526 Echo Juliet

I realized that I may have not adjusted the rod end on the cylinder fully, and may be able to get the gear to come up all the way if I adjust the cylinder travel. Tried this and cycled the gear a few times, just barely not enough travel, which sucked. Need to think more about how to resolve the issue, so I called it quits and set the gear selector down to move onto something else. Except that I set the gear selector down onto the gear control box (grounded aluminum) and shorted a live terminal to ground. I heard a hissing and then a pop from inside the gear control box (gold box) and then the smoke came out. Anyone who works with electronics will tell you that the one rule is to not let the magic smoke out. Popped open the gold box expecting a popped capacitor and found just that. Nothing else looked fried. Ordered a new cap online (because RadioShack doesn't exist anymore) and will need to solder it in and test. I could send it back to Wayne, but this is within my realm of fix-abi...

Rebuilt the cylinder with new parts from Velocity. Pretty standard hydraulic cylinder rebuild, some parts had changed from what I had; namely, this kit included a T seal, rather than an O-ring with support. I did have to use the 90 degree snap ring plier ends; strait ends didn't work.   Had to buy snap ring pliers for this one task. Re-installed the cylinder and re-connected hydraulic lines without any real issues. At this point, I removed the nose gear, removed the old white nose gear strut, and installed the stronger brown one as the factory has instructed. Attempted to hand cycle the nose gear and it wouldn't go over-center to lock in place. Took a second to look at the two struts that I had and noticed that the brown strut was longer by about a quarter inch. This caused the linkage to be too long overall, and not able to lock over-center. At this point, I called Chad, who told me that I could trim the captivator somewhat to give it more room to be able to lock in place, so ...

This was our first meeting with my EAA Tech Counselor. He's also an FAA Designated Airworthiness Representative (DAR) and will be the one who does our airworthiness inspection. He went over the kit with us and told us what he's typically looking for on composite aircraft. Overall had no complaints with the kit as built so far and offered some helpful advise towards the completion and certification process. Later in the day, I pulled the nose gear hydraulic cylinder, as it needs to be rebuilt and parts were on order from Velocity. Gotta say that this is *not* a fun task. I have pretty small arms, but working inside the keel to undo the bolt on the rear of the cylinder is not easy. At the top of the picture, you see my hand coming in the co-pilot access hole with the socket, and at the bottom, you can see my hand barely reaching the head of the bolt with an opposing wrench, coming in from the top access hole on the keel. Picture is taken through the control stick hole. I managed ...

I fixed some of the hardware on the main gear pulleys to get proper thread engagement on the lock nuts (no pics). Disassembled the nose gear doors and sanded them and the opening to get the doors to fit somewhat tighter.   Cleaned and prepped the nose and sanded paint off for battery tray install. Installed battery tray with structural adhesive and rivets to hold it while it cured. Drilling for rivet locations prior to sanding marking lines off. Mixing way too much structural adhesive Emily cut foam for seat bottoms and tested sewing with existing machine. Assisted with battery tray install.