Fuel Line Support

The fuel lines needed a little more support between the sump and fuel selector valve, so I made quick bracket, flexed it in place, and secured the lines with adel clamps.

Avionics Installation

Finished installing all the avionics and wiring up all the indicator sensors.

ELT Installation

Got the ELT all mounted up.  Had to place it in between the legs of the back seat passenger.

Made a little aluminum mount for the antenna so I could attach copper tape underneath the plane where the belly brake is and create a decent ground plane.

Panel Overlay

Got the panel overlay laser cut and engraved by Martian Laser in San Diego.  It's made from a 1/8" reverse laser mark sheet of plastic made by Rowmark.  I used split electrode electroluminescent sheet from LuminousFilm to produce the backlighting.  I drafted everything up in autocad before getting all the pieces cut.

Gutted a cheap PWM dimmer I found on Amazon to provide dimming for the electroluminescent film.  This is what the vendor said to do to provide remote dimming with a rheostat.

Aileron Balancing

The left aileron was out of balance as well.  Added a strip of lead with adhesive spray and put a layer of glass over that, and some heavy sanding with a light coat of primer.  All in balance now.

Elevator Balancing

Found that the elevators were heavy and out of balance.  Had to sand it all down to bare glass and put on a light coat of primer to get them within weight and balance specs.

Rudder Pedal Return Springs

Made some aluminum tabs and hooked up the rudder pedal return springs.

Plenum Cover Gasket

Found some 1/16" high temp gasket material from McMaster and installed it on the flanges for attaching the plenum cover.

Thigh Support Console

Did some final modification and fitting of the thigh support cover.

Autopilot Servo Installation

Floxed some phenolic to the spar and attached the autopilot's aileron servo.  Cutting through the thin stainless sheet wasn't so fun.

Electric Landing Light Extension

Hooked up a Pololu servo controller with the landing light to automatically extend the light when you turn it on.

Nose Gear Console

Did some final fitting of the nose gear console cover, and fabricated a fiberglass flange to hold a boot for the emergency gear extension rod pass-through.

Indicator System

Fabricated a control box for the led indicators that would sense based on positive voltage or ground, and provide dimming and a push-to-test button to test all the led's.  Took a little longer than expected, and I'd do this with an Arduino in the future.

Cable Management

Fabricated a quick stand-off bracket to help route the throttle and mixture cables to keep them from chaffing on fuel lines.

Canopy Hardware Fabrication & Installation

Fabricated some brackets to attach gas struts to hold the canopy open along with some canopy safety catches and handles.  Used 40lb 9.65" extended, 3.54" stroke struts from McMaster-Carr.

Rough Idle Troubleshooting

Spent some considerable time troubleshooting a rough/loping low idle.  Ran fuel flow tests, cleaned all the fuel injector nozzles, checked for bubbles in the fuel line from the fuel pump to the flow divider, inspected all plugs, and replaced all ignition cables on electronic ignition side.  Traced it down to the vacuum advance on the electronic ignition.  At low idle, the high vacuum was sensitive to the pulses from the cylinder cycle since the vacuum port is so close to the intake valve on the cylinder.  Ordered a .004" Snubber from McMaster Carr and put that right on the vacuum sensor port, and the idle smoothed right out.

Spent some time making brackets and cleaning up the ignition wire routing while I was at it.

First Engine Run

First successful engine run today.  Had some issues on trying to run it on the weekend, and traced it down to a few loose fuel connections.  Still some tuning to be done, but it's getting there.

Heat Shield

Made a heat shield to protect the throttle and mixture cables from the exhaust, as well as keep the fuel servo and firewall cool. Made it out of .022 6061 and used the adhesive backed Zircoflex III over it.

Oil Cooler Hoses

Re-made the oil cooler hoses to accommodate the new oil cooler location and made a few brackets to secure them and the throttle cables.