Last Modified September 29th 2003.

September 2003, Back to the Tail

1st - 3rd September No building due the the CIO Conference in Auckland.

4th - 5th September Trimmed the glass on the cuff and re plumbed the pitot and static tubing within the aircraft. I had originally used stiff nylaflow tubing for this but noted that I was going to have difficulty getting this to mate with the instrument panel so replaced it with Europa supplied pitot/static tubing.

6th - 10th September No building due to the SOLGM conference in Palmerston North.

11th - 12th September No building.

13th - 14th September My target this weekend was to finish off the work on the back of the aircraft. First job was to get the rudder mounted which didn't take too long. The prime thing here was to remember to use the nice shiny screws which I'd especially saved for all final fittings.

Next up it was the turn of the tailwheel and cuff. I greased the tailwheel prior to mounting and then attached everything using the screws specified except for the leading edge screw on the cuff which needed to be swapped for a shorter one and have a washer placed under the head. This was as a result of the screw location conflicting with the tailwheel pivot. With the tailwheel in place I adjusted the lengths of the tailwheel drive cables to both centre the wheel and also provide a small amount of pre load on the tailwheel springs.

Then came the really fun bit - adjusting and fitting the rudder drive arm. This took a couple of hours of patient trial and error work until the rudder was aligned to my satisfaction and the rod arm, together with the protecting washers, were securely fastened to the rudder. Fastening this drive arm to the rudder takes at least 20 minutes with two spanners as it's only possible to move the spanners by a very small distance within the tight working space.

Finished at the back of the aircraft I then fitted the aft inspection holes and I am not satisfied with these. The build up of primer and paint on the inner surfaces of the flange meant that the inspection plates were sitting slightly proud of the surface. I've temporarily mounted the plates but I'll be getting the dremel out to take the inner flanges back to bare glass later on.

Sunday was a day of frustrating experiences - largely due to the fact that I'm trying to make a pair of holes in the base of the seats to plumb in the strobe cables. This has been made difficult by the fact that I now have a support running on the inside of the base for a ply cover and this blocks the use of most power tools in the area. It wasn't until I'd beaten my forehead against the wall for the tenth time as I once again applied sticking plasters to my now bleeding fingers that I spotted an old hole corer and was able to get that into the appropriate location.

Fitting the doors came next.. a task once again frustrated by the fact that the mechanism cover plates seem to have mysteriously disappeared. I decided to carry on any way and mounted the doors. I was far from happy with the way that the port door handle was quite sloppy in its fit and have decided to remake the door handles based on the new XS style plate.

Unlike the original Europa Classic door plates which used a washer and nut within the door handle, the XS style plate uses a nutplate riveted to the door handle. A quick test with this showed that it didn't have any of the sloppiness associated with my original.

To prevent the back of the door handle from scratching the paint when the door is opened I filed a small angle into the underside of the aft tip of the handle back to the 3/16" hole that is present in the factory supplied door handle plate. This angle takes off about a millimetre at the tip. I also inserted a  washer underneath the handle that was just slightly larger than the square locating boss. This keeps the handle clear of the paint across the rest of the surface.

Somehow my list of things to do keeps growing every time I touch the aircraft these days!

15th - 16th September Worked on the aircraft wiring diagrams.

17th - 18th September No building.

19th - 21st September No building, away in Napier

22nd September Airmaster wanted the hub off my engine as they wanted to set up a new set of blades for it so I took that off the engine.

23rd September No building, giving an evening lecture at Auckland University.

24th September No building due to work.

25th September No building, attending a dinner function.

26th - 28th September No building, away in Taupo.

29th - 30th September I spent a couple of evenings redesigning the route for the strobe wires from the strobe unit to the wing fittings. Previously these had run in parallel with the comms antenna for a short distance but reports from other builders indicate that strobe interference is quite a big problem. I am going to now run them in the tunnel forward to the seat base. Enter the seat base just aft of the fuel lines and then bring them across and up to an exit point mid wing section.