Construction Completed!

I can't believe it. As of today, every system in the plane is working. I am actually finished with the construction phase! It officially took me since April 2006, just under 3 years and 11 months. I finished my first kit, a Standard Elite RG, in a year less. Of course, that was before kids and with far fewer responsibilities at work.

As usual, the final yard took longer and was more complicated than I'd anticipated, but I learned a lot and got more satisfaction from solving the various issues. The nose gear door cylinder was installed backwards. That was why the actuator locked up and wouldn't come down. I installed that thing back in April of 2006 at the builder assistance center and it has been in there the wrong way ever since. Getting to it now with the keel installed, nose gear and hydraulic lines in the way, etc., was really a pain. It makes you come up with creative solutions.

After a couple hours of tweezers, forceps, magnetic pickups, shortie wrenches and pretty much my whole bag of tricks, the sequence valve was removed, remounted on the bracket and reinstalled.

I was not done yet. I still had a problem with the gear pump cycling on and off and the gear S..L..O...W...L..Y sinking down from what should have been the up and locked position. Since no hydraulic fluid was leaking out, this meant there was an internal leak between the high pressure and low pressure sides of the system. We isolated the problem by bypassing the components one at a time. It turned out to be the nose gear cylinder.

A call to Scott Swing revealed that the manufacturer had shipped a misassembled batch way back when and he gave us recommendations for a fix. The fix involved removing all the lines from the nearly inaccessible nose gear cylinder, pulling it out , tearing it down and rebuilding it.

We got it reinstalled and......it worked perfectly. I hooked up the nose gear door rods, made some adjustments and they closed just right with a satisfying snap. The video above shows the gear retraction sequence. That's my friend and A&P Dennis throwing the switch while I shoot the video.

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Here is the gear extension sequence.

It's time to take it out for some taxi tests, then call the DAR and the test pilot. It has been a long haul, but I'm really happy with the (almost) finished project. I booked the paint shop for May to get the final paint job in time for summer flying and, of course Oshkosh. I won't miss the green primer.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out with this project. First and foremost, thanks to my wife, Nancy, for supporting me through a second airplane project. I couldn't have done it without you. Thanks to my friend and resident problem solving genius A&P, Dennis Glick, for helping me to the finish line again. Thanks as well to my hangar neighbors and fellow builders for all of their help, advice and support. Of course, thanks to Duane, Scott, the Bakers and all the folks at Velocity for putting up with me and my questions for so long.

I am excited to move into the next phase- getting the plane in the air and getting the hours flown off. I'm sure I'll encounter problems and delays, but it's looking more and more like I'll be flying in to Oshkosh. I never thought it would be 10 years later when I sold the first plane.

Taxi test videos and more to follow.

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