After The Inspection

Austin came down Sunday and spent the day helping me put the airplane back together after the inspection. There are a whole bunch of panels on every airplane that get removed for regular inspections. We almost finished but got tired about 5:30 and went to have dip cones. I'll finish up early this week and hopefully have the first flight very soon. Maybe Thursday, Shelby :).

It's An Airplane!

It's officially an airplane! I got my airworthiness inspection done on Saturday morning. The inspector was DAR Tim Martinez of San Antonio. There were no problems and he said it was the best homebuild he had inspected and that the quality of riveting was better than the factory airplanes he had inspected. I showed Paula the pink slip (airworthiness inspection) and she said it's peach, not pink.

Fuel Testing

Part of preparing for the first flight is making sure the fuel tanks and fuel lines are clear of any construction crud. While flushing the tanks and lines I calibrated the fuel gauges which required adding two gallons at a time to tell the computers how to accurately measure the fuel. I also checked the flow rate of the electric backup fuel pump. Here's one of the filters I used. I have a big stack of them and change them often.

Here's my temporary fuel shutoff valve that I used to fill the gas can for transfer and calibration. Not in the picture is my grounding wire to prevent static issues.

Engine Start

Ready for my first engine start. Well, actually, it's not the first. I started it last week but the timing was off which made it run rough. With some help from Gafford Aero, I corrected the minor timing problem and now it runs like a sewing machine. No leaks or runs and the only problem is an incorrect oil pressure sensor. Dynon is sending me the correct one so I'm using an external gauge for the oil pressure until it gets here.

Video of the engine start. The prop looks like spaghetti because of the video frame rate of an iphone matches the rpm or something technical like that. Don't worry, it's not melting.

Cowl Heat Barrier

Installed the cowl heat barrier. The exhaust is close to several spots on the lower cowl and this reflective material keeps it a little cooler.

Finished Filtered Air Box

I finished the filtered air box (FAB) and all the connections. This shows the cable connections for carb heat.

Here's a bottom view showing the alternate air door. This should be the last major firewall forward or engine related work. I'll still need to go over everything to make sure it's secured and torqued and safety wired as needed.

Alternate Air Door

This is the alternate air door. It's the almost round thing on the bottom of the air box with two screws. If anything clogs the normal intake or filter, you pull the knob in the cockpit that opens the door to let air in through the bottom bypassing the filter. I've finished almost all the construction of the air box and intake. I just need to do the final installation connecting cables and making it pretty by sanding and painting the front and inside of the snorkel.

Carburetor Heat

This is the intake for carburetor heat on the air box. The lever that sticks up in the upper right of the photo will connect to a cable in the cockpit for activating it. Only riveting left to finish it.

Snorkel Epoxied

I attached a fine grained styrofoam plug between the back of the snorkel inlet and the filtered air box and used a round file to cut a smooth channel between the two. Then I fiberglassed the inside of the channel and inflated a balloon inside to keep its shape. After it dries, I'll reinforce the inside of the snorkel and trim it to fit.

Modified FAB

I decided to modify the filtered air box a little. To get the inlet of the FAB to match the cowl snorkel, I raised the front of the FAB about 1/2 inch. I cut a wedge from each side and then taped it where I wanted it to be. I heated and cooled it several times with the heat gun and then clamped it in place to prep for a fiberglass patch.

FAB

The FAB is the filtered air box. It holds the air filter, carburetor heat and alternate air door and looks like an upside down air cleaner on a car. I'm about half way through constructing it. After it's through, I'll install it on the carburetor and then fabricate a fiberglass extension from the FAB to the back of the lower cowl snorkel.

Intake Air Seal

Here are the intake air seals almost finished. I only need to trim the air seal fabric to fit.

Exhaust Hung

I'm finishing hanging the exhaust. Just the cross strap to attach which is already fitted and built. This is another task that would be easy the second time because understanding what needs doing is the difficult part. The hand drawn instructions were vague at best. I also had to move some electrical to fit the right hanger strap. Below is the easy left side with not much in the way. It's the black hose with two clamps and stainless tubes sticking out both ends.

The top of the hangers attach to sump tank bolts with a tab.

This is the right side showing how crowded it is.

Fuel Pump Overflow Line

I installed the fuel pump overflow line this weekend. The hardest part was finding the little aluminum tube. Here's where it exits out the bottom of the fuselage.

This is where any overflow would exit the fuel pump.

Finished Engine Wiring

I wrapped up the engine wiring last night. I do have some very minor things left like sealing the firewall penetrations but I'd put the wiring part at 99% done. It was a more difficult job than I expected. Next time will be ten times faster as now I know the how and where part of the job. On the right side I used the black "snakeskin" wrap for chafe protection of wires.

On the left side I used white spiral wrap. I've seen both used on many aircraft and I'll see which one I like better after some use. I also spent a couple of hours inside under the panel finishing the connections from the engine and securing wires.

Oil Temperature Sensor

I had to call Aero Sport Power (the engine builders) to get advice about the Oil Temp Sensor as it didn't want to screw into the oil filter adaptor. Their advice was to remove the adaptor and chase the threads with a tap. Here's the picture of me doing it. That was the problem and all fixed and re-installed after a through cleaning.

Manifold Pressure Sensor

I got the manifold pressure sensor installed this weekend along with a bunch of other firewall forward wiring. Here's the adaptor I used between the 1/8 line that comes through the firewall and the 1/4 line that goes into the sensor. It's from an oxygen line that my Dad used and fits perfectly on the sensor fitting. The connector between the two lines is from the aviation isle of an auto parts store in the vacuum line section.

Engine Sensor Wiring

I'm almost done installing the engine sensors. Routing and attaching the sensor wires to the engine monitor harnesses will come next.

Oil Filler

Here's the oil filler installed. It has a threaded base that makes it very secure. I've read that others don't have the threaded base and are difficult to keep from wobbling and leaking. Here it is all secured with safety wire.

CHT And Sensor Wiring

I'm waiting for an order of Pliobond glue to finish the last tiny part of the baffles so I've moved on to wiring the engine compartment. This picture shows the plug wires and the probes for the Cylinder Head Temperature (CHT).

Here are two of the pressure sensors for measuring oil and fuel pressure. New engine monitor systems check and measure just about everything under the hood. You can see the big bundle of wires that will go all over the engine compartment. It looks confusing at first but every wire is easy to identify and easy to find where it goes. The hardest part is finding the best path for the wires and making them secure.