Hinge Pin Covers HOBBS 2234.0 hrs

I've been experiencing quite a bit of enjoyment lately with the build. Although I am no longer in the business of "predicting when the first flight will happen", its becoming clear its getting closer every day. These last jobs are time consuming, mind you, but I definitely get the feel that these are the finishing touches of a 4+ year journey because the punch list is getting shorter.

 

 

Getting the rudder cables hooked up and finalized. First order of business was lube the tailwheel with oil, next attach the control arm and then the actual cables themselves. Once this is done, you can then move to the cockpit and attach the other end of the cables to the pedals.

 

To do that, you need to fabricate these two cable links out of 4130 steel. DO NOT make these out of aluminum! I have heard of builders doing this, even though it clearly states to use 4130 steel. Aluminum is not strong enough and will be the weak link in the system. This thickness, in alum, will not be up to the task. If one of these snapped in flight, would it kill you? Maybe not...but I wouldn't take that chance. My links, just for reference, came out to 2.5" centerline to centerline...the drawing doesn't give a dimension, but scales out to 1.625"

 

With the rudder cables hooked up, onto the hinge pin on the trim tab. I still needed to finalize this bugger...and really wasn't sure how since I have a rather unique trim tab. I finally came up with what you see here...a hinge eyelet with an extender riveted to it. This should do the trick.

 

While I was back there, I pulled out my trim motor and checked the cotter pins one more time. Good to go. Looking at this picture just now, I notice I don't have torque seal on the all thread nuts...I would feel better if I had that even though I think they are tight, I will take this back off and make sure these are tight before first flight.

 

To finish up, I installed the last cotter pin on the link arm as shown here.

 

Also trying to finish up the last details on my center console. I installed a hold down clip to secure the front end. The back end will have one screw so the entire bezel can be removed by that one screw.

 

Screw and clip in place...looking good.

 

Envision the red leather pad, and a vinyl wrapped bezel that matches the side panels...gonna look HOT!

 

Now, attacking the cowl...I knew I had quite a bit of detail work to do on the cowl to bring it up to my standards. First order of business was the cowl pin covers. You can buy a set of these from Aerosport Products, but alas, I figured it would be pretty easy to do myself and decided to save the money for a change. I was not wrong, these were not difficult to fabricate and kind of fun to do. I started with a 1/8" thick alum bar...made a football shaped pattern and went to work.

 

First trace and cut the hole in the cowl fiberglass. Then, insert your slightly oversize blank into the hole pulled up flush...you want it nice and tight. Put some mold release on the inside surface and then glass right over the top of it.

 

After it cures...pop it out and voila, a perfect plug. Now cut the parting line back in to separate the cowl halves again.

 

I threw this pic in...just cuz...I think the SJ cowl looks sweet with those aluminum inlet rings and matching cowl pin covers!

 

Once I got both sides done...I then took my oversized football and carefully trimmed it down on the belt sander so it has a nice consistent reveal all the way around. Remember, you have to leave room for paint. You can see, I added a nice contoured radius to blend into the curves of the cowl. Looks really nice, I enjoyed this task very much and have already gotten compliments from my hangar mates.

 

After drilling and countersinking the holes, I had planned to epoxy on some retention features for the hinge pins. I used 5 minute epoxy. It worked like CRAP! Don't do this...they just popped right off under stress. I then thought, why do I need to retain them anyhow? They aren't going anywhere...they cant escape the inside of the cowl going forward or backwards, so I decided to just leave them off. If you were going to paint these covers, you could rivet them on...but I think I am going to leave mine polished aluminum, so no rivets for me.

 

And putting some finishing touches on the sanding. Squint your eyes and picture this with polished aluminum inlet rings and cowl pin covers, along with the finish paint...ooo la la, gonna be purdy. Until next time!

Smoke Tank Installation HOBBS 2216.0 hrs

 

I've been working with Marvin Homsley at Smoke System Helper to install his smoke oil tank. He's been great to work with and always available for questions. This is an aluminum, welded, wedge shaped tank that fits in the unused space right behind the seat in a side-by-side. As soon as I saw this product, I jumped on it as it was exactly what I was looking for. In fact, I am installing the first prototype that Marvin produced. It has a vented cap and a flop tube as part of the tank. I will guide you through my installation with a few posts. Click on the heading "Smoke System" on the right side to see all of them.

 

This first picture shows how it came to me, out of the box. You can see a slight bend in the "leg", not really a big deal as its easily bent back in shape, but a little better packaging could solve this.

 

It comes with a bung hole welded into the tank and fitting already installed. As you can see, this is some nice aluminum welding work.

 

The vented filler cap. I'm not sure if this will create an unpleasant odor of smoke oil in the cockpit, but it is a consideration I will monitor after I am flying.

 

Test fitting the tank. I am putting mine behind the pilot side. Most will do the co-pilot side instead. My reasons are, I don't plan to remove the tank when not in use and I also want to be able to easily remove the co-pilot seat and stick for golf clubs or a snowboard on occasion. If the tank was on that side, I would have to remove it also, which would be a pain. The extra ~25 lbs of a full smoke oil tank on the same side as the pilot will have almost zero effect on weight and balance, the moment arm just isn't big enough to be of much consequence. You can see, this tank will mount to the cross bar and the seat belt bolts.

 

Marvin designed the tank to fit a slider. You can see, with the tip-up, you have the latch bar that gets in the way. You can fit it behind there, but it takes a little coaxing and the bar rubs on the tank. Not enough to cause the latch to bind, but it isn't ideal that it rubs. I plan to work with Marvin on an idea I have to eliminate this rub. 

 

For some reason the angle on the "legs" doesn't match the angle on the floor. Marvin intends for this to be cut to fit so not too much of a big deal.

 

Here is what it looks like with the seat in place. Plenty of room. Actually, Marvin could have easily made this tank a little bigger in my opinion.

 

Time to start trimming the legs. This was my first cut, to get it more in line with the floor angle.

 

 

I don't like sharp edges, so I added some nice radii and drilled my hole to match the seat belt mounting holes

 

Getting the tank positioned to drill into the cross support. Make sure you have room for your hose fitting coming out the side before committing. Check...and double check...goes without saying at this stage of the build.

 

I used some nice large fender washers and AN3 bolts to distribute the load in case of a frontal impact in a crash situation. Also notice, I added radii to the mounting flange also. This flange is a little big, if you are lightweight proponent, you could trim this down a little.

 

So, that is pretty much it for the tank install...it was pretty straightforward. I plan to paint my tank black to match the rest of the interior, and when I do, you will hardly even notice the tank is there. I was happy with how this came together.

 

 

 

 

Moving on to the smoke oil injectors. Marvin will sell you the wider clamps with the holes already drilled, which is nice if you've ever drilled stainless steel, you'll know its a pain. I have two injectors, one for each pipe. Really simple to install...

 

Drill your 1/4 diameter hole, insert the injector and fasten with the strap clamp. Be careful not to tighten these straps too much as they easily will deform your pipe...ask me how I know? :) Next post will focus on the hose routing and final details to make it all come together.

Console Bezel HOBBS 2208.5 hrs

 

This is a good picture to lead off this post. This is what happens when you get cocky and start making bets about when your plane is going to be done. I had a bet with a friend of mine that the plane would be flying by the time OSH started. As you can see, I lost...convincingly! haha! This is what I had to cough up...his favorite vodka. Now, of course, I was naïve when I made that bet...and I also thought it would take right around 2000 hrs to finish up. As you can see, I just passed 2200 hrs...so I was way off. My advice...don't make that bet, the "90% done and 90% to go" legend is real.

 

Ok, back to the center console. I wanted my center console to have nice blended curves...something other than the straight lines and hard edges that sheet metal has to offer. I also wanted it to blend in nicely with the cockpit interior. Here are some shots of my cosmetic bezel that will cover the quadrant.

 

I started off with some modeling clay, you can pick this up at your favorite hobby shop. Then unleash your creative side and sculpt it to the shape you want.

 

Do the best you can, but it doesn't have to be perfect since we will use micro filler to make it nice later.

 

I put some clear box tape on the areas I didn't want the resin to stick to. I also used my mold release (hair spray...because it works and I'm cheap).

 

 

Doing some test fitting with the fuel selector cover plate. Notice its a little rough at this point...and that's ok.

 

Now, I mix up some west systems filler...and start fine tuning it to shape.

 

I wanted to be able to remove the bezel without removing the fuel selector plate so I cut a hole in the bezel. The sheet metal will be painted black so it should blend right in with the bezel covering.

 

Next step was to cut the hole for the quadrant. After some careful measurements...make the cut, clean it up with some sanding and we are getting there. Its looking good.

 

I just laid the levers in there for this pic to see how it was going to look. Notice I am using a piece of gray fabric that I got with my Classic Aero Designs (CAD) interior. I plan to cover this bezel with black material, which I will get from CAD so it blends perfectly with my side panels. It also allows me to not have a perfect surface finish on my bezel....the fabric will hide the small inconsistencies. This has been a fair amount of work, but I think its gonna look pretty slick when I'm done.

 

A parting shot...one of our mutual friends, Scott Taylor, is the proud owner of a 1940's vintage Piper Cub. He needs a temporary hangar home so he is staying in our hangar for awhile. Never sucks to have a Cub in your hangar, its such an iconic airplane.