More Flying post Gear mod

I ran out to the airport after going to the driving range with Eve. Yes she wanted go and asked me if I would come and teach her. Yup a keeper. I flew for half an hour basically I had to land cause the sun went down. I was able to do 2 touch and goes. The first landing was a little bouncy but not to bad 99% my fault the second wasn’t to bad but time and time again my very first landing for all three of my test flights were the best. I guess I just mind screw the landings instead of just flying the plane.

Flight time 0.5 hours Total time since gear mod 0.7 hours

Inspection plates and final checks

Today I had every intention on finishing the plane back to flying status. I didn’t get out to the airport until 1800 and had kinda written off the chances at flying it this evening. I went through and sprayed silicon lube in all the hinges and bearings then I re-installed all the inspection plates, wing root fairings, and safety wired the prop bolts. All was looking good so i decided to go out and try some taxi tests.

I did 4 runs down the runway building up in speed just to get the feel for the behavior of the gear legs at a decent speed. during each one of the taxi tests I put in a pedal step input to simulate wind gusts and general pilot induced swerves. The gear was very well behaved. I built up ground speed to point where I lifted the tail up and rode that for a few seconds. One note is that I would never have done that with my old gear on purpose. After I felt comfortable I taxied back and took off. I flew a couple of laps around the pattern at 2000 FT. The first thing I noticed was the that my plane was extremely smooth. One of the smoothest planes I have ever flown. First glance indicated that I have gained about 10-12 MPH of Speed at 2700 RPM. I also noticed that my trim needed to be nose down more to account for the lack of landing gear induced drag. I landed and a cooshy landing it was. I didn’t even need hardly any inputs it tracked that straight as an arrow.  I taxied back to the hangar and called it a night.

Time spent 1.5 hours Flight time 0.2 hours

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

Wheel pants and Gear leg fairings

Today my goal was to get the wheel pants on and secure enough to ground run the plane so that I can check my mags for leaks after changing the gasket. All I really had left to get the pants on and secure was to install 8 nut plates. This took a little while and after getting the right side installed and just cleco’d the left side on because a massive tornado producing storm was headed our way at 55 MPH. I was able to ground run the aircraft and check the mags for leaks. None noted. This means I can start closing up the the engine cowling! Anyway while I was running my engine I decided to taxi around and get a feel for the new gear. What I noticed was it was incredibly more stable with swerves unlike the other gear which like to depart to one side or the other. The comment is that this gear make the Pitts feel like a Citabria on the runway. At this point I can see the what they were trying to say, but maybe not quite that extreme.

Next is getting the gear leg fairing installed.

Time spent 3.0 hours

Landing Gear Fairings and wheel pants

Today I had a bad day at work. Going to the airport is a great soother so of course I went directly after work. I decided to work on my wheel pants. The mounting brackets are not quite in the same location as the last ones. I will have to do some patchwork which is not a real big deal just time consuming. First things first was to mark and drill the brackets for the mounting screws. I did a fair amount of measuring first to get them aligned and then I marked and drilled the locations. I then started working on the gear leg fairings. The way vans does this is to use slits and hose clamps to keep the fairing from falling down. I cut the slits and then decided this was going to last all of 2 hours until it breaks. I am now cooking up a design similar to what Guido has on this pitts gear leg fairing he got form Steve Wolf. sorry about no pictures I keep forgetting my camera at home.  What a tragedy.
Time spent 2.5 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

Brake bleading, Engine run-up, compression checks

Today I back blead the brakes, so that I could run-up the engine to see if my compression came up. I had some trouble at first with bleading the right brake but I soon sorted it out and it blead just fine. I back blead my brakes because A) it is simple and B) it is perfectly bled everytime. I use a old mechanical hand crank fuel pump from my Radio Controlled airplane days to pump brake fluid up the blead valve and into the reservoir. I made sure to add oil to the engine (can’t forget that) I also hooked up the ignition leads and torqued the prop down temporarily since I still have to put the cowling on. I ran up the engine for about 10 minutes. I took some time to taxi around to see if the gear felt an different. No real difference slow taxiing around but I wasn’t expecting much at slow speeds. I shut down and played a real game of hot potato with the spark plugs. I took the comression of the cylinders and every last one of them was 79/80 PSI. As I would expect from a 61 hour TT motor.
Oh and here is a photo of the safety wire securing of the brake lines.

Time spent today 6 hours

Exhaust Channel Fairings, Brake lines, and Engine Compressions

Today, I had the whole day to work on the plane due to a glorious CWS day. Compressed work schedule for those who don’t know. At my job we work 4 – 9hour days and 1-8hour day followed by 4 – 9 hour days and Friday off. Pretty much the only schedule better is 4 – 10 hour days and every weekend is a 3 day weekend. Anyway, I started off using the shear and brake to make my cuts and bends of my exhaust channel fairing. Turns out it fit pretty darn good. I back drilled the existing wholes and drilled and installed two new nut plates on the firewall side of the fairing. I fabricated the other side just like I did the first. Don’t ask about the extra holes, Idiot me started installing the nut plates with the fairing in place good thing I caught myself before I riveted the firing the fire wall. The corner is not perfect so I will probably just fill in the corner with RTV and call it a day. I shortened the left side brake Aeroquip line just like I did the right all is well.

I completed my engine compression check. I usually do this cold to see if it will pass so that I don’t play the hot potato game with spark plugs when it is hot. The #1, #3, and #4 all came back excellent but #3 came back a little low. when I mean low it was 68/80 PSI when the rest are sporting 75 and above. So I decided I would do the compression checks with engine warm. Sound like a great Idea until this Idea get stomped all over by the fact that I don’t have my brakes installed. So there is the next logical step. I need to to route my brakes lines. I started off by flaring one side. of the tube (don’t forget to install the nut and the collar first!) I then started making the bends in the lines. Vans says you can route the line on the front or the back of the gear leg. I chose the back side of the gear leg. Anyway I routed both lines and secured them using electrical tape and a nylon tubing placed strategically in four places. My mechanic came by to see the progress and came up with safety wiring them to the gear leg. And finally she sees the light of day well at least dusk anyway.

Time spent 9 hours