Nov 17, 2021     Aircraft Spruce order arrived Category: Fuselage

Shipment of electrical wire and fittings, bolts, and misc items from Aircraft Spruce. This will allow me to start replacing and then installing the wiring.

  Oct 07, 2021     Pitot tube and heel plates - (1 hour)       Category: Fuselage

Reinstalled pitot tube lines in fuselage.

Screwed heel plates onto floor boards with Phillips head screws. I had temporarily used Robertson head screws which wouldn't have been very original or credible.

  Jul 01, 2021     Installed carpeting and heel plates - (1.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Removed some earlier carpet that I wasn't happy with and installed new carpet that fits better. Installed heel plates under the rudder pedals.

  Jun 24, 2021     Rework and installation - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

I wasn't happy with the fitment of the flooring in the plane. I removed what I had previously installed and put in new pieces. Of course, I then had to take them out to fit some additional pieces for the spar connector plates. These were some new tapered bushings that a buddy manufactured for me. Each wing is held in place with two large pins. Each pin passes through the spar connector plates and two tapered bushings that fit into the machined aluminum fuselage frame truss. Doing the math, that means there are 8 tapered bushings required. Unfortunately, only 5 survived the accident and subsequent years of storage and shipment. My buddy also manufactured one of the aluminum end caps that was missing. I finished this piece up by rounding some of the ends and primed it.
I installed all the bushings and installed some bolts and spacers that hold the fuselage frame truss together. Once that was done, I was able to permanently connect the front and rear control sticks. This required disassembling the yokes a few times to ensure that everything was properly engaged.
It doesn't look like much was done since last entry, but that's because it was a lot of back and forth. Progress is not always in the forward direction.

  Jun 16, 2021     Floor boards secured - (1 hour) Category: Fuselage

Received a shipment from A/C Spruce today. In the shipment was a load of tinnerman nuts to secure the floor boards. Installed the nuts and secured the front floors.

  Jun 10, 2021     Brakes and Interior - (4.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Spent a lot of time looking at the rudder pedals and original brake assemblies. The original brake master cylinders won't work for the new brakes. They don't have sufficient volume displacement or achieve sufficient pressures to adequately brake the airplane. Installed some of the interior to get a better understanding of the room and clearances to mount new master cylinders. Should I try to create heel brakes like the original Dalotel or should I try to create some toe brakes similar to the ever popular and well proven RV series. In the end, I think I'm going to go with toe brakes. I'll remove the pointless foot straps from the original rudder pedals and use that area for the toe brakes. This will require some modifications to the rudder pedals but it will be the most effective, with the least amount of modification.

While I was determining clearance for the brakes, I decided to test fit some of the other interior pieces and check my fit in the plane. This was the first time I sat in the plane. I knew that it would be tight but I needed to have some of the interior in to fully appreciate the fit. As someone who's just approaching 6'0", the rear seat will JUST work. I won't be able to sit properly in the front seat and be able to close the canopy. The front seat will accept someone up to 5'9" comfortably or someone 5' 10" if they slouch.

To do this, I built up a new rear seat. The original rear seat didn't survive the accident or subsequent years of storage. The front seat is a nicely formed plastic tub with some padded vinyl. It nicely cradles my backside but it uses up a couple of inches of vertical space. I made the rear seat as simple as possible. It's made from some scrap 4.5 mm plywood used in the spar construction. The back is connected to the seat bottom using a piano hinge. The upper end of the back rests against a cross tube.

Both seat will leave the pilot or co-pilot with very little head room. We'll likely have to wear in-ear headsets rather than an over-ear style.

  Jun 09, 2021     Floorboards and misc - (3.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

A lot of time spent but not a lot to show for it. Mounted some nutplates in the fuselage. Unfortunately the rivet spacing of the original nutplates doesn't match anything that is currently available. So to mount new nutplates required fitment, drilling, and countersinking. Once those were in, I carpeted the front floorboards and mounted the original heel skid plates in the same position as the original. This took a lot longer than one would expect.

  Jun 08, 2021     Floorboards - (1 hour)       Category: Fuselage

Using original floorboards and carpet as templates, cut new floorboards for the forward two floor areas.

  Jun 07, 2021     Floorboards - (1 hour)       Category: Fuselage

Pulled the old flooring from storage and had a look at it. A couple of pieces of plywood could be reused if desired but the majority of the ply and the entire carpeting is only good for templates. Reviewed fit and installation to understand how it all goes together. Thanks to Ray for keeping all these pieces and taking so many photos when he took it apart.

  May 27, 2021     Fittings and seat rail supports - (1.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

One of the brackets that connects one of the seat rail supports to the frame had some deep corrosion. This corrosion was causing the original aluminum bracket to expand and exfoliate. I made a duplicate of the bracket with some aluminum I had leftover from previous projects.

This new bracket allowed me to fit and install all the seat rail supports into the frame.

  May 25, 2021     Painted seat support panels - (.5 hour)       Category: Fuselage

Sanded the damaged paint from the panels that cover the seat support. Repainted.

These will install under the seats, over top the seat supports that were recently sandblasted and painted.

  May 25, 2021     Sandblasted seat supports - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Forgot to take the seat supports when I sandblasted the fuselage frame so I had to sandblast them in a small sandblasting booth. The booth is so small and low powered that the four pieces took longer to do than the entire fuselage frame. I had to touch them up with a sanding flap wheel to prep them for painting.

  May 09, 2021     Finished painting and started reassembly - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

I finished doing touch ups on the newly painted fuselage frame. It's a lot of work going over the frame ensuring that it is fully covered in paint in all the nooks and crannies of the frame.

This is a big day because that means things are starting to go back on the frame. Not off...

I reassembled the aileron control linkage and mounted it to the frame.

  May 03, 2021     Prep and painting - (2 hours) Category: Fuselage

Spent some time finishing up areas that the sandblasting missed.

Started painting the frame.

  Apr 30, 2021     Sandblasted fuselage - (1 hour)       Category: Fuselage

Took the fuselage to a DIY sandblasting facility. It's a large yard with many stations that one get's to use to sandblast their project. It took less than an hour to remove over 99% of the paint and fabric remnants.

With the paint removed I discovered the some of the tubes were poorly made at the tube factory. The seam down the length of them wasn't fully welded. This would have been noticed when the plane was originally built since they welded right over the joint. They weren't worried about the poor weld quality so neither am I.

This is a good time to show a detailed picture of the cluster of tubes coming together. As one would expect on this airplane, the technique they used was rather unique.

  Apr 24, 2021     Weld repairs and such - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

My dad came over and welded the longeron repair doublers in place.

Afterwards, we worked and re-worked, and re-worked the forward canopy arch to get it to match the middle and rear arch. This involved jacks, ratchets and clamps and bars to get it into shape. We're pretty close.

  Apr 19, 2021     Canopy Arch - (1.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

The cockpit has three identical canopy arches that the overhead plexiglass forms around. The forward arch was bent when the plane flipped over in its accident. The middle and the rear arches were untouched. I made a template of the rear canopy arch out of 3/4" plywood. This will be used to correct the front canopy arch.

I removed the paint and surface rust from the longerons in preparation for welding the repairs to. I also removed the paint from the bends and kinks in the forward canopy arch. This is prep for the weld repairs on the arch.

  Mar 23, 2021     Longeron repair doublers - (1 hour)       Category: Fuselage

Made some doublers to weld over some damages on the lower, LH longeron. Cut the doublers from the curved leading edge of a 0.032 streamlined tubing. This provided a very close curve to wrap around the longeron. Removed paint and grime from the cut tubing. Clamped and beat the repair doublers to fit the tubing for welding.

  Mar 23, 2021     Frame prep for sandblasting - (2 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Spent a couple of hours scraping the last remnants of fabric from the fuselage. Also spent some time masking some of the areas to protect them from sandblasting.

  Mar 17, 2021     Aileron Control Assembly - (2.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Was able to fabricate a tool to allow removal of the collar. This allowed removal of the aluminum cage, which in turn, allowed removal of the control tube.

With the parts removed from the fuselage, I was able to give them a lacquer thinner bath and a gentle scrubbing to clean off all the grease, dirt, and grime. As always, the parts underneath the dirt are beautiful pieces of work. Some of the steel pieces had some light surface rust. Gave them a bath in a rust remover and then a full cleaning and surface prep. Scrubbed the control tube and repainted it. Cleaned and re-greased all the bearings and reinstalled them into the cage.

Temporarily installed the freshly cleaned and lubed torque linkages to the control tube. Discovered that the custom bolts that connect the torque linkages to the control tube are very slightly different sized, by 0.009 of an inch. This difference establishes an upper and a lower bolt, and it establishes a left and a right hand torque linkage by their corresponding mounting holes. Well done Dalotel.

  Mar 13, 2021     Disassembly of Aileron Control Assembly - (1 hour)       Category: Fuselage

Started disassembly of aileron control assembly. Huh? There is a complex assembly that takes the side to side motion of the control stick to make the ailerons move up and down. The base of the control stick connects to a tube that is mounted under the seats along the centreline of the fuselage. The elevator push rod runs through the centre of this tube as is typically done in aircraft, but this tube is mounted on some bearings to allow it to "lean" side to side. This leaning motion must convert into rotational motion that is transferred to the aileron torque tubes. All the components were covered in grease and years of dirt (and some paint). To remove the assembly from the fuselage requires some disassembly. After some preliminary cleaning I discovered that a collar is threaded onto the previously mentioned tube. The collar is about 2.75" in diameter and is mounted inside an aluminum cage with very little clearance. The cage supports the tube's bearing and it is bolted to the rear spar cross plate. Unfortunately the assembly can't be removed from the fuselage until this collar is removed and the cage can be pulled off the end of the tube. There are 4 small holes drilled in the outer circumference of this collar which allows a tool to hook into the collar and unscrew from the tube. All the grease and dirt have long ago seized the collar and without the tool, the collar wouldn't budge.

  Mar 06, 2021     Continuing Disassembly and cleaning - (4 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Removed main spar wing mounting plates. Cleaned them off. Including the old tape and glue where Dalotel had installed some strain gauges during testing. Sadly, the data from that testing is long gone, but the evidence of the testing is still on the frame. I'm glad they are undamaged as they would be costly to replicate. Although, there is a drawing of it. One of the few finished items that matches the drawings.

Removed the threaded rod ends that connect the main spar pins. The rod ends thread into a threaded sleeve that subsequently threads into some tubing in the frame. Once again, a lot of work to make something complex that doesn't need to be. Check out the photos. The rod end has a bearing secured into it allowing for some directional play to align with the spar pins and LH male threads on the shank. The sleeve has LH female threads to accept the rod end but it has RH male threads on the outside of the sleeve. Once it's threaded into the tubing in the frame, turning the sleeve allows the rod end to extend or retract as required. These pieces were all covered in old grease and dirt and required disassembly and some scrubbing in a lacquer thinner bath to get cleaned up and ready for use again.

Removed a long bolt from the floor of the front cockpit. I believe it's a pivot point for a rudder pedal bar. No drawings to confirm but it may be more evident later. The bolt has an aluminum tube with some shoulders machined into the ends. Each end fit into a bimetallic washers. The washer are steel on one side but have a sintered bearing material on the other. These bearing washers and the wear marks on the aluminum tube all suggest some bearing type load. Follow up to initial post. Yes, it's a bushing for a rudder pedal bar. Found a photo taken by Ray showing the assembly in exploded view. Thanks for taking all those pictures Ray. They're more helpful than most of the drawings.

Removed the last of the fuel lines.

Started removing the complex assembly for the control stick base. It allows the side-side motion of the control stick to translate into rotational motion for the aileron torque tubes. Once the base is removed, the rear spar mounting plates can be removed.

  Mar 04, 2021     More disassembly and discoveries - (2.5 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Cleaned up some of the parts that have recently been removed.

Removed rudder cables and fairleads. Rudder cables and turnbuckles are shot but the remaining parts are good for reuse.

Cleaned up and lubricated the rudder cable pulleys. These pulleys were very stiff with age. Used some WD-40 sprayed through the bearings to remove the old grease and dirt. Repeated many times. Coated outside of bearings with penetrating oil allowing the oil to seep into the bearings. Repeated many times until the oil coming through was clean. Applied a final coat of heavier oil. The bearings are adequate now. There's some very slight unevenness to their rotation but really the pulleys are unnecessary where they're located. A simple fairlead would be adequate here. Before I got the pulleys rotating, I considered replacing them with new ones. Unfortunately, these pulleys have a unique dimensions and can't be sourced from AirCraft Spruce. For example, they rotate on 6 mm bolts. That's close to 1/4 inch but not quite... So I got the originals working sufficiently for their purpose.

I also cleaned up the rudder cable extensions. There are some beautifully machined links that are about 6 inches long that connect the rudder cable to the rudder horn. Why were they created instead of using longer cables? I don't know. Maybe I'll figure it out later. Maybe not. These links and their bolts were all covered in splashes of paint, coats of dirt and oil and just a real mess. I thought they may be rusted. 5 minutes in a bath of lacquer thinner and a quick brushing and they look brand new.

Removed the last of the pitot static system. The static port is beautifully machined from aluminum. Another example of an expensive, custom made fitting. Van's RV kits simply use a large headed pulled rivet with the rivet shank pulled all the way through. Dalotel's solution: $50. Van's solution: 10 cents.

I also took the latch apart. Again, more complexity. The ball handle is composed of a ball on the inside that threads onto a custom machined anodized aluminum pin. The pin has a tapered shoulder at the base of the threads. The tapered shoulder fits into a matching tapered socket in the latch plate. The opposite side of the latch plate is where the ball screws in. There is a shoulder on the plate that the ball fits on. Did they press the shoulder from the opposite side or did they machine the latch plate down everywhere to expose that shoulder? Either way, more complexity and cost...

  Feb 27, 2021     Fuselage inspection and prep - (3 hours)       Category: Fuselage

Moved fuselage to shop and started removing last of the items still attached to it. This provides a good understanding of the wiring and system layout. Made some interesting discoveries.

For example, previously I'd described the canopy latch and couldn't fathom why the bolts the latches were mounted on were custom made and with LH threads. Upon further inspection, I'd discovered that the front canopy latch was secured to the custom bolt. (The rear latch was damaged in the accident and the latch was spinning loose on the bolt). The latches were designed to be secured to the custom bolts. When inside the cockpit, the latch is rotated 90 degrees clockwise to engage the latch to the canopy frame. Since the latch is secured to the bolt, the bolt rotates with the latch. Since the bolt has LH threads, that clockwise turn means the bolt is unscrewing from the boss that is welded to the frame. Since it's unscrewing, it actually cinches the canopy frame tight as it secures it. Conversely, to open the canopy, you rotate the latch 90 degrees counter clockwise. Doing that screws the bolt into the boss, taking some of the tension off the canopy, allowing it to open. Aha! So that's why the custom threaded bolt. Like many of the things on this plane, there was an easy way, and then there was Dalotel's way...

Removed the wiring, labeling it and where it crossed members of the frame. The electrical bundle was held in place with some stretchy plastic belts. Today we'd use "zip ties" but these things are like belts with a whole bunch of holes in them. They wrap around the frame and the electrical bundle and a small plastic pin passes through two holes in the belt to hold it all together. The belts are still flexible and stretchy but all the pins broke during disassembly. I plan to make some new pins on the lathe to allow me to reuse the belts.