Wing harness, left seatback, control rod tunnel, etc

16 Nov 2006: two of us, 4 hrs each. Installed wing harness bushings and installed wing harness. Prepared fuel sensor harness. Finished left seat back, finished control rod tunnel. Dimpled forward cabin cover and baffle bracket.

Inboard harness drilling, seatback, control rod tunnel

14 Nov 2006: 2 of us, 4 hrs each. Using a drill bit extension, we drilled an additional hole in the inboard ribs for wing harness. We rivetted together the right seatback. We assembled the left seatback, and control rod tunnel, and prepared these for rivetting.

Seat backs, cabin covers, harness

09 Nov 2006: all of us, 3 hrs each. Primed angles that capture seat-back flanges. Fit forward cabin covers. Inserted large snap bushings into left wing for power harness, pulled coax through small bushings.

Left Seatback, wing harness

07 Nov 2006: two of us 4 hrs, one of us, 3 hrs. Completed drilling left seat together, and deburred all holes. Test fits and planning for wing harness. Inventories bushings.

Wing stuff, seatback stuff

02 Nov 2006: all of us 4 hrs each. Fit pitot tube line to pitot tube with elbow fitting. Pulled wire harness for both wings through the wing. Drilled all angles for both seatbacks to seatbacks, drilled seat-back brace for right seat.

More various stuff

31 Oct 2006: all of us, 4 hrs each. Finished the rivet inventory! Also finished trimming seat-back angles. Installed an over-sized 5/32" rivet in a hole that we oversized in the firewall recess. More electrical system planning, and studying the plans for what's next.

Finish right tank, seat-back stuff, etc.

24 Oct 2006: all of us, 4 hrs each. Based on some ohmmeter measurements, we re-bent the wire holding the float on the fuel level indicator to get a more accurate "Empty" indication. We hung the right tank on the spar, and torqued and marked the bolts. All in all, this right tank modification for inverted flight has taken quite a lot longer than we had hoped!

We also cut the angles and hinges for the seat-backs, did an inventory of all the AD4 rivets, and did some more planning on the routing of the wing harnesses.

Seal & leak-check right tank, seat-back stuff

19 Oct 2006: two of us, 4 hrs each. We sealed and leak-checked the right tank. It passed! When we went to install the fuel sender, we had a nasty (but thankfully brief) surprise. It turns out one of the nutplates is for a larger screw! The nutplate looks quite similar, and they had not been sorted when they were installed, so the wrong one was installed. Not a biggee, just need a larger screw. The smaller one just turns in the hole, as if the threads were stripped out.

We also assembled the hinges for the seat-back support flanges, drilled the hinges to the flanges, and de-burred them.

Final assembly of right tank mods, other stuff

17 Oct 2006: two of us, 5 hrs each. Tonight was the final assembly of the right tank mods for inverted flight. In the process, we used the Pro-Seal "caulking gun cartridge" that does the mixing for you, so we didn't need the mass balance. Per the instructions, we used the remaining Pro-Seal to close out the voids in the corners of the firewall and around the firewall recess cover. However, we're having second thoughts about the fire-proof-ness of this stuff, and may want to come back later with something better. Also, we trimmed the seat-back support flanges and cut out the large lightening holes shown on the plans.

More little stuff

12 Oct 2006: all of us, 3 hrs each. Ran tubing for pitot through wing. Finished parts for control tube cover. More electrical system planning.

Pitot, control rod tunnel, tank stuff

10 Oct 2006: all of us, 4 hrs each. Riveted pitot tube bracket nut plates, fit pitot tube into bracket, and installed tubing in wing for pitot. Fabricated the control rod tunnel. Prepared right fuel tank for tank sealant.

Various little things

05 Oct 2006: all of us, 4 hrs each. We fit the fuel tank brackets and match-drilled them. We trimmed the rudder pedal center bracket to ensure clearance around the firewall recess in case of vibration, as we weren't happy with the clearance we ended up with when the part was trimmed according the plans. We did some more sorting and dividing of the various rivet bags. We did some investigation and planning on how we will do the electrical system. We made a balance for mixing Pro-Seal. And, we began the final assembly of the mods for the right tank.

Lots of stuff

03 Oct 2006: all of us, 4 hrs each. Tonight we completed the roll servo harness and installed the roll servo. The angle connector solved the problem. We rinsed out and thoroughly dried the right fuel tank to be double sure we got all the shavings out. We completed the fuel tank trap door and remaining bracket. We prepped and primed the fuel tank attach brackets. We also re-drilled the rudder pedal bearing blocks to the longerons with a long bit in the angle drill using an adaptor to hold the bit. This finally has the bolts sliding as easily as they should.

Roll servo, more wing harness, tank attach bracket

21 Sep 2006: two of us, four hours each. We test-fit the roll servo, and determined that we will need a smaller or right-angle connector for the harness. Began prep work on the landing/strobe/position light harness, and also the harness for the heated pitot. Fabricated parts for the fuselage side of the tank attach attach bracket.

Harness, flap, tank stuff

19 Sep 2006: all of us, 4 hours each. Tonight we started on some of the wiring harness for the wing: the roll servo harness and the strobe light harness. Our plan is to try and get the wings completely finished and "declare victory" as much as possible on this front before completely moving on. We also fabricated the flap actuator bearing blocks, and thoroughly cleaned out all the metal shavings that have accumulated inside the right tank.

Firewall recess, other stuff

14 Sep 2006: all of us, four hours each. Tonight we attached the firewall recess to the firewall. Once again, we forget the Boe-lube, but we almost got away with it. Unfortunately, one of the holes got enlarged, and we will have to use a 5/32" rivet. We also riveted on the bracket for the brake lines, and the rudder pedal brace. We installed the elevator pushrod bellcrank, trimmed the F757 gusset plate, and prepared the flop tube.

Elevator bellcrank, tank stuff, etc.

12 Sep 2006: all of us, 3 hours each. Prep work on elevator pushrod bellcrank (match-drilled, fabriacted spacers, primed, etc.). Fitted fuel level float for right tank, and continued working on routing out the spacer washer to clear pre-existing rivet heads. Also removed the F705G angles and F757 plates that were installed by the factory, since we are doing the slider canopy. We will have to modify the F757 plates accordingly.

Sorting, etc.

07 Sep 2006: all of us, 3 hours each. After all this time, we are still sorting stuff! Bagged rivets, cotter pins, nuts, and washers. Installed right control stick and floors. Prepared spray gun for priming.

Aileron and flap atttachment, other stuff

05 Sep 2006: all of us, 4.5 hours each. Tonight we hit a milestone -- installation of the flaps and ailerons to the wings. They will come off later, but it's neat to finally see the "full chord" wing. Plus, storing them here, attached to the wing, gets them out of "harm's way." Also, we continued working on the flop tube; there is a large spacer washer that had to have some material removed to clear pre-existing rivet heads. We also fitted the right control stick.

Once again various projects

31 Aug 2006: all of us, 4 hours each. Made 5/16" spacers to replace the incorrect ones and primed them. Greased the bellcrank and control stick bushings. Torqued all bolts attaching left tank to main spar and marked with torque-seal. Installed nutplates for Gretz heated pitot control panel. Installed nut-inserts to hold trap door and flop tube bracket to ribs inside right fuel tank. Began prepping right control stick.

Aileron attach brackets, tank anti-hangup guides

29 Aug 2006: two of us, 4 hours each. Tonight we prepared and attached the aileron attach brackets, but did not final-torque them. When we fitted the right aileron, we realized we had been using 3/8" tube for the bellcrank and aileron attachment spacers instead of 5/16". We finished the anti-hangup guide for the large inboard access cover, and continued fitting the interior anti-hangup guide.

Pitot, tank mod work

22 Aug 2006: 2 of us, 4 hours each. Prepared template for pitot tube, and prepared for mounting of pitot tube temperature control circuit board. Prepared to mount trap door in right fuel tank, prepared mock-up for anti-hangup guides required for flop tube.

Pedal assembly attachment, tanks mods

15 Aug 2006: 2 of us, 4 hours each. Drilled F-6118 center bracket and F-719L & R longerons to receive bolts that attach the pedal assembly bearing blocks. For the longerons, this was a real pain since we didn't have any bits for the angle drill that were long enough, and there is not enough room to get any other kind of drill in there. Instead, we slid a bit through the hole in the bearing block and marked the longeron with the tip of the bit by twisting the bit several times and pushing down. Then, we center-punched these marks, and drilled them out with the angle drill. This was not ideal, as the holes didn't end up as well-centered as they should have been, and a good bit of filing was required to get the bolt to slip in.

We also fabricated the trap door that is required for the flop tube mod to the right tank, and riveted nut plates to the new sender plate (note that these particular nut plates had not been inventoried IN DETAIL yet, which would cause some consternation later!).

Finally, we fabricated the aileron alignment tool out of a long 2x4, per the drawing.

Various projects yet again

08 Aug 2006: all of us, 3 hours each. We fitted the pitot tube to its bracket and fitted the assembly to its backing plate. We also trimmed and drilled the brake center bracket, and marked the locations in the fuselage where it attaches. We competed the reinforcing ring fo rthe new fuel cover plate. We set up our pneumatic squeezer with a new ram (the one it came with didn't seem to seat correctly).

Install flap/aileron gap fairings, other stuff

03 Aug 2006: two of us, 4 hours each. We repeated the leak test of the left tank with a balloon, and it still passed. We installed the flap and aileron gap fairings. We prepared the rudder brace for cutting and drilling.

Close-out left tank, other stuff

01 Aug 2006: all of us, 4 hours each. Closed out the left and leak checked. Didn't have a balloon so we used a neoprene glove. This seemed to work OK, but we will repeat with a balloon next time to be sure. Also worked on a reinforcement plate for the relocated sender on the right tank. We installed the final left outboard aileron bracket, and studied the installation instructions for the Gretz heated pitot tube we bought at AirVenture.

Final assembly of aileron brackets, brake pedals

20 Jul 2006: 2 of us, 4 hours each. We riveted the right wing aileron brackets, and the center only of the left wing aileron brackets. We completed the brake pedals, and inventoried the 3/32 rivets.

Various projects

18 Jul 2006: all of us, 3 hours each. We sanded the parts of the remaining aileron bracket to match each other, and worked on the mounting of the foot pedals. We completed the aileron push rods, and dimpled the trailing edges of the wing skins.

Aileron pushrod drilling & priming

16 Jul 2006: 2 of us, 3 hours each. We match-drilled the aileron push rods to their rod ends. The steel tubes were a bit of pain to drill because we forget to use our Boe-Lube! We primed the inside by pouring in some two-part epoxy primer, closing off both ends, and rotating the tube around all 3 axes several times. We also primed the rod ends, and sanded and primed various scratches in the aluminum push rods that we'd previously anodized.

Brake pedal, aileron bracker final assembly, etc.

13 Jul 2006: All of us, 4 hours each. Tonight we riveted together the foot pedals and aileron brackets. We worked on the right flap hinge, and continued to work on the right fuel tank sender modification. We also worked on the sharp edges of the flap braces.