CHAPTER 9 Firewall Forward and finishing cnt'd
To read another Chapter click hereunder:
| Saturday, November 24th, 2007 | Proceeding Firewall Forward |
| We did quite a lot today... Johan focused on the tail section. | |
| The upper fairing was drilled to the fuselage and the empennage. | |
| And he started also with the aluminum lower fairings. | |
| While Johan proceeded, Gerry, Ronny and I went on with the firewall forward connections. All EGT probes were drilled in the exhaust pipes at a position of 5" from the cilinders. | |
| Gerry proceeded with the installation of the ANL60 fuse which will protect the alternator. | |
| And then all wires to the starter, alternator, probes were bundled together and via clamps on the sump routed to their positions. | |
| The starter was connected, | |
| and the alternator was connected... | |
| Ronny and I installed the firewall forward ground bus. | |
| Both air inlets were the ideal position to install the OAT probes for the Dynin. | |
| All cables/wires coming from the Dynon 120 come out of the firewall via these two eyeball systems. | |
| Here the first attachment point for the EGT/CHT cables. Via two clamps we routed them to both sides of the engine. | |
| And this is where we will connect them together. The probes to the wires coming from the Dynon... | |
| Time spent with Ronny, Johan and Gerry | 22 hours |
| Saturday, December 1st, 2007 | Fuel lines and proceeding Tail Fairings |
| Gerry and I proceeded today with the installation of the fuel lines from the High Pressure fuel pump to Fierwall forward. This took us half a day. Trying and retrying... Finally everything fits perfect. | |
| To make the tube fit with the firewall we had to make a slight curve to the right. The angle of the tube to the fitting is to short to go straight.
In the meantime Johan proceeded with the fairings of the empennage. |
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| Time spent with Johan and Gerry | 11 hours |
| Saturday, December 7th, 2007 | Fuel lines,Tail Fairings and fuel flow sensor bracket |
| The fitting in the firewall is where the fuel coming out. A sharp curve to the right must bring the fuel line to the gascolator. But in between the fuel flow sensor will be installed. For this I had to make a bracket to install the sensor on. | |
| The arrow shows the bracket for the fuel flow sensor. It is mounted to the firewall on the reinforcement position for the fuel as standard provided by Vans. The fuel flow sensor needs a straight part of fuel line before and after to guarantee a right measurement. | |
| While I was working on this part, Johan proceeded with the platenuts for the fairings. | |
| After I finished the FF-bracket, I started installing the eyeballs for the upper Slick Harnes Cables coming through the backside baffles to go to the upper ignition positions. First a hole was drilled on the right position | |
| ... and then I installoed the backplate support for the eyeball assy. | |
| The forward view with the two ball keeping plates | |
| And finally, the cables through the swivel ball. | |
| Time spent with Johan and Gerry | 10 hours |
| Saturday, December 14th, 2007 | Fuel lines,Tail Fairings and fuel flow sensor bracket |
| Today I had some help from a good friend from Friesland. Teus runs with his wife a beautiful boat renting company in the North of Holland. (http://www.holidayboatin.nl). He assisted me in finalizing the ignition harness today. | |
| Teus helped me in attaching all clamps to guide the harness from the both magnetos to the cylinders.
Here a view from the cylinder 1 and 3 bottom leads to the maggneto. We secured them with a clamp assembly to the engine mount. |
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| The 1 and 3 top cylinders are provided with the harness via the two eyeballs through the baffles.
All leads to the EGT and CHT probes were guided through this spiral protection and secured to the mount. You can also see the tube through the baffles providing cooling to the right magneto. This was secured by cable ties on the mount. |
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| Here a view how we guided the 2 and 4 cylinders with the top ignition leads. Again with clamps bolted this time on the reinforcement angle on top of the baffles. | |
| And this for the right top side... | |
| In between the two clamps you can see some spiral protection on the leads. | |
| And here finally the left side of the harness to the 2 and 4 bottom cylinder location. | |
| The left magneto... | |
| After this I started with the securing of the bottom baffle plates around the cylinders. I do this with securing wire twisted and mounted through a bolt drilled through the head. This gives me the possibility to give the right tension to the wire. | |
| And Johan proceeded again with the rear tail fairings. These are almost finished. Here the top holes drilled and ready to be bolted to the empennage | |
| Alternating holes drilled through the longerons ready to be tapped and bolted... | |
| Time spent with Johan and Teus | 22 hours |
| Saturday, December 29th, 2007 | Control Cables and related |
| I ordered and received the mixture and throttle brackets/belcrank from Vans and assembled this. Afterwards I installed the belcrank in place. | |
| Side view of the bracket for the mixture cable | |
| And here a better picture taken from the front... | |
| Back shot from the throttle cable. We had to redrill the holes to attach it on the Superior lightweight sump. | |
| Here a better sideview... | |
| Another picture of the fuel line from the fuel flow sensor to the gascolator. | |
| Here a better view on ythe sensor. We had to make a bracket to install it on the firewall. | |
| The hole for the alternator cooling tube. Johan proceeded on the tailsection today. | |
| Time spent with Johan and Ronny | 22 hours |
| Monday, December 30st, 2007 | Brake tubes to wheels |
| Ronny and I decided to proceed with the tubes for the brakes. So, this is where the two tubes enter the fuselage on the firewall. | |
| From that point a curve guides them to the both sides. On the right position on the picture is the tube going to the left wheel... | |
| ... while the other is the tube for the right wheel. | |
| As the instructions say, on this position I need to insert a vinyl tube to connect the end coming from the firewall and the end going to the brakes on the wheels. | |
| The curve is needed to sustain the bending of the gear during landings. The instructions mention to use tabe to glue the tube on the front of the gear... | |
| The right wheel tube is guided via the bottom side of the engine mount. | |
| On several places it is clamped to the engine mount with these clamps. | |
| Anothe mounting position... | |
| In the middle I installed the fuel flow sensor but the bracket is not satisfying for me. So, next time I will build this again... | |
| Time spent with Ronny | 13 hours |
| Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 | Control Cables and related |
| We made his bracket some weeks ago. I took it off to ^rime and spray it before final installation. | |
| And this is, as announced, the new bracket for the fuel flow sensor. Ready to install ... | |
| Another view with the sensor installed... | |
| And finally in place. notice the bottom plate to prevent the sensor for the exhaust heat. I also intalled some heat protection around the fuel lines... | |
| In the meantime I also sprayed the GPS bracket and installed it finally in place. | |
| And the same for these sensors. Whoops, while I was typing this I saw tghat I made a connection between the fuel pressure sensor and the oil pressure sensor.... Tomorrow I have to change this. The left two sensors have to be connected.These are two oil pressure sensors. One for the Dynon EMS and the other for the Tacho. Good I saw this mistake. This is the major advantage of updating daily this website. Mistakes are immediately visible...
Hereunder a better view on the fuels flow sensor assembly... |
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| Time spent | 8 hours |
| Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 | Start install control cables |
| It took me almost a full day to figure out a way to install the two bowden cables for the oil cooler and the alternate air inlet handle. Finally I decided to make and install two extra brackets on both sides of the quadrant. I made these and painted them and finally installed them. | |
| Here is the right bracket to hold the bowden cable of the alternate air inlet. On the other side the handle for opening/closing the oil cooler is installed. I bolted them to the side plates of the throttle quadrant to have the possibility to unmount them without uninstalling the complete cables. Later you will see them installed in place... | |
| The alternate air inlet door is installed and ready to be connected with the bowden cable. | |
| And here the attachment to receive the bowden cable to handle the oil cooler door. | |
| Time spent | 8 hours |
| Friday, January 4th, 2008 | Proceed install control cables |
| Target for today was to install the two control cables for the alternate air inlet and the oil cooler. This is the position where the two bowden cable handles will be. As shown yesterday, these will be fastened on the two sides of the throttle quadrant... | |
| Here is the position where the oil cooler contol cable leaves the firewall. Later will this be widened to receive a special clamp. | |
| The cable is guided over the engine mount in the direction of the oil cooler. On several places it is clamped with necessary clamps. | |
| And finally it is connected to the oil cooler. | |
| The second cable leaves the firewall in this position. | |
| I had to make an extra attachment point to install an additional clamp. This is situated under the oil cooler. The cable is guided to the alternate air inlet door. | |
| Another attachment point for the cable... | |
| ... before it reaches it's destination. The inlet door... | |
| Next I installed two eyeballs for the control cables for mixture and throttle. | |
| And finally I guided all wires for these sensors and connected them. | |
| Time spent | 9 hours |
| Saturday, January 5th, 2008 | Proceeding wiring |
| Gerry and I reinstalled the heat muffler to the front. This seems to be much better because the other location showde some shafing to the sump. So this is much better... | |
| All wires were connected. The blue wire here is the connection from the common of the oil pressure sensor to ground... | |
| The GPS-antenna was connected. | |
| All wiring to the magnetos finished. | |
| The two wires from the EMS to the magnetos (L and R) needed to be connected over a resistor of 30 Kohm. This is needed to connect to the tacho function of the EMS. Further all possible connections to the EMS were finished. Fuel level, annunciators ... | |
| Time spent with Ronny, Johan and Gery | 23 hours |
| Saturday, January 12th, 2008 | Proceeding wiring |
| After I ordered new control cables last week I received them on Friday. Perfect not? So, planning for today was to install these control cables... | |
| With the standard bracket for the throttle which Van's delivered I couldn't come to a positive result. So, last week Theo Celis brought me one he developed for his RV-7. And yes, this is the solution... | |
| The picture above shows the backside where the control cable enters, while you can see here the front side. Fits perfect... | |
| This is the other cable for controlling the mixture. The new cable with two nuts locking them to the bracket attached to the sump... | |
| The destination of the cables...the quadrant... The position has a small angle which makes that the cables have to enter slightly from the upper side. Otherwise the clamps have not enough clearance to travel over the complete necessary distance. So, this needs a solution... | |
| This is where the cables enter in front of the quadrant. Untis now we can be sure that the standard cables have the right length. The mixture and the throttle cables are 60" long... | |
| So here a better view on the entrance point of the cables... | |
| This support bracket will be placed in between the two quadrant support angles. The holes are for attaching and locking the cables. That's for the coming week...
In the meantime Johan installed the two cable clamps for the Bowden cables for the alternate air inlet and the oil cooler. So now they are attached to the firewall. |
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| Time spent with Ronny, Johan and Gery | 17 hours |
| Friday, January 19th, 2008 | Proceeding wiring |
| After I designed this piece, Gerry milled it on a cnc-milling machine. The purpose is to contain an inductive sensor which will alert the open canopy... | |
| We made this out of teflon. The two small screws will keep the sensor in place. The two holes on top will keep the assembly on place on the roll bar. | |
| This is the sensor in place | |
| ... and finally the wire connected to the sensor. This looks great. I'm looking forward to see this beauty in place... |
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| I proceeded also with the bracket for the cables but that will be showed tomorrow...
Further I started all preparations to prime the fuselage. |
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| I covered all parts which had to be protected for the paintjob... And then the complete fuselage (after scotch brite, cleaning etc...) was painted with zinc chomate. | |
| ... and finally sprayed wth the primer. So this bird is protected against coorosion now. It also looks completely different... | |
| Here another view after the priming job... | |
| Also the canopy was primed now. Tomorrow I will put it back... | |
| And look at the growong synergy with the tail...
So, tomorrow I have a guest. Luc, an engineer of Sabena Technics will join us to pre inspect and help firewall forward. Looking forward... |
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| Time spent | 10 hours |
| Saturday, January 19th, 2008 | Firewall forward with Luc Van De Maele |
| I painted the sensor hold and temporarily put it in place. The sensitive position is marked with the arrow. So the counterpart will be installed on the sliding part with a screw coming in the neighbourhood of this sentitive area. Adjusting the screw will close the contact when the canopy is latched. The annunciator will stop the Led burning... | |
| Canopy in place after the priming... | |
| Here is Luc. He advised me a lot concerning the firewall forward things we did. I will surely come back on some advises he gave. But, here he changed the arm of the governor to be in a better position for the control cable. | |
| The arm about 180° turned and tested with a spare cable. After the perfect position was defined, new safety wire was added and the governor was mounted in place together with the cable bracket. | |
| A hard place to reach is the position of the in and out going oil AN fittings on the engine. We had to unmount the oil filter to be able to put them in place... | |
| One of tghe remarks of Luc was to get rid of the cable binders on the engine mount. After hours they would damage the engine mount by vibrations. So, this is something we will do the next week... | |
| After the governor was modified and re-installed in place we were able to define the eyball position to guuide the control cable out of the firewall. | |
| The perfect fit of the governor control cable. Straight in line with the bracket... | |
| Time spent | 21 hours |
| Saturday, January 26th, 2008 | Proceeding with control cables |
| Dimitri, my son and I connected today all control cables to throttle, governor and mixture to the throttle quadrant. It took a whole day to figure out the best positions. | |
| After a lot of trying we could finally connect all cables. | |
| Some weeks ago I made a bracket to bolt the cables on right behind the quadrant. This gave us the possibility to try the perfect angle to guide the cables. | |
| After all finetuning we bolted all parts finally together and reinstalled the full quadrant assembly in place... | |
| The button on the right side of the quadrant is where the bowden cable for the alternate air inlet. | |
| Another view more in detail... On the left side the same sort of button will be installed for the oil cooler... | |
| Time spent | 14 hours |
| Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 | Bolting clamps and start finishing firewall forward |
| So, today the target is to clamp as mutch as possible the tubes, cables and wires in the firewall forward section. On several places we need to do some rerouting of these and clamp them finally to the engine mount/sump... | |
| This tube is the oil tube from the governor to the engine prop hub. As mounted at Jade Air we saw that some shafing was possible near the hyb. So we decided to reroute it. | |
| Now this tube is free from all possible shafing in the forward position near the hub. Much better... | |
| The green cable is clamped on the engine mount and all connectors coming from the engine sensors (EGT, CHT) are now sealed with heatshrink. This position is ready to accept the oil cooler after final torquing all bolts... | |
| Another view from the mixture cable attached to the engine mount. | |
| Here another attaching point near the oil breather assy... | |
| Time spent with Ronny and Teus who came by... | 13 hours |
| Saturday, February 9th, 2008 | Installing the heat system |
| Another thing left is the heating system. As I already mentioned earlier in the building process, I went for an option to install a defrost system on the windscreen. On top of the glareshield there will be two vent openings to blow warm inlet air to the window of the cockpit. This is something we figured out and this is the result. Here the selector to choose the warm air going into the cabin or to the window (defrost). Gerry milled earlier this adaptor to mount the assembly under the heating cover in the cabin... | |
| The T-selector will have one end to receive a tube (going to the defrost locations on the glareshield) while the other is blowing the heated air into the cabin. For this we need to cut a part off the selector on one side... | |
| Inside the cabin this is the location where the assembly will be mounted. | |
| Here the assembly of the selector with the adaptor is mounted in the inside of the cabin to the firewall. On top you can just see the handle which will receive the bowden cable to select defrost or not. The right side has already the tube going up to the vent holes for the defrost air... | |
| The firewall side shows this. The valve closes one of the inlet tubes. Here the air will go straight into the cabin; To the right because the defrost is closed... | |
| The bowden cable to make the preferred selection. | |
| On the firewall this assembly (standard from the kit) to select hot air or no air going to the inside. As you can see, I turned it 90° instead of keeping it in the direction Vans is telling... | |
| And at least we installed also the bowden cable to select hot air or not. Perfectly fitting and working... | |
| In the meantime all cables were fixed finally under the center console section. This is ready. Now this part can almost be closed...
Next week I'm spending a week holiday with my wife, Gerry and his wife in Portugal. We will for sure enjoy some nice flights around the coast line of the Algarve region... But, I'm coming closer to the end. In a couple of months this thing has to go airborne... |
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| Time spent with Ronny and Gerry | 23 hours |
| Friday, February 22nd, 2008 | Milling flanges for defrost |
| So, 10 days Portugal are finished and were fantastic. In between 16 and 20 degrees Celsius are doing miracles...
Especially if you can combine this with some unbelievable scenery flights around the most western point of Europe. Blue ocean, wonderfull rocks and cliffs of 500 ft high around this Algarve coast showing the most magical colours. Only 5 minutes flying from the For all European pilots, go and have a look in the Algarve and rent an airplane... The view from the sky is unbelievable... |
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| On top of this, I made my first familiarisation with a tailwheel aircraft. Together with Ken Twonset, I made my first take-offs, flight and landings with this nice De Havilland DHC-1 Chipmunk. If I was no homebuilder I was for sure going to find such a perfect toy... Thanks for the nice experience Ken. |
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| Well, this is what we finished last months. My brandnew milling/lathe machine. Everything in my home workshop is now installed and I could use this now because I had to make two flanges for the defrost installation. | |
| Clamped in the machine you see the first flange. | |
| A little closer... | |
| For me, unexperienced as I am, this is the result. Two extensions for the Y connection. I receive a 2" tube coming out of the heating system. This has to be divided in two tubes from 1 1/2" connceting the defrost system in the glareshield. | |
| Here a better view of the idea. | |
| This preparation is necessary to proceed the coming days.
And then, just for fun, some more Portugal impression... |
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| Time spent | 4 hours |
| Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 | Proceeding finishing Firewall forward and cabin |
| So, here the work of yesterday fixed into the Y-extension. And the 1 1/2 tube in place. This will do the job...
Gerry and Ronny joined me in the afternoon. We proceeded together with finalizing all kind of temporarily finished things and started/torqueing everything outside and inside the cabin. |
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| Gerry spent almost the complete afternoon in bolting all fittings on the pump, finishing some connections on this pump, bringing one extra ground cable to the bottom floor for this pump. We | |
| Further, clamps, clamps and again clamps and attaching finally all installation firewall forward. This needs another day of labour. | |
| Time spent together (+ Gerry and Ronny) | 16 hours |
| Saturday, March 1st, 2008 | Proceeding finishing Firewall forward and cabin |
| These two connections I turned on my lathe to connect/disconnect in an easy way the tubes from the pitot and the static behind the panel. We will install these later. | |
| A better picture of what we did last week just behind the firewall inside the cabin. | |
| We fixed the duplexer for the antenna for VOR and receiver. | |
| Outside the firewall we installed this ground bus. The cupper flat wire is the ground cable to the antenna. | |
| Inside this is the Grnd bus. A thisk cable connects this with the following grnd bus behind the panel. All ground busses are connected with each other in this way. | |
| I put leak sealant on those places where possible CO leaks can enter the cabin. | |
| Have a look on the way that the control cable is connected to the throttle lever. | |
| Battery box installed to the firewall. | |
| This tube is connected on the ram air cool air outlet in the baffles. | |
| This coolk air enters the heating assembly on this position, goes around the exhaust and... | |
| ...leaves heated on this position. | |
| After the air is heated is is going to the heat selector positioned on the firewall. | |
| After bolting and torqueing everything firewall forward, we continued with installing the oil cooler. | |
| Another view of the oil cooler installation. | |
| So, we think everything except the air filter is installed in place. Now we can proceed with finishing the region behind the panel and in the cabin before closing the fuselage.
Hereunder a latest update of the monster... |
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| Time spent with Ronny | 18 hours |
| Saturday, March 8th, 2008 | Proceeding finishing Firewall forward and cabin |
| I went on with the brakelines in the morning. I forgot to make pictures from this but these will come for sure...
In the afternoon Ronny joined me and we proceeded in the cabin area where several things need final fixture. So, this is in short what we did today. We started bolting and testing the pedals. We took the most backward attaching hole (we have quite long legs you see...). |
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| The center support blok for the pedals bolted... | |
| This needs some explanation. The white teflon block was an idea we worked out to keep the rudder cable away from the wire conduit in which a lot of electricity cables go down. It keeps the moving cable safely away from the wires... Gerry milled this some months ago. Now it fits perfectly in place... | |
| The right position of the pedals depends partly on these two small plates. To find out the right position we made temporarily some plates with the exact hole position Vans is giving in the drawings. Then we installed these and tested the position by sitting in the chairs with the upholstery in place. And this was OK. Then we finished the final plates and installed these finally. | |
| Some weeks ago I showed the extension I made for the heating system. This is now finally the position where we installed it. | |
| The black tube coming from the heat box in the 1" inlet. The assembly installed under and just behind the subpanel... From there the two 1/2" outlets to divide the hot air inflow to the two defrost holes on top of the glareshield (later). | |
| Ronny could'nt resist to make this picture of a quite uncomfortable position... | |
| Here a picture of the outlets from the bottom taken... | |
| Again, but this picture gives a better view on the bracket we made for the control cables... | |
| And at least a view from the side... | |
| Time spent with Ronny | 17 hours |
| Saturday, March 9th, 2008 | Proceeding finishing |
| So, Ronny, this is what you get...
I sent this picture to "Playgirl"-magazine. I could'nt resist to do this. At least a trial to make a celebrity from you... It was no flying weather today, so we dicided to proceed. The target was to start with some electricity issues we discovered. One of these was the fact that the autopilot didn't come out of it's test status. Therefore we checked all wires from the altitude hold to the servo. The picture here shows Ronny in a trial to reach the servo... |
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| All DB9 connectors were opened to check the connections. This is the one from the LCD switch. We found one wire which was disconnected. | |
| The other connector, the encoder switch connector was OK. | |
| And the one on the altitude hold seemed to be OK too...
After starting up the problem is still there. So, next week we proceed finding out the reason for this... |
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| After replacing the panel we had the opportunity to test the sensors on the engine. We used a heat gun to heat the CHT probes and the EGT probes. Immediately they were raising when heated. Perfect system to thest the connection on the right cylinders.
The starter motor is also functioning. We did a fisrt ignition trial and this worked well. |
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| Time spent with Ronny | 8 hours |
| Saturday, March 15th, 2008 | Proceeding finishing |
| The clamps came in to attach the flexible line to the brake line on the gear. So, I finished this. The gear is ready to accept the brake fluid next week.
One step forward to proceed the start-up of the engine the first time... The complete day we spent on fixing small problems and finetunings. The major problem which took almost the whole day was the altitude hold. We discovered that we made a wrong connection which resulted for sure in a damage of the system. After checking, rechecking, measuring we are sure that the altitude hold must be damaged... Shhhhttt... We lost a lot of time and have to send the complete TrioPackage incl. the servo back to the US for repair. So, this is for the next week. Further we checked the fuel pump because we thought there might be a mistake but it seems to work properly. Another thing we discovered was the malfunction of one of the flood light invertors. We changed one invertor and now it workst fine... |
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| So, the day-killing feature packed and ready to return to sender... I hope Jerry will fix this fast...
In the meantime I decided to upgrade the system from the EZ 1 to the EZ 2. This will need another small modification by adding a split Pitot connection behind the panel. So, looking forward... In the meantime I will start preparing the wings and the empennage for painting. This is for the coming weeks... |
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| Time spent with Ronny | 14 hours |
| Monday, March 17th, 2008 | FineGrinding wings for preparation final paint |
| I went to the paintshop who will take care of the final painting of the RV. The wings and the empennage will be painted in between te further proceedings. So, I started today with the fine grinding of the pripmer on the wings. There where necessary I added some filler and repainted and regrinded it.
Before starting I closed the tanks. They were still open after the mandatory notes from Van's and the changes Johan did on the flop tube... |
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| The left wing was finished so far. What a hell of a job. With grinding paper 800 grinding, grinding, and grinding until a smooth and very fine surface is reached; Rudy, the painter came by to inspect. He approved the way I was working. So, tomorrow I have some hours left to start the second wing. I have to finish wings and empennage before the end of this week... Hopely next week I can bring the wings to the paintbooth...
Drawing and dimensions of the wings/empennage were sent to the shop who will cut masking film necessary for the paintjob... |
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| Time spent | 6 hours |
| Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 | FineGrinding wings for preparation final paint |
| Continued second wing top side...
No pictures... |
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| Time spent | 3 hours |
| ACTUAL LABOURTIME SPENT ON PROJECT: 3152 HOURS !!! | |
| Friday, March 21st, 2008 | FineGrinding wings for preparation final paint |
| The complete wing was grinded. There where necessary I repainted with a basecoat and regrinded. That's what you see for these darker stripes. By grinding sometimes some rivets came through the base coat. I resprayed them then with zincchromate and then again the basecoat and then grinding till a polished surface was the result... | |
| Last thing to do on the wing was attach all platenuts for the fairing. A lot of platenuts... | |
| This is where the bottomplate of the fuselage will connect to the wing... | |
| Time spent | 8 hours |
| Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 | Proceeding wings and issues solving |
| So, the wing is ready with temporarily the fairing attached. The fairing is also painted and polished to accept the final base coat in the paintshop. | |
| Ready to be transported to the paintshop. Probably this will be done next Friday. On Tuesday I go to a friend to assist cutting the maskingfilms for the paintjob. I will show these pictures later... | |
| This groundbus needed to accept some unfinished groundcables from the aft fuselage. Ronny fixed this. The only thing left is binding the wires together. | |
| Next we installed the DB9 plug on the cable for the magnetic compass module of the Dynon. | |
| And once switched up we saw immediately a direction indication on the Dynon. 293 Degrees...
Fixed and working properly... |
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| This set-up was necessary to adjust the flap retract protection. We needed to have an 80 Kts indication on the speedindicator with dynamic pressure coming from the pitot tube. So we installed a pressure blowgun some 3" away from the pitot tube connection in the fuselage (Magenta arrow).
The cyan arrows show where the wing pitot tube will connect later. By blowing continuous pressure at this distance we simulated the forward dynamic pressure when the aircraft is moving. We adjusted the distance inbetween untill we saw an indication of 80 Kts on the Dynon and in the analogue gauge. |
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| Again the intake Pitot connection on the fuselage.
Oh yes, you see also the Amphenol connector. I didn't make pictures from this but both wings were tested by connecting them to this connector and check all functions. The pitot heater, the landing lights, the navigation lights, the wing servo for the autopilot, the stall warning... all working. BIG ISSUE... the stobe lights are not working. So this is still a problem to be fixed... |
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| This litthe black box is the adjustable sensor which switches the Flap Protection assembly. This will avoid retracting the flaps above a speed of 85 Kts. Nice little thing that helps prevent abuse of the flap mechanism at a speed above the white arc. | |
| And this... something to forget... While testing somebodey hit the taillight quite hard. Lamps are gone. I will reorder immediately a new bulb.
Things happen... No problem. |
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| Time spent | 13 hours |
| Monday, March 24th, 2008 | Proceeding finegrinding empennage |
| So, today it's a holiday. Perfect to proceed the grinding job because next Friday these parts will go to the paintshop. So, I finished the empennage... | |
| ... the rudder... | |
| It took some time to get the taillight perfectly grinded, ready to paint. A lot of small epoxy holes in this part which had to be filled and grinded. At least this is perfect now... | |
| So, last picture of this part. Everything ready for next Friday... | |
| I planned to proceed with the gear fairings. After clamping the trailing edges together to assure the non-twisting position of the fairings I red the explanation from Vans many times. This seems to be possible in a simpler way... I started to make a copy of the template on the drawings. But instead of using the template to find the trimming edges, I used another method. | |
| I took some paper tape and glued it on top of the drawing. Due to it's transparancy it is easy to copy the edges ftrom the drawing to the tape. You can see the small marks on the tape I positioned on top of the drawing. Then I removed the tape and glued it over the fairing, starting from the middle of the leading edge. | |
| The outer positions for the trimming line are now exactly in place... I repeated this for the root and the tip of the fairing... | |
| The marks on the tape give the exact position for the trimming line. I drew that line on both fairings. | |
| Then I could use the template I made starting from the drawing. The edges could be positioned easily on the new trimming line I drew on the fairing. The template is then the best way to draw the trimming line for the root edge... | |
| ... and for the tip trimming position. | |
| After these trilmming lines were drawn on the fairing, I couls also use the template to bring the exact gear centre line to the fairing. This will be helpfiul later to position the assembly perfectly in place.
Here you see the fairing with all lines on it... |
|
| Well, almost all lines because these notches have to be done too. Again the template was very useful for this. | |
| After I drew the notches on the fairing I used a Dremel to cut them out... | |
| Next I did was trimming the piano hinges to length and I drilled, deburred and prepared them for the next time. Now, tomorrow back to work again...
Just received the tracking number from Vans concerning the new taillight bulb. It's on it's way... |
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| Time spent | 9 hours |
| Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 | Preparing and cutting masking films |
| I sent the drawings for the masking films to a friend of me. She runs a business selling all kind of signmaking. The name of the business is ITM Interma. Clicking on the name rings you to her weshop where you see the complete overview of products of ITM Interma. Henny started to prepare the cutting of these masking films. | |
| First of all, each of the masking films has to be imported in the cutting software where the width of the films is showed. The different films need to be positioned onto the running width and length. This needs some brainstorming and some insight of the way the aircraft parts will be brushed. So together we figured out how to do the job. | |
| Once the positioning of all films were defined, the right kind of masking film was selected out of the stock of materials. In the case of masking film for paintjob there are some requirements. The material needs to fit perfect to the surface to avoid paint leak under the edges, the material needs to e removable in an easy way and glue rests may not stay on the underground. So Henny knows exactly which vinyl material matches to these requirements. | |
| Once the material was defined, the roll was installed on the cutting plotter. | |
| In some cases, long lengths needed to be cut. So, a helping hand is necessary here... | |
| After the vinyl was cut, all parts which have to be sprayed with paint had to be peeled out of the roll. This is really a hell of a job which needs a lot of concentration. Henny did some, all the rest is something I will continue to do at the end of the week with Elvira... |
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| Well, here the result of one of the stripes perfectly cut out of the vinyl... You see how exact the film is cutted. So this is what we did further for all colors, all shapes... Huge job and, almost impossible to do in another way... | |
| This is just a part of all films. At the end, all films for the wings, the fuselage the empennage the rudder, the wheel boots... all together we consumed more that 50 meters of this film... Further preparation is that all parts need to be peeled, taached on application tape (necessary to attach the films in place on the RV) and the painting scheme needs to be measured and indicated on the aircraft. Something for the end of the week before it will be transported to the paintshop... | |
| And than last but not least... everything approved by this team. Micca and Elvira...
So, further information follows step by step... |
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| Time spent | 4 hours |
| Friday, March 29th, 2008 | Preparing wings for transport and issues solving |
| So, the wings in the reinforced cradle ready for transport to Rudy, the painter who will spray them the coming week. They will be transported in the cradle so, we welded some steel arms on it and covered them with isolation mufs to protect the wings.
Planning is to spray the wings in all colors the coming week. The next week Jan (Fusee Airbrush) will add some airbrush accents to them before the varnish finishing will be added. |
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| Elvira and I finished adding application foil to the cutted and peeled films. We tried them for fitting. Perrrfect... Ready for Rudy to cover all painted layers before going to each next layer... | |
| In the morning (besides the briefing sessions I had with Jan and Rudy for the coming paintjob), I finished the gearlegs. One of the coming days I will fit them to the gears... | |
| In the afternoon Gerry and Ronny came. Planning was to search for the strobe light issues we had. After 2 hours we found the problem. Two wires were wrong. Once changed, all strobes were working perfect... | |
| Next we installed the canopy latch sensor. Some wires to be added and yes... This works perfect. We also had a problem with one of the two annunciator lights of the Fuel Guardian system. We found that one of the wires was damaged. probably due to the installation of the control cables of some weeks ago. We reconnected it and.... fixed... | |
| Here a close-up of the canopy latch assembly. We tested it and it works perfect...
Tomorrow we will transport the wings to the paintshop. I'm really looking forward to see these painted... |
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| Time spent with Rnny and Gerry | 22 hours |
| Sunday, March 30th, 2008 | Transport of the wings |
| So, wings are transported and ready to start painted tomorrow. In the meantime I started with the wheelpants. I measured exactly the same distance all over the front section to trim the rear edges. Then I trimmed and sanded the edges. Afterwards I taped both halfs together. | |
| Here you can see the perfect fit of both halfs. Using a tape to keep both parts in place is a good method before drilling the wheelpants. | |
| And then finally, drilled and clecoed together... | |
| To proceed we had to level airplane This took some time but it is important to have the possibility to work on the wheels and to bring them in the exact position. | |
| I took the complete wheel assembly off. Necessary to drill the cotterpin hole and to paint botch attachment plates for the wheelpants. | |
| So, the cotterpin hole is drilled on both sides... | |
| ... and the attachement plates are sprayed after priming etc... | |
| And then finally I installed the wheels back together with the brakes and the attachement plate. As you see I have to reoute the brakelines now. This is for the next time... | |
| Time spent | 8 hours |
| Monday, March 31st, 2008 | Preparing design for wings painting... |
| D-Day for the wings. I went together with Elvira to the paintshop to prepare the wings for the paintjob. A big plot of the design was very helpful to see which films needed to be placed to start the painting. | |
| And this is how it woks. First measuring the exact position of the masking films. These films are needed to paint the yellow color. The yellow region is not masked and the white (bottom side of the wing and a part of the leading edge) neither. These two colors will be painted first.
The masking films contain a special application tape which is needed to apply the masking film to the wing. |
|
| Here a better view of the application tape. Thereunder the masking film (blue film) which contains the glueside protection. First of all the exact position of this yellow edge curve needed to be defined. | |
| Once defined, the glue protection was removed and the masking film applied to the wing. The blue film protects the region which will not be printed in yellow. The leading edge will be white. Same as the bottom side. So, white and yellow will be painted prior to the blue middle section. | |
| Once the white and the yellow are sprayed, the blue film will be removed and changed with a masking film protecting the sprayed yellow and white. Blue will be painted inbetween these two colors...
What a job to figure this all out... But OK, the masking film is applied and Rudy can proceed with the first paint. Tomorrow we will see more... |
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| Afterwards, the second wing was ready in a short time because we could refer to the other wing. Say, copy/paste job...
Don't mind about the two different blues... They will be removed once the colors are painted... Up to the next day... |
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| Time spent with Elvira | 14 hours |
| Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 | Painting the wings... |
|
So, D-Day for the wings. Rudy cleaned the paintbooth and we drove the wings in. |
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| Then we hung them to the bars on the ceiling and tried that this was safe. It seemed to be perfect to do it this way... | |
| Afterwards we put the wingtips and the rudderparts also into the booth. | |
| The wingtips fitted perfect like this. And then I started to degrease all the parts while Rudy prepared the white paint. | |
| Rudy started to spray the paint and this is the result for the first part. The bottom side of all parts were painted white. We decided to paint the top also white as a prelayer for the yellow. This will cover better the yellow paint layer. We drove one wing out because of a problem. This will be painted tomorrow... | |
| The bottom inspection covers were painted, | |
| The vertical stabilizer, | |
| ... and the rudder... | |
| The top side of the wing is also sprayed white where the yellow will be painted later.
But, hereunder, the final white cover of the bottom side of the wing. Looks briljant... |
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| Time spent by Rudy | 4 hours |
| Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 | Proceeding painting, next color Yellow... |
| After Rudy painted yesterday the yellow layer, we went back to add the next masking film layer. The yellow looks very nice and, the way it is painted looks very good.
Here you can see how the masking film protected the white painted layer. With paper the remaining surface is covert for preventing yellow spraying on the white leading edge and the bottom side of the wing. |
|
| First we had to measure and to try the fitting of the next masking films on the painted surface. Elvira assisted for this. You need the perfect and secure hands of a woman in such a job...
This masking film layer will protect the painted white and yellow surface. The blue masking film forms a perfect edge inbetween the colors. |
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| Here the yellow edge fits perfect with the cutted masking films. On the leading edge the frontline of the blue paint is measured and added. | |
| A better view here while Elvira continues preparing the masking film. | |
| Finally all over the wing the next design is attached. The remaining surfaces which will not be blue, will be covered by paper. | |
| In the meantime we took the vertical stab outside. Here we had to add a special white deep covering layer to get rid of marker lines at the bottom. You see the white covered part. Rudy will add the yellow later. | |
| For this one tip. Do not write with markers on the primed surfaces since the basecoat keeps reacting with this. You can hardly cover these lines later...
Hereunder another picture of the finished (so far) wing. Tomorrow the blue will be sprayed and then we proceed with the swinging lines... |
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| Time spent with Elvira | 3 hours |
| Friday, April 4th, 2008 | Proceeding painting, next color Blue... |
| The blue color is sprayed. Ready to get rid of the protection covers and the films. | |
| Besides some cosmetic minor problems the result is beautiful. We only removed a little protection from the tip to see the color combination. Really, the result is beautiful... | |
| And then ready to start applying the next layer of film to add the back striping on the wing. | |
| Here you can see the striping applied to the wing. The cyan blue will again be removed to add the last stripes. This is for tomorrow... | |
| More detailed the feathered impression of the striping on the wingtip side... | |
| Both wings ready to be sprayed this afternoon. | |
| In the meantime we applied the stripes on the vertical stabilizer and the rudder. | |
| And protected the sprayed yellow background... | |
| And then "his masters hand" to apply the grey color for the striping. This is applied with spraycans to prevent the loosening of the ultra thin lines of the protection film. So, tomorrow last phase of the design. The white stripes... | |
| Time spent with Elvira | 3 hours |
| Saturday, April 5th, 2008 | Proceeding painting, next color striping |
| Yesterday Rudy painted the grey stripes onto the wings. RThis looks really great. All these ultra this sprayed grey lines really give an impression of a bird wing... | |
| The vertical stabilizer and the rudder are ready. Just some minor retouches and this thing can be completed by the airbrusher before adding the varnish unto it... | |
| Just for your idea how nice these thin lines are brushed this detail... | |
| Dimi and I applied then the last masking film for the white striping. Rudy will paint thes today... | |
| Here the masking film and protection is ready... | |
| ... and Rudy already painted the first layer. This will need some layers to cover the underlying colors... But I completely trust Rudy's skills to finalize this in the same professional way... | |
| Back in the workshop I installed the brackets for the wheelpants... | |
| ... and the clearance block for the distance between the wheel and the wheelpant.
In the meantime I started already with my tailwheel conversion. In two days about 4 hours landings and take-offs with this beauty. A Dehavilland DHC 1 Chipmunk. I have a wonderful instructor. We both enjoyed these hours. I'm really looking forward to proceed. What a beauty... |
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| Time spent with Dimitri | 2 hours |
| Sunday, April 6th, 2008 | Wing painted in basecoat |
| I went to the workshop to prepare all wing screws for painting. In a carton box I drilled all holes and positioned the screws in it. Next they will be primed and then sprayed in the used colors. This is something for the coming week... | |
| And then, may I proudly present...
The skypassion RV-7 Wings in their final design.... |
|
| First look is perfect isn't it? Separate from some minor issues in the paint, the overall look is very nice. A piece of art. Especially the very thin striping of the two swipes looks marvellous. | |
| In the meantime we sprayed this caution text. | |
| Even that text looks very sharp edged. We sprayed it in the same grey neutral color on both flaps. Big and unambiguous... | |
| An overall view gives a nice look | |
| Although this looks good, there are several little issues where the masking tape loosened. But this will be fixed later. | |
| Next step is Jan the airbrush artist. He will finally add some minor accents into the swipes. I will ask Jan to do some bugfixing in the swipes where the masking tape loosened.
And then again this last picture which gives a very nice idea of the design. So, now next return to the remaining fuselage tasks. But now I have to leave for my job to Germany... |
|
| Time spent | 1 hours |
| Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 | Airbrush and finetuning |
| Yesterday Jan airbrushed some accents in the wing. After all, this didn't receive my approval. The straight lines of the design in combination with the freehand airbrush was not a real success. So, last night I decided to get rid of this idea. So back to off. We had to repaint partly the wing. Films, spraying, glueing, masking... A huge job but worthwhile...
In the meantime inbetween I sprayed a complete set of all the wing screws in the different used colors. |
|
| White, grey yellow and blue after the scews where primed with zinc chromate. | |
| And then finally the varnish on the screws. They are ready to be installed finally... | |
| Then Jan came to spray the text for the tanks. He cut the letters in masking film and started to spray them in the two defined colors. | |
| The top text in white because they are in the blue region of the design... | |
| ...while the bottom text which contains a warning, is sprayed in red. | |
| And this is the result. Sprayed and well, the will fall under the varnish cover layer; This will protect te text for the future... | |
| Time spent | 9 hours |
| Thursday, April 10th, 2008 | Final details before the varnish... |
| To make a wing complete, some indications need to be placed in my point of vew. So, all check points are indicated on the wing. This with small polyester films which will be covered by varnish when the wing receives it's last coating.
Here the Stall Warning indication, |
|
| ... the pitot position... | |
| On the two wings, the Tie Down positions, | |
| ... and last but ot least, the drain point positions. The coming week Rudy will spray the final varnish coating over the wings. And tghen up to the last stage... The fuselage finishing.
In the meantime I flew more than 5 hours with the Chipmunk. I'm becoming more familiar with the taildragger practice. |
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| Time spent | 3 hours |
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