Apr 21, 2024     Rear terminal strip - (4.0 hours)       Category: Avionics

Wired the rear removal strip below the rear seat torque tube cover. In addition to a convenient place to wire the flap motor, I'm pulling all of the lighting together to one spot and then running it forward. Wing lights from the right wing cut through the tunnel behind the flap control horn. Glued a tie wrap mount in the tunnel to secure everything and avoid fouling the flap actuation.

Just a few feet short of ground wire to finish all the panel wiring. It'll be done this week. It is tidying up nicely, but I'm still going to put it back on the bench.

  Apr 15, 2024     Panel wiring - getting close - (6.0 hours)       Category: Avionics

Just continuing one wire at a time. Wires are a guess for the past several days a d are surely low compared to how much time I spend thinking about this. It is all consuming. Had to order some more wire and more shrink tube labels. Amazon told me that I've ordered 10 cartridges at $33 a piece. Ouch!

Was not happy with the trim disconnect switch on the panel. Really wanted it as a breaker, but it was awkward as I'd like to keep it on the essential bus. Also read of challenges of meeting FAR requirements for “flight critical” avionics on fuse panels that are not accessible in flight. Made the decision to abandon the ebus fuse holder and move the whole bus to panel breakers. This solves a couple problems at the expense of pricey breakers. Overall I think it is better though and I ran all the wires long enough that I don't need to rerun anything.

Also moving the GAD27 to the main bus breakers. That puts almost all LRUs on breakers except the MFD, GAD13, COM2 and transponder.

Made a wire checklist based on the original master interconnect diagram. Just added wires to the list and deleted from the diagram until all wires were gone. Then used that list to QC my installation. Already caught a couple of omissions. Just need to punch out that list and it'll be ready to go back on the bench.

  Apr 06, 2024     Still working the panel - (10 hours)       Category: Avionics

Little bit of time here and there this week. Pretty much running or wire at a time and making some minor tweaks in routing and LRU locations. The big change today was rerouting all the tunnel wires down the left side instead straight down into the tunnel. With that rerouting also went ahead and installed the terminal strips and adel clamps for the stick wiring on top of the gear mounts. Should work out well.

Went back to work on the radios stack support angles for the third time. Got everything clamped in place and marked. Measuring three or four times trying to get these holes all in the right place.

Also talked to Stein this week and they suggested switch to the Aithre CO detector. Actually much easier to wire except I had already wired for the GD-40. New detector doesn't have a status light. I was already on the fence about annunciation lights and Stein confirmed that nobody is really doing those anymore. So go rid of all the annunciators.

Almost all the wires are run. I need to buy just a little bit more wire to finish up.

4/7: finally got the radio stack redrilled to a state that I'm happy with. Also added lower braces between the panel and subpanel. There is an opportunity to add some support plates to grab the back GTN screw holes. I'm not sure if they're needed but it will stiffen everything up nicely.

Just a note that the upper most mounting holes of the GTN use #8 screws. The previous owner of this rack may have drilled those out larger. It seems Garmin oversized the holes, but those top ones just felt like #6s were barely holding.

4/10: made brackets to support the rear of the GTN. Not sure if it is needed, but it was convenient enough and really stiffens it up.

  Mar 30, 2024     Panel progress - (8.0 hours)       Category: Avionics

Got the harness put back in the sub panel and started worked out the final bus locations. Really didn't like that the GEA was behind the subpanel before so rearranged things a bit and got it forward of the subpanel. Finalized the fuse holes locations and primary bus power routing. Just a lot of staring at it and moving things around. I think I finally got it.

Started drilling some holes in the subpanel for LRU locations. Going to need to reroute some of the wiring but thankfully I ran everything quite a bit long. Should be able to salvage wires, but at some point I will probably rerun all the wires to try to get them pretty.

3/31: just a lot more tinkering. Running one wire at a time at this point. Finalizing LRU locations.

  Mar 25, 2024     Panel work - (3.0 hours)       Category: 41: Up Fwd Fuse

Used the acrylic panel and the GTN/GMC trays to align and drill holes for the center stack support angles. This was the second try at these and still didn't quite get it right. The holes to the panel came out fine, but the holes from the trays into the angles are difficult. I drilled them to #8, but the screws didn't sit very flush. Then saw the instructions for the GTN say to use #6 screws. I guess they oversized the holes in the trays. And despite my best effort to have everything clamped up right, the alignment of the holes is not great. I will get some more angle strock and try again.

  Mar 23, 2024     Wire harness 90% done - (5.0 hours)       Category: Avionics

Reran the pilot and copilot headset wires down the middle to the center console. Looks like I will be ble to fit traditional jacks and Lemo jacks in there.

Ran the remainder of the power wires this morning until I ran out out of ground wire and ran out of labels again. Still have a few miscellaneous wires to run but 95% of the wires are run. Certainly enough to take it off the board and trial fit everything in the panel.

Everything is pretty good except in double flipping the orientation of the harness on the board I ended up getting it upside down. It's fine, but I intended the power wires be in the bottom. It actually probably looks better with all the white wires in bottom - we'll see.

With the harness in place below the panel, I was able to finalize locations of a few items and start finishing out the subpanel work.

  Mar 17, 2024     Spar fix - left side done - (3.0 hours)       Category: General

Ended up oversizing some of the rivets to -4s and had to wait on those from spruce along with replacement bolts for the ones I had marred up when removing. Those supplies are in and finally go to finish up the left side. Not looking forward to doing the other side but all in all, not too bad.

As expected, I had to slightly ream the holes for the bolts from outside skin to landing gear mount. This is confirmation that the spar did in fact shift about 0.020”.

Everything is reassembled with the correct number of spacers.

  Mar 16, 2024     Wiring harness progress - (10.0 hours)       Category: Avionics

Lots of work on wiring harness. Shop is a complete mess. Wires everywhere. But there is some order in the chaos. I have been using my cut sheets I made for each system and a lot of cross referencing against my wire list and the larger interconnect drawings I have. It's honestly mostly in my head at this point though. Needing to make some adjustments on the fly for CANBUS routing and general routing of miscellaneous wires. I'm afraid some of the runs might come up short but I'll deal with that when and if it comes. To worry too much about perfect lengths now would stop me in my tracks.

Finished most of the data wires and moved on to some of the power and grounds. I got a few of the “branches” complete today including the GTN, IBBS and GTR. Ran out of 2 wire shielded wire, and need some single wire unshielded wire among other things. Putting together yet another large Steinair order.

3/19: little bit of progress running some power and ground wires. Finished out GEA, PFD MFD, GMC and GAD29 bundles.

3/21: some more progress. Bundle is really growing. Starting to second guess headset routing. I wanted traditional jacks on the panel and Lemos in the center console. Stating to wonder why I need regular jacks at all.

  Mar 08, 2024     Wiring harness progress - (3.0 hours)       Category: Avionics

Worked a little here and there on the wiring harness this week. Actually a lot of time on my diagrams and excel cleaning up my wire list.

Had use some spare wire I thought was 3 wire shielded and made a few runs between LRUs. Then discovered it was 5 wire unshielded trim servo wire. Had to retrace my steps and pull it all out. Lesson learned.

Slowly building up. Still need to develop a good QC plan for how I'm going to check all of this. So far I've been going off my cut sheets I made for each component. I'll check it all against the Garmin manuals when done.

  Mar 03, 2024     Fixing spar issue - (5.0 hours)       Category: General

Started into fixing the fuselage spar gap issue. The biggest concern was removing the landing gear mount so that I could drill out the rivets. Finally sucked it up today and started into it. Took almost two hours but finally got the gear mount out on the left side. Damaged some bolts in the process so will need to order some new ones. But it's out.

Then drilled out all the rivets in both sides of the spars. Used my all thread to spread the spars apart and inserted the correct number of spacers. Then started the re-riveting. The spacers are tight, but I think I did improve it enough that the wings should slide in reasonably well.

Will finish up the left side once I get some additional parts from Spruce. Then need to tackle the right side.

  Feb 27, 2024     Wiring harness - (2.0 hours)       Category: Avionics

Started playing around with the wiring harness. I transferred my chord lengths from the panel to the workbench and plan to build all the harness there. Ran a few wires I had laying around just to get a feel for how it might go. Need to figure out the order to keep everything organized. I'm building it upside down so I think I want to lay down all the data first then power and grounds. If I need to add anything later, it is most likely power. It's gonna be interesting.

  Feb 26, 2024     Finish kit update Category: General

Spoke to Anne today to inquire on status of my finishing kit she pulled up a big spreadsheet and said I'm listed for October. About 6 months behind schedule. That will slow down my engine purchase discussions a bit.

  Feb 25, 2024     Flap wiring - (1.0 hour)       Category: 40: Flap Sys

Just tidied up some of the flap motor wiring. I was planning to install a terminal block behind the flap torque tube cover to transition the wiring from the supplied wire to my wiring. The supplied wire is long enough to run all the way to the sub-panel, although not to the GAD27. I will install a terminal block in the panel or below the torque tube cover.

In the meantime, installed a couple of adel clamps to secure the flap motor wiring within the tunnel and below the torque tube cover.

  Feb 25, 2024     Evaporator drain hose - (1.5 hours)       Category: Air Conditioner

Got the drain hose for the evaporator installed. Drilled a 3/8” hole in the bottom skin and then drilled holes in the plastic drain fitting that Airflow provided. Then match drilled those holes to the bottom skin. Used close quarters dimple tool to get flush pull rivets installed.

  Feb 25, 2024     Transponder rack - (3.0 hours)       Category: Avionics

Going to mount the transponder behind the sub-panel but need to make some supports to hold the tray. Planning to mount the tray on the copilot side and allow room for the transponder to slide out on the pilot side.

I had previously ordered the tray from Steinair. Used the tray to fabricate some 1 1/2” angles to span between the forward ribs. Cut the angles to length and then ripped one leg down to about 7/8”. Marked the holes from the tray and drilled those mounting holes. Also marked out the airflow holes in the tray to provide holes in the angle as well. And drilled a few more holes just for lightening the thick angles. Came out well.

Then clamped the assembly behind the sub-panel and match drilled holes to the forward ribs for AN3 bolts. It will be tough, but in theory the whole tray should be removable. Transponder itself should be easy slide in/slide out.

  Feb 24, 2024     More rear power panel - (4.0 hours)       Category: Avionics

A little work here and there over the past week tinkering with the rear power panel. Today received several parts included much need mounting hardware and some new primer. Got the power pa el and support brackets prepped and primed and the. Install all the nut plates. Then mounted the fuse blocks, ground power contractor and e-bus relay and started running some wires. Got the fat wire run from the ground power to the master contractor and the hot and switched battery busses. Then ran wire for the left and right mags. Pulled the wires for the mags and e-bus feed to the front.
Crimped a couple of the fat wire connectors onto the master contractor. Need a click bond support or something to secure the wires to the bottom skin.

Came out well and is really helping me visualize the wiring in the rear.

  Feb 18, 2024     LRU placement - (3.0 hours)       Category: Avionics

Spent a lot of time with my plexi LRU templates from steinair trying to confirm where everything will go. Was really trying to avoid having anything behind the sub-panel but it just doesn't seem possible without being quite cramped. I got on my back under the panel to see just how difficult it would be to access things - it wasn't that bad for my 46 year old self. It willl get worse I'm sure.

Ultimately elected to mount the transponder between two of the fuse ribs behind the sub-panel. Im also going to mount the GEA and IBBS on the backside of the sub-panel. That moves the fuse holder to the shelf behind the MFD. I think it is better.

With everything mostly set, I decide to go ahead and run some parachord to visualize where the wire runs will go. Still a little ways away but getting set to run wires soon.

  Feb 16, 2024     41-2 thru 41-3: Cutting sub panel - (2.0 hours)       Category: 41: Up Fwd Fuse

Used my plexiglass panel to align the GTN tray and set the spacing of the vertical support angles. Clamped everything I'm place and drilled a couple #40 holes through nut plate holes in the bottom brace. Cleco'd that in place and drilled the #19 holes through the plexiglass and into the vertical angles. Removed the top skin and drilled the top holes from the vertical supports into the top panel flanges. A little tricky, but got it lined up.

Got the GTN cutout marked on the subpanel and cut it with the oscillating tool.

I thought the autopilot head was going to fit below the center forward rib, but it doesn't. Decide to trim a small piece off the corner of the brace and reinforced it with a short piece of angle.

  Feb 13, 2024     Rear power panel - (1.5 hours)       Category: Avionics

Made up a little panel for mounting the two battery busses, the ground power contractor, and the E-bus feed relay. Cut the panel from 0.063” and supported with 3/4” angles attached to the j channels similar to the Vans ELT mount.

  Feb 13, 2024     43:2: Cabin fitting - (6.0 hours)       Category: 43: Cabin Cover

Today was the big day for fitting the cabin top. Had Max in town and my friend David came over to help too. Finished the rough cutting along the scribe lines with the oscillating tool. Then sanded with 40 grit on my portable belt sander. Just took a while to get there but not too bad. Put it on and took it back off probably 6 or 7 times until we were happy with the fit. Looks great.

  Feb 12, 2024     AC Hoses - (2.5 hours)       Category: Air Conditioner

My nephew Max is in town for a couple of days to get some good plane work done. After his review of the AC installation, We got to work on crimping some of the hoses. Started with the ones in the tunnel. Used a hydraulic crimper I got from Amazon that seems pretty legit. First crimp came out good and then moved on to the smaller hose. That crimp looked ok, but definitely not as good as the first. Did another end and it didn't even crimp at all, hose came right out. Was this Amazon crimper junk? Finally realized it was user error. 8mm does not mean #8 die. 8mm hose is actuall #6 hose, and 10 mm hose is #8. Got the correct #6 die in place and recrimped - good crimp.

Proceeded to get all the hose ends except the firewall, I'll wait on those. Pulled the caps and loosely installed hoses ends on the evaporator and the condenser. Installed the grommets in the bottom of the plane for the condenser penetrations. It is tough to balance the grommet between hose size and ability to install. They're a little loose around the pipe. Max suggested the pros would fill the gaps with proseal.

  Feb 10, 2024     Evaporator mounting - (6.0 hours)       Category: Air Conditioner

Got a lot done on the evaporator. With the lower bulkhead cut and the upper bulkhead at least fitted, I was able to locate the upper bolt holes for the evaporator to baggage bulkhead. This locks in the final position of everything and it all fits well. I also located and drilled the Airflow System intake grill, and temporarily installed the air vents - looks pretty sweet.

Now I'm also able to move forward with the final mounting of the evaporator. I started with match drilling the three holes on each side that attach to the longeron support plates. Then I double checked the center of everything and marked the holes in the support tubing for the main slotted holes. Then moved over to the drill press to drill the four holes. Reinstalled and double checked everything. Trial fit the relay box and realized that it makes sense to utilize one of the evaporator bolts to also support the relay. Happy with the orientation of the relay, I disassembled everything again and drilled the remaining holes for the relay to the support frame on the drill press. Reassembled everything and the fit up was good. I did elect to put a local ground to the support frame adjacent to the relay box - it'll just be for the relay box and fan.

Before final assembly, I also had to re-install, hopefully for the last time, the battery/bellcrank assembly. I wanted to install a nice grounding stud while I had it apart. Put in a 1/4" stud per AC43-13 with aluminum washers and steel lock washers. Need to get some low-profile nuts.

With the battery tray re-installed, torqued and marked, I moved on to the final assembly of the evaporator. Riveted the longeron support plates in place, then installed the tray with the final hardware and torqued. Then installed the evaporator, relay box and dryer. I opted not to prime any of the AC hardware. It's 6061 and doesn't really need it.

Went ahead and ran wires for the relays and connections to the pressure switch and temp switch. Nice to be doing wiring. Went ahead and made up the harness that will connect to the plug supplied by Airflow Systems and run the wires to the front.

2/12: temporarily ran the rear seat shoulder harness cables just to confirm everything clears and I wasn't happy with how close the top of the dryer is to the cable run. Flipping the dryer bracket to the bottom of the evaporator tray allows me to lower it a bit, but the high pressure service port limits how much. We'll see how it looks when the hoses are run.

  Feb 06, 2024     33-8 thru 33-10: Baggage bulkheads - (6.0 hours)       Category: 33: Baggage Area

Need to cut the hole in the baggage bulkhead for the return air into the evaporator. Spent a lot of time just making sure the evaporator was exactly where I wanted it and clamped it in place. Then made a couple of guide marks in the template provided by the AC manufacturer to try to align the bolt. Got everything where I wanted it and taped in place. I'll go through and double check everything before cutting.

2/9: Pulled the trigger and marked the centers of the holes in the bottom bulkhead. Then drilled them to #12. They lined up perfect with the evaporator holes - so far so good. Double checked the marks for the cut out and adjusted a little bit. Then took everything apart and cut the bottom bulkhead with the oscillating tool. Came out really good and straight. Reassembled everything and checked against the evaporator - came out quite good with just a little bit of filing. Cleco'd the upper bulkhead in place over the lower as it would be in the stock plans. Something wasn't quite right though. Based on the nutplate holes in the top bulkhead from Airflow Systems, the upper bulkhead seems to want to be behind the lower. I guess this makes sense as the lower bulkhead will be coming off more often and the upper will be more cumbersome to remove. Slept on it to think about how I want it to be.

2/10: Confirmed the orientation of the bulkheads on the 3D model that Airflow systems provided. Used the original upper baggage bulkhead to match drill all of the holes in both the new bulkhead and the rear fuselage buklheads. Jumping back and forth between Van's instructions and Airflow's, I cut the two wear blocks for the seat belt cable and then match drilled them to the brackets that Airflow provided and to the upper bulkhead. Will need to wait until I can prime to finish all of these.

2/11: got the upper bulkhead cut out for the evaporator. Lot of putting on and Taking off again. Cleaned up some of the nutplates on the side panel and co firmed final routing of AC hoses. Installed the nut plates at the front of the side panel. Then drilled all the nutplates for the upper and lower bulkheads. Going to leave the top two holes in the upper bulkhead alone until I figure out the airflow routing into the overhead console - looks like there will be conflicts.

2/12: Got the nutplates all installed on the fuselage bulkhead. After almost 6 months this section is finally done.

  Feb 06, 2024     Panel mock-up       Category: Avionics

Sent the CAD file to sendcutsend last week and had it cut in plexiglass as a trial. Showed up today. Looks awesome.

  Feb 05, 2024     33-8: Rear bulkhead - (3.0 hours)       Category: 33: Baggage Area

Was ready to get the rear bulkhead cover drilled in place and then finally the instructions say to rivet the bottom of the center vertical support to the battery ribs. There are four rivets and they are very hard to get to. I have no idea why Van's doesn't have you do these sooner.

I had to pull out the battery tray and elevator belcrank mount. Wouldn't be too bad except for the PITA AN bolts that sit below the lip of the battery tray. And then I stripped the head of one of the #8 screws so badly I had to get the dremel out to cut a flat head slot into it. Finally got all that apart with hopes that I'd be able to get the squeezer on the rivets. Got two of them but not the other two. They're tricky and I'm not going to bother trying to get them solo.

2/6: got the wife to help me buck those last two rivets. They came out fine with a partner and a double offset rivet set. Held off on putting the battery tray back together as I'm going to take the opportunity to install a nice grounding post. Ordered some hardware from ACS.

Cleco'd the rear bulkhead in place and match drilled all the remaining holes. That's as far as I can go on this section until I get the AC return air holes cut in the bulkhead.

  Feb 04, 2024     40-5 thru 40-8: Reinstall Flap system - (1.5 hours)       Category: 40: Flap Sys

Now that the bottom rear floors are in I can get back to where I was on the flap system install. Got the torque tubes reinstalled with the appropriate hardware and then mounted the flap motor. Nothing to it.

Need to torque the outboard bolts still.

  Feb 04, 2024     33-5 thru 33-8: Baggage floors - (4.5 hours)       Category: 33: Baggage Area

Picked up back in the baggage floor section now that AC components are routed and everything is set. Vacuumed everything out well and wiped it all down inside as it will get closed up. Sounds or checked some of the dimples and river call outs. I'm deviating a little from the plans on what is flush vs standard rivet.

Cleco'd the baggage floor and rear seat pans in place and started the rivets. Used my pneumatic pull rivet gun and everything went pretty quickly.

Riveted my modification to the side panel and temporarily installed it with the screws.

2/5: got some more work done this evening in the baggage floors. Squeezed all the solid rivets including all the nut plates in the baggage floors and rear bulkhead. Riveted the rear baggage door triangle parts and riveted the little clip angles. Was able to screw the bulkhead in place and all the screws aligned. Almost ready to cut it for the evaporator.

  Feb 03, 2024     35-2: Back to the rear floor pans - (3.5 hours)       Category: 35: Access Panel

With all the AC nutplates finally installed, I was able to permanently install the rear floor pans. Got the pans fit in place. Had to file a little off the openings that accept the seat brackets, it was just too tight. Got all of the pull rivets set and then match drilled the holes into the spar. I can't access to deburr these holes so I drilled an undersized hole and reamed to #30. Installed the LP-3s in those holes. What a big day. Finally have a secure place to put my weight in the fuselage.

2/4: got all the bucked rivets except for about 10. I ran out of 4-4 rivets! I finished enough to proceed with the rear seat pans and reinstall the flap motor and torque tubes.

  Feb 01, 2024     AC progress - (7.0 hours)       Category: Air Conditioner

Finally bit the bullet and spent an hour on my back underneath the plane countersinking all of the holes for the condenser scoop nutplates. Dabbed a little primer on each. These will be ready to rivet.

Then moved back to the tunnel hose routing. I changed it up a bit and opted use adel clamps for the hoses rather than the little grommet support I had been thinking. This is much more secure. I still am adding some snap ring supports for the rudder cables and placing them directly over the adel clamp so even if the cables are completely slack there is no way they could snag on a clamp. This basically completes the hose routing in the baggage area.

2/3: big day today. Finally got all of the nutplates for the condenser scoop installed. It was a lot of work, and my wife helped me rivet everything. Didn't take any pictures of nutplates, but did get the condenser scoop temporarily installed.

This is a big milestone as I can now get to work on finishing our the floors.

  Jan 31, 2024     AC/Baggage area work - (4.0 hours)       Category: 33: Baggage Area

Hard to separate work on the AC from the baggage area. It's all moving toward the common goal which is to close out the floors.

Weather was unseasonably warm this week so actually some priming done after work. Got the various AC hose doublers and a few other miscellaneous pieces. Having trouble with gun though and the finishes turned out pretty poor. Just getting a lot of trash in the paint and gun keeps clogging up meaning ithe gun is dirty somewhere. finally found the culprit and cleaned a part of gun not mentioned in the manual, but I found some gunk. Hopefully that fixes it. Will need to sand and respray some parts.

The small doubler parts were salvageable and I installed the two fuselage former doublers as well as the tunnel doubler for the AC hoses.

Then worked a bit on the baggage access cover. It's going to be removable so I installed nutplates in the baggage floor. I also drilled the #8s for where the top attaches Into the longeron. I experimented with tapping those holes instead of nutplates, but I think I'll probably just go ahead and nutplates them.

Slowly coming together.

  Jan 23, 2024     Electrical/Avionics Design - (30 hours)       Category: Avionics

It's been too cold to work in the garage and it has been a long time since I reviewed my electrical and avionics design. With the AC hoses going in, I'm losing some conduit space so thought it would be a good time to revisit the wire runs and confirm where everything is going to go. Spent a lot of time over the past couple weeks updating diagrams and visualizing the data and power wiring. Made some decisions on:
- IBBS power distribution - hooking directly to the critical components more in line with Garmin and IBBS manual
- Battery Bus - figured out circuit protection and finalized circuits. Moved the hot buss and E-bus relay to the back to avoid long run of high current, on-switched hot wire per Bob Knuckles. It's a fire issue in a crash.
- Fuses - moving most of the avionics items to fuses to save space, weight and money. Only airframe items (flaps, lights, etc) and AP and trim will be on CBs.
- Final decision on GTN750 vs. GTN650 and a GNX. I will the G3X as backup GPS - even though it is not IFR approved it should be sufficient in an emergency. Will mount a remote GTX behind the panel. Trying to still figure out if I will fit a GMA on the panel or mount remote.

Developed wiring layout for the major behind panel harness for power and data - it's a lot of wires!

Found someone on VAF selling a GTN tray, backplate and connectors for a good price and bought it. Ordered a GMA tray from Stein, but I may end up not needing it. Also ordered their acrylic G3X component templates - those should help me finalize locations and even wire everything before ordering components.

Started CAD drawing of panel cut-outs. It is going to be difficult to fit the GTN, GMA and GMC in the center stack without modifications to the cross support bar and center rib. I do want to extend the panel all the way to the bottom of the cross support though, and maybe extend it down in the corners to house the vents. I'm going to have the panel cut for me, so might as well make the geometry what I want.

Also did a little research on the courtesy lights - I want some LED strips in the footwells and want them on a slight timer. Can do a simple circuit with a capacitor that achieves what I want. Open door - lights slowly come up. Close door - lights slowly go out. Like a couple of seconds. It'll be a nice touch.

1/26: was able to get the panel actually drawn up properly in CAD.helped me identify some spacing issues and make some adjustments. Very happy with it.

  Jan 13, 2024     AC: Tunnel hose routing and condenser work - (4.0 hours)       Category: Air Conditioner

A lot of time just thinking and tinkering with this throughout the week. Finally started cutting some metal. There are two options for the condenser connections - inside the tunnel or outside. Inside is a little tight adjacent to the elevator pushrod and the rudder cables. But outside, I'd need to make some new access panels below the rear seats to access the connections. The 3D model shows inside the tunnel, so I'm going with that.

The hoses have to penetrate the rear seat bulkhead and it is very tight with the existing holes for elevator pushrod and rudder cables. I strategically located the two new holes to provide maximum edge distance between the holes. Still, it felt like I was not leaving a lot of material in the bulkhead so I opted to fabricate a little doubler out of 0.040” scrap aluminum. Then to secure the hoses inside the tunnel in the baggage area, I fabricated a clip angle for the #10 hose. I was able to use a Vans clip for the #8. Then wanted to secure the rudder cables a little more out of the way just in case they ever go slack, so cut a slot in the vans clips and a slot in a snap bushing to slide over the cables. Drilled and cleco'd all of those angles in place to see how the fit looks. Not bad.

Redrilled all the belly scoop holes. And then drilled all of the holes for nut plates. Need to order more single lug nut plates to finish those off.

Mounted the condenser back in the scoop and marked where the hoses will penetrate the bottom skin. Drilled those holes and fabricated a doubler for those penetrations. The AC kit came with two small individual doublers. I put a larger single piece doubler across both holes.

With the hose routing and the condenser hose connection locations, I need something like a 75 degree bend in the connector, not the 90 supplied. I tried a 45 bend connector for giggles but it is not right. Something in between is what I need. Don't know if I can bend the connectors that were supplied.

  Jan 07, 2024     AC - Condenser scoop - (3.5 hours)       Category: Air Conditioner

I had previously marked the centerline on the belly of the fuselage in preparation of mounting the scoop. Then tried my best to mark the centerline of the scoop itself which was a bit of a challenge. It is a compound curved piece and the flange width around the perimeter is not perfectly symmetrical. I felt pretty good about measuring to the middle of the scoop on the front, but the back was a challenge. I measured it several ways and sort of took the average.

Strapped the scoop under the fuselage and set it on centerline and the prescribed distance back. Then roughly marked areas where I did not want want screws - conflicts with ribs and spars. Then removed scoop and laid out the screw holes on roughly 3” centers and missing the conflicts. Drilled #40 holes in the scoop.

Back under the fuse, held the scoop in place and started match drilling holes working from the front and inserting clecos as I went. Used a heat gun to try to soften up the fiberglass and allow it to contour to the belly. Not sure how much that helped, but eventually got it to fit pretty well. Once all clecos were in place, it was obvious that I should tighten up the spacing near the kink in the belly to hold the scoop tighter. So adjusted the spacing a bit and made a few new holes. Ok, several new holes.

Satisfied with the fit, I upsized the good #40 holes to #19. Pulled everything back apart and filled the extra holes in the scoop with epoxy and filled the skin holes with JB Weld. Just cosmetic.

This makes it seem simple. In truth it was a lot of back and forth, on and off, climbing under the plane, realizing I didn't have the right tools, squirming out and repeating. Nice to have it roughly mounted though. Still a lot of work to get the 30+ nut plates installed.

  Jan 05, 2024     AC - More hose Routing - (3.0 hours)       Category: Air Conditioner

Have been working through different scenarios for routing of the AC hoses down the co-pilot side. Purchase a variety of grommets and snap bushings from ACS and finally settled on a combination that fits the holes. I wanted to run the hoses through the top two holes in the F-1004 and F1-005 spar bulkheads, but there would not be very much material left at the top if I were to enlarge the existing top hole. Opted to move everything down and drill two new lower holes for wires in the spar bulkheads.

The F-1034 rear seat back bulkheads are pretty thin and although they already have large holes in them, I needed to enlarge two of them for the hoses. I opted to go ahead and make a doubler for this location.

Will still need to clean up with some zip tie mounts, but this is worked out enough to let me proceed.

  Dec 30, 2023     May have messed up months ago - (1.0 hour)       Category: General

When joined the front and rear fuselage together, I had already located the stack of 0.125” spacers that get bolted between the spars. I counted out 13 for each side and confirmed 13 in the instructions. Today, in a different bag I found 4 additional 0.063” spacers. Where do these go? Looked back at the instructions and confirmed it is 13 each side. Hmm. Then re-read and saw “13 0.125” spacers plus one 0.063” spacer” missed that part. If the number of spacers had not been correct I suspect I would have had a hard time getting rivets to align when I joined the bottom skins or on the side skins. I don't recall having any difficulty. The aluminum tube spacers between the spars inboard also fit just fine.

So now I have a potential problem. I took out the bolts and measured the gap. It's pretty consistent around 1.650”.the stack should have theoretically been 1.688”. I don't have the wings so can't measure them but will get it soon. Crossing fingers.

Not even sure how to fix it. Drill out all the rivets in the bottom skin? Would maybe need to re-drill and upsize the holes with -4s. May need to call Vans.

12/31: wing measurement came back at 1.710”. That's not good.

1/3: spoke to Van's. Need to get some more measurements and they will send to engineering.

1/5: I did experiment with using some all-thread and nuts on the inside to see how easily the spar would spread. I was able to easily achieve 1.7"+/- but it immediately closes back up. I'd be hesitant to open it to the point that it doesn't come back - it would need to inelastically deform somewhere and that's probably not good.

  Dec 27, 2023     AC - baggage area work - (4.3 hours)       Category: Air Conditioner

AC instructions show hoses running down the copilot side. That should work, but I need to figure out how to get them through the baggage area and through the baggage bulkhead. This will require cutting two 1.125” holes in the fuselage former. I planned out a doubler for this former out of 0.032”. Decided to reinforce the face of the former and wrap it around to river to the skin too. This should allow me to minimize the edge distance for the AC holes and reduce the loss of baggage space.

Will also need to figure out modifications to the baggage area cover on the copilot side. I will either change the angle of the whole cover plate or just fabricate a little cover out of aluminum or fiverglasss to cover the hoses.

Mocked up a little cardboard piece to see what a cover might look like. I think it will work well.

12/28: got some better poster board to continue refining the cover plate. It will need to extend all the way under the bulkhead closure panel which will change the angle a bit. Used the olde baggage closure panel and it cut to where I think it would need to be to maintain screw spacing and edge distances. Gives me a good feel for the cover plate and then I can transfer the marks to the new baggage closure panel that Airflow Performance provided.

Thinking now about making it all removable. Would just need nut plates to the longeron and in the baggage floor.

12/30: spending about a 10:1 ratio of thinking time to doing time on this. Finally made a cut in the baggage area side cover plate. It will get covered with the new plate I have yet to fabricate. If it's going to be removable, a couple of the existing holes are too close to stiffeners or ribs so I cosmetically filled them with JB weld and will drill new holes for #8 screws. Cut the AC bulkhead and match drilled the holes based on the original bulkhead. Coming together slowly.

1/2: bent the aluminum version of the cover plate and it came out good on the first try. Went ahead and drilled the holes to the baggage floor and to the longeron. Found that I was able to tap the holes in the longeron for #8 screws.

1/3: drilled out the holes in the skin that coincide with the stiffener I'm putting in. Then match drilled and dimpled the hole in the stiffener. Then laid out the holes from the stiffener to the baggage bulkhead and drilled the two large holes for the AC lines. Will still add some mounts and zip ties to secure everything but so far it seems to all fit pretty well and as planned.

  Dec 25, 2023     Relocating COM antenna - (4.5 hours)       Category: Avionics

That was a lot of work to move the antenna. I drilled out all of the previous doubler rivets and removed the double let and the fill plate. I wasn't in love with the previous doubler plate so scrapped it and made another with 0.060” plate I had specific for making doublers. I was able to salvage the fill plate and use it to transfer the hole pattern to the new doubler and the bottom skin. Took some careful back and forth, but go all the hole redrilled.

Made a new splice plate to patch the old antenna hole in the bottom of the skin and then made a small circular plug to fill the hole. I put three small oops rivet to hold the plug.

Got everything deburred, countersunk and then Alodined. Alodine came out good. Will need the dimple the bottom skin with close quarters die and then rivet. Good for now though.

1/6: Dad was in town, and we were able to get the cover plate and new doubler riveted into place. They're alodined, but I will paint them before I close it up.

  Dec 22, 2023     Air conditioner arrived - (3.0 hours)       Category: Air Conditioner

AC arrived today and I spent about an hour inventorying the kit. Everything was included although the 3” skeet tubing needs to be replaced. Quick email to Bill and a new one is one the way. The aluminum bulkhead was also bent a little in two corners but I was able to bend it back with a hand seamer. It's not perfect but good enough. Really impressive kit. Everything well packaged and the evaporator and manifold are both very nicely made plastic. I separated all the FWF items that I won't need for a while and put them away.

Couldnt help but start framing up the evaporator a bit. Marked the longerons and clamped the support plates in place. Drilled the holes. Exciting stuff.

12/24: installed the temp probe into the coil and attached to the side of the evaporator frame. Photos in instructions show electrical connections going forward, but model shows them going back. Going back gives more room so going with that even it meant drilling new holes for mounting. Instruction indicated that was possible. Marked the centerline of the condenser scoop and marked the centerline of the bottom of fuselage.

Loosely mounted the condenser scoop under the fuselage and confirmed a fear. The condenser conflicts with the hole in the bottom of the fuse that I made for the com antenna. I'll have to move it and plug the hole.

  Dec 20, 2023     43-3: Started cutting on the cabin top - (1.5 hours)       Category: 43: Cabin Cover

Nothing much to do so thought I'd start cutting the cabin too. Used my oscillating tool and it actually does a really good job. Got the verticals cut to the scribe line and as everyone else has reported, it is not even close. The cabin top is 1/2” too wide. Even if they get shaved down razor thin, I don't see how the get down to the 37” width they need to be.

  Dec 17, 2023     42-2 thru 42-4: Right seat back - (2.5 hours)       Category: 42: Rear Seat Bk

Vans parts department is up and running and I received my angle stock within a week. Was able to fabricate and assemble the right seat back to match the left side. Also went back and countersunk the holes that match the dimples at the crossbar.

Won't be able to prime and finish these until it warms up a bit in the spring.

Also sent payment for the remainder of the AC. Doubling down on Van's making it through all of this.

  Dec 10, 2023     35-2: Rear floor pan prep - (1.5 hours)       Category: 35: Access Panel

I've been told that the rear floor pans are very difficult to get in and once they're in, you really can't get them out. So wanted to get everything prepped. I had previously deburred and primed them so just needed to get them dimpled and install the nut plates. Use the DRDT to dimple everything and then even used it to rivet the nut plates. A little bit of trial and error but I found as long as I could keep the assembly level, and if I preinstalled all the screws, I could set pretty flush rivets. Came out good.

Once the floor pan is in, they do have you match drill the spar. I won't have a lot of opportunity to deburr these holes (wouldn't have good access even if I could remove the floor pan) so I will drill the holes undersized and ream them to #30.

Can't install these floor parts s until I have the AC, but they're ready at least.

  Dec 09, 2023     42-2 thru 44-3: Left rear seat fabrication - (3.0 hours)       Category: 42: Rear Seat Bk

Just chipping away at whatever I can. Decided to build the rear seat backs today. Quick inventory though confirmed that I'm short some of the angle stock I need. I can build one of them at least.

Cut the angles to the required length and laid out the holes in the seat back. Match drilled the side angles to the seat back with a #40. The top angle has to be shaped to remove the vertex from the angle so that it will fit under the bend at the top of the seat back. This was a bit of a challenge but just had to work with a few different files and belt sander to smooth it down. Pretty happy with the fit. Then laid out the holes for the top angle and match drilled everything to the seat back assembly. Trimmed the hinge material for the bottom and aligned everything in place and match drilled.

Once everything was match drilled #40 and cleco'd together, I final drilled everything to #30. Then deburred everything.

Fun little project with a lot of fabrication. I think the seat back is basically the same as what is in an RV-6 and it was fun to get a sense of what it was like for those builders that didn't have any predrilled holes. It came out really well.

  Dec 08, 2023     Stalled out a little Category: General

This has been developing for the past couple months, but this week it is official that Van's has filed chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Best case is that costs me some more money for my finishing kit. Worst case is that Van's doesn't make it through this and I can't finish my build with any reasonable amount of time or money. I'm hearing 30% increase in a lot price that I already committed to. That's not the end of the world but the overall uncertainty of the situation is causing me a lot of anxiety.

I'm basically stalled in the build right now. I can't finish the baggage area until I get the air conditioner and I'm reluctant to sink more costs into the build until I at least know what my kit price increase is going to be. Even then, I'd like to have some more confidence in Van's ability to deliver my finish kit. I'm. It going to vent in VAF or Facebook, but I will track my frustration here.

Might just take a pause for a few months and see how things shake out.

  Nov 20, 2023     33-4: Baggage floor redo - (5.0 hours)       Category: 33: Baggage Area

I had primed the new baggage floor last week so this weekend I temporarily installed them so that I could match drill the door frame pieces again. Then got out the DRDT2 and dimpled all the holes in the floors. Given how difficult it will be to dimple a few of the substructure holes along the edge of the baggage floors, I'm opting to leave them as LP4 instead of CS4s. They're covered up anyways. Alternatively, there are some rivets along the edges of access panels that are called as LPs that I have dimpled for CSs.

Got the old stiffeners backriveted into the new floors and installed the access plate hardware. Short a few -6 nut plates so ordered a few from spruce. Still can't install these floor until I see what the AC install looks like.

Weather was mid 60s and the sun was out. This could be my last chance to prime for a while. So I prepped the rear floor pans and the baggage door frame parts and baggage access panels. They did not come out well. Too cold and/or too humid. Not terrible, just poor surface. I will end up sanding them a bit and repainting.

11-24: installed the missing -6 nut plates.

  Nov 11, 2023     39-2 thru 39-10: Control system - (11.5 hours)       Category: 39: Control Sys

Started the weekend off removing the flap torque tubes. It actually wasn't that hard - maybe 30 minutes. I don't want to do much with the rear floors because I'm waiting on the air conditioner to confirm nut plate locations. So the control systems is actually the next viable thing to work on.

Started the section with the fabrication of the pushrods. Got them cut to length and then drilled and primed the inside of the tubes. Once the primer had cured all day, I riveted the ends on and then primed the outside of the completed pushrods. Worked on the safety wiring of the forward pushrod and did it a couple of times until I was super happy with it. The plans show the safety wire loosely wrapped around the rod bearing, not necessarily the bolt - wasn't really sure how to accomplish this, but did my best to have a loose loop. Installed the forward pushrod, then installed the rear pushrod in the tunnel. Removed the battery tray and installed the bolt through the rear pushrod to bottom of the bellcrank - what a pain to install that bolt. I was fairly contorted through the baggage door and the pushrod was pretty locked in by the hole in the bulkhead - they really give you just enough room to get it done. Little did I know this was a preview of how this entire section would be. Got the battery tray re-installed and called it a day.

11/12: Started the day with minor work on the idler arm to get it drilled and deburred. Was optimistic that it might actually be warm enough to prime today, but not yet. Moved on to drilling of the control sticks to the control stick bases. Messed around with several different clamping scenarios before I was happy with it, but ultimately was just eye-balling to check if the stick was in-plane with the stick bases. Once happy with the alignment, match drilled to #12. Installed the control column to the two brackets in the fuselage and ran into the first instance of washers that needed to be inserted into tight spaces. I know some use washer wrenches, but I don't have any. I used a piece of blue painters tape to low the washer into position and then push the bolt through it. Still very challenging and took several attempts, but ultimately was sucessful in getting washers into tight spots.

Checked the length of the control stick base bushings and compared to the control stick bases. Filed the bases down a little to provide the 0.010" difference between the base and bushing. Then used the bench vice to press the bushings into the bases. Then went to fit in the control column, and they were both almost 1/16" too long. I wish the instructions had stated to check that measurement before pressing the bushings in. Oh well, was able to shave the assembly down on the disc sander and get them to fit. Installed the stick bases into the control column and installed the castle nuts with cotter pins. Loosely installed the control sticks.

Got the aileron pushrods installed with more tight washers, but had my technique down pretty good now. Then went to attach the forward elevator to the control column and couldn't get the safety wired pushrod end to fit. The hole I left in the safety wire was too big. I tried to loosen up the safety wire in place, but just made it to where I wasn't happy at all with it. Taking that pushrod out to redo the safety wire would require removing the rear pushrod and the battery box, including redoing that very difficult bellcrank nut. Decide to try to redo the safety wire in place. I was tough, but actually worked out pretty well. Instead of guessing, I was able to wrap the wire on either side of the pushrod end bearing and twist it reasonably tight. Very difficult working around the fuel lines in the tunnerl, but got something I was happy with.

Weather turned out nice in the afternoon and was able to prime the idler arm along with the new baggage floors. Then assembled the idler and installed. More difficult washers, but got it all together.

Need to adjust parallelness of sticks and check bolt length or washer configuration on idler arm. Something is off.

11/26: adjusted the sticks to be parallel and figured out the washers on the idler arm. I misread the instructions and had an extra washer on the rear pushrod. I don't know how the heck I got that washer in there.

  Nov 05, 2023     35-6: Tunnel covers - (1.5 hours)       Category: 35: Access Panel

Have had the tunnel covers loosely installed for a while, but wanted to go ahead and prime them today. I noticed that the notch in the front of the F-1015A forward tunnel cover was touching the brake lines. Decided to make that notch a little larger to provide clearance.

Then primed everything with a batch of other tunnel parts.

  Nov 05, 2023     40-4 thru 40-8: Flap work - (4.5 hours)       Category: 40: Flap Sys

Finished cutting the support blocks.

After some trial fitting and anticipating difficulty getting the support blocks over the torque tube powder coasting, I tried putting the torque tubes in the freezer. Was able to fairly easily get the supports over the frozen tubes.

Had my brother in law in town and he helped me get the tubes installed and bolted the blocks in place. Then installed the center flap crank and installed the AN3 bolts. Initially had the clocking of one of the tubes off by 180 degrees and it was enough to make the installation of the bolts very difficult. Thought I could tap it in with a mallet but ended up marring the threads a bit. Will need to order a new one.

Installed the AN4s that secure the external flap horn. Those bolts were tough to get to but managed.

Used a 9V battery to extend the flap motor. The description of the wires in the manual is a bit confusing but then read online that it is the two larger wires; makes sense. Once extended, measured the length of the rod end bearing per plans and confirmed adequate thread insertion. A little locktite on the jam nut and torque sealed it.

Took advantage of the warm weather today and went ahead and primed a batch of miscellaneous parts in the tunnel and rudder pedal supports. Once that was dry, installed the flap motor. Don't believe I had the AN4-12 bolt that connects the flap motor to the crank in the kit so will need to order one.

[Update - shouldn't have done all of this yet. It all has to come out to put the rear floor pans in.]

  Oct 29, 2023     40-2 thru 40-4 & 40-6: Starting on flap controls - (2.5 hours)       Category: 40: Flap Sys

Match drilled the flap torque tubes. Used the W-706 jig to set the clocking per the plans. Pretty easy. Primed the inside of all the pipes.

Cut the first couple of UHMW blocks and trial fit them to the torque tubes. As expected, they are very tight. Will need to play with heating the blocks and/or chilling the torque tubes to facilitate installation.

Jumped ahead and trial fit the flap motor. Deburred the bracket pieces to be ready be priming.

  Oct 28, 2023     Replace fwd fuse rib - (1.0 hour) Category: 31: Upper Fuse

Had just the one LCP that I'm replacing, the center rib in the forward fuse.

Just a little time to take things apart and reassemble. Revisiting this section though I did realize that I don't have the F-1083Q throttle cable support for the quadrant option. I'll need to order one, but with the issues at Van's, who knows when I'll get it.

  Oct 28, 2023     Forward rudder pedal position - (1.0 hour)       Category: 38: Rud Pedals

Although I plan to use the aft rudder position, I realize it is probably better to go ahead and do the work now to accommodate the forward position in case I get taller some day. I had previously run the crossover brake lines below the center support and realize now that they'd be in the way of sliding the pedals back. Thankfully the hole I drilled for the adel clamp is exactly where it needs to be for the rear rudder position.

So unbolted everything and slid the side support brackets back to the rear position. The match drilled the center support block in the rear position. Ran the crossover cables above the center bracket and drilled a hole through the too flange. Decided to install a nut plate to maybe make it easier to remove in the future. Maybe. It's going to be very tight up in there but at least now you'll only need to get one wrench on it and not two.

That's it. Can disassemble it all now and prime a few parts.

  Oct 27, 2023     Bad news from Vans Category: General

A depressing weekend with a lot of uncertainty on what things will look like going forward. Van's announced that they are essentially insolvent and sounds like on the verge of bankruptcy.

Even if they're not going out of business it sounds like I could lose a deposit on my finishing kit or pay an increased price. Oh, I hope I don't have a $60,000 paperweight in my garage.

  Oct 24, 2023     33-4: Redo baggage floors and step access - (1.8 hours)       Category: 33: Baggage Area

Received new baggage floors and access plates, but need to harvest all of the stiffeners from the olds floors. So got to drill out about 80 rivets.

Then carefully laid out the location for the new access panels knowing what I know now. Marked and drilled the corner holes. Called it a night.

10/26: cut the access holes. I really struggle with these. On the second one, I held the dremel well short of the line and then files to the line. Came out better. They'll both be covered with carpet so not too concerned.

  Oct 22, 2023     Running list of kit modifications/additions Category: General

Modifications and Additions:
Empennage:
- Ran conduit and installed doubler and nutplates for VS mounted NAV antenna (As a contingency in case Archer antennas don't work well)
- Installed Garmin pitch servo bracket
- Installed RV-14 Yaw Damper bracket with minor modifications for RV-10. Use with RV-10 Bow from Garmin.
- Installed upgraded Static ports from Cleaveland Tool
- Installed nut plates in bottom rudder fairing to make removable
- Purchased and drilled holes for ADAHRS bracket, but likely not going to use
- Aeroled tail light

Wing:
- Aluminum pitot mount
- Garmin Regulated Pitot/AOA
- FlyLED seven star landing light.
- Aeroled nav/strobe lights
- Ductwork leading edge light kit
- GMU22 Magnetometer bracket near tip
- Bob Archer wingtip NAV antenn
- Electric aileron trim
- Roll Auto-pilot servo mount
- Warner Fuel Sending units
- (Planned) Icing proof fuel vent? https://vansairforce.net/community/showthread.php?p=21691
- (Planned) Fuel caps?
- Installed extra bung for possible fuel return line - capped
- Stainless hex head screws for installation of fuel sending units
- Inadvertent use of LP4 rivets on left aileron end ribs instead of CS4. Looks fine. Went ahead and did the same on right aileron to match.
- Fiberglassed over the wingtip trailing edge rib to close up hole and just generally better finish.

Fuselage:
- (Planned) Tosten Grips or Pioneer?
- Andair fuel valve - FS20-7T with 90 degree fittings on left and right and straight AN fitting out bottom
- Stainless Heater Box
- TS Flightlines brake lines at pedals and gear legs
- installed return springs on brake master cylinders to reduce brake drag.
- (Planned) TS Flightlines wing root filters
- (ordered) Airflow systems air conditioner
- (Planned) Aerosport center console w/o throttle
- (Planned) Aerosport overhead console
- A pillar conduit run to overhead? GPS, lighting
- Overhead pod? Lighting, Heat, AC controls?
- (Planned) Leaning toward stock panel - hydrodip?
- access panels for landing gear mount. 45 degree bolt install, TCW bushings
- 3M fire stop around firewall
- Airward tunnel access kit - just on co-pilot side
- Com antenna doubler under rear left passenger seat
- transponder antenna under copilot seat

Finish:
- (Planned) Plane around door handles
- (Planned) Low profile handles
- (Planned) Sikaflex (sikadur?) window attach?
- (Planned) upgraded Matco brakes
- (Planned) heavy duty door struts

FWF:
- (Planned) lava shield
- (Planned) TCW vent control servos
- (Planned) TCW oil cooler servo
- (Planned) Red Cube mount FWF

  Oct 20, 2023     38-6 & 7: TS Flightlines brake lines - (2.0 hours)       Category: 38: Rud Pedals

My general rule of thumb is that I'm not going to pay for things just to reduce my build time. I was happy to bend the hard brake lines through the tunnel and under the seats, but the stock configuration of flexible nylon hoses between the brake pedals seems pretty cheap and likely to leak some day. So I did splurge a little for the stainless steel braided hoses from TS Flightlines, just for the hoses between the pedals, and they arrived this week.

Was very pleased to see the included all of the AN hardware needed for the master cylinders and the reservoir. The hoses are varied in length and there are not any instructions provided so it took me a minute to figure out which hose goes where. Once I got that sorted out though the installation was very easy.

Loosely installed the AN fittings in all places, will need to come back and seal the pipe threads and final tighten. Then connected the hoses to confirm the routing. The two holes in the center rudder support bracket don't work well for these lines so you either go over the top of the bracket or below. Was going to go over, but the top flange of the bracket isnt really wide enough to drill and install an adel clamp to hold the hoses. So I went under and secured both hoses with two clamps and a single bolt.

Tidied things up with a few tie wraps and checked the motion of the pedals and brakes. Clearances are good.

Will not final torque anything yet. This whole assembly need to come out when I paint the interior. But it's done for now.

Also went ahead and springs on the master cylinders to help them fully extend and not drag. It's a common modification and I got the McMaster-Carr part numbers off another builder's log. Part numbers in image. All went together pretty easy, but the springs are a little firmer than I wish they were. We'll see.

  Oct 16, 2023     38-8 thru 38-10: Running the rudder cables - (3.5 hours)       Category: 38: Rud Pedals

Wow, what a pain. Tried to get my son to crawl in the back of the tail cone to run rudder cables but he couldn't get the spade on the cables through the snap bushings. Ended up crawling back there myself and was able to get it. But of course the first try ended up with the cables twisted and had to redo it. I think I was in and out of the tail a total of three times. Each time more awkward than the last.

Finally got them run all the way to the front and then installed the adel clamps in the rear and the adel clamps at the front tunnel exit.

10/22: fabricated the links and primed and then installed them. Drilled the holes in the nylon cable guides and then match drilled them to the tunnel ribs. Installed. When fully tightened, they are a bit too tight in the cables, so backed off a little. Need to play with that later.

No cotter pins installed yet, all of this needs to come apart later when I paint the interior.

  Oct 15, 2023     38-2 thru 38-5: starting in rudder pedals - (2.0 hours)       Category: 38: Rud Pedals

Trying to get everything that needs EkoPoxy prepped and ready to prime,so I'm skipping ahead a little bit.

I had previously prepped the rudder pedals and brake master cylinder brackets so finally it was time to river eat the doublers to the pedals. Based on the diagram in the plans, I misinterpreted which was the front face of the pedals and installed all the rivets backwards. I will need to drill them out and redo.

Drilled the center support block per the plans and cut it in half. Match drilled the side support blocks. Bolted everything up and match drilled the center support bracket.

Always knew that I didn't want the stock nylon brake lines. Ordered just the firewall lines and gear leg line from TS Flightlines. Also ordered hardware for McMaster Carr to install springs in each master cylinder to prevent brake drag. I may convert to the single bolt pedal support, but those long bolts are $25 a piece! May hold off on that for now.

10/15: got the pedals all drilled out and re-riveted. Then installed the pedals and brake master cylinders. Looks pretty slick and everything moves freely.

  Oct 14, 2023     Air Conditioner Planning       Category: Air Conditioner

When I started the build, I promised my wife we would have an air conditioner. I have since waffled a bit on that promise as costs are adding up, and I was thinking the overhead console with rear NACA vents might be enough. After this very hot summer of not flying GA primarily because of the miserable thought of getting in the airplane, and then finally our annual trip to Port Aransas really convinced me that we need it. I realized an AC was more than a convenience, it is a safety issue in Texas. If I'm discouraged from flying all summer because of the heat, then I won't be proficient in the fall when we want to make trips. Not to mention not utilizing the airplane for 4 months out of the year is a real waste and it's only going to get hotter. Maybe more important, what is the point of having the airplane if I'm always going to be apologizing to my passengers with some vague wishful thinking that it cools off once we get to altitude. So, I'm pulling the trigger on the AC and making good on the promise I made to her, and myself, at the beginning of the build.

Now is the time to make the install before I close up anything in the fuselage.

Reached out to Airflow Systems and got some details on their latest system. It seems they have made some upgrades over the years, and the new system fully integrates into an Aerosport overhead console, as well as still providing rear bulkhead vents. The whole install looks very well developed and doable. Also the weight is listed quite a bit less than previously at 46 lbs. I got these install photos from them along with a link to a cool 3D model that shows the install.

https://a360.co/3XT9Fen

Sent a deposit. 7 week lead time.

  Oct 12, 2023     Aerosport Options       Category: Interior Finish

Trying to make some decisions on panel, center console, overhead console, interiors, etc. The only things I'm certain of is that I want an overhead console, whether I end up doing AC or not, and I really would like to have a center console/arm rest. The Aerosport Center Console with the quadrant throttle is ideal, but that really starts to force you into their whole system with the one of their panels. I really don't want one of their panels. They look great, but I like the stock.

If I just do the plain center console, without the quadrant, I can still have Van's quadrant on the panel, and I think I can cut the console back to not need the aerosport panel.

  Oct 11, 2023     Transponder Antenna Doubler - (3.0 hours)       Category: Avionics

Finalized the location of the transponder antenna under the co-pilot seat. Laid out the holes based on the pattern for the RAMI antenna, it appears the same as the Commant. Sized the doubler and number of rivets per AC43-13 and laid them out of a 0.063" sheet. Drilled, cut and positioned in the fuselage so that the bolts and coax fitting lined up with the joggle that I put in the fuel line. Drilled a couple alignment holes in the bottom skin, and then cleco'd the doubler onto the underside of the skin and match drilled everything. Upsized the bolt holes and center coax hole and then trial fit the Commant antenna in place - fits perfect.

Then being stupid, I'm looking at it from the top and it appears that I missed the four holes right around the coax hole as I can see primer through them. I thought I got them, but I guess I'll just redrill them from the top. When I looked under the belly, I immediately realized that I wasn't seeing primer, I was seeing the antenna and I drilled #40 holes right through the base. Just cosmetic damage. I guess it is too late and time to go to bed. Before checking out for the night though I thought I would check how stiff my doubler is and pushed on the side of the antenna. With a disappointingly small amount of force, the base of the antenna blade broke right off from the base. Well, that's official, I just trashed an antenna.

11/13: Alodined the doubler plate. Didn't come out nearly as dark as previous but I think it is adequate to protect the doubler. I initially planned to remove the primer below the doubler and alodine that portion of the skin too, but when I tried to remove the primer with some acetone, it didn't budge. Nice durability EkoPoxy.

11/15: countersunk the holes n the bottom skin since it is 0,040”. Touched up w the holes with primer and then riveted the doubler in place with my wife's help. Tested the continuity between the doubler and some other parts of the airframe and had good results despite not removing the primer below the doubler.

This little side project is done and ready for a new antenna install.

  Oct 11, 2023     Antenna planning Category: Avionics

Documenting spacing requirements and planned location for each antenna:
COM1 - mounted on belly under pilot side rear seat, at least 6' from other COM, no specific requirement from xpndr. measured 42" from planned xpndr location.
COM2 - mounted on top of tail cone - at least 6' from other COM antennas, "as far as practical from ELT" per G3X manual
GPS - minimum of 2' from com antenna. min 3' from COM unit. No closer than 9" to other passive (GPS) antennas. per G3X manual. Some are mounting on top of fiberglass cabin top. Van's says not to drill hole in cabin, need to research.
ELT - didn't find specific spacing requirements. Will mount on tail, just ahead of the rear fairing.
XPDR - mounted on belly under co-pilot seat. Minimum 3' from unit. Not within 3' of ADF OR ANY OTHER COM ANTENNA per GNX375 manual
NAV - In the left wingtip - no issues (Back-up location is top of vertical stabilizer)

  Oct 08, 2023     33-2 thru 33-5: Baggage Area work - (1.5 hours)       Category: 33: Baggage Area

I had already jumped into Section 33 a bit as I was trying to figure out the access panels for the steps; now I'm going back through from the beginning to pick up the steps that I skipped. Fabricated the hinge for the seat backs and match drilled to the floor. Then cleco'd everything in place and started fitting the baggage door frame. Match drilled the holes into the baggage floor.

Installed the F-1924B baggage floor angles and noted that they cause yet another conflict with my step access holes. It's not bad, but just another little annoyance with those. I proceeded the cleco all of the access panels in place to see if it is really going to be feasible to remove and install these cover plates. It's not easy and the whole set up is a little wonky. I've been fighting all the little things with the setup, none are a deal breaker but the summation of small things I know I won't be happy with it. I'm going to bite the bullet and order new baggage floor pans and redo it. It's $100 - lesson learned.

  Oct 07, 2023     Baggage Floor Conduits - (2.5 hours)       Category: 33: Baggage Area

I've been messing around for weeks with planning of conduits so that I can start sealing up the baggage area. I think I finally have those figured out well enough the I can proceed. I have four conduits on each side: On the left side, I'll have the #2 battery wire in its own conduit, static line in its own with plenty of room for more later, other power feeds from the battery buss in one, and one spare. On the right side, we'll have a lot more data wires including the AP servos, pitch trim, tail light?, ELT, COM antenna, maybe even a remote transponder. I cut 4 holes in each F-1024 rear seat pans to run the conduit up into the side walls.

10/8: happy with the routing, I started securing the co suits using the one hole clips that I got from Vans. These are great except they're $2 a piece.

  Oct 04, 2023     Andair fuel valve - (3 hours)       Category: 37: Fuel System

Snuck out to the shop to do a quick project. Made the modifications to the fuel valve support bracket to accommodate the andair fuel valve. I had ordered some 0.063” stock for antenna doublers that works pretty well for this too.

Just roughly laid out the holes then used the template from andair to center punch the holes. Then drilled those to size with a #12 and a unibody for the big middle hole. Then used the original bracket to lay out some lines for cutting the plate.

Then match drilled the new plate to the old. There is only about three spots on either side with adequate edge distance from all the lightening holes in the original bracket but that should do fine. Then I cut the original bracket leaving only the ends and the new river holes.

Came out good. Nice little night cap project.

10/5: followed up this morning with a little trimming and lightening. Looks much nicer now, and I shaved off 0.000001 pounds.

10/6: ran the fuel lines from the selector to the fuel pump and up to the firewall. Temporarily installed the fuel pump. Finally made the mistake that everyone has made - flared the pipe without the nut in place. It was fortunately recoverable; pipe was a little too long anyways. Ordered the rubber pads from ACS.

  Oct 01, 2023     37-3: Starting fuel lines - (1.5 hours)       Category: 37: Fuel System

Brake lines all finished and on a roll so started on some fuel lines. I'm using the TCW bulkhead connections at the fuselage exit so that I can use filters at the wing roots. This means that the fuel line between the tunnel and the fuse side is a straight shot with hard points at each end. Decided to bend a little chicane in the line to relieve some stress and allow for installation. Bends came out good. Gives a little extra room for the transponder antenna connection too.

My andair fuel valve finally arrived but has the wrong engraving on the plate. Not a time critical issue but a little disappointing after waiting 5 months for it. I did go ahead and install nut plates on the fuel valve. Really nice quality part.

  Sep 30, 2023     36-3 thru 36-4: Tunnel brake lines - (5.0 hours)       Category: 36: Brake Lines

Started the work on the tunnel. Started at the firewall bracket and just went slowly through it. I started with a flare and nut on one end, temporarily connected it, measured the first bend, removed the line, bent the line, reinstall, adjust, measure next bend, remove, bend, and so on until I had the line bent all the way back to the fitting at the tunnel exit. Thought I had it all good but then saw the note about clocking that last fitting and routing the brake line to avoid the fuel line. I was able to massage it into place.

Then the installation of the adel clamps. Ugh. That was difficult and required getting into the airplane and contorting a it to get the screws in.

Had a bit of scare when I got forward enough in the fuselage that the tail lifted up off the cradle and actually hit the ceiling and one of my shop lights. A lot of racket, but no damage to the airplane. Big hole in my ceiling though!

Got everything finished up and torqued. Then reinstalled the front heater vent and final riveted in place.

I thought bending these hard lines was going to be a big pain and something that wouldn't look good when I was done. I'm very happy with how everything came out and bending the lines is actually one of the more enjoyable parts of the build.

  Sep 27, 2023     Laser Cut Parts Update       Category: General

Van's finally released the portal for getting laser cut part replacements. I was expecting to order new rear baggage floors and the upper fuse center rib because they were listed in yellow on the previously released list of affected parts and I haven't installed them yet so might as well. The baggage floors have been removed from the yellow list, but the forward fuse center rib (F-1044A) is still on it. I requested a new rib - this will hold up my upper fuse completion a bit, but I already figured that would be the case.

There are two other parts on the yellow list, the outboard baggage ribs that support the steps. Van's suggests these are highly loaded from the step, but low cycles. The step is also supported by a steel weldment, and the rivets aren't dimpled. I'm going with Van's determination on this one that replacement is not necessary.

There are three other fuselage parts that are on the red list - the F-1048-L&R which is the main tunnel sidewall ribs, and the F-1005A which is the rear spar bulkead. It is the F-1005B plates that really carry most of the load though, and those aren't laser cut - too thick. Both of these parts have notes indicating they're priority may be reduced with further testing, or they recommended to not replace and wait for additional instructions. I'm 95% certain that these particular parts were not laser cut in my kit, but I can't be absolutely certain. Given the difficulty or replacing these parts and the fact that they are relatively easy to inspect, I am not going to do anything regarding replacement.

I was thinking that I had no exposure on my wing, but they did include the opportunity to order wing parts and that got me looking. There are some parts that entered the inventory in January through March of '22. I received my wing kit in March so it's possible. Thankfully I do have photos from my wing inventory and there are enough to verify all of the aileron and flap parts are good.

So that's it - I'm ordering just one part off the portal and putting the Laser Cut Parts behind me. I feel bad for others that have it so much worse than me. I look at the list of red parts on the empennage and wing kit and my heart breaks for those that have completed those parts. Then again, I might welcome the opportunity to redo some of my early empennage parts.

10/8: I had a big order of other stuff from Van's so just went ahead and ordered that fwd fuse rib and paid for it out of pocket.

1/7/24: F-1048 L & R moved to blue based on further testing. No concern.

  Sep 24, 2023     32-2: Starting on brake lines - (1.5 hours)       Category: 36: Brake Lines

I'm hung up a bit on baggage floor and forward fuselage waiting on some laser cut part resolution. I think I may my baggage floors anyways so just waiting for the Vans portal to open.

So looking forward, I think it is pretty safe to start on brake lines and fuel lines. Also just got notice that my and air fuel valve has shipped.

So made up my first brake line. Started trying to rough bend the tube and then trial fit it, but quickly realized it was better to just attach thsline near the landing gear mount and bend it in place. Then trimmed the length to the fitting at the tunnel and straightened it up a bit. Came out good. Happy with my flares too. Used a touch of boelube on the flat and I think that helps a lot.

  Sep 23, 2023     32-5: Finishing up tailcone attach - (2.5 hours)       Category: 32: Tail Attach

Got the remaining rivets underneath the tailcone finished with some help from my wife. Then solo riveted the baggage ribs to the aft bulkhead. That was tough. Section is done and tailcone is permanently attached.

  Sep 17, 2023     32-2 thru 5: Final attachment of tailcone - (8.0 hours)       Category: 32: Tail Attach

Nephew was in town and we had a big weekend in the shop. The big goal was to get the tail cone finished and attached. But somewhere along the way I would also need to replace the castors on the fuselage stand as they have become unusable.

First task was to drill the longer one and temporarily install the AN bolts. Then match drilled all of the remaining holes between the mid-fuse skins and the tailcone skins. Then countersunk all of the rivets that were called out in the plans.

Then took the tailcone off and deburred everything. Masked off an primed all of the forward portion of the tail cone skins that would be under the fuse skins. Took the opportunity while that was drying to lift the forward fuselage off the stand and retrofit the castors with some nice new ones. Removing the old castors confirmed that they had all deformed and flat spotted. Cheap HF castors. They were rated at 200 lbs a piece but I think maybe the heat got to them. New castors are so much nicer. Can easily move the whole assembly around the shop.

Once the primer was relatively cured, proceeded with carefully dimpling all of the skin and bulkhead holes. Also went back to 32-2 and installed some of the nut plates I had skipped previously. Then riveted the bottom of the baggage bulkhead to the sides and to the bell crank ribs.

Then the moment of truth. Got everything blocked up and with my nephews invaluable assistance, we managed to get the skins and tabs all lined up and mated the two assemblies. Reinstalled the longeron bolts and proceeded with riveting the skins and bulkhead together.

A good weekend of work. Just the bottom skin rivets left. Will get those next weekend.

  Sep 01, 2023     30-4: Redrill left step - (2.0 hours)       Category: 30: Step

After mocking up the baggage area with some of the additional side panels in place it is clear that the bolts in the steps have to be clocked. Should have just paid attention to what everyone has said on the topic. I just missed that there was another panel that was going to prevent removal of the bolt straight out.

Removed the bolt and pulled out the left step. Then using fishing line, threaded a line down and around the TCW bushing. Then used the fishing line to pull some larger twine through that I could use to pull out the bushing. A little frustrating but got it out.

Then reinstalled the step and drilled a new hole at 45 degrees. Upsized to #12, deburred, reinstalled the bushing, reinstalled the step, touched up the primer, and torqued the bolt.

At least both sides are the same now.

Section is done. Again.

  Aug 28, 2023     31Q-2, 5, 7 & 8: continuing on upper fuse - (2.5 hours)       Category: 31: Upper Fuse

New parts received from vans for the Panel attach flange and the F-1044C spacer. Took care of the remedial fabrication work on those then proceeded with the match drilling of the attach flanges to the upper fuse skin. A little awkward at first but was not hard. Then drilled the holes from the panel into the attach flanges. Drilled the nut plate holes and machine countersink them for oops rivets. It's too tight in the flange to dimple any of those holes. I'll just machine countersink all of the nut plate in the panel. Should come out better anyways.

Gently formed curves into the handhold reinforcements and match drilled them to the skin.

A little more countersinking nut plate holes and then section should be ready to prime.

8/29: finished up the countersinks.

  Aug 26, 2023     33-4: Baggage floor work - (5.5 hours)       Category: 33: Baggage Area

Wanted to wrap up the step access panels so that meant progressing the baggage floor. Spent a little time cleaning up the openings that I had cut previously just to get them more uniform. Used the dremel with a sanding drum.

Fabricated all the baggage floor stiffeners. Fabricated the filler plates that would be needed to mate up with the access panel rings.

Then prepped and primed the baggage floor parts. Planned to use Ekoprime on everything but ran out and finished the top surface of the floor pans with Ekopoxy.

8/27: dimpled the floor pans and back-rivetted the stiffeners to the baggage floor. In trying to confirm which holes are dimpled and not, I looked at the side panel. I knew it would go over the access panels, but was thinking it was screwed in place. It gets riveted and even has a rivet in the middle of the access plate. I think I can replace that rivet with a screw and the access plates will just have to slip under the side panels. It will work. Just hope I'm actually able to get the step bolts out if I ever have to. Should have clocked them both 45 degrees.

Also found that one of the side panel rivets is coincident with a floor stiffener rivet. It's the same rivet that is coincident with the access panel backup plate. Left that rivet out for now.

  Aug 16, 2023     31Q-2 & 4 thru 7: Upper fuse fabrication - (6.8 hours)       Category: 31: Upper Fuse

Just a little fabrication of the spacers and angle pieces. Bent the tab on the 1/8” angle with a mallet on the vice. No problem.

Separated the other light angle pieces and panel support angles.

Some upper fuse components are laser cut. Just documenting the pieces and proceeding with prep of the parts. Will hold off on final riveting.
F-1068BL&R
F-1068A
F-1044A

8/17: made the bends on the sub panel. Just clamped to the kitchen table (in the a/c) and slowly bent with wooden blocks. Came out ok.

8/19: got all of the parts deburred and then reassembled the skeleton for real this time. Installed the angle brace and drilled the hole at the firewall. I knew it was going to be close, but after drilling, it definitely didn't meet edge distance. Gabri Syed a new one and was much better the second time. Realized that the spacer I cut was an inch too short.

Proceeded to flute the angles next to the panel to match the curvature. Then realized one of the angles was too short also. I read 11 3/16”. It clearly says 11 13/16”. I don't have any spare stock to cut another one so ordered one from Vans along with stock for a new spacer.

Will need to pause on this section till next week.

  Aug 13, 2023     32-2: retrieve tail cone - (2.0 hours)       Category: 32: Tail Attach

Went to retrieve the tail cone and other tail feathers today. Couldn't help but attach the tail cone to the fuselage. Just to get a sense of how much room it's going to take up. Still need to do some work rearranging the garage to fit everything.

  Aug 12, 2023     Step access panels - (3.0 hours)       Category: 33: Baggage Area

Jumping ahead to start thinking about access panel for the steps. Had already done some figuring of these so it was just a mattter of final locating the opening and cutting it. Realized that the stiffener would cross the access panel doubler and be a bit awkward. Solved that issue by using a filler plate below the stiffener. Trimmed the doubler plate to clear the filler plate and not conflict with the other primary rivets. Right side pretty much figured out. Need to mirror over for the left side. Won't assemble until I get to this step later.

8/20: got the left side knocked out today. Used the right floor as a template for drilling to make a perfect mirrored pair. Cut out with dremel. Results so so. It will all covered up anyways.

10/8: This was all wrong. Ordered new baggage floors and will redo.

  Aug 08, 2023     30-2: thru 30-4: Step installation - (3.5 hours)       Category: 30: Step

Snuck into the garage for a little while tonight and drilled the baggage rib for the step blocks. Easy peasy.

8/11: drilled the right step this morning. Drilled the #30 guide hole through the step bracket and step no problem. Then upsized to the #12. When I pulled the assembly apart, I had two holes in the bottom of the step - a #30 and a #12. With minimal material between them. Must have had the #12 tilted a bit. As I tried to assess whether that would be acceptable, I remembered that at one point I was going to clock the bolts 45 degrees. That made me realize I could just clock the bolt get enough distance from the original hole(s) and redrill.

So after work, I confirmed that I'd still be able to access the bolt if clocked 45 degrees and redrilled it. No issues this time. Installed the TCW bushing, touched up the primer, installed the bolt and torqued it. Hopefully I never have to get back into these bolts but if I do, I'll see that one is vertical and the other is clocked 45 deg.

This section is done.

  Aug 07, 2023     31: Just messing around - (1.0 hour)       Category: 31: Upper Fuse

After all the work on the side skins, I needed a little win and some motivation. Cleco'd on the upper fuse pieces and panel just to see how it goes together.

With the panel in place I just couldn't resist printing some of the Garmin full-size face plate templates to see what this panel might look like.

I swear I did not get in and make airplane noises. I actually have still not sat in it once.

  Aug 05, 2023     29-17, 18, & 23: Left side skin finish up - (7.0 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Got a lot done on the left skin today despite the heat. Got my loyal riveting partner to help rivet the lower forward fuse channel and then got her to get the underside rivets on the front. Came out really good and flush.

With those rivets in place, I was able to proceed with installing the pilot side floor pan.

8/6: Finished up the last of the bottom ri ets this morning. Then installed the last forward fuselage rib. Cleaned everything up and installed a few of the cover plates just to keep dust and FOD out.

With that, this section is finally done. 88 hrs and 3 months.

  Aug 04, 2023     29-18: Right front skin rework - (1.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

After no doing much work the last month, but spending a lot of time just staring at the fuselage in the garage, I noticed the right front skin was not sitting as tightly as I'd like against the C channel. I must have not been holding the rivet gun perpendicular to the skin. Decided to drill them out and redo them. I was actually really proud of how good a job I did drilling them out - I'm a real builder now. Dozens of nice little rivet head donuts on my 3/32" punch. Got it re-rivetted and it is much better now. Glad I re-did it.

  Aug 04, 2023     29-21 & 22 Left gear mount bracket - (2.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Braved the heat a bit today and made some progress on the left gear leg mount. First rivetted the doubler plate to the side skins. Then installed all of the AN hardware and torqued. Got Ben to help again with the tough to reach nuts.

  Jul 29, 2023     Airventure 2023 / Laser Cut Parts - (2.0 hours)       Category: General

Really just a place holder to remind myself that I went. Ben and Max and I drove up and tent camped in Scholler. Friday-Thursday.

Didn't take a lot of photos but did see several nice RV-10s including my friend David's - hadn't seen it since it was painted.

Picked up a couple of antennas from someone off of VAF and ordered my nav/strobe lights.

7/30/23: Didn't catch the Van's update on laser cut parts, but I watched the recording of it when I got home. Seems there is more concern on parts that don't have visual defects. I took some time to go through Van's list and at least confirm what has and has not been installed and what I can confirm is laser cut versus punched. I was hoping I'd have enough photos to eliminate some parts that have already been installed, but I typically immediately pull the vinyl off now - I was not able to eliminate any parts from the list. I have identified a handful of parts that have not been installed yet that I will ask for replacements.

  Jul 16, 2023     30-2: Right side step - (1.8 hours)       Category: 30: Step

Have been messing around over the past couple weeks trying to understand the modifications people have been making for the steps and providing an access panel. I purchased the TCW step bushings and an extra and access plate (already had one left over from stall earning that I didn't install) to put in the baggage floor. I had read that people click the bolt 45 degrees to allow removal from the top. I had my neighbor 3D print a drill guide and he ever added a littl window to cleco to the original guide hole that would set the new hole at 45 degrees +/-. I've been trying to mockup the access hole to understand how it all will go together and honestly struggling figure out what to do.

Today I think I figured it out, but I also concluded that I don't need to clock the bolt 45 degrees. I believe I can orient the access panel to allow removal of the bolt straight up and I confirmed that I can reach my hand around the step with a wrench to get on the backside to hole the nut. I'm just going to use the original guide hole. I will go ahead and drill the pilot hole all the way down through the bottom skin just in case I ever need to get to the nut from the outside.

With that figured out, I proceed to mark and drill the holes in the black nylon step support block. When drilling it on the drill press, I didn't hold it tight enough to the table and the drill press picked up the piece, which then tilted in my hand and the bit just ate a big, slanted hole in the nylon. Trashed piece, ordered a new one. I drilled the other one and it came out fine.

Went to the storage unit to retrieve all the cover panels including the baggage floor panels and cleco'd them in place per the plans. Then fit up the step and support block to match drill into the baggage floor ribs. Drill doesn't fit. Ordered some #12 screw in bits for my 90 degree drill. Will continue this after Oshkosh.

I will still use my nice drill guide to final drill the holes and ensure straightness.

8/6: New piece arrived and drilled with no issues.

  Jul 16, 2023     29-21: Left side landing gear mount - (1.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Hit a dead end on the step so started work on the left side landing gear mount. As with the right side, the mount was tight in the hole so took the dremel to it to get a little clearance. It dropped in much better than the right side after a little work. Installed the temporary bolts and cleco'd the double and drill jigs in place. That's enough for today.

  Jul 15, 2023     Laser cut parts Category: General

Seems the $h!t is hitting the fan for Van's regarding the switch to laser cut parts. I had no laser cut parts in my wing or empennage and just a few in my fuselage. I don't recall exactly which ones, but most are access panels that I'm not too worried about. I know there were at least a few ribs and miscellaneous parts that have made it into the construction to date but in general I have been impressed with the quality of laser cut parts. I've looked over a few of the remaining laser cut parts on the shelf and holes are very clean. None of the dramatic notching or slag that I've seen in photos from others. I don't think I have a lot of exposure to their quality issues. Maybe RV-10 parts are from a different vendor, or I had a good run. I have not seen any cracks in dimples or riveted holes.

I understand everyone's frustration though. I will hold off some remaining laser cut parts for further direction.

  Jul 15, 2023     29-18, 20 & 22: Finishing up right side - (5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Finally got all the rivets on the right side done. Then moved on to installing the floor pan on the right side. Carefully removed all debris and vacuumed everything well before sealing it up. Floor slipped into place fairly easy and was able to align all the holes with clecos. Starting using the manually rivet puller then used my pneumatic one. The pneumatic one sprays oil all over the place though so went back to manual. Got tired of that and decided to just deal with the oil spray. Then the pneumatic one stopped working - not sure what's wrong with it. Back to manual. Took a long time to get them all pulled.

7/16: got the last side rib riveted in place. The right side of Section 29 is done. This section is taking forever.

Just noticed that at some point in the past week I passed 1000 hours.

  Jul 08, 2023     29-21: Right landing gear mount - (4.0 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

This is a pain. First I had to work to hike in the bottom skin a bit with the dremel to try to get the landing gear bracket to fit. Then it still took a good amount of coercing with a mallet to get it in place. The. Try to temporarily install enough bolts before I match drill the remaining holes. Could get those to line up. Finally ground the threads off an AN4 bolt and used it as a drift pin and got it started. Then was able to install the other bolts. Very difficult to get my hand between the spars to install the nuts but finally figured how to reach the from the end. Got the hardware all temporarily snugged up. It does seem that the AN4-14s are too short. [figured this out - I was using the wrong nuts. Too bad I already ordered new bolts.]

Got the drill templates cleco'd in place and match drilled the #30 holes, then upsized to 1/4”. Now I need to take it all back apart. Not looking forward to it.

7/9: was able to remove the aluminum doubler and get it deburred. And was able to get the steel weldment deburred in place. I gave up on trying to remove it. Was able to rivet the skin diuble in place with the weldment in place. Then installed all the bolts, with the correct nuts, and tightened. Needed someone with little hands to get a wrench in the in board bottom nuts.

Right gear mount is done. Hopefully the left one goes a little more smoothly, but this really wasn't bad.

  Jul 08, 2023     Tunnel access panel finish up - (1.2 hours)       Category: 28: Fwd Fuse

Finally go around to finishing up the tunnel access. I was putting it off a bit because I really don't like #8 plate nuts. I dimpled the ears then straightened them back out a bit. Then cleco'd one ear and installed the #8 screws. Then riveted the other ear. They all came out really good, happy with the results. Riveted the reinforcement ring to the tunnel rib and screwed in the cover plate. Done.

  Jul 06, 2023     29-18: Back at the side skins - (3.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Got back at the side skins after vacation. Got the right side cabin opening piece riveted in. Got some of the rivets along the front lower channel taped in place ready for my rivet partner this weekend.

Played with the landing gear mount a bit. It doesn't fit.

7/9: Got the wife to help rivet the right rear quarter where it wraps underneath. There was a bit of a gap in the skins with the cleco's in place (~3/16" max). I was worried it wouldn't easily pull tight when we rivetted it, but it came out great.

  Jun 29, 2023     29: Wing root priming - (3.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Looking ahead I can see that the new gear reinforcement plates go on the outside of the skin within the wing root area. I had already primed the reinforcement plates, but thought I should prime the outside of the skins. Might as well just prime everything within the shadow of the wing.

Masked everything off dust to the outside of the faring attach angles and prepped and primed. Felt like good masking and painting practice for doing the interior.


Also primed the tunnel access parts.

  Jun 23, 2023     29-18: Right side skin riveting - (8.0 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Back at the fuse side skins a bit this evening. It was hot in the garage, but I got most of the right forward skin done.

6/25: Worked through the heat and got a good amount of riveting done this weekend. All of the solo work on the right side is complete including the rear passenger vent. The right side is now to the same state as the left side. Still need a partner to get the bottom wrap around a front and back.

  Jun 22, 2023     Oshkosh countdown       Category: General

Not a lot of work lately, just so hot. I did manage to do a little flying though. Got bonanza current, got a flight review, and a tail wheel endorsement in a cub. A lot of fun. A little boost of aviation in my blood before Oshkosh.

Oshkosh is a month out and getting excited to talk to new folks. This year focusing on interiors, engines, and wheels and brakes. Need to make some decisions.

Also plan to pick up my NAV/strobe lights if there is a deal.

  Jun 18, 2023     29-18: Left side skins - (3.5 hours)       Category: 29: Fuse Skins

Made some good progress on skins today. Got the left side done with the exception of the bottoms.

Riveted the left side center fuse cover in place lace.

Then countersunk the holes for the rear passenger vent and riveted the doubler and brackets in place.

Started on the right side skin rivets but didn't get far.