clean up this layup and then continue to press on to get the engine mount ready for install.  I’m not sure if I’ll tackle the lower extrusions yet since I’ll have to assess the pros & cons of flipping the fuselage or using Cab-O-Sil and simply working the layups upside down.

Today I spent the first half of the day getting a safety inspection done on my motorcycle. Just as they were finishing up the inspection it started to drizzle, which then turned into a fairly steady light rain for most of the day.  Which of course meant not getting the garage organized since most of the stuff has to come out so that I move & reorg the stuff inside.  Oh, well.

So, after the inspection was complete I did a fair amount of research on the heating system.  That rolled into updating a few wiring diagrams to reflect the updated electrical requirements, which included: the removal of the GIB Infinity control stick, resulting in the need to update the switch diagram, and of course updating the newly created Heating System diagram (these 3 are shown below).

I then went down to the shop and finally cut the 1″ x 1″ Chromoly steel engine mount square tube extrusion into 2 “L”-shaped angled pieces. I know some may question exactly why I’m throwing in only one mount of 4130 steel.  Well, I was actually going to install 2 4130 steel mounts catty-corner from each other, but when the bottom mounts required the use of 3/16″ angled extrusions, I simply decided that between the weight and cost of buying more/thicker 4130 steel, I would punt and simply put only the one top side in.  Yes, I considered both top engine mount extrusions being 4130, but now with my engine weighing in heavier, I’m going to employ a little Operational Risk Management here and just go with the one side to keep the weight down, and to keep from having to buy more metal!  A little odd?  Perhaps.  But I’m going to be a little eccentric and go with this!

By the way, after I got it all cut, I matched it up to the engine mount and it was a good match!

Ok, perhaps tomorrow I’ll actually get around to reorganizing the shop in order to be able to move around and build in it!