Frame Touch up paint and cowlings.

I did some touch up paint to those places that had some paint chipped for one reason or another. I just painted it on with a small hobby paint brush. Removed the temp. installed prop to installed the nose bowl. I torqued the prop IAW Owens Composites ( now Twisted Composites) owners info. I also checked the track of the prop to make sure it was tracking perfectly true. All checked good. I fab’d a bracket for the RH gear leg fairing just like I did the LH gear leg fairing so as to keep it from rotating during flight.

I started installing the cowling’s and the hundreds of screws that go into this plane. Man there are a lot of screws. I had to do a little cutting on the lower engine cowling to make room for the gear leg that now come through the lower cowling. Installing the cowlings takes forever. I was able to get the plane outside and take a picture just before dusk.

Time spent 8 hours.

Would you believe it my fiance’ spent the entire day out at the airport with me! She is a real keeper. She has been working on a wedding cake topper out of clay. She spent a few hours at the airport and came up with this:

I of course have some modifications to make to it. We are going to move the tail back to its proper position the clay being soft just wouldn’t support it unless it was up further. And find a way to keep the bottom wing in its proper place. I will keep up updated on its progress. Oh and BTW the plane Idea was not mine, it was hers. And our guest book is going to be a pilot log book. Like a said a real keeper.

Wheel pant final fit, gear leg fairing bracket

Ah yes Saturday, What gloriously hot day 95 deg with a heat index of 104. My aluminum box uh I mean my hangar was floating around 115 – 116 when I walked and promply open the door to let the oven cool. I removed the molds on th fiberglass and those came out really well. I am very happy with t the finall finish they a have. I promptly got to finishing the wheel pants. I started by checking the gap between the tire and the wheel fairing. I like to be able to fit my fingers between the tire and the wheel fairing. Because I mounted them slightly differently then with my old gear I had to do a little trimming. It took a lot longer then I thought and now my sweaty arms are covered in itchy fiberglass dust. Once I got everything trimmed up I installed the last two nut plates on the wheel fairings. They were never installed before because I had cut so much of the fairing apart I didn’t need them now that I have replaced most of that fairing I installed them. I obviously have some filling and fairing to do but this will suffice for now.

After that I installed the piano hinge for the RH gear leg just like I did the previous hinge on Thursday the 5 jun. I relined the brake pucks installed and safety wired the brake caliper bolts. I did the final install of the wheel fairings. I also made a bracket for the LH gear leg fairing to temporarily keep it from rotating during flight.

Time spent 8 hours

Drilling the Axle, More wheel pant brackets, Fiberglass on the wheel pants

Today I went over to my buddies shop to borrow a core drill and a 10-32 tap so that I could drill the axles for the cotter pins and I could tap the axle nuts for the wheel pant brackets. I tapped the RH axle nut for the wheel pant bracket and installed a 10-32 R6 SS machine screw. I also moded the LH axle nut for the same bracket exactly the same way I did it yesterday.

I drilled the axles for cotter pins. Pretty much just set the spot on the axle and drill use a #40 long drill bit make a small mark on each side. I then used my dremel hemispherical grinder to make a nice transition for the threads as to not gall up my axle nut. I then drilled the cotter pin holes using a core drill and my battery drill and lots of oil. The hole cut no problem. Rinse and repeat for the other side.

While the wheels were off and easy to get to I cleaned, inspected and repacked the wheel bearings.  After that was done I needed to patch up some cut out on my wheel fairings from when I had my old landing gear installed. I layed up some E-glass and used an spare sheet metal to make the mold using cleco clamps. I also took the time to add some more layers to my previous patch work to stiffen that up a bit. We will see how it comes out tomorrow.

Time spent today 8 hours

Wheel fairing bracket, Gear leg Piano Hinge and drilling axles oh my

Today I went up to get my wheel fairing brackets made. I need to use a sheer and a brake to make them perfect so I when up to my buddies shop to use his brake and sheer. Once I made the brackets I brought them down to my hanger to drill the center out for the bolt that holds the wheel farings on. I then installed the 1/4-28 nut plate. Once I had the bracket centered I could use the 1″ hole saw to cut the hole for the gear leg jack pipe. I didn’t have a 10-32 tap to install the screws that hold this bracket to the nut so I will have to wait til tomorrow to fully install it. I then switched gears and started in on my left hand gear leg fairing. I started by figuring out where to locate the piano hinge so as to keep the trailing edge sucked together. Once I had this figured out I marked and drilled the first two holes on either end and installed clecos to hold it in place. I then removed both side of the piano hinge and cut off the excess hinge. I re-installed half the hinge and drill the 1-1/2 spacing for the AN470AD-3 rivits. I also countersunk the fiberglass which and I didn’t think was possible but it worked out just fine. Just be careful on how far to countersink. Rinse and repeat for the other half of the hinge and install the pin.

Time spent 3 hours

Replacing mag gasket, loose ends, Wheel pants again

Today I started in on changing the left hand mag gasket because it leaked during the run up. On closer inspection it noticed half of it was stuck on the adapter and half stuck on the mag and when I timed my mags it tore. So I replaced it. This is kinda a pain in the ass because there isn’t very much room between the firewall and the mags.

I had a few squawks to fix from the conditional inspection. Most were small but still need to be done. Lastly I started in on the wheel pants again and they arn’t going on easy. The new bracket location is different from the old one on the last gear ugh! it will probably turn ugly again. Oh well.
Time spent 3 hours

Exhaust Channel Fairings

Tonight I worked on the exhaust channel fairings. These are the fairings I have never had because I thought it was to much of a pain in the ass it make them work correctly with bungee gear. Now that I don’t have bungee gear anymore time to construct fairings. I started out by measuring the and laying out a rough template in paper board. Once I got it fitting right I traced that on to a piece of aluminum and cut it out. I didn’t cut it completely out because I wanted to use a shear instead of tin snips. I cut what I could with the tin snips. After that I started working on the right side fairing. I got to the point of cutting out the template.

Time spent 2.5 hours

Brake Lines

Today I decided to tackle my brake lines. First thing was to figure out where they were going to pass through the fire wall. I have two types of bulk head fittings one is a 90 deg and other straight. I tried the 90 and just couldn’t get it to work so I went with the straight fitting. I had to cut my Aeroquip line a little shorter so that took some time because the fitting had some hose stuck in it and I had to pick it out of there.

Time spent 2 hours

Antenna, Mag Timing, Wheel Pant

Today I finished up installing my Comm antenna into the new Lexan belly panel. I only had a few hours so I decided to check the timing on my Mags. It was little bit off so I decided to tigten it up a bit. it doing so I realized on my left mag gasket stuck on one side and tore so I will have to get a new one. Damit! oh well my buddy was making an Aircraft spruce order and I will add that one to the list. Anyway I got the right mag timed spot on and I left the right where it was as I will have to remove the mag to get it out far enough to replace the gasket. Eve wanted my home by 2030 so I brought my left wheel pant home to fill in the void which I cut out for my old gear. I got that masked off and formed a mold using paper board and using packing tape for the anti stick. I will let that dry overnight and see if it came out better, worse or the same as my right wheel pant.

Time spent today 3 hours

Replacing Lexan finishing FWF

Today I worked on replacing my Lexan belly pan. My last one was cracked in several places where my antenna goes through the glass. It requires 2 bends to be made and did that in sheet metal brake. Lexan is very cool material to work with. It is flexable in way plexiglas will only be if heated. Any I drilled all the required holes for the attachment screws you have to remember to over drill them for shrinking and expanding due to temperature. If you don’t over drill the holes they will eventually crack. I spent the rest of the time hooking up my magneto wires and oil temperature gage. I also spent some time figuring out what I am going to do about my brake lines. I plan on using AN bulkhead fitting to pass it through the firewall. Anyway I will deal with that tomorrow. I spent the rest of the time checking and double checking all my hoses to make sure fittings are tight and sealing.

Time spent today 4 hours.

Firewall forward installation

I continued where I left off on Friday. I continued to tighten and install oil hoses and instrumentation. I trimmed up my exhaust channel and match drill holes so that it would screw down to the bulk head just behind the brake master cylinders. I played around with the brake line routing for a bit gave up on that for now I need to think about it some more. I installed the exhaust and continued to secure cables and wires so they won’t chafe other items or won’t get chaffed themselves.

Time spent today 3.5 hours total time spent on the mod 65.5 hours.