After a little more than 3 years and 2100 hours of work it was finally time to move my plane to the airport for final assembly.
Total Construction Time: 184 hours and counting
February 21, 2009 (4 hours)
It's finally moving day! I spent the morning tightening up a few loose items, put the cowl on, closed the canopy and waited for the truck. We had about 4-5" of snow overnight so I shoveled the drive and in front of the hangar as well. Matt the driver did a great job strapping the plane and the wings to the flatbed. The plane didn't move at all during the 10 mile trip to the airport and it was fun to watch all the double-takes coming from all the cars around us. Unloading the plane went smoothly as well.
February 22, 2009 (3 hours)
Still had the empennage, flaps and ailerons at home. I added the nutplates for the empennage fairings to the horizontal and vertical stabilizer and did a few other misc. tasks and ran these out to the airport. In the evening I spliced on some longer wires to the trim tab servo, then installed it into the elevator. I then rigged up it's pushrod that goes between the servo and the trim tab and tested it out.
February 24, 2009 (2 hours)
I managed to get the horizontal stabilizer in our suv with the end sticking a little out the rear window. Drove that out to the airport and bolted it to the aft deck. Now all the big parts are out at the airport and my garage looks so empty. At least I can park my car in the garage again for the first time in a couple of years.
February 25, 2009 (1 hour)
I only had about one bolt thread showing past the nut on a couple of the horizontal stabilizer bolts, so I swapped the washers out with thin washers. Then I went ahead and installed the vertical stabilizer and torqued its bolts.
February 28, 2009 (3 hours)
Winter's trying it's best to hang on, with a bunch of snow the other day and now back in the deep freeze. Aaron decided to brave to cold with me today and help out with final assembly. We temporarily put the rudder on to check how to route the tail light and strobe wiring. Then it came back off and I drilled a 3/8" hole through the rudder spar and aft bulkhead. I also noted that I had missed two rivets on the lower rudder attach bracket, so we took the vertical stabilizer back off and I drilled, countersunk and riveted them quick. I didn't take long to bolt them back on. Next we inserted a plastic tube through the hole I had made, ran the wires through it and routed it into the rudder bottom fairing as we attached the rudder to the vertical stabilizer. Finally we attached the elevators to the horizontal stabilizer. Aaron also glued the aileron pushrod boots to the fuselage using E6000 adhesive.
March 1, 2009 (1 hour)
I came out in the morning to add the nuts and washers to the bolts holding the rudder on and torqued them. I also bolted the rudder cables to the rudder using the AN3 bolts with castle nuts and cotter pins. I didn't do anything else on the plane, but spent another hour or so moving things around in the hangar to make room to attach the wings.
March 2, 2009 (2 hours)
After work I headed over to the airport to drill and rivet the nutplates to the wings for attaching the wing root fairings. Managed to get the right wing also done, but got a little cold and I needed one more tool I still had at home.
March 4, 2009 (2 hours)
Finished up drilling and riveting the nutplates for the wing root fairings. Couple more items to finish up and I'll be ready to put the wings on this Saturday.
March 5, 2009 (2 hours)
Drilled and riveted on the nutplates for the tank attachment angles plus took care of a couple other miscellaneous stuff.
March 6, 2009 (7 hours)
Took most of the day off work to finish up the rest of the wires between the fuselage and wings. I cut out holes in the conduit for the wires that don't run to the wingtips, such as the pitot heat, OAT probe and autopilot servo. Then I pulled all the wires through the wings and added connectors to the wires at the wing root. I also drilled a hole and added a grommet for the tubing from the pitot.
March 7, 2009 (1 hour)
Alex Peterson and Pete Howell came out and helped Aaron and I put the wings on this morning. I still need to add the nuts and the smaller bolts, but it's great to have the wings on for good.
March 8, 2009 (6 hours)
It took me quite a while to get the nuts on the lower wing bolts. They're hidden behind the gear mounts and you can only hammer the bolts in just enough to engage a couple threads with the nuts or you can't get the nuts on. It's also quite difficult to get your hand in there enough to start the nuts. After they were started I found a stubby 5/8" wrench that I could get behind the gear mount and get it on the nuts just enough to tighten and torque them. Glad that's behind me. I think about half the time was spent climbing out of the cockpit and stretching my legs. I also installed the rear wing spar bolts, which are much easier to install. Later in the evening I came back out for an hour to install the tank attach bracket bolts, fuel lines and fuel level sender wires.
March 8, 2009 (2 hours)
This evening I installed the ailerons enough to allow me to match drill the aileron stops, which I still need to make. Afterwards I taped my APRS antenna, GPS and transmitter in the left wingtip. This is a neat little device that sends your GPS position to the Internet over the ham radio frequencies. This will allow friends and family to track my flight real time, including position, speed and altitude, as well as download the tracks later. I had to study up and get my ham radio license to be able to use this, but it wasn't too hard with the study guides that are available.
March 9, 2009 (1 hour)
Woke up at o'dark-thirty and couldn't get back to sleep, so I headed out to the garage to fabricate the aileron stops and a few bushings for the aileron bolts.
March 10, 2009 (1 hour)
Winter's making one last attempt to hang on with sub-zero temps. Headed out to the airport and fit and drilled the aileron stops. Found I need to trim the outward leg of the stops just a little so it clears the aileron better. Also drilled and riveted my data plate to the side of the fuselage under the horizontal stabilizer.
March 11, 2009 (1 hour)
Drilled my data plate to the side of the fuselage and did a few other miscellaneous tasks.
March 12, 2009 (1 hour)
Worked on installing the lights and antennas in the wingtips, but it was pretty cold and didn't get all that much done.
March 14, 2009 (1 hour)
Masked and painted the inside of my cowl halves today. Later stopped out at the airport and straightened the hangar a little.
March 15, 2009 (8 hours)
It got to 55 degrees today - it was the first day I was able to work on the plane with the hangar door wide open. I took my ailerons off, riveted the stops in place, then final assembled them. Then I connected the aileron pushrods to the stick assembly under the seats. After that I tighted all the pushrod stop nuts and the bolts connecting them to the bellcrank. I also wired the autopilot roll servo, but discovered the bracket for attaching to the bellcrank doesn't fit. I also got a good start on installing the pitot tube.
March 16, 2009 (10 hours)
Today the temps hit about 65 degrees so I took today and tomorrow off to work on the plane. I knocked quite a bit off my list, including finishing the install of my pitot tube and the OAT probe, the last two nutplates for the wing root fairing, the fuel tank quick drains and the rest of the tank screws. I also put my N-number on each side of the plane and wing-walk material at the inboard edge of each wing. I also hung the flaps, but didn't add the hex rods yet. Finally I got quite a bit of the remaining wingtip light wiring done.
March 17, 2009 (7 hours)
Today I finished up my wingtip lights, antennas and wiring. I also added the ground wire to the tail light and installed it. With that working I popped all the lighting fuses in the main bus and had fun testing all my lights. I thought I had a problem with my wig-wag flasher, but later found out I need to change the flash pattern to get alternating lights. I also was able to see my APRS tracker hitting stations nearby, although it didn't have gps coordinated because I was still in the hanger and it couldn't get a signal. With that wrapped up I went ahead and primed and then installed the flap hex rods, so now I have working flaps as well. There's very little to do yet on the wings and tail.
March 18, 2009 (2 hours)
I called Advanced Flight Systems today and learned my EFIS units were on the bench for final testing. Later Jenny called and said that I would have them by Friday! After work I headed out to the airport to knock more stuff off my rapidly shrinking to-do list. I reinstalled my iol temperature sender, which I had borrowed out to a friend. Next I took the shield off the engine sensor harness, moved one of the pins to another hole for reading the tach off the eMags, then put it back together. After that I discovered I was able to route the pitot tubing through the grommet in the spar carrythrough under the left seat. I pulled both the pitot and static tubing to behind the panel to connect to my EFIS and autopilot. Finally I hooked up the taxi lights in the wingtips, then crawled under the panel to change the flasher pattern to wig-wag.
March 20, 2009 (2 hours)
My AFS displays arrived tonight! I painted the adaptor frames, which allow the 3500s to fit in the 4500 opening, black to match the units. I also ran out to the airport to take care of a couple odds and ends and put my battery on the charger.
March 21, 2009 (8 hours)
This morning I put my displays in and fired them up and spent some time playing with them. I also installed my manifold pressure sensor to the back of the subpanel, routed the hose to a fitting through the firewall, and installed the hose and fitting to the engine. In the evening Aaron helped me reinstall the comm antennas and also tighted up a few bolts through the firewall. After we got home I added the prop-guard tape to the leading edges of my prop.
March 22, 2009 (8 hours)
I'm still trying to knock as many items off the list as I can. I received the replacement bellcrank bracket from Trutrak but then discovered I don't have the right length bolt, so I'll order one from Aircraft Spruce. I replaced the rod end bearing attached to the purge valve with a clevis end which will prevent it from rubbing against the top of the cowl. Next I replaced the oil plug in the sump with an oil quick drain, which will make future oil changes much easier. After that I wired up my eMag and pMag. In the evening I headed back out to install my prop.
March 23, 2009 (1 hour)
This evening I set the timing on my eMag and pMag and then fit a short piece of tubing between the aluminum pitot tube line from the wing and the plastic tubing that goes up to my panel.
March 24, 2009 (1 hour)
I need to add my own marks on the oil dipstick, so I put four quarts of oil in the engine. Because it doesn't flow very fast in the cooler temps, I'll wait until tomorrow to mark it.
March 25, 2009 (1 hour)
Made a small line in the dipstick then added another quart and wait another day. Did a few other small tasks.
March 26, 2009 (1 hour)
And another quart and more waiting. Pete came out and we connected his laptop up to my eMag and pMag to check the timing and other settings.
March 27, 2009 (8 hours)
Took today off work to weigh the plane. I rented a set of scales used to weigh race cars which worked really nice. I measured it in a few configurations; from just the basic interior to all pieces and with and without gear leg fairings and wheel pants. With just the basic interior it came to 1103 pounds and went up to 1118 pounds with everything added. Later on I started connecting the fuel pump and the fuel lines. Of course, it was in the plane when I weighed it, as well as all other uninstalled items like access plates, fairings, etc.
March 28, 2009 (8 hours)
Today I added the brake fluid, discovering that the brake line wasn't tight at the fitting that goes through the fuselage right by the gear leg. After tightening that up all was fine. Next it was time to add some fuel, so I waved the fuel truck over. We only filled one wing and all was good for a while. However, after about 15-20 minutes I notices a small wet area under the wing. Aaron helped me drain the fuel out into a bunch of fuel cans we had.
March 29, 2009 (8 hours)
I picked up some aviation form-a-gasket and added it to the rubber gasket of the fuel sender, thinking this is where it was leaking. Once I added some more fuel it seemed okay at first, then noticed fuel seeping out again. Then I finally realized it wasn't coming out from behind the sender, but instead the access plate screws. I had prosealed the access cover on, but it was coming out from a few of the screws. I'll have to order some more proseal, so I decided to knock off a bunch of other tasks. I finished installing the roll servo bracket and pushrod at connects to the bellcrank, as well as replacing the servo screw per their service bulletin. Next I torqued the nosewheel castle nut to the right breakout force, drilled the holes and installed the cotter pin. After dinner I got to play contortionist crawling into the baggage compartment with the canopy still on. I final tightened the forward end of the elevator pushrod, replacing this servo screw as well and bolting the seat belt shoulder straps to the cables from the aft fuselage.
March 30, 2009 (1 hour)
Tonight I went ahead and bonded the heater pads and thermostat sensor to the bottom of the oil sump.
March 31, 2009 (1 hour)
I had a small crack in one of the seat ribs, probably from bending it too much as I stepped on it without the seat pans in place. So I stop drilled it, then added a small strap scross the crack area.
April 1, 2009 (1 hour)
Worked on wiring my stick.
April 3, 2009 (8 hours)
I took the day off work and rented some nice digital scales from Kennedy Scales and weighed my plane. With minimal interior and no gear fairings it came to 1103 pounds, and with full interior and fairings it weighed as much as 1118 pounds. I also used some aviation form-a-gasket to seal up the tank access plate screws, which worked just fine. I also filled my brake lines, only spilling lots of it on the hangar floor. Afterwards I got a good start on installing my fuel boost pump.
April 4, 2009 (6 hours)
I finished installing my fuel pump and filter this morning, just in time for Alex Peterson to come by to do a thorough inspection. He noted a bunch of little things, such as loose wires, bolts showing one too many threads, and a few other odds and ends. He pointed out that the elevator skin was rubbing lightly on the support bracket at the ends of its travel, so I'll need to take the elevators back off and adjust the rod end bearings to get a little more clearance. There were other odds and ends - it's nice to have some expert eyes checking out your plane. Once that was done we were going to try doing a first engine run, but found a slight fuel leak in a couple of the fittings. We decided to hold off the start so I could recheck the torque on all the fittings and for the fuel smell to evaporate.
April 5, 2009 (4 hours)
I spent the morning rechecking every fuel, oil and brake fitting throughout the plane. I had been using the turn-of-the-nut method for getting them tight, but that seemed to leave a number of the fittings under-torqued. I used a small scale to pull on my wrench ends to get just the right torque. I also secured some of the loose wires in a few spots and installed my seat belts.
April 6, 2009 (2 hours)
Still working on items from Alex's list, including adjusting aileron pushrods and the throttle forward limit. I also removed the elevators and the attach bracket from the horizontal stabilizer.
April 8, 2009 (2 hours)
I made a small shim out of 0.063" aluminum for the elevator attach bracket, moved the rod end bearings out 1/16", and then reattached the elevators.
April 10, 2009 (4 hours)
I disconnected the fuel line at the fuel pump and ran it into a five gallon fuel can. I ran the boost pump for one minute and was able to determine that my fuel flow is around 50 gph, which is more than enough. I finished up securing some of the remaining wires and added a few washers where there were four bolts threads showing past the nut. The other RVers in the area advised me to make my baffle dams in front of cylinders 1 & 2 removeable so I can manage temps better. I drilled the rivets from the baffle dams, then riveted an attach angle to them, then reattached them to the baffles with screws and nuts. Pete Howell stopped out in the evening and checked out my plane, offering up a few good suggestions.
April 11, 2009 (4 hours)
Spent the morning installing the SCAT tubing ducts from the baffles to the heat muffs then to the cabin heat inlets. After lunch Alex swung by so we could do a first engine start. We had a small audience as we pulled it out, put some chocks under the wheels and climbed in. It fired right up and ran really nice! We only ran it about five minutes or so, then shut it down so we could check for any leaks or other problems. No signs of any issues - another big milestone reached!
Here's a video of the first engine start.
And here's another video with the RPM's up a little higher.
April 13, 2009 (2 hours)
After work I pulled the plane out of the hangar so I could do another engine run. I did a set of mag checks with only a 20-30 RPM drop on each side. During the first run the idle speed was a little low, so we adjusted it up. Today it idled around 800 RPM, so I'll adjust it back down a little, aiming for around 700 RPM. I did a couple brief taxi tests around the ramp area, then ran the engine up to around 2000 RPM. I throttled back and let temps lower a bit, then decided I'd see if I could find out the static RPM. I got up to a little more than 2200 RPM briefly with a little more throttle available. Because the area I was in didn't have lots of open area, I decided I'd stop there, slowly dropped the RPMs back down, then shut it down. Later on I came back out and applied RTV to the baffles to seal them up to the engine.
April 14, 2009 (2 hours)
I sealed up most of the gaps around the engine baffles using a caulk tube of RTV. I forgot to bring out a straw which would let me get into some of the tighter areas, so I'll need to finish up another time.
April 15, 2009 (2 hours)
Tom Berge came out this evening and did a thorough job giving my plane another inspection. He didn't buy it when I tried to tell him I safety wired my oil quick drain backwards just so he'd have something to find wrong. Tom pointed out a few other odds and ends I can address, especially things that will be maintenance items over time.
April 16, 2009 (2 hours)
I'm having the static lines and transponder checked in the morning, but I wanted to see if I could check the static myself in advance to make sure I didn't have any leaks. I put tape over one of the static ports, then added modeling clay over the other but with a plastic hose covering the port. When I sucked some of the air out and then crimped the hose I could see the altimeter go up as expected, but air was leaking somewhere because the altimeter would drop back down pretty quickly. I added a little E6000 adhesive over the tubing connections in the aft fuselage, but this didn't seem to help.
April 17, 2009 (2 hours)
In the morning I brought my plane to RC Avionics. A few hours later they called and said my static, pitot and transponder all checked out just fine. That's a nice relief. Air must have been leaking around the modeling clay when I was testing it the night before. Later in the evening I went out to address the few bolts that had four threads showing. I know this is close to bottoming out the nut on the solid bolt shank, so I added a thin washer to get down to between one and three threads showing.
April 18, 2009 (6 hours)
Per Tom's recommendation, I loosened all the flap bolts slightly. This will allow them to rotate a little better, with less wear. I also spend a fair amount of time under the panel adding cable ties to anything that was loose and taking care of other odds and ends.
April 19, 2009 (3 hours)
My DAR inspection is tomorrow, so I spent the morning taking care of last minute details, none of which would cause me not to pass, but it's good to have them done anyways. This included adding RTV to the remaining spots around the baffles and making two of my ignition wires a little longer.
April 20, 2009 (1 hour)
Tim Mahoney, one of the DARs in the area came out this morning and, after inspecting it and having me do a brief engine run, gave me my airworthiness certificate! Now my plane is finally legal to fly. Tim spent a fair amount of time covering the operating limitations, my flight test area and other stuff. It's really nice to finally be at this point.
April 22, 2009 (2 hours)
This evening I spent a little time test fitting my nose gear leg and intersection fairings. Once I had them trimmed to fit and aligned right I drilled the intersection fairing to the bottom cowl.
April 24, 2009 (2 hours)
This evening I did a little more work on the nose gear intersection fairing, heating it up and reshaping it a bit to get a little better fit. Then I added a few layers of fiberglass over the front to make up some of the thickness I had filed away. I also added nutplates to the bottom cowl to screw the fairing to it.
April 25, 2009 (4 hours)
In the morning I mixed up some epoxy with cotton flox to build up a couple gaps in the fairings and mixed up some epoxy with microballoons to add a finishing layer over the glass I had laid up yesterday. Later I went out to the airport and replaced my flap position sensor which wasn't working. I also installed the empennage fairings and the bottom wing access panel covers. I also did a couple of test runs with my engine to get the idle speed down close to 600 rpm.
April 26, 2009 (6 hours)
Today I installed all the interior access covers, floor pans, rear baggage walls and the seat cushions.
April 27, 2009 (2 hours)
I disconnected the wires to my fuel flow transducer to see if I could determine why I wasn't getting any readings. I found good voltage and ground on the correct wires coming from the EFIS. I reconnected the wires up for now, figuring I'd call AFS to see if I needed to swap out the transducer. Just to double-check, I turned the units on, opened the purge valve, turned on the boost pump and found I'm now getting fuel flow readings. I must have not had one of the wire connections tight. I like simple problems like that. I also jacked the plane up in the air and installed a nose wheel axle modification that solves some of the problems with Van's standard design. I can notice quite a bit less drag when I pull the plane now.
April 28, 2009 (2 hours)
I needed to find a way to secure the wires in the wing root. The space between the wing root and the fuselage is pretty tight, but I managed to get some wire ties around the wires, then added some foam strips around it to keep the wires from chafing. Once that was done I installed the wing root fairings.
April 29, 2009
Doug Weiler, another local rv'er who's got many thousands of hours in the air, is going to fly the first flight for me. He came out tonight to check out the plane and get familiar with all the systems in the plane.
May 1, 2009
After dinner we stopped out at the airport and I had Aaron climb into the cockpit to help me calibrate the EFIS magnetometer. Basically you start the calibration routine and follow the steps it gives you, including rotating it in a circle for a bit. I had tried it once before, but because you can't simultaneously pull the plane in circles with the towbar and see what the screen says, Aaron was able to tell me when to stop.
May 2, 2009 (2 hours)
Because wood shrinks and swells with humidity changes, any prop that's (in part) made of wood needs to have the prop bolt torque checked periodically. Although it's only been on for a few weeks, I decided to remove the spinner and re-torque the bolts, then safety wired them back on. In the process, I also removed the prop extension bolts to add blue loctite to the threads, which wasn't mentioned in the instructions but the manufacturer recommended when I contacted him about it. I also drilled and tapped a hole through the nose gear bracket and the round end caps for the nose wheel mod I installed earlier in the week, then put in a couple #8 screws. While I don't think they'd rotate as the wheels turn, this will definitely prevent it. At this point my airplane is ready to fly at any time.