Week 185 - Engine inventory and other stuff

Hours to date: 1663.5

I'm pretty close to getting the upholstery done. Unfortunately there is a 3 week delay with the parachute I ordered so I won't be able to get any progress on the upholstery until the parachute arrives. 

I need to wear the parachute sitting in the seat to make sure everything is comfortable and no extra padding is required in the back area.

The side pocket carbon panel is all ready to be covered, I've just got to paint the headrest area and wait for the parachute.

The lower fuselage access cover is done. I think it's worth the extra effort - Pete just uses a thin fiberglass cover over the top - but I want to protect the fuel lines that lie underneath this cover properly - hence the cover with fibrefrax and cool it tape - the same standard as the rest of the front of the fuse. Otherwise I would end up with a 'weak point' in the fire protection.

I've bolted in the oil cooler and done the edges with a foam draft sealer to help seal it. I'll also add some RTV when I put the ducts on to make everything air tight.

The battery cables have also been secured with composite screw posts and p-clips.

Onto the engine.

I did an inventory of the parts supplied and there are a few things still to come, namely engine mount washers and a capacitor, plus the throttle linkages.


Disappointingly the prop flange was the wrong size - 55mm as opposed to the 90mm that I'd ordered. I'm going for the longer flange to help streamline the cowling and incorporate the round inlet holes in the cowl.

Finally I had a quick look at positioning the ECU. As you can see below I intend to put this on the inside top of the safety cell - above the rudder pedals. I will make a carbon cover over it to prevent a wayward foot from kicking the cables.

Securing mounts for the side pocket.

Lower fuse front access cover all done.

Oil cooler fitted and battery cables secured.

How the engine is delivered

First look after taking the lid off

Inverted oil ball valve and fittings

More bits

Isn't she a beauty?

Prop flange wrong size.

Everything laid out

Figuring out ECU placement.

Propeller ordered

I just ordered a propeller from Hercules.

http://www.hercprops.com/

It should be delivered in 5 weeks.

It will look roughly like the one below. Gloss black with orange tips.

They have a special 15% off deal going at the moment so I thought it a good idea to take advantage of that.

Hercules are a relatively new company but seem to go from strength to strength and are refreshingly professional to deal with.

Hercules have made the props for the Bugatti racer replica - the original was a plane massively ahead of it's time. Unfortunately it never got to fly as the war intervened. I've seen the original in the flesh - it's hanging up in the museum at Oshkosh.
 

Engine arrived

So much for 8 weeks waiting time, I guess things are quiet at the UL factory?

Anyway it's here and I can't wait to get started on installing it.

Week 183 - Headrest, Trim and Side pocket

Hours to date: 1643.0

The trim is back in and working now. Thanks to Matthias at the Silence factory for supplying me with new cables.

A couple of things to note however. The front spring tends to catch on the notched lever below it - see pics below. To get around this I cut the ali spacer in half and put a washer on top of each section to separate the springs and put the rear spring on the bottom. This has fixed the problem.

Also the originally supplied trim indicator cable was not of the solid wire type (again see below pic) it was made up of strands - so not very stiff in compression. The new one supplied to me was solid and I had an "Ah-ha" moment as this was something that I was puzzled by in the previous setup.

Onto the headrest. I finally got a shape in foam that worked for me and allowed the shoulder harness to clear it. I then covered the front and sides in 2 layers of glass, after first putting a thin layer of micro 'slurry' on the foam to fill the pin holes.

When this was set I trimmed it out and flocked it in place on the headrest panel. When that had set I put a good bevel of flock around the edge and applied another 2 layers of glass to the edges to secure it in place.

All that's left to do now is body fill and paint then the headrest will be ready for the upholsterers to apply the foam and leather part.

I've also been thinking ahead about the lower fuselage panel. For me, because of the oil cooler ducts, this panel has to be in exactly the right place when it is bonded on.

So I've put two carbon tabs on the front and back. To the back of these will be applied a nut plate so when the panel is put in place two screws into those nut plates will make sure it is perfectly aligned.

I borrowed/adapted this idea from Johan in Belgium who has put tabs with nut plates all the way around to make the bonding process easier. Thanks Johan!

I've finally got around to making up the flanges for the access panels at the front of the fuselage - top and bottom.

I should have done these when I had the front of the safety cell cut off but wasn't thinking ahead enough - usual story! The access then would have been very straight forward. Now it is tight. I was able to do the lower one okay using the traditional idea of securing the panel in place then applying the flange from the other side. I won't be able to do this on the top one so I'll cover how I'm tackling that one when I get around to it in another post.

Finally onto the side pocket panel, which has been mostly done.

I used 4 layers of carbon for this and it's proved to be the right amount. It only weighs 190 grams and this is before it's trimmed out, but it is plenty stiff enough so that it won't be distorted when the upholsterer applies the leather to it.

A little mistake I've made here is I applied the duct tape directly to the painted cockpit interior and when pulling that off it's taken a tiny bit of paint off here and there. I should have put masking tape down first then applied the duct tape over the top of that as a release.

Trim spring arrangement to clear lever below.

Spring clears the lever now (just).

Trim indicator cable is now the correct solid wire type

Adding 2 layers of glass to the headrest foam block.

Carbon tabs added to the front and back which will have nut plates added. These will align the lower panel precisely.

Front lower fuse access panel flange going in.

Twister on it's side for the side pocket panel job.

Duct tape as a release for the panel - I should have put masking tape underneath to protect the paint.

4 layers of carbon in place for the side pocket panel (before peel ply was added).

Headrest getting secured to it's panel.

Side pocket panel after curing (before trimming out).

Headrest secured to the panel. Just some body filler and paint required now.

Fuselage front access panels almost done.

Elliptical wings

An interesting little article from the latest Kitplanes magazine (which I recommend you subscribe to).

The elliptical wing not only works better it looks prettier too!

Week 181 - Headrest and seat belts

Hours to date: 1623.0

When I said the headrest was finished - I lied.

I've still got to make up the area that the foam and leather will be attached to.

I started doing this in modelling foam (after first making a cardboard mock up).

All was looking good until I thought about the shoulder harness and how it may conflict with the headrest.

So then I spent yesterday installing the seat belts and sure enough the headrest would be in the way of the shoulder harness. So I'm now in the process of remodelling the foam to a shape that works.

When done I'll cover it in a couple of layers of fiberglass.

In doing all of this I found that the lap strap when adjusted to it's tightest position is still not quite tight enough (certainly not as tight as I would like it for aerobatics). So I think I'll have to add some material underneath the cell to take up some of the play.

I've also just started the side pocket job. This will be made up of a few layers of glass in the shape shown below. After that the upholsterer will add a layer of leather to it and then another slightly smaller piece to the front with a zip at the top to make a pocket.

I hope to get the upholstery started (or even finished) before the engine gets here.

In the meantime I am a bit stalled on the electrics as I really want to install the ECU in the upper footwell area of the safety cell and I don't want to do this after I've installed the top part of the instrument panel as the access in this area would be too limited by then.

Firewall all done - ready for the engine now!

Used 90 degree elbows to go through the cell for the Static and Pitot lines

Outside view

Bonded in with Flock. And the remote GPS antenna is also in place.

Cardboard mock up of the headrest.

Black line shows where the side/map pocket will go.

Foam model of the cardboard mock up.

With the seat belts in place

Shoulder harness conflicts so will have to change the shape of the headrest

Part way through reshaping the headrest.

Engine

I've finally ordered an engine.

Should be delivered in about 6-8 weeks or so.

Full details of this engine can be found on this link: http://www.ulpower.com/engines/ul260iSA/index.html

Week 179 - Trim again! Firewall and Elevator Actuating

Hours to date: 1609.75

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had a good break.

Well I found out why the trim was out of range - I had bonded it in the wrong place!

What a clutz! 

The instructions in the manual are actually very clear on what needs to be done but for some reason I didn't follow them.

I was out by about 40mm. So I had to remove the old trim mounting bracket and make a new one - which I did with 5 layers of Carbon this time. I've probably added another 5 hours to the build with this screw up.

This muck-up happened when I was in my other garage and I was keen to move forward so installed the trim bracket but you must not do this before having first set up the elevator actuating pushrods.

On the electrics all I've done since the last post is install the battery cables and Ammeter Shunt. I'm not doing the firewall end of the cable terminals till I figure out where the forest of grounds will go.

I've almost finished the firewall fire proofing, just ran out of cool-it tape so have got some more of that on order. It must be made of gold or something as the price is more than a pound a foot!

I've also installed the fresh air vent but have since found out that there are little gaps on the sides so I'll have to fill those in somehow. Also when I was bonding it in I had it in the perfect place then it must have just moved slightly under gravity and now the operation is a little notchy - I should have taped the vent in place at the time of bonding.

The final thing I've done is set up the elevator actuating pushrods and Loctite the rod ends in place. Again follow the manual for this. As it turns out the neutral setting for me was having all 3 rod ends with their minimum of 10 threads inserted. To set the trim in the right place the elevator must be moved up by 5 degrees and centered in it's range so these are two separate jobs which should not be done as one.

Next up will be some more electrics I think.

Battery cables all done at this end. Essential bus wire still to come to the Contactor.

Firewall fireproofing getting there - just a bit more cool it tape to go.

I've made this hole underneath the fuse box section to pass wires through.

Setting the elevator neutral point with the actuating push rods

Spot on with all threads at their minimum 10 turns in.

New trim bracket made up and bonded in place. Hopefully I got it right this time!

Rod ends being Loctited in place.

Fresh Air vent bonded in.

Week 176 - Electrics Part 2

Hours to date: 1584.0

I've almost finished all the wiring work that I can do indoors - one more day should see it completed.

'Zip ties for Africa' on the back of the panel has tided things up a lot and made everything less likely to move around. 

The mess of wires has been cleared up a bit by the use of a nylon braid sleeve on the harnesses which protects them.

I made up the essential bus and bolted that in place in the lower panel/fuse box area. As it turns out I only needed one power source for the fuel pumps as only one can ever be run at any one time and my ON - OFF - ON single switch solution to this needs only the one power input to work.

I carried on with the fuse box section and fitted the starter switch relay and USB dual socket.

After that I made up the D-sub connectors for the UMA fuel gauges and then wired up the switches as much as I could. It turns out to be a blessing that I bought the twin pole single throw type switches as the access at the top to screw on the terminals is very limited by the gauges and starter switch above and with the two pole switches you get to choose which side to use.

There is only the audio alert rheostat left to finish off. This controls the volume of the audio alert from the Dynon D180 to the Radio/headset. The rheostat is not included with the Dynon which seems a pretty bad idea to me - this function should be controllable within the unit itself really. 

The audio alert is a pretty nifty function that allows you to set a limit for various engine outputs and if they are exceeded then you are given a beep through your headset - which makes for a lighter pilot workload and lowers the amount of engine gauge scanning you need to do.

Hopefully by tomorrow I will be finished these last few pieces of wiring and be able to head out to the garage and continue with the battery cable and other wiring installations out there.

I probably won't post again for a few weeks as I am off on holiday to Dubai and Oman for 10 days soon.

Have a great New Year everyone!

Slightly tidier back of panel with zip ties and nylon braid.

Ditto

Essential bus - no need for 2 fuel pump power sources as I figured out later...

Fuse box getting sorted.

Essential bus in place and USB dual socket also shown.

Back of lower panel with switches wired up (mostly).

Fuel gauge D-Subs wired up.