Today I began installing the nose…then I ran into yet another snag. Van’s sent me the wrong length bolt for one of the parts. In the hardware kit they mean to send me an AN7-21 bolt, but in it’s place they sent me and AN7-20. Unfortunately the bolt was just to short for the application. I placed an order with aircraft spruce. It should ship out tomorrow and I should have the correct bolt by Tuesday.
This evening I installed the engine mount. The holes on each corner lined up perfectly, but the two lower center holes, near the nose gear goes, did not line up. They were off by about 1/8". So I called Van’s….again. This time the solution was simpler then the landing gear. They told me to just drill out the holes, using the engine mount as a drill guide. It will cause the hole to become oval shaped.
After two weeks of dealing with the left gear leg issues, the new one arrived. I checked it on the bench and it had about 1 degree of toe-in. Totally manageable. I mounted it on the plane, added a 1 degree shim and it was good. I went ahead and mounted the tires. Next up is the nose gear, then the plane will be fully on gear.
Left gear mounted with tire on!
I heard from Van’s today. There was mixed opinions in Van’s engineering dept. as to whether the 2.8 degree shim was too much shimming. Ultimately, to play it on the safe side it was decided that they would ship me a new left gear leg. I opted to pay for second day shipping ($$$$$) so I can get things moving again. The gear leg should be here Thursday. This evening, I uninstalled the left gear leg from the aircraft in preparation for for the new one.
Today I riveted painted and installed the seatbacks.
Seatbacks riveted together and painted Fabricating the hinge pins. There are three different ones per seatback Hinge pins installed and safety wired in place Seatbacks installed in the aircraft
With the landing gear delayed, I decided to knock out the seatbacks
Fabricated seat back angles Fabricated the seat back piano hinges Seat back brace assembly riveted together Seat backs clecoed together and ready to be riveted
After installing the gear legs last weekend I measured the alignment of the gear legs and turns out the left gear leg had excess toe-in. Based on my measurements the gear had 1 degree of toe-in (shooting for 0) so I ordered shims and waited a couple of days for them to be delivered. After installing them it turns out my measurements were incorrect. After figuring out what was wrong with my measuring I remeasured and turns out the left leg is toe-in 2.
Today I began work on the landing gear. Zak came by to lend a hand! It’s fun having him around the shop!
Cutting the gear attachment angles. They come as one piece of angle, pre-drilled. You need to cut the piece to size and trim off some material Taper cut into the angle. After this photo I finished it off on the sander and grinder and primed them Zak assembling the wheel/tires All three wheels assembled!
After sanding, filling, priming, sanding, filling, priming, sanding, filling, priming, etc… I think the canopy fairing is good enough. If I vinyl wrap the plane, the vinyl should come out looking good. I might wetsand the surface a little bit to make the matte areas shine a little, which will help with vinyl adhesion. If I end up painting, a coat of filler primer prior to painting should be all that’s needed.
Spent several hours in sanding hell. Then applied a layer of epoxy resin with a little micro and black dye on top. Will probably need to do one more light sanding tomorrow and the fairing should be good.
Fairing after it was sanded, filled and black epoxy layer applied.