January 2001

Monday 1

Today was one of those occasional sunny days so we went flying.  We took a run up to Reedsburg and met up with a few friends.  There has been so much snow I had to call ahead to see if the taxi ways were clear enough for the wings of the Comanche.  It is quite surprising when the OAT is well below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, just how warm the sun is in the cabin.  I am expecting that the Europa will be even warmer.  It was a nice day for flying and with the cold dense air the aircraft climbed at over 2000' a minute and cruised at 140 knots.

When I returned I decided to do a bit more on the instrument panel.  I made up the aluminum panel to hold the key switch and switches.  This is a sub panel similar to the avionics and instrument panels.  I fitted it up with nut plates pop riveted in place.  I found that the underside of the instrument panel is not very flat so this caused the nut plates to pull at an angle.  To get around this problem I bolted up the panel and then put a glob of Redux on the nut plates.  This insured that when the bolts were removed,  the plates stayed correctly aligned.

The last job of the day was to make the cut outs for the trim switch and its indicator. I have decided not to put a trim switch on the control grip because it might be too easy to knock.

Tuesday 2

I did the first part of the bonding exercise for the baggage bay.  I used Redux for the front flange and for fixing the bottom of the ribs onto the fuselage.  I spread Redux on to the flange and the baggage bay, but when I put it in place it seemed like I didn't have enough glue.  I pulled it up a bit with cleco's, but it still wasn't enough.  I had to quickly cut 4 bits of wood and G clamp the flange up to spread the glue.  This worked out pretty nicely.

Wednesday 3

The baggage bay has 4 ribs which means 8 sides, and because I need two layers, this means 16 bits of cloth.  I actually found I nearly had enough in my box of cut offs.  I managed to get two of the ribs taped before calling it a night.

Thursday 4

I taped up the other two ribs and around the baggage bay this evening.  Fortunately it was one of those times where I had remembered to scuff sand all of the surfaces prior to assembly, so the job went pretty quickly.

Friday 5

My Andair Gascolator arrived from Aircraft Spruce today.  It was much smaller than I expected, but a really nicely engineered bit of gear.  It reminds me of all those nicely engineered products from England that often find the fate of being poorly copied by Asian manufacturers, slowly sending the original manufacturer out of business.

I trimmed up the glass around the ribs and flange and gave the fuselage a good vacuum out.

Saturday 6

I mounted  the Andair Gascolator on the port side baggage bay rib under the inspection hole.  I ended up discarding my first mounting bracket because it did not seem sturdy enough.  I made a second one much more quickly (isn't that always the way?) out of 50 by 50 mm aluminum angle.  The next thing I wanted to do was to put both of the water drains by each other, along with the drain for the Gascolator.  To do this I discarded the aluminum drain ports and made some new ones out of brass fittings.  They were 1/4" BSP angle brass fittings with a hose outlet on one end.  You can see in the photo how these were manufactured.

Along with my Gascolator order, I also received  some clamps so I used these to clamp the Nyloflow tubing that enclosed the rudder cables.

Sunday 7

I needed to make a door in the bottom of the fuselage for the Gascolator and the water drains.  The first step in this rather lengthy process is to put a splash molding on the bottom of the fuselage.  Because this was going to be a door I used 6 plies of bid rather than 4.  While that was setting I made a couple of brackets for the transponder and GPS antenna. I used some of the material I had cut out of the baggage bay.  I put these just behind the luggage bay in the corner.

The last job for the day was to assemble the water drains onto the bracket that I had painted the day before.

I spent quite a bit of time fooling around trying to come up with the optimum hole shape and size for the access hole in the fuselage bottom. The idea was to make it as small as possible, but to still be able to unscrew the bowl of the Gascolator from underneath.  

I cut the hole out in  the fuselage which was pretty quick work using the dremmel with the off cut wheel.  It was certainly much faster than it took to figure out the size and position of the hole.

No building

I covered the inspection door with plastic and taped it into the hole with duct tape.  I then laid in 4 plies of bid to make up the flange and called it a night.

No building

I mounted the Gascolator up and sketched out a few ideas for cutting out the hole in the flange.  As you can see from the photograph it ended up an irregular shape, but the end result is that I can get at both drain valves, and it is possible to remove the bowl of the Gascolator from underneath.  The next job was to fit the hinge to the door and to get it to swing enough to get good access.  I am going to need some type of fastener that can be easily opened, so its time to study the Aircraft Spruce catalogue.  The last job was to make up a good mounting point for the bracket out of Redux.

I bolted the Gascolator in place and the water drains.  I found that the hose to the Gascolator seemed to want to rub on the rudder cables so I had to Redux a saddle onto the floor to hold the hose in place.  I fitted the hoses to the drains and it all looked pretty good.  I climbed underneath and it all seems to be pretty functional, I can get the bowl on and off, and operate the fuel drains.

I cut out some aluminum for the transponder ground plane and fitted it up.  I also bolted up the GPS antenna, but I am wondering if I have chosen the best mounting point for it.  I will leave some extra cable in case I have to move it.

Before I can start to do the top fit up I need to ensure that the instrument panel is going to fit properly.  It would seem to me that the external flange is not really going to be big enough to fit on rivnuts, so I decided to make an internal flange out of 6 mm plywood and lay it in with some cloth.  I found that the panel doesn't sit flat, so the first thing I  did was to screw the thing down to my bench to hold it flat.  I then spot glued the plywood in place and then put on two layers of bid.

I did a little bit of metal work and fitted on the Hobbs meter.  I have an EIS engine monitor which has a Hobbs function, but I really like the idea of a mechanical meter that does not rely on a battery backed up electronic device.

Monday 15

No building

I unbolted the instrument panel from the bench and it seemed to have got the twist out.  I put two layers of bid on the back side and set it under the heat lamps to dry.

Wednesday 17

I had to make up one more little panel to hold the starboard side and glass it into place.                                              

Thursday 18

I got my Permagrit files out and cleaned up all of the glass over hang around the flange.  I sat it in place in the fuselage and it looks like the internal flange for mounting the instrument panel is really the way to go.

Friday 19

No building

Saturday 20

One of the problems I am facing with the instrument panel is its depth, yet another reason to consider manufacturing your own.  I made up a special mount point for my Narco 122 (VOR/GS/LOC).  Although this fits depth wise, just, it touches the top of the instrument panel.  I actually had to cut a slot in the top of the panel to give this thing clearance, so today's task was to make a small molding to go on top of the instrument panel to cover the hole.  I shaped up a section of blue foam and got it sitting just nicely.  I gave it a single layer if bid and covered it with peel ply.  I will add extra cloth on the inside to give it strength.  The foam only sits about 5 mm high, and by the time it is painted and the panel installed it will not be noticeable.

The sun was actually shining so I decided to drag the Comanche out and go flying for a little while.  I flew over to West Bend and visited a fellow chapter member's hanger.  They have an RV6 and a Rutan Defiant. This is an interesting canard aircraft with an engine on each end.

Sunday 21

I gave the instrument panel 'bump" a couple of layers of bid on the inside and set that to dry under the heat lamps.  The next job I have been pondering is where to put the fuse block.  I really couldn't find a good place for it, but in the end I decided to put it on the bottom of the instrument panel on the pilots side.  I will need to make an access panel in the same fashion as the inspection ports.  The first step is to make a cover, so I laid up four layers of bid onto the bottom of the panel and covered it with peel ply.  While I was in there I put a couple of bits of bid on the back side of the area where I had covered over the sight gauge.

While that lot was drying I made up the coaxial cables for the nav., comm. and transponder antenna.  I had to put a BNC connector onto the transponder cable and it was my first try at crimping them.  Needless to say it took a couple of BNC connectors before I got one correct.!  After I had laid out the cables it became apparent that I needed a few more cable mount points so I reduxed them into place.  I don't really like the self adhesive ones because they tend to come unstuck after a time.

Monday 22

I noticed that the GPS antenna had a screw type fitting, so I stoped by the Avionics shop at the airport to buy one.  The asking price was $37.50 plus tax.  Ouch.  The Avionics technician warned me that if I over crimp the terminal it will degrade the weak signal, so I decided to measure up the cable and get it made up in the shop.  That evening when I was measuring up the cable I was ratting through my boxes and I found the connector I needed, which was a mechanical type you assemble yourself, so I just measured up the cable I needed.

Tuesday 23

No building, EAA chapter 18 meeting,  a lot of people came along, even on a cold winters evening.

Wednesday 24

The GPS connector was a multi part thing with no indication of how it should go together, so I spent some time deciding how that should happen,  After about an hour of fooling around I had the cable made up and threaded into place.

Thursday 25

I got the instrument panel out this evening and ran a coat of Superfill on the top of the instrument panel where I had glassed in the small bump to accommodate the VOR/LOC/GS instrument.  This thing is such a tight fit I have to get some right angle BNC connectors to fit onto the back of it, otherwise they are going to hit on the firewall.

My order from AC Spruce arrived today and among it was some AN525R18 bolts.  I needed a couple of bolts just a bit longer than the ones supplied to bolt on the flap drive tube mounting bracket.

Friday 26

I took a look at the cover I had made out of bid for the instrument panel, but I decided that 4 layers of bid was not enough, so I added two more, covered it with peel ply and weighed it down flat with a couple of lead shot bags.

I sanded back the Superfill on the instrument panel 'bump" and put a another coat on it.  I think this stuff is like an amateur  putting up plaster board and applying the finish coat, it always seems one coat away from perfection....

Saturday 27

I got the bid out for the fuse block panel and the two extra layers had really done the trick, it was much better.  The next step was to cut out the hole in the bottom of the instrument panel.  I have a 24 plug fuse block and this is around 165mm long by 85 wide.  Once I had this cut out I cut the door to size and covered it with cling wrap.  The next step of this operation is to put the panel in place with duct tape and put some bid on the back for a flange.  This little job nearly accounted for most of the day !.

Among the latest goodies that have arrived from AC Spruce was an encoder for my transponder, so I made up a bracket to mount this up with.

Sunday 28

The Comanche was due for its annual inspection this month, so I flew it over to another airport close by, ready for the mechanic to start working on it. I spent a good half a day removing all the cowls and inspection covers in readiness.

In the afternoon I fooled around with fitting the top fuselage cover.  It doesn't fit very well around the front section and I had to spend quite a bit of time shaping this area to get it to fit snuggly.

I removed the peel ply off the flange for the fuse block cover and it seemed to be a nice job.  I cut out the flange and did a little more trimming on the cover.  I was thinking of putting a hinge on this, but I think that for the number of times I need to access it that it would not really be necessary, so I might go with nut plates and screws.

Monday 29

No building, but I did sit in front of the fire with a glass of "Red"

Tuesday 30

I have the top on at the moment held in place with cleco's and I wanted to make up the bid bracket that holds the mass balance weight holder to the top of the fuselage.  The manual suggests that this is done once the top is glued on by crawling inside, laying upside down and putting a couple of bits of bid on the roof.  Well I am not a very big person and I really can't imagine how someone could crawl in there and do useful work  What I decided to do was not to make two external brackets like the bottom, but to make one internal U shaped bracket.  To do this I covered the mass balance weight holder with some plastic wrap, and put a smear of Vaseline on the to of the fuselage.  I then prepared four plys of bit 3" by 8" and reached into the back and pushed it up onto the roof.  It all seemed too easy.  

If all goes as planned I can then remove the top, drill the bolt holes in the mass balance weight holder and then remove it off the plastic.  The idea is when I do the final assembly I will put a blob of Redux on the top of the bracket to hold it in place.

Wednesday 31

Well, I only managed to get an hour in the workshop tonight, but I was curious to see if the lay up in the roof to secure the mass balance weight holder worked.  I crawled inside and put a couple of G clamps on the bid just in case it wanted to pull of the mass balance weight holder instead of the fuselage roof.  I think it was just as well because although I had put some Vaseline on the roof, it was still tough getting them to separate.  Well it seemed to work out just fine.  I trimmed it and drilled a couple of mounting holes.  I thing the only thing I would have done differently would be to make it out of 6 plies instead of 4.