Engine Lifting

I wrestled the engine crate up onto the engine hoist today. It took me a couple of hours to figure a way to get this 400lb crate up 5" onto the hoists legs. I wanted to be able to lift the engine in and out of the crate and still be able to store the engine resting in the crate. This also allows us to roll the engine around since the stand has wheels. I didn't want to leave the engine hanging on the stand because that is bad for the hydralic lift cylinder and the engine lift is borrowed.

After getting this thing lifted up and out of it's crate, Bill stopped by and we removed the magnetos and various other items that were in the way. We were able to test fit the engine mount and it looks good. Just one minor adjusment to make that isn't even related to engine clearance, rather I wasn't able to get one of the isolation cups into the mount because one of the upper tubes is too close to the cup. I'll have to have that tube adjusted.

GPS, Trim and EFIS

I mounted the GPS antenna in the nose today. It is mounted in the nosecone under a hatch. The fiberglass is transparent to radio waves so we can mount it down out of sight (and out of the airstream).

I also created a bracket for a Ray Allen position sensor to mount on the Strong pitch trim. I had to create a linkage to transfer the motion from the trim motor to the sensor and reduce the amount of travel. The sensor only has 1.2" of movement but the trim moves several inches. This took a lot longer than I expected.