Aveo Nav/Strobes HOBBS 1664.0 hrs

Again, I couldn't find any instructions in the Van's manual about how to install my tip covers, nor did I research any blogs, so I just winged it...pun intended. This is what the cover looks like from the factory...a quick glance will tell you that this is used for both wing tips. First task is splitting it into two pieces. I just sketched a line down the center and used a cutoff wheel in the dremel.

 

At first, I wasn't sure the dremel was the best tool for cutting this stuff. My guess is this is polycarbonate (PC). The main difference between PC and Plexiglass (which the canopy is) is PC is softer and not a brittle...i.e., it wont crack as easy but it will also scratch easier (which is why we don't use it on the canopy). So, working with it is a little more forgiving.

 

Anyhow, cutting it with the dremel caused some melting and even a little smoke. The melted PC was easily removed however and so I used it throughout the process...mainly because I couldn't think of a better way to cut it. Just take your time, it will work fine.

 

Once you have it cut in half...do some fitting, try your best to line up the curvature...this is about where I thought it looked best. I temporarily taped it in place and started laying out my finish cuts.

 

I suppose you could just a sharpie to do this...but I thought this electrical tape would work better as I didn't want to try and clean sharpie marks later. Of course, I laid out this tape while is was in place on the tip.

 

After several iterations of cutting, trimming and sanding...this is what I got. Not too shabby, I like it.

Not sure if its the Mechanical Engineer in me, but I am paranoid about wires rubbing in the vibration prone environment of an aircraft. Here you can see I added some protective flex guard to the wire harness. Probably overkill...but it is what it is.

 

Here she is mounted in place...I just centered it top and bottom and tried to bias it toward the front of the wing for better visibility...no rocket science here. I tell ya, Aveo makes a nice looking product...I really think this puppies look sexy!

Nut plate installed...inside view.

Most everyone these days only puts two screws in these covers...right in the corners. Doesn't seem like much to me, but plenty of planes flying like this so I am following suit.

 

Let me add...I match drilled the holes with a #40 bit (little chance for cracking) and then opened up the holes with this little grinding tool in my dremel. Worked just fine...cleaned up the hole and...no cracks. The PC is more forgiving, but still be careful so you don't have to redo it. 

 

Hooked it up to my power supply to see some pretty lights....cool eh?

 

And a little video to show the Nav and strobe in action...love these babies. If you were wondering, these are LED lights...low power and will last forever.

Lighting HOBBS 1476.5 hrs

Except for my landing and taxi light, I am going exclusively with LED lighting. They use less power and should last forever. To me, this is a no brainer as I think all lighting will go this way in the near future. My manufacturer of choice is Aveo...I like their products.

 

I had originally planned to go with the cheaper "Powerburst" but they are not recommended for anything beyond LSA's and ultralights, certainly not for IFR. So I bought the "Ultra Aurora" instead, which is of course a little more pricy. These are 3-in-1 lights...nav/position/strobe. They look indestructible...and it must be the geek in me, but I think they are really nice looking.

Tail/rudder strobe

I started mounting the tail strobe, still got some work to do...I filled the fiberglass cap with some flox and then just drilled and tapped into that. I plan to make my rudder bottom permanently attached, so I need to plan accordingly.

Top Wing Skins HOBBS 610.0 hrs

Well this is a first, I have never created a blog post where I could add 57 hrs to the project HOBBS meter!! It was a busy week to say the least. I am way behind in posts so this one is going to have a lot of pictures and I am going to try and keep it short (fat chance!).

The two weeks with Dad helping out were amazing, we logged 82 man-hours in that time. I was able to get about 6-8 weeks of work done in two weeks with his help. That is a huge step forward in helping me get this thing flying sooner rather than later. 

We got all of the fuel tank problems solved, all tanks passed their pressure tests. That was the green light to attach the tanks in place, install the Duckworks LE lights and rivet the top skins. Here are the pics and descriptions of our work...

As you all probably know by now, I like doing little things on my plane to make it my own. Little touches that make it unique. The idea of having a plane exactly like everyone else's is mind numbing to me. So, here is another of my touches, unique to my plane. I changed the landing light cutout from the standard rectangular pattern to a circle. My thinking is, the lamp is round, why should the cutout be rectangle? I came up with this idea on my own but I'm sure I'm not the first to do it. Here is what I used for my cutout pattern...good ol' Shiner Bock from Texas! :)

Pattern layout and ready for the delicate cutout work with a dremel tool. Cutting into a perfectly good leading edge assembly certainly gives a guy pause. Cant make a mistake here or I'd lose my mind!

Dad having a go at his wing, he bravely went first as I drug my feet before starting  mine. We both chose one wing to do from start to finish...it was a friendly little competition to see who's would turn out better. ;) In the end I would have to call it a draw...they both looked really nice.

Marking the holes and match drilling for the lens attach brackets.

Fitting the lens in place for match drilling. I think this is where we made a mistake in our process. Both of our lenses didn't come out with a nice tight fit with the skin even though they looked perfect at this stage. I think it was because we had this layer of masking tape on the lens for protection when we did our match drilling. The thickness of the tape may have caused our problem. 

I plan to redo these lenses later and will forgo the masking tape for hopefully a better fit. Although the lenses didn't come out as we had hoped, everything else turned out great and it was a fun project. It took us both, working in parallel, a few hours to accomplish--its certainly not a 45 min task that's for sure.

Dad prepping the lens for the brackets and trimming it to size so it will fit in the hole. This took some doing to get it to fit in my round holes, but it is possible if you decide to go this route.

Here is what it looks like when its all finished. I was really happy with my choice to go with the round holes...looks pretty slick!

We mounted the light ballast on the end rib, outboard. I figured this was a good location so I could easily get to it if needed when the wingtip is removed. It also makes the wire routing a breeze as I can just enter the main conduit (just below in this pic) running down the length of the wing.

Man is that puuuuuuurdy! wooooo-wee!

We got all our prep work done that we needed to on Friday, setting the stage for riveting the top skins in place. We got up bright and early Saturday morning and attacked, and I mean attacked the top skins like we were possessed. We riveted all four top skins in place in roughly 5 1/2 hrs...the first wing (two skins) took about 3. We had to drill out exactly two rivets during the entire process (and one of the screwups I did was with the squeezer! doh!) and I also had one slip with the gun producing a small 'smiley' in the skin (no worries, this will be fixed during the painting process). Other than that, I was ecstatic about how they turned out! Even better than I expected to be honest. They really look great as you can see from the pics.

Although I had planned to use the back rivet method, Dad and I decided we liked the traditional method better...its quicker in my opinion. I was on the gun, Dad manned the bucking bar and we worked very well as a team burning through those skins. Its quite amazing how fast you can go with a good riveting partner. We got in a nice rhythm and cranked through them in no time. As Chris Ledoux used to sing during my rodeo days, "it was like child's play on Grandma's rocking chair."

I gotta tell ya, we were both pretty tired by the end, it was an intense 5 1/2 hrs to say the least. But probably the most rewarding part of the project so far.

Plumbing work for my ER tank vent line that I will run back to the fuse. This is different than how Mr. Tuckey did it...his vent exited through the bottom of the wing.

Installing the Dynon autopilot servo mounting bracket in the right wing. I ordered this mounting kit from Aircraft Spruce for $75. Yes, in case you were wondering, I am now about 99% sure I am going with the Dynon SkyView system/Autopilot and AOA heated pitot. Its a lot to invest in one company, but I'm certainly hoping it will be a good choice.

Wow, this was quite a sight and milestone. Moving the wings out of the wing stand (amazing how light they were to carry!) so that we could disassemble the stand. It was kind of surreal...I had looked at that stand as a fixture in my garage for about 9 months and now I was taking it down and getting ready to store the wings and move on to the fuse. Surreal...but very cool.

Dad tackled the task of building a wing cradle to store the wings and did a fine job. I also learned the cradle will be real handy for doing the finishing touches (wiring/plumbing) on the wing before closing it up. He just reused the end pieces from my fuel tank cradle to fit the contour of the wing. I also reused the same wheels I had on my wing stand and voila...a sturdy rolling wing cradle. This is where the wings will reside until they are mounted to the fuse later in the project.

A couple photos of us celebrating a very rewarding work session. After we finished the top skins, it was time for a shot of celebratory Canadian whiskey (Crown Royal...my drink of choice) and a Costa Rican cigar! What a great feeling to see the cleco's all removed and a nice shiny wing staring back at us for the first time. In my mind, I could already see the wind flowing over it, creating lift.

In summary, we didnt get the wings done as I had hoped while Dad was here but we came pretty darn close. If I hadnt had fuel tank problems, I think we would've got there. The good news is the wings are in a state that I can either work on them now and finish them up or wait til later. I've been reading other blogs and I think I can rivet those bottom skins on solo...sounds like others have done it without too much trouble. So nothing is holding up my continued progress for the forseeable future. Many thanks to my Dad for working so tirelessly while he was here...I had a hard time keeping up with him! :) I have had no less than three offers from other builders wanting to fly my Dad to their project to do the same for them!! haha! Once again, a perfect example of Aviation creating lifelong memories that I will always cherish. KPR my friends!

Leading Edge Lights HOBBS 507.0 hrs

As I mentioned, last night I went over and helped Brian Beatty with his RV7 project. We were riveting his top wing skins in place. We ended up using the 'back rivet' approach that many builder employ for the wing skins. It was my first time doing this so there was a small learning curve.

I have to admit the first few werent the best (sorry Brian), but after a few minutes we had a good rythm going and the quality improved. I was working the gun and it took me awhile to get the proper trigger burst down. It takes a little more force (a longer burst) to get a good shop head with this method.

Brian's project is looking good, he has most of his wing skins done. Dynon heated pitot, wiring, fuel tanks, leading edges are all complete. We had a few beers afterward and talked tools, Oshkosh, Sun 'n Fun and Reno, good stuff! He also showed me his SteinAir master wiring kit, which was pretty cool.



Smile Brian!!

 So, I have debated the leading edge light solution for some time. I like the Duckworks kits that Van's sells but quite honestly think they are too highly priced ($250/ea) for what they do. I wanted to find a good LED version that was cheaper, had the same performance, would run on less power (be cooler) and last longer. I also thought about doing a custom fiberglass mounting setup.

The ER tanks taught me something that many veterans have already told me. The more you deviate from the plans, the longer it will be until it flies. Right now I am kind of tired of deviation so I decided to just buy the Duckworks kits and be done with it.

I'm still not convinced they are the best solution, but they are easy to install, have a proven track record and quite frankly they wont be used very often during the life of the plane. I sometimes spend too much time worrying about things that dont warrant it...this is one of those times. There are more important things to worry about...pitot tubes, servo mounting brackets, nav/position lights, strobes, etc.

So, I called up Van's this morning and ordered two and had them put in my fuse kit which is getting ready to be shipped.