Tonight I switched out the Dynon roll servo and replaced it with a Garmin unit. Originally I had thought I would install a Dynon panel and system, but decided to switch to Garmin. Replacing the roll servo was a job that had been on the to-do list for a long time.
Aside from a couple of different bits of hardware, the units use the same parts. It was fairly easy to do, after finding the right way to get tools on nuts and bolts in the confined space.
With the aircraft outside, we took the opportunity to test the lights and other systems. I tested the landing lights, taxi lights, navigation lights, strobe lights, wig-wag function, magnetometer, satellite reception, canopy fans, canopy flood light, comm radios, and GPS receivers.
There were some issues with the lighting which I’ll need to investigate and fix: one row of red nav LED lights were intermittent, the wing tip strobe lights were weak, and the right side, leading-edge, landing lights were in-op.
Aside from that, everything else worked as expected.
In order to test everything I made a wiring harness that was 7 feet long and allowed me to connect the wing lighting from both wings while they remained in the wing cradle. I positioned a couple of workbenches behind the fuselage so I could plug in the tail light, and the wingtip lights. It’s possible the extra 7 feet of wiring had an adverse effect on the lighting voltage, contributing to some of the problems, but I didn’t attempt to troubleshoot.
Tonight I started on the task of running pitot static lines from the wing attach point to the panel. There are two lines that run in from the wing, a pitot line and an AOA line. They will t-off behind the panel with one line going into the back of the AHARS, which is mounted to the back of the PFD, and the other lines running to the G5 backup instrument.
This ribs already have one set of holes running through the seat ribs that is just the right soze for one line. There are other holes too, the outboard ribs have two additional holes for installing gear leg bolts for tri-gear models. The inboard ribs have tooling holes. I enlarged one of three tooling holes on each of three two ribs under the pilot seat, and installed snap bushings. Conveniently, the spar already has two holes I can use to run these lines forward of the spar and into the center tunnel.
I’m planning to install quick connect fittings somewhere under the pilot seat, probably on one of the inboard ribs. I ordered a few fittings from Stein Air and will tackle that when they arrive.
Today I torqued up all the bolts on the aileron, and lock nuts on the aileron pushrods. The lock nuts on the pushrods use thin jam nuts, so I referred to AC43 page 7-9 table 7-1 and used the 320 nut values. For the short pushrod this was 40, and the longer one, 100 inch pounds.
I applied torque seal on all the nuts I final torqued.
I also took the opportunity to apply touch up paint to the pushrods, painting over the ends of the aluminum rivets in the shorter pushrod.
Tonight I reinstalled the NPT fittings into the wing tank using Loctite 565. I also reinstalled the fuel filter and pump, securing the NPT threaded fitting with Loctite 565. I completed the torquing of the flexible fuel line at the pump end, leaving the firewall fitting end finger tight. Once I have installed the elbow fitting onto the firewall, I’ll torque that end. I torqued the nuts on the outboard elbow fittings, setting those to 120 inch pounds, after finding that value on VAF. Then I installed the fuel line between the selector valve and the pump, and final torquing those fittings.
I also final torqued the bolts on the aileron torque tubes in the wing root area.
Today I riveted the j-channel to the bottom wing skin on the right wing.
Today I spent some time riveting the bottom right skin. I was able to rivet all then way up to the j-channel. So far it has been straight forward and no issues, but I suspect it will become increasingly challenging as I get closer to the main spar.
I slipped in the j-channel, making sure to go between the inboard j-channel and the skin, and then clecoed it into position. I then checked the clearance between the j-channel and the rib cut outs, and everything looked good.
Today I clecoed the old left wing bottom skin to the new one, marked out the pitot tube mast mount holes, and then drilled them all. I also made a start of cutting out the mast hole, but didn’t finish that step.
I previously decided to replace the left bottom skin. On my first pair of QB wings, I had riveted on most of the left skin before deciding to replace the wings due to faulty primer. Because I had painstakingly positioned the pitot tube mast mount holes on the old skin, I drilled out all of the rivets and removed the skin before sending the wings back to Vans. I couldn’t reuse the skin because too many of the holes were enlarged.
On the right wing, I match drilled the three holes into the j-channel stiffeners on the bottom skin. These three holes are where the two lengths of channel overlap, and they need match drilling.
Nothing much to report, I had to install and remove the skin to mark the hole positions, and didn’t encounter any issues.
Once the holes were drilled, I deburred and dimpled them.
I spent time securing the right wing wiring today. Zip ties along the length, and some RTV in some places to help secure everything and keep it from rattling around in places where the wiring bundle was loose within the snap-bushings.
