Hey Guys,

Buff-out update: The right wing, canopy, top cowling and aft nose/avionics cover are all at Phil’s shop for buffing out over the next week to 10 days (or whenever… we appear to be having unscheduled delays).

The right vortilons are painted and installed on the wing, while the left vortilons are painted (minor touchups required) and ready for install on the wings.  The next time I get to Phil’s shop I’ll be putting the N-number on the right wing.

The Trailing Edge Fences are pretty much constructed, but the right ones have some slight fitting issues (primarily the middle fence) so I will hold off for a few months before those get installed.  

As I get time, I’ll work the instrument panel and electronics install on the fuselage, before doing the final engine configuration.

Still pressing forward… getting exponentially closer to finish every day now!

After my last full night of work (my last blog post) I finally caught the flu bug that both my wife and stepson battled through.  I thought I had dodged a bullet, but it hit me like a freight train that night, and throughout most of the next day and night (yesterday).  I slept a ton, feel much better now and am back at it.

I’m guessing there will be a lot more of these somewhat disparate reportings in the next week or so until I finally get to the point of primarily focusing on final electronics/ avionics, fuel system final checks/flushing and engine install/first start prep.  I guess final flight control rigging will be in that mix as well . . . yes, still a good bit to do (sigh).

First off, my last blog post was incomplete, as I failed to report the gooping up (with Permatex #2) of threads and final install of the strake fuel tanks drains.  Here those are:

Today I started out by removing the peel ply and cleaning up the left wing outboard trailing edge fence.  I then marked it for trim, and after removing all the tape from the wing, set it back in place.

I’ll note that I had a few layup/micro tasks on my to-do list, but after my shop heater ran out of my final on-hand kerosene supply, I had to dump any tasks that required a warmer environment as the shop temp was low-to-mid 50s.

I did get the GIB lower seatbelts installed using the hardware ID’d in the plans.

I also took a surprisingly longer amount of time than expected to get the GIB right sidewall kickplate installed, as it was being finicky going in (some slight sanding required for final install).

On the left side it took me longer to find the correct hardware than it did the few minutes to install the GIB throttle quadrant and throttle/mixture cable protective cover.  Task complete.

Still in the GIB realm, I quickly mounted the D-deck front cover, then taped the GIB headrest pad to that to ensure my mounting location for the pad to cover is good. Note the dark blue tape at the bottom which was my original guess of where the bottom of the headrest pad had to be at or above to clear that seatbelt upper strap crossbar (which I did in the house, confirmed in the shop).

I also installed both the front and aft bottom canopy hinges.

A couple comments on the canopy aft bottom hinge:

First, I applied the FAA mandatory passenger warning in pretty much the same spot that Mike Beasley did his on the canopy’s aft lower hinge plate, although I liked his sticker better but couldn’t find it (silver letters with black background).

Second, I’ll note that I used my cordless hammer drill to drive the hinge screws while I secured the nuts with a wrench on the bottom side of the longeron.  I had one screw that had jacked up threads, which caused my drill to jump and take a good ding out of the longeron paint —I of course had everything protected but this minor edge… go figure!  No big deal… just add it to the paint touch-up list (queue another dramatic sigh).

I then got to work on installing the canopy latch rod and hooks down the left longeron.  Besides pushing my 2100 rendezvous to have dinner with my wife, I also came to horrific realization (at first determination) that I have burned through nearly my entire stock of MS21042-3 aircraft grade nuts.  How?!  Who knows.  I guess I needed way more than I expected to finalize all the installs on this bird.

. . . or more likely there is a full bag of them hiding somewhere in my shop.  Regardless, I got the GIB side of the canopy rods & hooks to final install.

And since I couldn’t finish off the forward side canopy rod & hooks, in an act of sheer and utter defiance, I installed the fire extinguisher… with its requisite bracket of course (take that!! whoever!!!)

Ok . . . still nugging it all out.  One step at a time.

Yes, the strakes are finally finished.  In that the fuel caps are now installed… more on that below.

Another milestone is that the vortilons are installed on the right wing.  Here are the marked up tape lines at the vortilon intervals along the leading edge.

I wanted to use white RTV but couldn’t find any anywhere.  Steve Beert recommends a product that is over $20 a tube, which seemed a bit of an overkill.  I had some marine 5200 adhesive that I was going to use, but as I read the instructions last night I noted that the cure time is 7 days.  Not good.

So I found this stuff at Lowe’s and made a command decision as it seemed to be the best they had to offer.

I then attached the vortilons to the wing.

Here’s another shot of the vortilons mounted onto the right wing leading edge.

After getting back to my shop, I pulled the peel ply on the left outboard trailing edge fence, but in doing so I snapped the bottom side of the fence off.  I micro’d it in place and set it front of a heater to cure before I laid up the bottom ply of carbon fiber.

After hauling the fuselage to Phil’s shop and then bringing it back to my shop, putting it into the grazing position and bouncing it down the road on the trailer apparently caused all the small debris and dust —from cutting out the gas cap openings— to settle at the lowest point in the tanks: the drains.  When I took the protective caps out to install the fuel tank drains, the caps were full of dust and debris.  Hmmm, go figure.

I stuck the shop vac hose into the tanks as far as I could to clean the tanks out as best possible, and then I put the nose down into the grazing position and ran a few gallons of water through the tanks to flush them out through the drains to clean out whatever debris was left over (obviously as best possible).

I started on the right tank, and after vacuuming and flushing out the tank, I attached the copper ground wire to the fuel cap safety catch before then attaching the cable and swaging on the nicopress sleeve.

Here’s another shot from the other side…

I then slid the fuel cap safety catch into the tank, and voila!  Gas cap is installed.

Officially mounted right tank gas cap!

Before I installed the left tank gas cap, with the left bottom outboard fence foam micro’d securely in place, I laid up the bottom ply of carbon fiber and peel plied it (pic 1).  A while later I transferred it over to the wing and secured it in place so that it would cure in the correct configuration (pic 2).

I then repeated on the left tank the same gas cap install as I did on the right: attaching the copper ground wire to the gas cap safety catch (pic 1) and then swaging the nicopress sleeve to secure the gas cap cable to the safety catch (pic 2).

I’ll note that I did continuity checks from the drain ports to the cap, on both tanks, to ensure I’ll have a good ground.  This will allow me to use the cable tab at the cap or the the drain itself for grounding during refueling.

I then slid the safety catch inside the gas cap opening to finish the mounting of the left fuel cap.

An “action” shot of the left fuel cap installed.

And a shot of both fuel caps installed.

And a parting shot of the left rudder gust lock pin installed into its sleeve.

SLOWLY pressing forward….

This post covers the last couple of days.

The good news is the dew damage on the top of the right wing has been eliminated, and it’s looking very nice.

The lesson that I learned was that I should have waited another day or two to deliver the right wing to Phil’s shop, as laying up the carbon fiber on the right wing trailing edge fences off the wing has resulted in them being a bit off in their relationship to the wing.

I tweaked both the outboard and middle fence after I checked them a few days ago.  The outboard is fine, but the middle one will have to be reworked with it in situ on the wing.  The top is fine, but the bottom flange angle is not sitting flat against the wing.

After checking them in place (pic 1), I then added tape to their wing mounting positions to keep any sealer, polish and ceramic coating off of the wing at those points so I can install them later on (pic 2).

I hadn’t finished the inboard fence when I checked the outboard fences, and with a little trimming of the Fein saw it fit on the wing trailing edge with little issue.

It actually works out fine not putting the fences on just now, so I can fly the plane for a few months, get a baseline and then track the difference after the fences get installed.

Here’s Phil doing one of the final rounds of buffing out the wing top.

Remember again, this was the dew-damaged wing, just as my strakes were, but now it’s looking nice and spiffy!

A couple more shots of the wing top, with some reflections showing up nicely.  Note the tape on the wing for the inboard fence.

Back in my shop I trimmed the left wing rudder gust lock.  I may not have reported that I micro’d the pin sleeve into the aft of the wing-to-winglet fairing.  And here is the pin installed nice and snug, securing the gust lock in place.  After this pic I slathered up the gust lock with micro and let it cure overnight.

On the underside CS spar wing bolt access holes, I drew out the 2.75″ diameter circles to cut those.  Which I did next, and then epoxy wiped them.

The next day I sanded both the CS spar bolt hole covers and the micro on the left rudder gust lock.  I then hit the covers with a couple coats of primer and epoxy wiped the gust lock with 3 coats.

Up until tonight I had the GIB seat hole cover secured in tape with blue painters tape.  Over the last week I thought about how to secure it and came up with the idea of simply cutting the ID of the hole out of anechoic foam, and then peeling and sticking it into place.

In this pic I also did some cable management and secured the right sidewall seat heating wire pairs, as well as the fuel probe control head units’ wiring just inside the GIB back seat hole.

And here is the cover in place, held fairly secure with the foam.

Both the inboard and middle left wing trailing edge fences are “glassed” in carbon fiber and trimmed.  Here they are set in place on the left wing.  I’ll note that since these were laidup on the wing, they fit with no issues like the right side.

Lastly, here we have the outboard topside fence with a ply of carbon fiber laid up and peel plied.  Tomorrow I’ll layup the bottom side.

Pressing forward!

Once again, this blog post covers the last few days.

After sanding and cleaning up the top of the right wing inboard trailing edge fence, I then cut a new piece of carbon fiber and laid it up (pic 1), and then peel plied the layup (pic 2).  From here on out I’m only doing one top or bottom half of these fences at a time.

I then took a good half hour to finally knock out soldering my robust resistor inline on the ground wire of the B&C SD-8 backup alternator’s “self excitation” feature (to replace the ground wire I lost).  Once the resistor was soldered inline and a FastOn connector crimped on, I then installed and secured this ground wire in the GIB headrest engine electronics “bay.”

The following morning I took the 2 outboard right wing fences to Phil’s shop and test fitted them on the wings. They definitely WERE NOT a perfect fit, and would need some massaging for them to slip on in their respective positions.

Back in the shop I sanded and cleaned up the bottom half of the right wing inboard trailing edge fence, cut a new piece of carbon fiber and laid it up.  I then peel plied the layup.

Note in the background some added plies added to the middle right wing fence to allow me to sand the inside flange face down for a better fit on the wing.

I then prepped both the left wing and the inboard trailing edge fence before laying up a ply of carbon fiber on the top side of it.  I then peel plied the layup.  I did the same for the middle left wing fence, but no pic of it.  Note that on the left wing all the fences are getting “glassed” in situ to ensure their configuration to the wing stays exactly how they need to be to ensure fit after all the layups are complete.

I noted recently that I had totally overlooked making covers for the outboard strake/CS spar bolt access holes, so with a little bit of excess epoxy from the fence layup above, I cobbled together enough scrap carbon fiber to make two 2-ply covers for these strake bottom bolt access holes.

The next day I pulled the peel ply off the left wing inboard fence, cleaned up the bottom side and laid up a ply of carbon fiber on it.  Of course I peel plied it as well.

And did the same for the middle fence, laying up a ply of carbon fiber on the bottom side of it.

I then spent at least 45 minutes shaping and sanding the left wing outboard trailing edge fence in prep for carbon fiber layups.

Wing the inboard right wing fence layups complete, along with the tweaks on the outboard fences, tomorrow I’ll check fit on all of them at Phil’s shop.

Still pressing forward!

This post covers the last few days, including Thanksgiving and all its festivities for those of you in the States.  Also, not surprisingly the weather has been quite the mix between mildly warm to quite cold.  Thus my push to get the painting knocked out ASAP.

First up, I pulled the tape off the painted left wing vortilons.  Again, I used a recommended glass cleaner to degrease these vortilons before paint, but noted that it hindered paint adherence, with a few spots of paint pulling up when I removed the tape.  No more using that product, and of course I have another couple added tasks on my list for touching up/filling in some black and white spots.

On the left wing I got the trailing edge fences cut out of 1/4″ PVC foam and micro’d to the glassed base flanges taped to the wing.

Here we have all 3 fences micro’d in place.

And closer up shots of the left wing outboard fences (pic 1) and inboard fence (pic 2) micro’d in place.

The following day I untaped and then popped all the fence assemblies off the left wing trailing edge.

My paint finisher Phil also has some production delays with unexpected family arriving for Thanksgiving combined with his right hand man, Ray, being gone for the holiday.

That actually gives me some time to try to knock out these wing trailing edge fences, specifically the right wing.  I did stop by Phil’s shop quickly today to check the outboard right wing fences (curing on the left wing below), and I’ll note that glassing them off the wing has injected some slight variances into their alignment, which I’ll have to work a bit to get them to fit nice and snug.

Here’s a shot of the outboard right wing fences curing on the left wing, with the fence trailing edges clamped straight during cure.  Of course they’re not pressed all the way onto the left wing since it has a different profile, but just enough to allow them to cure upright.

Before heading over to Thanksgiving dinner I was finishing up the entire carbon fiber layup of the right wing inboard fence (top of pic above), and had just clamped the trailing edge straight.  The tape holding it onto the wing let loose and it slid off onto the shop floor.

The peel plied layup was all catawampus and I suspected the foam had been cracked, which I confirmed after simply pulling the carbon fiber layup off of it. I threw the carbon fiber in the trash and did a quick wipedown of the foam fence to remove any micro and epoxy I could before heading off to Thanksgiving dinner… I’ll redo the layup when able.

Ok, but with a little touchup required…

First, here is a shot of the 3-ply carbon fiber layup, peel plied and taped, that makes up the left rudder lock (pic 1).  After an overnight cure, I then removed the tape and peel ply to reveal the actual rudder gust lock in raw form (pic 2).

I then cleaned it up and rough trimmed it a little bit before placing it back into position.  It still needs some final trimming and cleanup, and is a slightly rougher version than the right side, but it should clean up nicely.

I then pulled the tape and got busy prepping the left vortilons for the final front swath of blue paint.  I tried a tip using a certain glass cleaner as the degreaser prior to paint, and found it to be a bit too aggressive, as you can see some of the gray primer pulled off with the paint.  After a bit of sanding and cleanup with my old degreaser it was ready for paint.

I then first shot a coat of sealer, let that flash and then shot 2 coats of blue paint.  Voila!  The left, and now all, vortilons are painted.  Again, with a few touchups required.

I thought I had gotten pics of the left wing trailing edge fence mounting flange base layups after I laid them up, but apparently not.  Anyway, this is the next day after those cured… removed and peel ply pulled.

I then set the trailing edge fences’ mounting flange bases back into place, taped them to secure them in place, and then started checking fit of my posterboard mockups to then transfer those to the 1/4″ PVC foam to cut them out, first the inboard fence (pic 1) and then the middle fence (pic 2).

It was a bit later in the evening and I had to get out the door, so I’ll do the final outboard fence foam core cutting tomorrow.

I did want to note that I grabbed a pic of my N number graphics to send to my DAR to ensure they meet specs before I apply them to the winglets, especially since they’ll get ceramic coated along with the remainder of the winglet.

Still pressing forward to get this bird completed!

This post covers the past few days.

First off, I had a rub mark on the front edge of the right wing at the junction where it meets the strake that I needed to clean up and add a little paint.  My fault in that in my haste I should have protected it better.  Then the leading edge near the light needed another touch up after Phil did some sanding.

Of course I ended up chatting with Phil for a good bit, so about a 4 hour total op there given the flash times for sealer and paint, even for that small amount.

But, as you can see, the outboard top of the wing is about 70-80% finished with another few rounds of buffing out to do.  The middle has just been sanded and it’s already showing a decent shiny reflection.  And the inboard wasn’t touched at all as Phil waited for me to do my edge paint touchup.

Back in my shop I pulled the tape off the left vortilons (pic 1), taped up the front swoosh where the blue will go and then shot the middle stripe with black paint (pic 2).

I then spent a few hours updating my electrical system diagrams, making & applying wire/cable labels, and installing the magnetometer “pack” in the outboard rib pocket of the left strake.

Here we have the magnetometers’ final install with cables connected and secured.

Another shot of the cables secured and a better shot of where they exit this outboard strake rib area on their way/all the way to the instrument panel via the CS spar.

As I get the vortilons and wing trailing edge fences constructed and painted to install before finalizing the paint finish/ceramic coating on the wings, I’m also trying to knock out small component installs and wiring… from the aft and outboard parts of the bird moving forward.  The major wiring and installs in the nose and panel are coming soon.  So, with that, I called it a night.

Pressing forward!

After last night’s crazy push to get the right wing trailing edge fences’ mounting flange bases glassed and the foam fence bodies micro’d to the bases, I then left them to cure overnight.

Today it was time to pop the fences —now combined with their respective mounting flange bases— off the wing, clean the tape off the wings and get it to Phil at his shop for sanding and buffing of the paint.

If you’ll remember, the right wing was the one that overnight collected dew on the top of the wing after it was painted, which dulled the paint.  As with the strake tops, I fully expect Phil to be able to buff the wing out to a near-mirror finish.

Here’s another shot of the right wing trailing edge fences, ready to be shaped and final glassed (or carbon fiber) after they are pulled off the wing.

Which I did next with no drama.  Once the tape was removed that secured the mounting flange bases to the wing, the newly combined mounting flanges and foam fence bodies slid right off.

More out of curiosity, once I removed the tape and cleaned up the wing, I test fit the trailing edge fences back into place.  Looking good! (IMO)

Guy Williams arrived just in time to help me load up the wing into the trailer and after wrapping each end with a moving blanket, we secured it in place.  Not shown is that we put the wing dolly into the back of my truck for Phil to use at his shop.

And with that, Guy and I delivered the right wing to Phil’s shop.  It was very late afternoon by the time we were done, after which I did some administrivia stuff on the electrical system, but really didn’t get much else done on the build.

I started out this morning testing the left wing trailing edge fence angle templates which I printed 2 of last night, and one this morning.

Here’s the inboard angle template.

And the two outboard templates.

I then finalized my CAD drawings for the trailing edge fences, based on Klaus Savier’s dimensions that he recommends.

I then prepped the plasma cutting table to temporarily convert it to a plotting table.

And plotted out the 3 wing trailing edge fences.

I then cut out the trailing edge fences.  These will be used to check fit and cutout the actual 1/4″ PVC foam fences for each wing.

From this point on I focused on the right wing, since I’m taking it to Phil’s shop tomorrow for him to sand and buff out.

It was time for the test fit on the right the wing.  Here are the outboard foamboard mockups.

And the inboard foam trailing edge fence mockup (pic 1), and all of them together in a group shot (pic 2).

The foamboard mockups really helped in marking the bottom side of the wing where the mounting base flanges will get laid up.  I then taped up the fence locations on the trailing edge —on both top and bottom of the wing— in prep for layups.

Since I’m a cheap scrounge, and I want these things as light as I can possibly make them, I’m using one ply of UNI (from scraps) and one ply of BID (off the roll) for my mounting base layups.  After “pre-pregging” the layups in plastic, I then laid them up first on the inboard side (pic 1) and the outboard side (pic 2).

Since the layups are one piece at an angle, there is an overhang at the trailing edge on the inboard side, which I clamped with clothespins.

A few hours later (I used fast hardener + heat lamps) they were cured.  So I pulled the peel ply and pulled the mounting bases off the wing.  Here we have all of them (pic 1) and the outboard side (pic 2).

And a closer up shot of the inboard side.

A big reason I wanted to glass the mounting bases by themselves starting out, was to not have any struggle removing them after they cured…. since my wings are painted I don’t want to have to pry to get these darn things off as I most certainly would if I had glassed the fences in situ with the bases.

I then cut the excess trailing edge overhang off before taping the mounting flange bases back onto the wing, again both top and bottom.

I did a final check with with posterboard mockups, annotating any gaps or angles that needed fine tuning as these will be used as the templates to cut out the 1/4″ PVC foam fences (BTW, I weighed a square inch piece of foam and it didn’t move the scale up even to 1 gram!).

Checking the inboard posterboard fence mockup…

I then cut out all the right wing trailing edge fences out of 1/4″ PVC foam sheet and test fitted them into place on the wing.

Here we have the outboard two fences.

And the final test fit of the inboard TE fence (pic 1) before I micro’d it into place (pic 2).

And the same on the outboard fences, test fitted first (pic 1) and then micro’d into place (I used a dab of 5 min glue on all the tips to secure them into place both to ensure their placement and to eliminate any minor gaps).

I then spent a good 45 minutes getting them aligned as vertically as possible (as in 90° to the trailing edge) which proved a bit challenging because pulling the top or bottom over to vertical could result in the entire fence being pulled in that direction.  But a slight bit of patience and persistence won out.

And with that, I left them to cure overnight.  I’ll shape and glass (probably carbon fiber) them later, I just wanted to get this initial step done so I can finish them off the wing, then paint them, and get them mounted on the wing before Phil and team ceramic coats it (obviously after sanding and buffing out).

Needless to say, it was a long day and night as I didn’t finish until 3am in the morning.  But it had to be done to get this wing delivered to Phil ASAP.

Pressing forward!