Empennage

Finishing up the tail

Wanted to knock out the tail area before moving back to finishing up the canopy. Temporarily mounted the horizontal stabilizer and the vertical stabilizer to the fuselage, and then fit the elevators. Completed but not pictured is the final pushrod that connects to the elevator horns. What this means is I can sit in the cockpit and make the elevators go up and down with the control stick! Kind of a milestone, albeit a small one...

Also mounted the rudder and fabricated and mounted the rudder stops.

The fiberglass empennage fairing ( the greenish tan thing) has been trimmed and molded to fit. I used a heat gun to soften it up in areas in order to massage it to fit better. Right now it's pretty good- but will be much better after a few layers of epoxy-micro ballons filler. The blue tape is in place to protect the aluminum from the epoxy. Lots of sanding and the fairing should be good to go.

Beyond that, the rudder pedals can be attached to the rudder cables (required custom-fabricated steel attachments), and the tail should be good to go. Then I'll disassemble it so I can open the garage door again... It will also free up a lot of space in the garage. The tail parts will go on much, much quicker the next (and final) time...

Panel and canopy

Long time no update... kinda slowed down a bit in 2009, hoping to pick up the pace a bit in 2010. Here is a pic of the panel, minus a few instruments. I've just today ordered a few new items, should have a new, even more exciting picture in a week or so.

The canopy sucked away my motivation. Hard to believe I started it 14 months ago.... I finally got to this point before the weather slowed things down again. I had help riveting on the aft top skin (Thanks Duane!) after I finished all of the aft fuselage items. The canopy is drilled to the frame, the windscreen is roughcut and just resting along the roll-bar in this picture. It still needs some more trimming to get it to fit well. I'm working on mounting the elevators and rudder at this time. I'll get pics of that up when I finish.

Holey Panel, Batman

I've nearly finished cutting all the panel holes. I'm proud to say I did it myself and there are only a few slight cosmetic errors. The only one that I think will annoy me is on the map box lower edge- I'm going to try some epoxy filler- hopefully it won't be noticable after painting. 

Only one hole left to do- the big area near the middle is for the AIM-1 engine, which is now back with the manufacturer getting reprogrammed. I'll cut that hole once it gets back here, hopefully in about 2 weeks. Note the dark blue- that is layout dye I used for more precise marking (better than a Sharpie). I used a tool called the ARC-360 to cut all the square holes and all the large (>1.25" dia) round holes. It is a pneumatic angle grinder with a small 1/8" end mill, mounted to a bar with an adjustable post. The post goes through a centering hole and the distance from the post to the end mill determines the hole radius(I should have taken a picture and saved myself some typing). I modified it to make straight cuts by using a peice of angle as a straight edge and replacing the post with a square block. I was then able to push the tool up against the clamped-down angle and make reasonable rectangular cut-outs.

I also riveted in the ELT mount- I bought an Ameri-King AK-451 406MHz ELT that came with all the bits needed for a complete mounting, including the gold anodized bracket seen below. The panel it's screwed onto was a kit from Vans that fit perfectly between the stringers on the right side, just aft of the baggage area.

Drilled and mounted ELT antenna. A lot of people mount it under the fiberglass tail fairing. I opted to put it out in the breeze, on the top fuselage, just aft of where the canopy will stop when fully opened.

Another hole in my airplane! This one is the outside air temperature sensor. I put it on the side of the fuselage, under the horiz. stabilizer. It wires into the Dynon remote compass module, which is also mounted in the tail. 

Coming next- with the ELT located, I can complete the aft fuselage wiring, then rivet the aft fuselage skin in place. Then I can get back to the canopy (it's really warm now!) 

Also, when the panel holes are all done, I can paint it, then start mounting and wiring instruments. This can (and will!) be done in air-conditioned comfort inside the house - a good project for summer...

Tail Mounted

I mounted the vertical stabilizer and horizontal stabilizer in the last week. I had to drill several holes for the many bolts that are used to attach them to the fuselage. I used reamers for this job, to get nice tight tolerances on the bolt holes. It looks kinda cool, with these parts mounted. Unfortunately, I don't have the space to leave them on, so they had to come right off again and go back on the wall.... Later, after the canopy is done, I will break down that large wooden box in the background and there will be lots more room to work- then I will remount the tail parts, and attach and rig  the elevators and rudder.

I also drilled and reamed the engine mount holes and started work on the panel, drilling holes. The 3 1/8" instrument hoels didn't turn out that great, may have to rethink that step...

Plan for the near future- rivet aft top skin, then get going on the canopy again. It's warm enough now I don't have to worry about the plexiglass cracking.

Instrument Panel Design

Here is my almost-final instrument panel design. I've already purchased most of the items shown, with the notable exception of the Dynon D10A EFIS. There is a modified 6-pack on the left, where the directional gyro has been replaced with the EFIS. This was done to satisfy several of my "needs" in a cost effective way. I wanted a 2-axis autopilot, a CDI for the NAV radio, and some kind of stall warning. The Dynon with the HS34 *should* work with the analog Collins NAV, to provide a very nice digital HSI. The Dynon also provides the autopilot function, with the purchase of the servos. Also, with the special pitot tube, the Dynon give an angle-of-attack indication, a step-up from just a stall warning.

The engine istrumentation is an I-K technologies AIM-1, it will monitor all 4 CHTs and all 4 EGTs as well as oil temp, pressure, and fuel pressure. I don't plan on using the fuel flow option. It also measures MAP. I plan on using a MGL digital tachometer and an MGL digital volt/amp meter. The fuel gauges will most likely be the analog display units from Vans. 

My handheld GPS will attach to a RAM mount on the right side of the cockpit, not attached to the panel. This will make it much easier to upgrade in the future. I can still use the GPS serial output for the HSI and the ELT.

A few funkier things, not shown, I am going to use NASA space shuttle -style switch guards on the master and ignition toggles. Also from Perihelion Designs, a nice red/white LED gooseneck lamp is mounted to the pilot side and can be directed at the panel or charts at night. Also, I have a "START ENGINE" pushbutton from a Honda S2000. 

Electrical Design

I've spent alot of time recently planning the electrical system and instrument panel layout. This post is mainly about the electrical system. The almost final design is shown here - don't bother with this bitmap- click this link for the pdf of schematic,  (on fileQube page, just look for small "download file" link near the bottom).

The design is based on Bob Nuckolls Aeroelectric schematic Z-11. I really like the E-bus, the alternator loadmeter, and the simpler started control, so I've used those ideas. I've already bought most all of the components shown, as well as wire, crimp terminals, etc.

I've also put some effort into planning the wire and cable routing.

The biggest problem on RVs is routing cable from the panel/forward area through the spar carry-through tot the wings and aft fuse. I have one conduit through the center to route to the aft fuselage. The wings might be tricky since there is only one hole on each side. I'm routing the Dynon remote compass cable along the upper longeron to the fron, to keep it away from the strobe lines and the transponder coax. Also, the strobe lines to the wings have been routed along the outside, under the seats, to keep them away from sensitive lines.

- see the pdf of routing diagram.

Brakes, Wiring started

Lots of smaller tasks have been completed- I installed the brake lines and fuel lines inside the fuselage, plumbed the static line, and drilled and mounted the cabin heat valve to firewall. Also installed the crotch strap mounts. I decided to go with 5 point belts, and bought a pair of harnesses from Crow Enterprises in CA. I'll include those in a pic someday. 

I also installed the smaller,shorter (of the two) elevator  pushrod (after making a new one- long story). Just last Fri. I had help and rivetted the strobe box support, and two antenna doubler onto the fuselage bottom. My plan is to finish up the interior aft area, so I can rivet on the remaining aft top skin. Once that skin is on, access to the region will be much more difficult so I want to minimize what I have to do there. One snag is the ELT (emergency locator transmitter) that will likely mount aft. I've been waiting for a newer, less expensive 406MHz model to hit the market, the ACK E-04. I may just go ahead and rivet the skin on, and resign myself to installing the ELT later. The aft wiring has begun, it looks really bad here, but it's a work in progress. 

The picture makes it look pretty dirty back there- most of that is overspray from the fuselage interior painting. I definitely need to clean that up before rivetting on the skin.