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Last Modified December 1st 2001
1st November The starboard trim tab looks much better now that it is in line with the port one. As I had changed the tab positions I needed to verify that the stabilators still worked in the required range of +12 up and -4 down and that the tabs moved through +-6 degrees. I am pleased to report that everything works as planned.
2nd November After a bit of grinding to clean the flox on the tabs up I glassed in the tabs with three layers of bid.
3rd November Today was spent alternating between cutting out more parts for the fuselage dolly and cleaning up the workshop.
4th November No building, cleaning out the kitchen ready for remodelling.
5th November No building, acting as pyrotechnic specialist for the extended family.
6th - 9th November Dug out the tailwheel fairing from the store
and started trimming it to fit. As a result of fitting Graham Singleton's
tailwheel mod there is is a fair amount of extra trimming required in order for
it to fit. Taking an educated guess I extended the original slot markings right
to the edge of the pieces and then cut the slits. From there it was a process of
steady experimentation over a few evenings until the pieces would fit correctly
over the wheel and limit stop.
10th November Now that the front door and window is ready for fitting it is necessary to apply the first coat of finish to protect all of the surfaces prior to installation. I am using a three part stain and UV protectant here ...... ooops wrong builder's log. No airplane due to domestic commitments.
11th - 14th November No building, working in Taupo
15th - 17th November No building, restocking the kitchen.
18th November At last, a whole day to spend on the airplane. I fitted
the five nutplates to the tailwheel fairing and discovered that I had to trim
the wheel opening at the back. Once this was done I packed the bearing with
grease and fitted the wheel and fairing.
It was time to dive back through the inspection hole. A few trips were required to establish the shape of the upper pitch stop and another to fit it in place with redux and flox. I locked the stabilators at 5.0 degrees up which kept the upper pitch stop held in place by the counterbalance arm.
The two fuel pumps need smoothing capacitors fitted across the supply so I
crimped on 4mm and a 5mm connectors onto a pair of 1uF/100v capacitors and
put these onto the pumps. I then terminated the power lines and used lock nuts
to secure the wires in place.
Both pumps were then tested for operation and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they are virtually silent in operation. I then proceeded to terminate the power supply wires for the strobe unit and attach the wiring looms to the cable tie mounts which I had fitted earlier.
Most of the rest of the day was spent going over the control surfaces ensuring that they were ready for final painting.
Once the upper pitch stop was set in place I dove into the back once more and applied a bead of silicone to the underside of the stop.
19th November I rerigged the stabilators to check the operation of the upper pitch stop. The pitch arm hits the stop at 5.0 degrees with the other stop hitting at 12.5 degrees. At 5.0 degrees this is the absolute limit so I'll add another small strip of silicone to bring it down to around 4.7 degrees.
I am now targetting an aft to firewall finish off for all fuselage systems. First target is the fuel vent system shich requires the antisphon bottle to be mounted. I have moved it from my original position and now plan on mounting in on the port side wall. This required a change of pipes into the bottle. A bit of wrestling got the original pipes out and I then scuff sanded the bottle surfaces and pipes, made up a batch of my favorite green aerospace adhesive and reduxed the pipes into place.
20th - 30th November All I managed to do in the past ten days was to apply a layer of cloth over anti siphon bottle. :-( A heavy work load combined with the house remodelling has meant that I haven't been able to spend as much time on the plane as I'd like. The fact that there is an old kitchen sitting in the garage really isn't helping either!
It doesn't look like December is going to get any better as we have just won a contract which is going to occupy my time for a few weeks.
