Tonight I only had a few minutes to work on the plane, so I bolted the flap door assembly to the tunnel cover. It was fun to play with the flap door mechanism, and once again admire the precision of these pre-punched parts.
Cowl flap assembly
Cowl flap
With guidance from Vans, I trimmed about 1/16th off the leading edge of the cable clamp bracket, then primed it., match drilled it, and riveted into place.
Cowl flap
Tonight I fixed the two challenging nut plates, and then cleaned and installed tape on the sides of the exit door. I tried to install the cable support assembly, but ran into an interference issue with the engine mount.
I ended up not replacing the nut plates. I was able to eventually work a screw into one hole, which seemed to clear it, and subsequent screw installations were fine. In the other hole I used a tap to just start a thread, maybe 2-3 rotations, and that was sufficient to allow the screw to go in.
The tape on the exit door was trivial to install, although I found it harder to cut cleanly than I would have liked. I may have to finesse it a little when the time comes to install it for the final time.
The problem that stumped me was the interference between the engine mount and the cable support assembly. I emailed Vans to see if I can safely trim the support to create some clearance between the two. The holes are pre-punched, and the parts are all pre-formed at the factory, so it’s weird that they don’t fit well together. I would need to remove about 1/32 or 1/16 to allow the cable support bracket to clear the engine mount.
Firewall forward inventory
Tonight I started, and almost completed, the inventory of Firewall Forward kit parts.
It’s interesting to see all these parts and pieces and envision how they will fit onto the airplane.
So far, nothing important is missing, just a washer or two.
Cowl flap
Today I installed the panel that covers the exhaust channel, and match drilled the 4 holes along the forward edge.
I was able to easily install screws in 8 of the 10 nut plates, but 2 of them are refusing to accept screws. The 2 nut plates are slightly misaligned, so I’ll need to remove them and re-install them. The aft-most nut plate will be the hardest to remove as it’s underneath the seat and the seat ribs will make access particularly challenging. Just one more job for the to-do list.
In other news, the firewall forward kit arrived today. The only thing missing is the exhaust, which is on backorder with a 4-6 week delivery estimate. That’s fine, as I have everything I need to get the engine ready to be hung.
Cowl flap
Today I countersunk the cowl flap and riveted together the flap unit. Everything was straightforward except one rivet that was repeatedly problematic. The rivet tipped 3 times, and each time I removed it, before I was finally able to set it. Even the last time I set the rivet it tipped over, but I decided it was good enough.
Cowl flap paint
Tonight I primed the various aluminum parts that make up the cowl flap. It’s been a while since I painted with my gun, so everything felt a little strange. I spilled most of the paint right before I started painting, making quite a mess, but mostly contained to the cardboard I was painting on. I had forgotten to fasten the screw cap, and the top of the plastic paint container just popped off and spilled everywhere. Ah well, I still had enough paint to finish the job.
Cowl flap
Tonight I started deburring the parts for the cowl flap, which is a modification for the EXP119 engine I am going to install.
The cowl flap has a door that can be rotated into an open position to help cool the engine. The door mounts onto a sheet of thick aluminum that covers up the original exhaust channel. The exhaust is re-routed so it comes out of the engine compartment forward of the channel. At least, I think that’s how it works, we’ll find out.
On the wheels
Tonight I was able to set the plane onto it’s wheels, which was a big milestone! It’s awesome to see the way it sits on the ground, the angle of the fuselage, and to be able to move the whole thing more easily.
First, I torqued up the wheel nuts to 220 inch pounds and installed the cotter pins. I had been waiting on a socket adapter that finally showed up. I had anticipated needing help to set the plane on it’s wheels, but I found a solution that worked well with just one person. I slid some lengths of 3/4 inch plywood under each main wheel, 3 per side, and then chocked the mains. That allowed me to raise the tail a couple more inches, and hold it in place using a step ladder. Then I could remove the bench that the fuselage had been sitting on, and the saw horse that was holding up the tail. It was then simple to unchock the wheels and roll it off the plywood boards.
Right brakes and wheel
Tonight I was finally able to install the right axel and wheel.
On the right wheel I ended up with the following:
– 2×0.75 degree toe shims, shimming toe-in
– 2x NAS6604-27 bolts on the aft two holes, with standard 1x thick washers
– 1x NAS6604-27 bolt on the forward bottom hole, with 1 thick plus 1 thin washer
1x NAS6604-22 bolt on the forward upper hole, with two thick washers
All secured with standard MS21044N4 nuts, torqued to 95 inch pounds per the Beringer manual.
The close tolerance bolts required some tapping with a dowel and hammer, and torqued using a crows foot on the harder to reach nuts.
I used Bel Ray grease instead of CA1000, as advised by Beringer tech support.
Banjo fitting and the bleed port were torqued to 148 inch pounds per the manual and Beringer support (I asked about the bleed port because I had to switch it from one side of the caliper to the other).
I taped the brake line to the gear leg using 3M Temflex friction tape.
I used some short lengths of spiral wrap, secured with a high-temp zip tie.
