526 Echo Juliet

 Started the night by sanding the aileron ends so that they were smooth and to help with fit in cutout. Also connected the torque tube to the aileron.   Once that was done, I moved on to repairing a crack one of the rudders. I noticed this crack when inspecting the rudder a while back. I don't have a picture of it, but the crack was a pretty small ~5 inch hairline along the edge where the glass extends past the foam edge of the rudder (the front rib, basically). I put this off because I thought that I was going to need to repair the underlying glass and wasn't looking forward to it. I used a scraper to break off the micro-balloon where the crack was to see what needed to be done, and was pleasantly surprised to find that there was no underlying damage or de lamination. It seems like something just flexed that edge too far and cracked the micro-balloon layer on the rudder surface. I removed all the loose micro and beveled the edge to transition the secure micro down to the unde...

Now that the garage has enough room for it, we can work on verifying the wing construction. These are fast build wings that were made by the factory, so we don't anticipate any issues, but we'll double check everything and check it off in the book any way. Unfortunately, some of this will need to be one wing at a time. This was just stepping through the plans, one page at a time and verifying everything that I could. I was able to verify everything on the right wing and 99% of the stuff on the left wing that was sitting on the floor as well. It'll need to be up on the sawhorses for the other stuff. I also verified the aileron construction (factory) and the hinge work (Erik), and everything looks awesome. I will need something to remove the years old tape on the hinges, but other than that, no issues. This stuff is real stuck. Aileron attached and checking for free movement. Needs sanded in some spots. Once that was done, I did some glass work. Applied microbubble to the end...

Happy Thanksgiving! Since we did our Thanksgiving meal the day before, we worked on the plane some. So... we made a mistake and installed the mount on the engine prior to installing one tiny little fitting. Unfortunately, that means that we have to unmount the engine from the plane, and unmount the mount from the engine to install the oil pressure transducer fitting. Whoops. Thankfully, while it's off, we can mount the prop governor cover plate which arrived from Van's Aircraft (hey, they were the cheapest cover plate) and the fuel servo right angle adapter, so at least it's not a total waste. The little tiny fitting in the center of this pic is the one that can't be screwed in with the mount on. Once that fitting was in place, I installed the prop governor cover plate. This was ordered from Van's Aircraft, since it's a flat piece of aluminum with some holes in it, and they had the cheapest ones. I guess I can say this plane is basically an RV now, right? After ...

After talking with Scott from Velocity, he stated that he sees issues with the transverse bulkhead placement occasionally, and that it would be no issue for me to cut recesses for where the nut needs to sit. He said he's even seen planes without the transverse bulkheads at all (*what*) so it won't cause issues. With that, we drilled the holes for the bottom two mount bolts and then I notched out the bulkhead as needed to fit the nut and a smaller washer. Note that the mount will only ever push from the firewall side here, so the large washer isn't needed, unlike the top mount holes, where the weight of the engine is pulling on the firewall when on the ground. Here's where the drill bit punched through on one side. And here's a cleaned up notch for the nut. I started with an undersized drill bit to make an initial circle/hole, and then used a dremel with a flexible extension on it with what amounts to an "end mill" type bit to mill out an even hole and spot...

Started off the night by fabricating hardpoints for the autopilot servos out of aluminum. Specifically, I wanted to start installing the roll servo, but figured I'd make all 8 hardpoints while I was making them. Basically just cut squares of aluminum then drill and tap them. Here's the extra four for the pitch servo. Once that was done, I temporarily mounted the GSA28 servo in the bracket and attached the hardpoints. I had to add spacers to the front (nearest the whale tail) to get it to sit in line with the aileron bellcank, because of the curves in the fuselage. The spacers are made from the same stock, but drilled out to bolt diameter. Basically a big flat aluminum washer. Hardpoints installed to the bracket. You can see the spacers I made here too, on the left side. At this point I test fit everything with the bracket in place and drilled the bellcrank for the servo arm. I also ensured that the drilling location allowed for full range of motion with the autopilot overcenter...

We started the engine install by leveling the fuselage front to rear (firewall and canard bulkhead 0 degrees) and side to side (using the spar). Once that was done, we installed the cowlings to be able to determine where the engine should sit on the firewall. These need cleaned up pretty badly. They also need patched from where the Stabells had tried to make them work for their DeltaHawk before deciding to make their own cowlings. Once the measurements were taken, the engine was lifted into place, centered left and right, and set at the correct height. From there, the top hole and two side holes were drilled and bolts placed through. Emily says this picture isn't flattering, but I'm using it anyway. :) PJs are the best plane building clothes. We ran into a few problems with the engine mounting. First, the bolts provided with the kit were too short, so we'll need to order new, longer bolts. Second, the bottom mounting holes line up squarely with the transverse bulkhead. I re...

Started off on the 15th by removing the vacuum pump studs from the engine. I could have left these on and used spacers to take up the space from the cover, but it would have looked janky (in my opinion) and the spacers cost the same as new studs, so I figured I'd just buy new studs when it came time to use this spot again, and install the cover plate with bolts instead. Removing these was a huge pain; they were really stuck in there. I used the typical two jam nuts tightened together, but no matter how tight I made them (really, really tight; like stretched threads tight), all they did was spin off the stud together. I had to attach a vice grip to the studs and spin both at the same time to get them to spin. Good thing I'm tossing these, because the threads were trashed. This hole was then plugged with a Superior 60430 cover plate (why did this cost $40? maybe make your own). I used MS20074-04-06 drilled head (course thread) bolts to install the cover so that I could safety wir...

We started the afternoon by cleaning the garage up and re-positioning the fuselage in the garage for engine install. Much cleaner, and way more room to work on the back side of the kit. The next task was to convert the engine for operation of a fixed pitch propeller. Basically, we need to plug the hole at the end of the crank where the constant-speed prop would typically get its oil. This is pretty critical, because loss of this plug would result in oil being basically pumped overboard. This is all covered in Lycoming Service Instruction #1435 , which details what to install/remove to convert between the two setups. To sum it up, for fixed pitch, there needs to be an outer plug installed at the end of the crank to hold the oil in and a hole in the inner plug opened up to allow oil to flow back into the case. For constant-speed, you would have no outer plug, and the inner plug would need to have no hole. There's two different styles of cranks, one has a solid plug in the rear and th...

Worked on the main gear doors some. Drilled the new holes in the top of the right gear door to fit. Attempted to install both doors and realized that the brake line, which hadn't been installed when doing rough fitting interfered with the foam stiffener near the bottom of the doors. Relieved the foam in this area and then microbubbled over the foam in prep for a layer of BID. Both legs were relieved like this where leg hit the brake line.   While that was curing, I plumbed the fuel system out the back of the firewall. This comes out of the sump tank, through a shut-off valve, and out the co-pilot's side firewall. A bit of trial and error to get the aluminum tube length right. I also had to recess the firewall on the inside to get the firewall fitting to fit. It's only designed for so much thickness, and the firewall is pretty thick. I also used a dull wood bit spun in reverse to "indent" the stainless firewall somewhat. This helped get everything close enough to g...

Plumbed the rest of the brakes up to the reservoir. Only problem is that I ran out of line inserts, and need a single one to finish. Ordered it, but the rest of the brakes are plumbed and ready to go. Last line awaiting connection on the right. After plumbing the rest of the brakes, I attached the fittings (blue) to the oil cooler and mounted the oil cooler in the nose. The plans call for using #10 screws to attach this, but holes had been drilled in the flange already and this wouldn't work, so I drilled the holes out slightly bigger and attached the scoop with 4 short AN3 bolts. Seems more secure this way anyway. Cooler mounted, with fittings attached. Lastly, Emily and I unrolled the aluminum lines that run from the engine in the back of the plane to the oil cooler mounted in the front. Once unrolled, we pulled the heat shrink over the tubes and shrunk it in place. The heat shrink is pretty hard to get on the tubes, and this is definitely a two person task. Lines unrolled and th...

Awesome news: our engine arrived in Knoxville. Bad news: when the freight company called to schedule delivery, they told me that the next time a lift-gate truck was going to be in our area was about a week and a half later.  Knowing that the engine was sitting so close for so long would have killed me inside, so I called back and found out that I could pick up the engine direct from the freight location in Knoxville. It was only a 45 minute drive or so, which was a no-brainer. I already had to go buy an engine hoist halfway there anyway, so I went and picked up the crate, then picked up the engine hoist on the way back. Engine hoist assembled. I'm sure a Harbor Freight 2 Ton hoist can handle a 300 lb load, right? I'll admit I was nervous. Cracking into the crate. Everything looks undamaged. At this point, we disassembled the crate sides in the truck bed and hooked the hoist up to the engine and lifted it off the truck. We set the engine and crate bottom on the lift legs and rol...