Oil Filler Access Door

 January 8 2021

The oil filler and dipstick access was started by making a Splash coat of  3 layers of carbon fiber and then laying that onto the top surface of the engine cowling.  I identified the location and size of the door, marked it on the cowling with a sharpie and taped over area with packing tape.  This was left to harden for a couple of weeks while I did other jobs.  I spoke with a friend who builds Vans RV's on the field and he suggested I build a hidden hinge style for better esthetics.  I was happy to go this route and had a great example in one of his planes to model mine upon.  The splash coat is to form a new oil door from that is a perfect match to the curvature of that location of the cowl.  I removed the splash coat and then carefully cut out the shape of oil door I wanted.  Then I cut and trimmed the Carbon splash coat to exactly fit the door opening I just made.  I taped the inside of the oil door in packing tape then taped the new door into place on the outer surface of cowling.  I then made up fiberglass strips for flanges and applied to the sanded inside surface of cowling, these will support the oil door.  Afterwards trimmed down the flanges and installed the 2 Milspec quarter turn fasteners which will it closed.  I then bent up the aluminum curved hinge adapter out of .062 thick aluminum.  Trimming off the excess aluminum (right hand edge in photos) to get a good fit, finally drilling and cleco in place.  I am only riveting the outer ends of the piano hinge and other holes all have a dab of structural adhesive.  The hinge onto the adapter will have 5 rivets.

Canopy Latch Torque Tube

 December 2 2020

I had bought a canopy latching torque tube from Vans as they use on the RV6 tip up canopy.  Some parts I wouldn't be able to use but the method of latching was sound.  This torque tube goes just under the seat back and across the fuselage hanging in Nylon blocks at each outer end.  The nylon blocks are the ones that came in the kit from Vans and are anchored to the seat back.  I had my welder weld on a center arm that has the yellow release knob attached to it with a secondary short metal arm.  The knob comes up and forward going into the aft edge of the seat back about 1.5 inches.  Only a narrow .25" slot was needed to be cut into the seat back upper horizontal section to allow the knob to come forward.  It will have a locking tab installed later as a safety lock for in flight.  This was a lot of tricky work and took some time to get all configured.  Another detailed drawing of my dimensions was recorded for my future reference.

The outer end of the port tube I had a hex socket welded in place and so my entry key is just a hex key adapted with a 3 inch handle welded onto the short end  of the hex key.  Remove the hex key and there is only a .25" round hole exposed.  Hey loose a key, just get another from the hardware store.

Photo later

The upper canopy will have the mating receivers installed that were part of the Vans canopy latch package.  these will be done sometime later.

Photo later

Pitot and Static Connections

 November 16 2020

The pitot static vents have been installed on the aft fuselage sides.  As is done on Vans aircraft I have just used a Aluminum pop rivet outer shell and it is just the proper size to allow the plastic tubing to be friction fit on.  I believe the tubing is .17 ID and .25 OD and I am using just a common hardware store clear tubing.  My Pitot airspeed tube has be fabricated to mate to the chrome extension and connected to the plastic pitot tubing in the wing.

Flaps and Flap Motor Assembly

 November 5 2020

Assembly of the flaps and the flap drive motor onto the fuselage are beginning,  Most was previously fabricated but now needed to be installed and all connected up. The slotted flaps with a curved leading edge allow air to flow over the flaps as they are deployed.  These are hinged on the bottom of the wing using external hinge hangars.  As flaps are dropped back there is a air opening that will allow some under wing air to flow over the tops of the flap surface.  Drive motor was installed which hangs on the back side of the passenger seat and drives a torque tube for the flaps.  Each end of the torque tube has a forked fitting to mate with rod end bearings on the flaps.  The flap motor was installed with the electronic flap positioning unit sold from Vans.  It took quite a bit of setting up but it now works setting the flaps to 6 degrees, 12 degrees and 33 degrees.    

The rod end bearings and fork go above my wing root fairing about 1 inch and so a rectangular hole had to be cut open.  This rectangle will end up with a blister of fiberglass over it to hide this opening which is in the No Step zone of the wing.

Below is the flap motor and flap torque tube showing below it.  The electrical wires are to the motor and the flap positioning unit, which presets the flap extension for 6, 12 and 33 degrees.  At the bottom of the drive motor is a block of wood bonded to the side of the tunnel, this is a safety to stop the motor/drive arm from being able to ever go over center.  Were this able to happen the flap mechanism would  lock up in the down position.  The flap switch on the panel allows a tap of the switch for each down position and moving the switch to up retracts the flaps fully.

Primer Filler base Finally All On

 October 6 2020

After getting started on primer filler on the fuselage earlier I finally got all of the spraying done.  It took two coats on everything.  I even added a light 3rd coat on some parts of the underbelly, I want to reduce the times I have to go upside down if I can.  I am not an aerobatic pilot  so don't do inverted well at all.  Cleaning out the spray gun every second day is as much work as getting the primer/filler all set up for spraying.  I have done that enough times, getting to be expert now.  Correction, never expert as I am only a hobby building guy with lot's to learn.  Airplane is sprayed, control surfaces and Canopy.  I am happy with this base coat but there will still be long boarding finishing to do after I test fly the plane.  Here are a few final primer/filler pics.

Below are two elevators and rudder primed.

This is one Flap and two ailerons primed.

Here is the finished product inside the hangar with the upper engine cowling sitting in place.  I am very happy with the look of this airplane, the work has all been well worth it.

The canopy has turned out really well.  Detailed masking with painters tape around the micro line at the bottom edge of the plexiglass has paid off with a nice finish line.

Puttying and Sanding and more Puttying and Sanding and finally Primer Filler

 September 18, 2020

For this month of September I have been doing some more filling and sanding but this time I have been using 2 part Lightweight Finishing Putty.  I really like this product which sets up in 1 hour and can be sanded if you wish.  I am using the NAPA product but most all shops sell something like this.  I tend to go at finding all spots that need attention mark them with a piece of painters tape and then go after filling the locations.  A day later I spend the day sanding down the spots.  This routine continued for three weeks until it was good enough for my liking.   Of course I was getting very tired of this routine by now.  It won't be smooth like factory made skins.  The primer/filler is Featherfill G2 lightweight, I find it is going on very nice for me.  It is thinned 5% with Acetone using my HVLP gun with a #18  tip.  It is leveling and filling holes and scratches as I had hoped.  I am going to leave it in primer/filler for quite a long time so I can tackle areas needing more attention even after test flying.  Hopefully summer 2021.

Final puttying & sanding

 

More P&S

 

Featherfill G2 going on the fuselage.

 

Wind came up so moved into the open hangar for more painting

 

Fuselage now has two coats of Featherfill G2

Filling & Sanding & Filling & Sanding & Filling & Sanding

 July through August 2020

Two full months of filling and sanding the airplane with micro filler.  This is quite a chore and all who walk by the hangar say I must have a lot of patience and more than they.  Micro/epoxy is my choice of fill material on all low spots on the plane.  First off it is the lightest filler that you can use and is the least expensive if you are mixing it up yourself.  As is mentioned in literature it needs to be roughly the consistency of whipping cream but must have all shinny reflection out of the mix by adding enough micro-balloons.  The trick is to get it thick enough that it will sand quite easy but still be wet enough that you can spread it ok.  This took me a while to get consistency.

Two ailerons on the wing, two flaps on floor and rudder. 

 

 

The canopy came with a protective rubberized spray on coating inside and out.