No photos tonight. I got the proper washers for the magneto installed and began reinstalling everything on the plane so that I could do a proper weight and balance. I still need to drain the fuel tanks before doing that. After I do the weight and balance I can pull all the inspection covers, lay it all out for the DAR and finish my final condition inspection!
Worked on several small projects today. First, I installed my Crow 5 point harnesses. Super easy. AN-5 bolts, castle nuts, and cotter pins. I did a little fitment to get them close to the appropriate fit, but I didn’t trim any excess. I will do that later. I also connected the rear seat push to talk to the stick and made a molex connector for removal. I have stick boots on order from Classic Aero.
I also installed the rubber on the wing fairings. The fairings needed just a little bit of trimming. A little water based lubricant on the fuselage helped get the rubber in place. I also used a little heat to make the rubber more pliable. I’m very happy with the results. I’m going to leave the fairings on until the day before the DAR inspection so that rubber will hold its shape as much as possible. Hopefully that will make reinstallation a bit easier the second time around.
Finally, I removed all of the remaining blue plastic from the aircraft. In the process I had to remove the flaps, which identified I had missing lock washers!! After removing all the blue plastic I used acetone to remove the red writing on the original aluminum. I used some goo-off to get some tape adhesive from various spots. I want to do some more cleaning up… a little buffing some areas where a little corrosion has built up. Just general cleanup.
Tonight I worked to calibrate the magnetometer and the AHARS. It was rather windy when i got to the airport, and you need good GPS data to calibrate both, so i had to wait until the storms passed. First up was the AHARS calibration. This was pretty easy. Basically level the aircraft in flight attitude and let the G3x figure out pitch and roll offset. I also needed to do a vibration test on the AHARS once the engine was running. Next I did a magnetic interference test. Basically you start and turn off all the various electrical gizmos that could cause interference and manipulate the controls etc. You do this in 10 second increments. The magnetometer (which is in the left wing tip) passed the interference test.
I taxied to an open part of the airport and used my compass to ensure I was facing due north. I guess you can do the magnetometer calibration with the engine running and just taxi it. But I chose to shut down and just push the tail around. Basically all you have to do it rotate the plane 360 degrees and 30 degree segments. The display tells you what to do and when. Dirt simple. And I got a successful calibration.
Now with the aircraft warmed up, I taxied back to the hangar, tied her to my truck and did a full power run-up for the AHARS vibration test. This also passed. So now I have a fully tested and calibrated AHARS and magnetometer. I also setup all the airspeed marking limitations tonight in the EFIS.
