June 2011 – Bulkheads

11 June 2011 – After another few discussions with some experienced Canardians familiar with the old glory days of the Cafe Races, I decided on another modification.  Now I’m sure this  may very well elicit some groans and ha-rumphs, and maybe even a few mutterings of how crazy I am, to put it politely, but I decided I was going pulley-less and running my rudder cables from Point-A (the rudder pedals) through a curved conduit that traverses through the centersection spar, makes a semi-shallow bend and heads to Point B (the rudders).  No fiberglass strands will be hurt in the making of this modification, just merely slightly separated at the holes in the foam so that glass strength and integrity is still in tact on the centersection spar.  So, no pulleys means that I don’t require the pulley brackets, and thus no “ears” on the firewall.

Modified Firewall

Once I finished cutting the ears off the firewall, I could get to glassing it (and laying up CF on the instrument panel).

Glassing Firewall & Instrument Panel

•••

12 June 2011 — Ok, obviously by just that fact that I’m building an “experimental” airplane I like to experiment, at least a bit.  I thought quite a lot on how I wanted my instrument panel to look.  I wasn’t sure exactly, but I figured I would make the top layer Carbon Fiber on the front face of the panel to A) Add stiffness and B) Add coolness.  I ordered some CF in my last Aircraft Spruce order and after it came in, I assessed it one last time and decided to pull the trigger!

Carbon Fiber Instrument Panel

 

Recent Posts

Project Update

Hi Folks,

I’m happy to report that I’m nearing the end of the final exhaust pipe configuration and installation.  I have one major weld remaining on the left outboard (cylinder 3) exhaust pipe and then I’ll roll into trimming them to length.  I’ll caveat the exhaust pipe effort with the fact that I may need some welding on the ends of these pipes to get them pointed in the right direction, but I’m of course hoping not.

I’ll note again that I’ve knocked out the EGT probes install and assessing final clearances on those.

The convergence of a few intertwined components I spoke of before is slowly coming to fruition, which will set me up to be nearly done with the entire engine install, sans the firewall (at this time).  As the exhaust pipes saga nears its end, I have started glassing up the CF engine inner baffles.  With these completed and installed, I can then finalize the aft lower side of the engine baffle install.  That will, in turn, allow me to identify where the bottom cowl cross rib baffle/stiffener needs to get glassed into place (got all that?! ha).

I’m still intent to focus solely on the plane for the next however long it takes to finish this bird… ASAP!  

  1. Chapter 23 – Cylinders 2 & 3 end baffles Leave a reply
  2. Chapter 23 – Inner baffles Round 3 Leave a reply
  3. Chapter 23 – Inner baffles Round 2 Leave a reply
  4. Chapter 23 – Final cowl clearance Leave a reply
  5. Chapter 23 – Inner Baffle Forms Leave a reply
  6. Chapter 23 – Right cowl wrap-up Leave a reply
  7. Chapter 23 – Final on clearance bump Leave a reply
  8. Chapter 23 – Right cowl “update” Leave a reply
  9. Chapter 19/22/23 – Right pipe jam Leave a reply