Monthly Archives: May 2015

Fuel Tanks 33 (2.5 hrs)

This entry was posted in Fuel Tanks Wings on by

Today it was time to start repairing the leaking tank. I started with the dreaded task of removing the processed access plate. I’ve read some posts that say this is a gargantuan task. A few have said its easy, but details on it being easy were sparse.

I started by removing the screws. If you look closely you’ll notice a dab of valve grinding compound on the tip of the philips head screw driver. I was skeptical at first too, but this works wonders in stoping your philips screw driver from caming out of the screw. In fact, it works so well that torqued and prosealed screws were a breeze to take out!   

Now I messed around for a bit before I discovered the secret to removing the access plate. I was trying several different tools, heat gun, MEK… no luck. Then I read a post which said use a plastic putty knife (I have something similar) perfectly perpendicular to the access panel and a hammer (I recommend a dead blow). BOOM! The plate was off in no time. If you subtract the time that I fussed about with other methods, this took less than 10 minutes to do. There is no reason to use a cork seal after figuring out how easy this is!

After a little MEK and scotchbrite action, the plate is ready to be put back on. This bay doesn’t technically have a leak, but one leak is close enough to the rib in the next bay that I’m going to seal in here anyways. 

Next I measured where to cut the access plate holes. I was originally thinking to do all four, but decided to do the two I needed and then go from there.   

Like last time i used my leading edge jig and the drill press rotated 180 degrees with a fly cutter to make the holes.     

Well look at this. I did affix at least one cable to the vent line. Maybe thats why I marked this task as complete. We’ll never know…  

Here are the two holes. I went with 4 inch holes. I went a bit bigger last time. but 4 inches is perfect. After looking at the wire, I’m convinced I can proseal all of the wire with only these two access holes.

I inspected each area to see if I could determine where it is leaking. If you look really closely in this photo you can see a gap. Its tiny, but its there. 

Wings 39 (4.0 hrs)

This entry was posted in Wings Wings - Structure on by

A couple of projects for today’s shop session. My buddy Jimmy gave me his motorcycle lift which I plan to use to support the center of the fuselage. Yes, its probably overkill. This thing will be supported with weight in it at only 3 points, but until that time I want as little risk to the structure as possible. This will allow me to support the middle easily at any orientation. I began by doing a full test of the rotisserie and rotating the fuselage completely upside down.

Next I measured the highest and lowest points.    

With the measurements in hand, I made a makeshift support. I will readdress later. Likely with a highly specialized milk crate. 

I also stopped at Lowe’s and picked up to extension bit holders for drilling out the middle two ribs under the wing walk doublers.     

The snap bushings supplied by Van’s are from Heyco and have an inner diameter of 0.27″. The tubing for the pitot and that AOA tube are 0.25″. I didn’t like the extra play so I ordered Heyco snap bushings (SB 432-243) with 0.24″ ID. I was worried they’d be too small, but it turns out they are an absolutely perfect fit.   

Next I ran the pitot & AOA tubing. Mike Bullock had needed to order some additional tubing for his AOA home-brew so I jumped on the order and ordered 100 feet of the green tubing. The blue tubing is left over from Mike. In the end, I”ll be able to sell all my extra tubing on VAF and save a bunch over using SafeAir1.   

The next problem I faced was determining how to route the lines around the bell crank. I came up with two options. The first option, shown below, routes the tubes around the outside of the bell crank. The one thing I don’t like is how severe the angle is on the green line (shown with arrow). Yes, it will probably be fine for 2000 hours, but I can do better.     

The second option was to route the lines under the bell crank as shown here.  

What I wasn’t sure of though, was how far down the bell crank will go. On the plans, using Van’s AOA, it stipulates leaving 5/8 of an inch. That being the case this should work. But again, I don’t like should. I did a lot of messing about here including mounting the aileron and playing with the position of everything.

That was as far as I got today. When I want to put my wings back into their corner, I realized that the ailerons will hit the rudder. I’ll have to flip the horizontal stab.    

Squire enjoyed sunbathing. It was a gorgeous day at the airport.