Never mind what I said about planning to hang the wings this weekend – I changed my mind. It occurred to me that the main reason I was planning to fit the wings to the fuselage was to locate the points where the fuel plumbing and electrical wiring go through the fuselage sidewalls, and also because that's the next step in the instructions. But, there's really no need to do it now: the fuel plumbing passthroughs are marked with prepunched holes, and I can just measure where the electrical conduit needs to go. Just to be sure, I called Van's and they confirmed that I can wait to do this until the airplane is nearly complete and in the hangar. This is great news, because I wasn't really looking forward to having one of the wings sticking out into the driveway.
Archive for June, 2006
Decided not to hang the wings yet
Tuesday, June 13th, 2006Random stuff / Control sticks
Sunday, June 11th, 2006I did a bunch of random junk this weekend, but apparently didn't take too many photos. I bought a handful of plumb bobs and some fishing line, which will be useful for hanging the wings (planned for next weekend). I cleaned up the shop a bit, and leak-tested the second fuel tank – as of tonight, two days later, the balloons I put on it are still inflated. Hooray for proseal.
I also messed around a bit with the control sticks. I had to file a bit off of the stick weldments in order to get them to fit where they're supposed to go. After I took this photo I sealed over the exposed steel with the powdercoat touch-up paint so there won't be any rusting.
I primed and assembled the pushrod that ties the two control sticks together. The wing looks terribly dirty in this photo, but it's just the flash.
After what seemed like an eternity of fiddling with washers in tight spaces, I got the control column installed in the fuselage.
Sealed up the right fuel tank
Wednesday, June 7th, 2006Today's mission: Finish out the remaining fuel tank. First order of business: safety wire the fuel pickup tube. Oh wait – I put the safety wire on backwards! Arrgh.
Ahem. Here it is again, properly safetied this time.
Mary took a bunch of photos while I was doing the proseal part. First the fuel sender gets gooped in place:
…with a nice seal all the way around the hole, plus a blob of proseal on the back of each nutplate.
Then I laid down a bead all the way around the access plate opening:
…which I then spread out with a popsicle stick.
If you are referring to this website during your fuel tank construction, take note! The float on the fuel sender in the photo below is on backwards. I discovered my error after I got all the proseal applied and was about to seal up the tank, but luckily was able to reverse the float without having to re-bend the wire (by popping the plastic float out of the wire loop, flipping it, and snapping it back in). That was a small moment of panic. If I'd paid closer attention in the first place, I would have noticed that the float was hitting the stiffener inside the tank.
Done! Sticky fingerprints everywhere, but it looks like we got a good seal all the way around. I'll know in a week after this cures and I perform a leak test.
Installed right randing right rens
Saturday, June 3rd, 2006Mary helped me swap wings, and then I trimmed and installed the other landing light lens, same as this morning:
This one took a quarter of the time and fits even better.
Okay, so as soon as I get more proseal I can goop up the other fuel tank, and that's the last real task before mating the wings.