More Canopy Skirt

Filled indentations, holes, and pit holes with flox and micro balloon resin mix. 

Canopy Skirt

As anticipated, the canopy skirt has taken a significant number of hours to complete.  Trying to get this phase completed during the winter months hampered our progress.  Epoxy resin's don't do well in sub-freezing temperatures.

We started with the VANS stock molded piece of fiberglass.  The U shaped part that's shipped from the factory needed to be highly customized in order to properly fit the fuselage and canopy.  This involved splitting the part in two and re-fabricating a large portion of the rear section.

Vacuum bag was applied to skirt skin in order to maximize contact with aircraft fuselage and canopy surfaces.  This didn't work out too well because of vacuum leakage from behind the skirt inside the cockpit.  There was no way to seal the leaks.

The skirt was cut and fitted to the canopy frame.  Holes in the skirt were match drilled to holes in the canopy frame.  Next step was to add about an inch of glass buildup to the entire upper edge of the canopy skirt so that the top of the skirt was level with the top edge of the canopy frame.

Nylon tape was applied as a release film on the aircraft fuselage skin and canopy.  Multiple layers of glass were applied to the upper surface of the canopy skirt.

The two skirt halves were joined by reinforcing the back with pieces of insulating foam.  Fiberglass wet layup was applied over the foam pieces.

Rough finish after the wet layup joining of the two skirt halves.

Skirt joined and ready for finishing fills and LOTS of sanding.

Instrument Panels ~ Final Finishing

Back side of cured part for side panels.

Vacuum bagging of the instrument side panel material was a success however the part compressed more than we thought it would so we didn't achieve the desired thickness necessary to surface match to the center panel.  That's ok.  A small lip down from the center panel to the side panels still works. One would think 8 layers of cloth would make for a thick part.  Eight hours of -28InHg vacuum really bleeds all excess resin resulting in a very nice 50:50 fabric to resin ratio for the part.

Left and right side panels were cut to exactly match the aluminum back plate.  This required a lot of careful cut, fit, sand, repeat.  The holes for the AOA, ELT, and side vents will be cut after clear coating.

After a great deal of measuring and cutting, the assembled panels created a nice fit with a tight adjoining seam. The panels are ready for clear coat

Center and side panels were scuff and cleaned.  Wax & Grease remover was used as a final cleaner to ensure that all contaminants were removed prior to painting.

Master painter, John Branchaw, carefully applied four layers of clear coat to each panel.

Finished carbon fiber panel.

Clear coating gave the panels a rich finish with great contrast.  The TeXtreme 1000  2.95oz uni-directional tapes created a very nice checkered pattern.  A few easy cuts for the AOA, ELT, and air vents and the panels were finished.  Overall, a great finish to a fun project.  Many thanks to John Branchaw for prep and paint work!

Next step, mount the avionics trays and install the avionics.

Instrument Side Panels - vacuum bagging

Finish sanded layer of SuperFill that was applied to panel mold.  Waxed mold and misted a few coats of mold release.  

Our goal is to surface match the side panels to the center panel.  This requires a material buildup to equal the thickness of the center aluminum piece plus the carbon fiber overlay.  A quick calculation determined that we would need six layers of fiberglass plus two layers of carbon fiber.  A 50:50 resin to fabric ratio requires 128g of resin.  That's a lot!

Eight hours later...  Removing the bagging material and bleeder-breather layers revealed a very tacky part that had clearly not yet finished curing under room temperature and good vacuum. 

We'll leave the part exposed to a strong morning sun for a few hours to finish the cure process.  

Wing tip - inside plug fabrication

Used 88g of liquid urethane expanding foam poured onto release play lining wingtip inside surface. The 15x expansion created a good size plug.  Next step, fiberglass wet layup using the plug to press the glass to the wingtip surface.  We may even vacuum bag the plug to the surface so as to minimize epoxy weight and maximize adhesion.

Fabricated wing tip mold plug.

Instrument Panel - composite sides

Sanded mold for side panel pieces.  Applied a layer of SuperFill. Will be ready to sand and start vacuum bagging this evening.

Avionics wire cleanup

Continued with avionics wire bundle cleanup.  Disconnected, clipped, and re-pinned a number of wires.  Ran two wires from Hxr JA-25 to Garmin GTN-750 DSUB-47 1001.

Arjan & Mike working it out

Left and Right Switch Pannel

Installed switches into left and right switch panels.

Beringer Brake System

Installed the brake fluid reservoir to the firewall assembly.  Fabricated the left and right brake lines and installed them to the brake line fittings.  Installed the brake hoses.

Spring is here ;-) Tail wheel mount, Control, CHT & EGT Wiring Connections

Finally the WX broke so Mike and I were able to work on the plane again.  We've both agreed that the plane will be done by Oshkosh (just not sure which one but we aren't telling anyone that part when they ask which one).  

Davin and I worked on finishing up installation of the beautifully chromed tail wheel mount assembly.  Installed the tail wheel spring mount.  Reluctantly had to add six CS 4-4 pop rivets to the bottom of the rear bulkhead due to space constraints.

Davin Squeezing Rivets

Wheel Mount Assembly

Aft Bulkhead

Prop Governor Linkage

Lower battery bus

Mike mounted the control cables.  We also finished up the CHT and EGT wiring connections.

Can it get any colder??? Ran Control Cables

Too cold!  

Ran the three control cables from the quadrant to the engine.  Will need to order a longer one for the throttle

METAR KGAI 010155Z AUTO 14003KT 10SM CLR 00/M09 A3023

More Cold WX! Drilled Hole for Control Cables

Mike came out to the factory and didn't get much done....too cold.  

Drilled the holes in left gear tower for the control cables to pass through.  Didn't have the right size snap grommets so they'll need to be ordered.

Cold Day in the Factory! ... More Wiring

Starting to get really cold in the factory.  Did some cleanup and dragged Mikes blast heater over from his hangar.  

Mike pulled apart all the wiring run attachments behind the panel.  With the new GRT Mini AP taking the place of the originally planned TruTrak Gemini some rewiring will need to happen.  Arjan Plomp agreed to help out going through John Stark's disastrous wiring job to re-do a lot of the rewiring.

Running Wires

Mike Regen routed all the wires from the firewall to their respective attach points.  Attached a bunch of cushion clamps for the wire runs.  Started on the connections for the CHT and EGT wires.  

Inside the cockpit, I installed the GRT autopilot servos that have replaced the TruTrak servos.

Tail Wheel Mount & Engine Sensors

Started working on installation of the beautifully chromed tail wheel mount.  Space Coast Plating did a great job of chroming the mount.  

The rear bulkhead was removed to get it installed and mounted correctly.  

Mike Regen started attaching the engine sensors.  All the EGT and CHT sensors were attached along with the oil temperature sensor.  The starter will need to be replaced with a shorter SkyTec....bummer.  The B&C starter is a much better unit.  

METAR KGAI 240155Z AUTO 31012G18KT 290V350 4SM SCT018 BKN026 OVC037 00/M04 A3017 RMK AO1=

ENGINE MOUNTING DAY!

ENGINE MOUNTING DAY!  Bill Hughes (A&P/IA) was kind enough to come over and lend a hand mounting the engine.  We had some trouble getting it maneuvered into the mount then getting the alignment correct to get the mounting bolts in properly.  After some choice words of encouragement (aimed at the engine) we had it mounted in about an hour.

Engine and Mounts Ready

Engine Accessory Installation

• Attempted to mount the starter but the B&C starter will not fit with the fuel injection servo.  Need to do some research on fitment.  
• Mounted fuel hose between fuel pump and fuel servo.  
• Mounted oil in and out lines for oil cooler.  
• Removed magneto studs and attached new shorter studs for the P-Mags.  
• Mounted P-Mags.  
•  Mounted the fuel injection servo. 

Fuel Injection Servo Linkage 

Prep for Engine Mounting

Started prepping engine for mounting.  Mounted primary and back-up alternators.  Mounted propeller governor and re-clocked control cable arm.  P-Mags will require shorter studs than the original impulse magnetos so determined correct size and will order them.  Mounted control cable mounts and mixture arm to engine.

Firewall Mounts

Mounted heater valve on firewall.  Attached fuel sensor hose to FW.   Fabricated and mounted mount for fuel flow transducer and mounted with hoses.  Attached engine mount to FW.

Firewall Pass-Throughs

Finished drilling holes in firewall for pass-throughs.  Mounted control cable eyeballs and drilled out inserts to match control cable diameter.  Mounted alternator regulator and starter relay.