Closing in on the Finish Line

I want to get the plane done before cold weather sets in, then do the paperwork and DAR inspection when it gets too cold. After that, time to test fly my way through Spring until the Sun 'n Fun fly in next April. I WILL fly the family in to the next Oshkosh.

The last part of the brake system. I need to route the lines from the conduit on the side of the plane through the gear bulkhead to the gear leg channels. I used poly line from the Home Depot. Drywall screws hold it in place while I set them with 5 minute epoxy, then I'll glass them in.

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Here are the poly lines glassed into place and peel ply'ed . They look good (or will once I take off the peel ply) . You can also see the roll trim mount fabricated and installed.

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Now that the plane is painted, I can mass balance the controls. They must be perfectly balanced to avoid "flutter", a potentially deadly condition which can limit VNE and even destroy the control surface. Here is the elevator suspended by the hinge attach points.

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Looks good! Of course, I'll have to take everything apart and do it again after finish paint changes the balance. What else is new?

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Window trim pieces are installed. I used finish washers and sheet metal screws match painted on the sides and silicone on the top piece.

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Here is the instrument panel and glare shield re-installed. The trim looks good too. She's ready to go.

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Sunday night after a marathon weekend at the hangar. (I'll say it again, my wife is very, very supportive and understanding of this obsession- I owe her big.)

The plane is ready to take down to the A&P . The hangar is a mess again, but the plane looks great. There it is waiting for the tug. Note my Exec 90 / outlaw biker neighbors. Seriously , these guys are fellow builders who have helped me out many times. Smoketown is a great airport community. Well, off to the mechanic's hangar! I've taken a very rare two days off of work to see how close to finished I can get with 10 hour days.

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First item- fill and bleed the brake system. This pressure pot made short work of filling the lines from the bottom up. Then work the pedals, watch more bubbles come out, bleed them again, etc. until you get firm pedals.

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Now it's time to measure and calibrate the fuel tanks, sight gauges, probes and instruments.We first replaced the aluminum tank to sump lines with flexible tubing and hose clamps.




The line clamp makes a great temporary on/ off valve for the tanks, allowing me to fill and measure each one independently.

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The equipment. In an incredible stroke of good luck/ good will, a large aircraft was having maintenance done and had to be defueled. This meant that there was over 70 gallons of low lead just sitting there in this fuel cart. I was allowed to use the fuel to calibrate my fuel system, then put it back. This saved me a fortune in fuel I won't need yet (and have nowhere to store).

We used the hand pump on the cart to add fuel to both tanks until the low fuel light from the sump tank went out. I counted those six or seven gallons as unusable fuel.

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Then we clamped off the lines to the tanks and filled them , one gallon at a time from a marked bucket.

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Every 5 gallons I marked the wooden dipstick and made a mark next to the sight gauge. Then, on to the other side. I'll have vinyl numbers made to put on the sight gauge at the marked levels.

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In addition, we calibrated the Skysports Capacitance fuel probes. You set the "Empty" screw on the sender head, fill the tank to the brim and set the "Full" screw to get the appropriate gallon reading on the EIS.

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Then the fun really begins. There are no instructions or even suggestions for the conversion factor on the EIS to translate sender readings to gallons. We would pick a setting, use a siphon to drain the tank while watching the falling EIS readout as compared to the sight gauges. They were WAY off - very frustrating. After 5 or 6 times filling/emptying, we got the right factor and the sight guages and EFIS display matched exactly. Sweet! Many thanks to Sandy and Carlos at GRT for their tele-help.

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Weight and Balance time. I only have the scales for one day, so off we go.



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N929X gets her weigh in at last! You'll notice we had to shim up the rear wheels and deflate the nose tire to get her level.Still working on the W&B chart and will post the numbers next week.

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The retract system is working. We tracked down 2 leaks and got everything working. No great pictures of this as I was running around paranoid that something or someone was going to get crushed or pulled apart. According to Dennis, the A&P, it isn't working right until you are soaked in red hydraulic fluid. This took a while, but it was exciting to finally see moving parts. Another major box checked off.

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I didn't quite get to start the engine. We pre-oiled it by removing the plugs and using the starter to circulate the oil. Unfortunately, the starter dropped the voltage just enough to cause the EIS and EFIS to reboot. That meant no oil pressure readings during startup. I fixed this by adding this aux battery unit from GRT. It also gives me 30-45 minutes of backup EFIS power. It is shown here being mounted to the canard on drilled and tapped aluminum mounting blocks I structural adhesived to the canard. The tape is holding it level while it cures.

Overall, not too bad on the progress scale. In one week, I got the controls mass balanced, panel finished up, brake lines run, filled and bled, retract system working, fuel system calibrated and weight and balance done.

The next update should include videos of engine start and the first taxi tests!

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