Author Archives: Michael

Cleaned up Wiring

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Time: 1 Hour

I spent an hour cleaning up the fuselage floor wiring once I finished running the passenger seat heat wires and switch. I’m all done running wires so I wanted to zip tie all my wire bundles to make them look nice. I will tell you it’s getting harde and harder to bend over the side of the fuselage now that it’s on its wheels. 

I also grabbed my 2″ black air vent hose and cut a chunk off to add to the pilot air vent and the elbow on the forward baggage door. 

Every little step is progress. 

Empennage Fairing Work

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Time: 2 Hours

In between different tasks I work a little on the empennage fairing. Basically I sand and add fiberglass/balloons to sand the next day. Each time I get closer to a perfect fit and a complete fairing. So far I pretty happy with the shape and fit now. Today I did a lot of sanding followed by adding a layer of tape to the lower right side to beef it up a little. 

Make no mistake about it this thing still needs a lot of work to be complete. There is still some shaping to be done on the leading edge as well as a million pin holes to be filled. 

Alternate Air Door Control

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Time: 2 Hours

An alternate air door is a small sliding door that gets mounted to the side of the fiberglass “snorkel” that funnels air to the fuel injection control. The idea is that if your air filter would get clogged with anything like ice, which would restrict needed air flow, you could open this door and allow unfiltered air to get to your engine. You don’t want to run like this for a long time as the air is unfiltered but it allows the engine to keep running while you get it on the ground. I won’t. E working on the actual door for sometime but I wanted to get the control in now while I had the top skin off. I ordered my push-pull cable from MacFarlane aviation just like my cabin heat, I’m so thankful to have attended flight training naperville il, now I get to experience all of this fun. I drilled the holes and ran the cable to check fit, once I was happy I decided where I would have it exit the firewall. I looked at a lot of builders photos to see what they had done. It’s hard to know exactly where to put it so that it would line up since I don’t have my engine so photos are my best friend. When I was happy with the placement I started to process of adding the cable pass trough I purchased from Aircraft Spruce. This “ball” style pass through gives you the ability to angle the cable as needed as well as give you a really secure and fire proof connection. First up was to mark and drill the six screw holes and center hole.

I then used my hole punch to open the center hole to 1 1/8″. 

With all the holes and edges deburred I put the backer plate in position with the top and bottom screws. 

I then ran the cable through all the holes securing it with the washer and nut in the gear tower. Once it is through the firewall I place one of the retention rings followed by the two halves of the center ball followed by the second retention ring and screwed them all together. 

I really like these pass thoughs and they really look clean. I will use three more when the time comes for the throttle, propeller and mixture. While I was in the area of the the cables I decided to do the EGT/CHT cable extensions. I had ordered extre cable from Dynon since the cables only made it out about 6″ on the firewall and need to get the left side of the engine. Since I had to splice these I decided to do it inside the fuselage to be a cleaner look and be out of the engine environment. 

Gear Leg Brake Lines

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Time: 1 Hour

I ordered some SS braided brake lines from Tom Swearengen at TSFlightLines for my gear legs versus making them out of aluminum tubing. Mainly because I wanted to see his quality of work and to make the connection super easy. He was great to work with and a pleasure to talk to on the phone. The lines were made and shipped the same day and I had them 3 days later. I had to change my fitting on the brake caliper from a 90° to a 45° to make them fit better. Once I had those swapped out I put them in place with a little bit of clear vinyl hose to preven chaffing where I taped them to the legs. The legs will eventually get a fiberglass fairing over them and hide the lines. 

Flap Control Cover

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Time: 2 Hours

The flap control arm sticks up through the passenger left arm rest and attaches to the bulkhead. This is a little unsightly to look at and many builders, including Glenn, have made a cover to clean up this area for a better appearance. Glenn had saved his template and allowed me to use it to make one for myself. I used some 0.025″ sheet and traced his pattern on it. 

I cleaned up the edges and drilled a couple screw holes then spent some time with the bench and hand bending brake to get all the bends right. 

After match drilling the holes for the screws I drilled for and riveted on the required nutplates. I then put it into place to check the fit. I happy with how it looks and the forward bottom edge will be covered up with a custom leather armrest that is being made at the same time as my seats.