With Dad’s help over the last few days we fit the tail fairings. This required some filling and sanding of the fiberglass fairing that fits between the VS and HS, as well as trimming an d fitting two aluminum fairings on each side, under the HS.
Part of the fitting process involved locating holes in the fiberglass to line up with the nutplates in the aft fuselage. Dad painstakingly measured the location of the holes before drilling them, ending up with a perfect fit.
I primed the parts alongside some of the other fiberglass fairings, and these are good to go now.
Keeping some tension on with a length of ropeDrilling holesDrilling holesFinal drilling holes in the fuselage, HS and VS. installed some nutplates as wellStarting the sanding Sanding complete, ready for paintInside of the fairing showing some of the filling that was needed to ensure a perfect fit
Today I installed the steps. I had a local plating shop give these a black matte powdercoat, and then stuck some peel-and-stick grip tape on as an anti-slip. It looks great! I don’t know what the eventual paint scheme will be, but the black matte should go with just about everything.
Installing the steps was fairly straightforward. Without the rear window in, I could stand on the ground and reach through the rear window frame and access the bolts. It took a universal adapter on the socket to torque the bottom nut, but otherwise access wasn’t an issue. I was happy with the snug fit, as these will undergo regular torque changes as people climb aboard, and any movement would be a problem.
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on installing the interior. This is a kit from Classic Aero, and everything is well designed and manufactured.
There are a number of holes to be drilled, fittings to install, and a few minor adjustments. The kit comes with a set of templates which make locating the holes a non-issue. Once the fittings are installed, the various components can be fitted into position. Most attach with simple studs and bolts, and some pop rivets here and there.
This wasn’t weeks worth of work, but chipping away in the evenings, I spent around 8-10 hours in total.
With everything installed, the interior looks amazing. Unfortunately I have to uninstall most of it so I can complete the wing attach, so after verifying I had all the right parts, and that the fit correctly, a lot of the components came right back out again.
I’m glad I tackled this now, because I found that the seatbelts were not in the kit. A quick email exchange with Classic Aero, and they confirmed they had forgotten to order the seatbelts. The placed the order, and they should be here in 3-4 weeks.
Drilling holesOne of the fittingsOne of the fittingsSome of the fittingsTwo studs, with VHB tape holding them in placeThe aft baggage bulkhead cover needs modification to allow carpet to be installed on the bottom section of the bulkhead. Here I am riveting the Classic Aero section to the cover, The JD Air latch fits, but needs a modification to flip the spring to the top of the mechanism. I forgot why I circled the holes in red…I had to replace the Vans 12V adapter plate with a custom one that comes in the kit. There is a plastic ring that covers the edges of the carpet here.Seats look great!Baggage compartmentSeats and baggage compartmentNote the forward pockets visible in this picture.
Today I torqued up the elevator counterweight bolts and used JB Weld to secure the nuts in place. This would allow me to remove the bolts (only one at a time), if necessary in the future. The problem with the original design is that the nuts are inaccessible under the elevator fairing which will be riveted into place. By gluing the nuts onto the lead weights, the bolts can be removed and reinstalled, and hopefully fully torqued, without needing to remove the fiberglass fairing.
Right elevator, showing the onboard counterweight, and the bolt heads that will be visibleLeft elevator, inboard counterweightRight elevator, outboard counterweight. This will eventually be covered by a fiberglass fairing. I may seal up the edges of the weight here to prevent any water from seeping throughLeft elevator outboard counterweightLeft elevator with JB Weld applied to glue the self locking nut and washer into place. I smeared Boelube on the bolt threads before applying the glue in case any got onto the threadsRight elevator with JB Weld appliedLeft elevator tip. This whole area is covered with a fairingRight elevator tip
Tonight I checked another item off the to-do list by testing the pitot and static lines for leaks. Good news – both the pitot and static lines were leak-free. I wasn’t able to test the AOA lines, but will have to do that sometime down the road.
I started with the pitot line. By removing the pilot seat floor panel, I could access the ports where the pitot and AOA lines will connect once the wings are attached. I used a piece of flexible tube, and attached one end to the Pitot connector. I gently blew into the other end until the airspeed registered, and then folded over the tube and held it for a minute. The airspeed indications on the G3X and the G5 held steady for a minute, which met the standard.
Flexible tube plugged into the Pitot connector under the pilot’s seatAirspeed indication holding steady at 146 knots
For the static line test, I ended up taping over the static ports, then disconnecting the G3X static line where it joins a t-connector. Using the flexible tube again, except this time gently sucking air, I was able to demonstrate steady altitude on the G5 for over a minute. I guess there’s a small chance of a leak between the t-connector and the G3X, but at least I know the G5 has no leaks.
Altitude holding steady at 5000 feetSqueezing the tube sealed the end well enough to conduct the test
