The last month has been busy, and I wasn’t able to make much progress on the airplane. Yesterday and today I worked on the pitot tube mount install, and a couple of other odd jobs.
I enlarged a set of systems holes in the left wing ribs so I could run a pitot and static line from the wing root to the ADAHRS, that will be installed in the left wing (two of them actually).
I decided to replace the pitot mount plate that came with the Gretz mount, because it needed more joggle, but was already dimples which would interfere with the joggling process. A secondary issue was that it wasn’t really wide enough for the 14, due to the rivet spacing on the wing spar.
I ended up making two, because the first wasn’t quite wide enough, but it was easy enough to cut out on the bandsaw, mark, drill, joggle, cut out the hole for the pitot mast, and then dimple. I had to make a tool for joggling, based on an idea from EAA Hints for Homebuilders. It came out perfectly, and it’s going to be great.
I installed a piece of angle onto the appropriate rib, then fitted the bottom skin and then match-drilled holes into the skin from inside. This necessitated a new drill, so I picked up an electric angle drill from harbor freight. It worked great until the battery ran out, and I realized I didn’t have a battery charger for this brand. So annoying! I will try to get one tomorrow.
Then I switched to another job, drilling, tapping and countersinking the pitot mast, prior to powder coating. The mast is steel, so countersinking takes a bit longer, but it’s also easier to control. The hard part is countersinking the curved leading edge of the mast. I ended up free-handing this, as I found I could see a little easier than if I had used the caged countersink. The end result was ok; not perfect, but good enough… I doubt I’ll spend much time looking at the pitot tube!
