Music: Spotify Daily mix
The wiring continues today with a couple of other items that I had put on the back burner. The tail strobe circuit was completed and wing strobe wiring started. One being the wiring of the extension wire for the elevator trim and the other the pressure plumbing for the G5.
Music: The Pretenders – They were the support to Fleetwood Mac on Sunday at Wembley. I’d forgotten how good their music was!
Time for a short break from wiring but not for long before continuing the battle of the wires!
Music: Take That
I decided to visit Air Expo at Booker yesterday but I can honestly say the show was a complete waste of my time. It was raining all day and a lot of the exhibitors had scaled down their stalls and some hadn’t turned up at all! I did buy a Sky Echo II there so I’ll see how that works when I finally get the plane flying.
The aim for today was to continue the wiring and connect a few of the sensors.
Music: Star Sailor and Turin Brakes
Dave came down to spend a day with me to see how the build is going so far and help me with fitting the prop hub and transponder aerial.
Music: Roxy Music & Dire Straits
With all the prep to fit the centre console, today’s the day to fit it for the final time. All the control cable outers have been routed and cut, the connections worked out, the pipe runs decided on and checked. Now it’s just a case of carrying out the fit.
Music: Röyksopp
Good news – Today I’m expecting delivery of the Airmaster prop that was ordered in February. So I had brought back the switches and circuit breakers and thought that whilst waiting I would wire them up.
Music: Supertramp
Finished the ADAHRS and GMU 11 mounts then primed and installed them. Spent some of the day investigating switches, circuit breakers and wiring.
Andy is coming over on Monday so we can look at getting some build stages signed off and possibly rig the aircraft to make sure every thing fits!
First thing was to drill the holes for the rivets….
and the holes for the devices that will be attached to the mounts.
The mount is sprayed with chromate primer and jointing compound is applied between the fuselage floor and the mounts to prevent corrosion.
The mounts are riveted from underneath the fuselage.
The GMU 11 mount installed and ready for the GMU unit to be added.
When I got home I got an early surprise of Airmaster. The controller and wiring loom had arrived from New Zealand. They were despatched on Tuesday so pretty quick to get here. I can install the wiring and controller in readiness for the delivery of the prop in late May.
Music: Snow Patrol
Some time ago I had assembled the Andair fuel selector but hadn’t installed it as it wasn’t needed at the time. Today was the day to mount the selector and various controls into the centre console.
On a lot of centre consoles I’ve seen, the fuel selector and the flap control are positioned side by side in this recess. Personally I thought it would be better to keep the fuel away from any electrics, so have decided to mount the flap selector on the instrument panel.
The centre console which is made from glass fibre and re-enforced with carbon fibre panels. I marked the centres and positioned the selector where I thought it would look good.
After measuring and remeasuring the position to drill the mounting hole I used a step drill to cut a 26mm hole. It was only after doing this I found that Andair actually provide a template to help do this. Note to self: RTFM!
No problem with my measurements though and the selector cover goes on ok. I can now mark up where the Carb heat, Park Brake, Heater, and Screen De-mist controls go.
Although there are strengthening panels build in to the console I thought it would be good to further strengthen where the push/pull controls are mounted so made a couple of brackets…
and use a piece of glass fibre to secure them in place. This further supports fuel selector and controls.
This is what it looks like after the glass fibre has set.
Re-drill the holes
and the finished console ready for the the selector and controls to be mounted.
The cables are secured in place with nuts and I’ve put another washer on the back to spread the load even more. Taking no chances!
The inners are inserted to finish off. I will be able to mount the console and work out the runs for all the cables and make sure they work in the correct sense i.e. Pull for on, push for off.
There are 2 brackets that secure the instrument panel and the centre of the panel is supported by the console.
The console and instrument panel temporarily installed to see how it looks/works. I can now prep for the install of the screens and various switches, circuit breakers and warning lights once I’ve completed my electrical design.
Music: The Greatest Showman reimagined and Snow Patrol.
Finishing off the insulation installation, first fit of centre console, autopilot servo install and filling brake system with Aero Shell 41.
One quick job this morning now all the other pipes have been fitted is to run a piece of piping from the water expansion chamber to the water bottle.
I have been given templates for the insulation so I can cut them to size without too much effort.
Some notches, cuts and holes need to be made to make sure it sits properly on the firewall.
It’s a tight fit behind the rudder pedals which makes it difficult to handle once the backing paper has been removed.
The final pieces are fitted around the heated inlet.
The finished insulation, hopefully this should reduce noise from vibration of the firewall and the engine.
Now the servos brackets are in position the servos can be fitted. First the roll servo.
It’s very fiddly and would have been much easier to fit the servo to the bracket whilst it was out of the aircraft.
The pitch servo with the movement limiting bracket fitted which stops the motor running over centre. I still can’t finish the installation as there were items missing from the kit supplied to me – very frustrating as I can’t refit the controls until I fit the roll servo arm.
A first fit of the centre console in readiness for the fuel selector. Need to check with the instrument panel in place to check that the flap control cable is long enough to fit on the panel otherwise is will need to be mounted here instead which I would like to avoid.
After fitting the insulation need to reconnect and tighten the brake hoses before filling.
The brake fluid is filled from the bottom so some plastic pipe is wire locked onto the brake calliper nipple so stop it slipping off. The nipple is unscrewed to allow the fluid to flow into the calliper.
An oil can that has been thoroughly cleaned is filled with Aero Shell 41 and the plastic pipe is fitted to the nozzle.
The filling commences after releasing the park brake valve.
When the fluid reaches the brake oil bottle the brake calliper nipple is tightened and the process is repeated for the lefthand side brakes.
Filling complete but some air bubbles are present. They will need to be purged before use otherwise the brakes may not operate properly.
Music: Hall & Oates and Simply Red
Due to limited space I couldn’t drill the second set of holes for the retention system. Luckily Ian had a 90 degree attachment the allowed me to drill the holes.
The holes for the rivets that will secure the bracket.
Sometimes you have to leave certain jobs because an immediate opportunity comes up for someone to help you swap wings. This is what happened when I had starboard wing up on the stand so I didn’t get chance to fit the strobe light. So today’s the day to do it.
Once the holes are drilled they need to be countersunk otherwise the strobes won’t fit flush.
Some Loctite 243 on the screws and then they are pinched up, not too tightly, otherwise they will disfigure the rubber mount.
The finished job, let’s hope it matches the other wing!
A job I kept forgetting to do is to add a breather pipe to the oil tank.
Now they can be secured with the drip tray and air intake breather tubes that Andy fitted yesterday.
I wanted to try to reduce the amount of vibration and droning from the firewall and noise from the engine. I purchased some sound & vibration deadening heat resistant foil back foam that will do the job.
After cutting to size, I’ve made the service holes to match the firewall and added grommets to make it a neater job.
I used some thinners to remove the printing on the foil before fitting. Looks a good fit.
I now need to undo some of the work I’ve done on the brakes and fit the front lower panels so I can fit sound deadening on the firewall behind the rudder pedals but run out of time today so will finish this job Monday.
G-MLSY 