Bottom Cowl Hinges

Posted on by Neal

After clearing the excess resin, I started riveting the hinges on the bottom cowl. Immediately I realized I needed to first glue the hinges on, not just rivet these. On the aft edges, the interference between the hinge flange and the honeycomb meant that riveting the hinge could cause the rivets to tip, and leave a cavity between hinge flange and cowling. I mixed up some resin and glued all of the hinges into place. As a release agent, I used some Boe-lube on the ends of the clecos holding the hinges.

Left side looking aft
Right side

Riveted Top Cowl Hinges

Posted on by Neal

Tonight I riveted the top cowling hinges on. I first cleared excess resin from the holes by running the drill through the holes. Then I clecoed and riveted the hinges on.

One thing I didn’t do on the top cowl was glue the hinges before riveting. The plans didn’t call for using any epoxy, and I decided it wasn’t really necessary.

It didn’t take too long to knock out the riveting. Once done, I mixed up more resin and coated the inside of the bottom cowl.

Test fitting the hinges
Left side hinge clecoed into position
Left side hinge during the riveting process

Cowling Work

Posted on by Neal

Today I coated the interior of the top cowling with a layer of resin. This helps seal the cowling and makes cleaning oil and grime easier. I mixed up the resin and brushed it on.

Garmin Roll Servo

Posted on by Neal

Tonight I switched out the Dynon roll servo and replaced it with a Garmin unit. Originally I had thought I would install a Dynon panel and system, but decided to switch to Garmin. Replacing the roll servo was a job that had been on the to-do list for a long time.

Aside from a couple of different bits of hardware, the units use the same parts. It was fairly easy to do, after finding the right way to get tools on nuts and bolts in the confined space.

The two servos side by side. Dynon on the left, Garmin on the right.
The countersunk bolt head has about 1/8 clearance from the baseplate. If this bolt backed off and jammed against the servo, the controls would jam.
Pushrod arm installed. The pushrod is the same for both Dynon and Garmin
Installed and torqued
Everything installed and torqued
View looking down (forward) from inside the wing. The wiring run is so short I decided it didn’t need any bracing.

Smoke system

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Tonight I ran the wiring for the smoke system. I’m not planning to install it until after the aircraft is flying, but I’m installing the wiring now.

From the panel, the pump power wire runs down the center channel and exits at the flap motor. I’ve coiled and secured the wiring inside the flap motor housing for now.

The relay is mounted behind the panel.

Cowl Hinge Fitting

Posted on by Neal

Today we finished the fitting of the top and bottom cowls, and located and drilled the hinges on both the top and bottom cowls.

The only real issue we ran into was on the bottom cowl. On the left side of the cowling the honeycomb material was too far aft, and caused interference with the hinge. We carefully bent the hinge to conform to the shape, and will use some epoxy filler to fill any void between the hinge and the cowling.

Final check of the cowling fit before starting to drill
Looking good with both cowling halves sitting in position
Holding the cowling in position to support drilling
Left side bottom cowl. Note the sharpie marks indicating the region where the hinge interferes with the honeycomb
Drilling the right hand side hinge of the bottom cowl
Right hand side for comparison
A closer view of the interference
After drilling the fore/aft hinges that hold the two halves together
Hinge pins bent per plans
Annoying lack of fit on the right air inlet. Will need to spend time filling/glassing/sanding this area to improve the alignment
Clearance between cowling and aft spinner plate looks good
Notching out the top cowl for the hinge pin plate
Everything drilled!
My mum made this awesome seat! This will serve as seating until I eventually order an interior.

Fuselage Wiring

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Today I worked on tidying up the wiring runs from the aft of the fuselage to the cockpit. I started by zip tying the antenna cables, and the baggage light, and inserting the C1036 and C1037 wires. I went back later and added some wrap-around cable protection in the areas where the wiring could run on rivet ship heads.

With the aft fuselage wrapped up, I worked on the wiring in the tunnel within the baggage compartment. Zip ties and spiral wrap were used liberally. Main concerns were ensuing nothing can contact the control rod, and protecting the wire bundles from chaffing on the lightening hole edges.

Some wiring done. Baggage compartment wiring hanging loose
Most of the wiring secured
Wiring secured with some chafe-resistant wrap
Left side looking aft.
Baggage area center tunnel

Cowl Fitting

Posted on by Neal

Yesterday, and again today we spent time adjusting the cowling. With the top cowl just about perfect, we marked out and drilled holes in the firewall-side top cowl hinges. Then we installed the bottom cowl and used a strap to hold it in place while drilling holes in the air inlets.

Too cowling fitting
Checking the clearance from the spinner plate
Cowl fitting
Drilling the hinges
Drilling hinges
Strap holding the two cowl halves together
Alignment looking good. The outboard edges of the inlets will need work, but that is expected.

Magnetometer install

Posted on by Neal

Amongst other things, today I installed the magnetometer in the wing, and wired up the circular connector. I didn’t gab any photos unfortunately. There are just a couple of rivets to set in order to make the mount, then the unit screws into the mount, and the mount slides into the bracket in the wing.