Twisted: Week 72 - Seat, panel, NACA inlet

Hours to date: 747.25

As you can see I've nearly reached 750 hours - but does this mean I'm halfway?

I don't think so, as the oil cooler mod has showed me how much more time is taken when you go 'freestyle'.

I've still got the cowling to do and that will be at least another 200 hours. So I may be looking at more like 1750 to 2000 hours rather than my initial estimate of 1500 hours.

If it does turn out to be 1500 hours then I'll be looking at a first flight in about May of 2014 (if I keep up my current average of work hours).

In the last few days I've been working on cockpit related stuff.

The panel is coming along nicely - first coat of primer is on and there is a little more filling to do but it is close to receiving it's final prime and paint.

I'm going to go for a matt grey charcoal on the panel. I'll most likely go for a charcoal grey on the interior of the cockpit too.

I've also bought a Winter Altimeter to go with the ASI - so that's all my 'steam' gauges bought.

I'm going to hold off on buying the EFIS, Radio and Transponder until after my Avionics course as I want to see what they say about my proposed layout.

The panel is mounted with 3 right angle pieces of fiberglass - which were not part of the kit - so I have made up my own.

I just used a block of wood with duct tape on it then laid up 8 layers of fabric on it and finished off with a layer of peel ply. Then I wrapped the whole thing in plastic, stretched that tight and taped it down so the fabric would keep to the edge of the block of wood and not get any air bubbles in it.

Worked out pretty good.

I used the same method to make up some 'straps' for holding the rudder pedal tubes (and other static tubes) in place.

I used a piece of the tube taped onto a block of wood with duct tape.

This time I put the peel ply down first so that the bonding surface when done will be ready to use with no further work.

These are just stuck on with flock (with the tube taped in place till the flock hardens).

I made up all the blocks of plywood that hold the seat in position (I didn't take a photo for some reason). But then found that the seat itself doesn't fit very well at the front so it needed extending on the lower sides.

Pete says that final fitting is done with a load of micro on the floor of the cockpit (already covered with duct tape) and then the seat is just pushed into the micro and left to set. This should give a perfect fit when done.

Next up is the NACA inlet for the cockpit ventilation.

The duct supplied is for the old system of close-able vent. The manual calls for a air tight cavity to be made between the cell and the fuselage - made with expanding foam. Pete does not use this method and instead just has a scat hose connected to the NACA duct (of his own making) and then that connects to a cavity behind the vent control in the cockpit itself. Again this cavity is made by Pete.

I've decided to go the same route and modify the supplied NACA inlet by building a section behind it that transfers the air from the inlet to a hose.

I've sculpted this out of foam and it will be bonded onto the duct as a one piece unit when it is done.

I'm also trying a new method of making a mold plug out of foam. Rather than the sealing with micro and then sanding method. I read about it online and Pete says he uses it too so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Basically you just apply a thin layer of Micro slurry to the foam to fill any pin holes then straight away apply a thick coat of neat resin.

Allow that to set then just give the resin a light sand before painting and polishing and finally waxing.

Time will tell if this is the right way to go - it would certainly save a lot of time if it works.