Category Archives: Forward Section

Time: 8 Hours

Since I have to wait on the canopy project until the backordered parts arrive I decided to move onto the wheels.  First up was to an package the parts I needed, which included the cool looking machined blue anodized axles.

In order to work on the wheels I needed to raise the fuselage about 12 inches so that the gear legs her off the ground and have clearance for the wheels to be put on and off. 

With the axels temporarily installed I was able to check for either toe-in or toe-out conditions. That means the tires are both in line with the centerline of the fuselage. I did this by running a fishing line across both axels and checking the spacing between the axels and the line. All was perfect which meant I could move on and don’t need any shims at this time. First up I needed to drill the holes for the wheel pant attachment brackets. 

After I drilled the holes I cleaned up the parts and primed them before riveting the nutplates on. 

I opened up the Mattco box that had the wheels and brakes in it. They sure a good looking and a shame that them will be covered up with the wheel pants. 

I had to separate all the parts so that I could mount the tire and tube. 

Once apart I prepped the tire and inner tube with talcum powder (baby powder) and coated the inside of the tire and all over the tube. I put in a bunch inside the tire to help the tube move around during installation as well during landing/taking off as the tires get side loads. 

I then installed the tube and aligned the valve stem with the red dot on the tire. I inflated the tube to around 25psi just to give it shape and prevent the tube from getting pinched when I put the wheel together. 

I put the two halves of the wheels together aligning the notch for the valve stem. As I slowly aligned the parts I put the three bolts in and started the nuts to hold everything together. 

You can see the tire isn’t set on the bead or put to the edge of the wheel yet. I’ll be able to do that with air pressure. Before I do that I need to finish up the bolts on the wheel but I need to make sure the tube isn’t getting pinched with a small mirror. 

With the tube good and the bolts torqued I inflated the tire to 40psi and set the beads. 

After the beads are set I deflated the tire so that I could remove the bolts and add the brake disk to the inside of the wheel. I re-installed the bolts and re-torqued them. 

The wheels rotate on a set of bearings that come ungreased. 

I had purchased a bearing greasing tool that I needed to used to push some Aeroshell 22 grease inside the bearings. The idea is you load up the cup with the grease then slide a plunger inside the cup. The plunge has holes in the center area for grease to come up through as the plunger is pressed. There is a top to the plunger that seals the top of the bearing as you push down forcing the grease to go into the bearing and out of all the openings. 

I found that it was pretty difficult to push by hand with enough force to squeeze the thick grease. Based on a review I tried putting the greaser sideways in a bench vise which worked like a charm. With the bearings done it was time to install all the parts on the gear legs. First I needed to separate the two brake pads so I could install the brake caliper before the wheel. 

I grabbed the wheel pan bracket and put two of the bolts troughs them, the gear leg and the axel. 

Then the brake caliper get slid on over the axel and bolts. 

The last two bolts get installed but in the opposite direction as they have clearance issues with the wheel pants the plans say. So with the bolts torqued the axels at on for good. I the slide on a wheel spacer and put the wheel on. After the wheel was in place I bolted on the second brake pad. 

There is another spacer on the outside of the wheel followed by a large axle nut. This nut get snugged down to the point where the wheel just rotates freely. At that point you drill through existing holes in the nut down through the axel. Once the holes are drilled you put in a large cotter pin to secure the nut. I didn’t drill yet as I want Glenn to look and the amount free spin I have first. 

With all the bolts torqued I added torque seal to all the bolts/nuts to signal later if they come loose. 

So there they are, my beautiful legs :-)!

Time: 5 Hours

If you remember in my previous blog posts I did quite a bit of work to the landing gear towers to open them up and make it easier, relatively speaking, to access the landing gear bolt nuts. The boats go up through landing gear into the landing gear tower where the nuts needed to be torqued. This task has proved to be very difficult for many builders as there’s not a whole lot of room in the towers. Not too long ago my buddy Glenn and I read about another builder and some clips he was making and selling. These look very cool to us and thought we would try them! What they are is a couple pieces of strong steal U-channel that is just wide enough that the head of the gear bolt, when turned correctly, fit in between. A hole is drilled to allow the bolt to slide down through and the head be sandwiched between the two flanges of the U shape. Here are a couple photos to better describe what I’m talking about. 

   The theory here is that the bolts would be installed backwards or down through the gear towers and the gear legs versus up through them. This metal clip would then bind against another nut in the tower to prevent it from spinning. What this allows is the nut to be placed on the bottom of the gear legs, easily accessible to torque with just one person as the bolt head would remain stationary due to these clips. 
 After five hours of swearing, removing various nuts, holding back wires that are run and moving brake lines I was able to modify and manipulate these clips along with the bolts to finally get them in their final position! The clips needed some modifications to fit around other nuts that are in the gear tower as the tolerances are pretty close in the space. So you read that correctly five hours to install four bolts! The first picture shows you the normal condition with the nut inside the gear tower and how hard it would be to get a socket and torque wrench in there to adjust these. The second photo shows the mod with the bolts going down through.
   I did buy new gear bolts to adjust for the slight increase in thickness of the clips as well as to address the original bolts that were only showing one maybe one and a half threads. I ordered new bolts from Genuine Aircraft Hardware and adjusted the bolt I ordered. The original bolt was a close tolerance NAS6206-27 bolt. I ordered a NAS6606-27 bolt to replace it. This new bolt has the same grip length just a little longer threaded portion which adds to the overall length of the bolt by about 1/8″. Now I have 2 to 3 threads showing outside of the nut as it is torqued. As for was this modification worth it in the pain in the butt it it was to get these bolts and clips down in the tower? A definitely yes as it took me 10 seconds to torque the nut and I could do it all by myself. These bolts and nuts will need to be torqued every one hundred flight hours and this mod allows me to do that by myself very easily. So a little hardship now will pay off greatly in the long term, I only wish that I had done this mod back when I was assembling the landing gear which would’ve made it so much easier!

Time: 2 Hours

I worked on the baggage door, which is the last building task before I get to mate the wings to the fuselage, yesterday.  Pretty simple task of demurring all the edges and holes of the top and bottom skin as well as all the notches of the two side ribs.  You start with the locking mechanism that sends two rods outboard of the lock that will catch two plastic blocks on the baggage door opening.  However they don’t supply the lock and you need to buy that separately from any source you want so I skipped this step for now.  Another note on the baggage door is after reading a lot of builders blogs and talking to my buddy Glenn I understand that the final figment of the door to the fuselage is a real pain in the ass!  It seems that nobody gets a good fit if you proceed with the plans at this stage.  So what I will be doing is following their advise and waiting until the fuselage is finished before attempting to finish the door.  The plan will be to rivet the exterior skin of the door first then attach the door to the fuselage and strap it down with ratchet straps so that all the edges line up perfectly.  Then from inside the fuselage up through the removed baggage floor I will blind rivet the bottom skin hopefully holding the shape needed for a good fit.  So for now I’m done with the door until I get a lock from Van’s and build that mechanism. If you can’t handle it yourself, automotive locksmith Sacramento will provide expert service.

  
   I need to do a little more research on weather to drill the hinge that will attach at the top now or latter with this new plan of attack.

Time: 6 Hours

I started today with the intention of building the Vertical Power VP-X power connectors to clean up the area behind the instrument panel. What I found was the crimper that I bought from Aircraft Spruce, even though they recommend it just for this task,  was the wrong one according to Chad from VP.  

 These power connectors are very specific and need a specialized crimper. I emailed Cahd and he let me know that they have several that they loan out for free minus shipping as they are expensive, $380, to buy. He said he would ship one out at the end of the week. So I decided to stop the wiring and move on to actual building which I haven’t done for a while. The next task in the plans is to work on the forward upper skin and its parts. After cleoko’ing the skin in place I worked on the two support ribs that attach the aft sides of the skin to the windscreen roll bar. These ribs needed to be match drilled to the skins holes while making sure that edge distances are maintained. I took my time to make sure I didn’t damage the roll bar as I drilled.  

    
 One other thing I did to this area was to draw a line vertically matching the side skin below it. I have read in several blogs that guys have been cutting this piece of the skin off so the line from the side skin travels up evenly. This also allows for the canopy skirt to sit better from what I have read. So I decided to do the same and cut these tabs off. You can see the area or line in the middle photo above. Once I had all the holes match drilled I removed the skin and other parts to be deburred and dimpled.  

 Before I dimpled the skin I rolled the lower edge of the left and right side to help the skin lay on top of the side skins.  

 After the skin was done I moved to the instrument panel support structure and dimpled its flange along with the forward baggage aft walls flange. With those done I was able to rivet the instrument panel structure to the side skins as well as the top eight rivets that were left open to get the structure in place.  

 While I had the river gun and bucking bar out I finished the row of rivets on the right side forward skin where I had left open so I could work on the support angle on the inside for my new battery cover.  
 Not a lot of photos but a lot of work today, mainly deburring and edge work.