Dec 30, 2023     Right Wing Locker cut out - (3 hours)       Category: Wings

Finally took the plunge and cut out the big hole for my right wing locker. Went well...tomorrow I'll clean it up some, but the cut went well. Used a 1" hole saw for the rear corners and then my Olfa knife for the long straight cuts. I went ahead and also cut the locker door supports and smoothed them out but didn't drill them yet.

  Nov 27, 2023     Fuel Sender cover - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Needed to get my covers on my fuel senders managed...so....
1) First I made a template with 5 equally spaced holes (used a template maker I found online). I taped it to the covers, marked the hole location onto the cover and drilled them.
2) Drilled the pilot holes on the leading edge skin.
3) Updrilled to #10 so I could use a nutplate
4) Hollowed out the cork behind the afformentioned nutplates. The bottom (front) one seems like it may rub on the tank therefore I ground it down by about a third.
5) Used my newly aquired nutplate drill guides from Osh this year. I needed to use a corner on due to it's proximity to the fuel sender wire in order to keep it clear.
6) Used my other newly aquired squeezer kit from Osh this year. Pressed on flush rivets (after dimpling first).
FIN. Looks good.
I'll probably still put a bit of a cork or rubber gasket under the cover. This will give it a little rise which should give the cover a wee bit of room over the sender cap.
Note: I got the Fuel Sender caps at Oshkosh from Kit Plane Enthusiast for about $15 though they are also here: https://kitplaneenthusiast.com/products/fuel-sender-fairing

  Nov 26, 2023     Building a hanger - (100 hours)       Category: Workshop

Spent about 6 weeks away from my plane while I was worked on my hanger. I started renting one from my flying club airport (we own our airport! https://www.greencastleaeroclub.com/ ). Anyhow...the hanger is 'open', as in it doesn't have any walls, has a roof only. However they allow us to enclose the hanger at our own expense if we want. Another bloke and I decided on getting back-to-back hangers so we could take advantage of each other's walls. He was decidely the brains of the operation while I was the injured mule.
During those weeks we built bifold (opens center to out) doors, leveled the floors, bored the holes in the ground, and dropped 4x6s and 6x6s into the holes that ran all the way to the roof rafters where we securly fastened them. We hung the doors and got his floor concrete poured. We hung headers for my hanger because I'm going to build in a loft above my plane for storage. We had to work pretty hard in order to allow him to snow-bird down to Florida until March. I'll continue to henpeck at mine over the winter. We figure that we'll put up the perlings and sheet metal once he gets back, whence I'll also pour my floors.
Tonight I fastened the first of my loft floor joists (13'x2"x6"). I'll interchange every other one with a 2"x12"x13' I-beam type floor joists and then put down 3/4" tongue-and-groove plywood for flooring.

  Aug 20, 2023     Pitot Heater Controller Mounting - (1 hour)       Category: Wings

Sometimes it's just the little things. Drilled and mounted the pitot heater controller box. I'm not 100% sure if I'm happy with it yet. I may yet mount it on the back side (same holes) of the rib and access it through the bellcrank inspection hole. This is why I just put pan head screws and nylon selflocking nuts (little washer in there). I figure that it's pretty easy to still reach in through the inspection hole and hold a ratchet or pliers on the back side nut and screwdriver on the front. I may still just put a nutplate for each hole and make it much easier for removal requiring only a screwdriver from the inspection hole. Time will tell. I don't plan on perminetly sealing the top of the wing until it's in the hanger anyhow (I only install about 30 rivets for transport, easy to drill out).
I think I'll run the pitot power, ground (both are 10 gauge) and sensor (14 guage) wires through the grommets already in place for the landing lights. Lots of room yet, though I'll probaby clovehitch the pitot wires together separately from the lighting bundle.

  Aug 13, 2023     Pitot mount work - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

I picked up a good dual handle rivet squeezer set at Oshkosh this year. (pic 5) Riveted the pitot box nut plates together with the edge braces (L channel). Used the the box mount to line up the placement on the inside skin by starter punch through a few of the nutplate holes, then by marking the rest using the inspection cover (sharpie). (pic 1) After drilling out all of the nutplate holes to final size (5/16"), I placed the pitot box in place and cleco'd through the main spar hole that lined up with my mount brace (had to drill it out) and C-vice-gripped the other part of the mount to the rib. I lifted the wing with my left arm, and from the bottom of the wing, (pic 2) screwed the panel mount screws (using my rigth hand) through the nutplates in order to pull the pitot box up tight against the wing skin. This took a little longer than anticipated because I also had to re-run a tap through each hole and though the associated nutplate. Once done I set the wing back down and form the top-inside of the wing I drilled the corners of the access hole through the box (updrilled with step drill) and cut the rest of the pilot inspection hole out with my handy Olfa knife (pic 3). I then drilled out the pop rivet holes that I'll use to mount the pitot box to the wing skin perminently. Re-lifted the wing (arm is getting a little tired by this time) and removed all of the screws. Deburred, Cortec'd (corrosion protection) everything (pic 4), cleco'd back in place, relifted the wing again and riveted with my manual riveter (pic 6). I was really wishing at this point that I had enough room to move my table out of the way and put the wing on saw horses...but there was no room.

  Jul 17, 2023     Pitot nut plate drilling - (1 hour)       Category: Wings

Drilled nutplate rivet holes using borrowed nutplate jig. I'm gonna have to get me one of my own of these (and the squeezer). I just use it often enough and I'm near starting my fuselage where I expect to use it even more. Looks like I also need to get a corner nutplate jig and nutplates while at Oshkosh next week. Looking forward to leaving this Thursday to Brodhead, WI until Sunday for Pietenpol fly-in then to Osh. Gonna wait until I get back to rivet these first one because i want to drill out the corner nutplate rivets holes first so i can take it back apart and debur everything before the final rivet.

  Jul 04, 2023     Pitot reinforment box work - (6 hours)       Category: Wings

Spent more time figuring out the reinforcement box and settled on simple. The nutplates that will be attached to the backplate will be riveted through the wing skin, through the reinforcement frame, and through the L-Channels. I figure this will give the strongest support. I may have to wait until I get back from Oshkosh (just a couple of weeks) for buying a deeper squeezer head. Anyhow, today I cut out the rear frame using 0.025, then cut some L-Channel to fit. On the front of the L-Channel I shaped it so that it will properly fit over the main spar angle (on the bottom). I also pilot drilled the horizontal holes on the OB side L-channel brace so that once I lay it down on the wing skin, I can drill-in-place and rivet to the IB side of rib #7.
Also had to dissassemble my air shears twice because it kept siezing up....grrrrrr

  Jul 02, 2023     Pitot inspection panel - (3 hours)       Category: Wings

Spent a lot of time just looking at it to see what i want to do. I decided to mount the pitot tube on an inspection panel so i can remove it when moving the wing or during inspetion. So I had to figure out a way to reinforce the panel against flexing, especially since the probe is the Dynon heated probe and pretty weighty.
I cut out a piece of 0.025 6061 T6 and drilled and cut out the pitot tower dewdrop hole. I finished the night by riveting (the solid rivets that Dynon provides) the angle nutplates onto the pitot tower base.
I haven't built the L angle box for it on the wing yet.

  Jun 27, 2023     Rt Wing fuel line pressure check - (2 hours)       Category: Wings

I used my homemade fuel line air-tank adapter...lol...just a beverage line with a tire valve stem clamped to it, and clamped to the main fuel bulkhead connector. I then capped the fuel tank vent with one of the cleco rubber caps and screwed on the fuel drain valve, finally screwing on the fuel tank cap throat and cap.
I then hooked my air tank pig and pushed some air pressure into the tank, I carefully watched it expand some to ensure it was pressurized, then squirted soapy water on all joints and connections. The only place I initially got bubbles around my fuel cap, so i tighted it up by turning the nut on the bottom. Then the only place I saw bubbles (a few) was through the tank cap key hole. Nothing really I can do aboiut that and i felt that it's tiny enough that it's probalby not much of an issue anyhow.

  Jun 26, 2023     Rt wing fuel lines installed - (3 hours)       Category: Wings

Installed fuel lines with EZ Turn fuel lube. The line holes that led to the tank (rib 3) needed expanded UP just a bit in order to make it easier for a deep socket to fit on it. Required to remove the tank (pretty lodged in there) and clean up after the cut expansion.