I finished fabricating and drilling the outboard canopy seal support angles. These will support pieces of weatherstripping that the front edge of the canopy will close down against.
Here you can see that the seal support angle sits 1/8″ below the flange of the subpanel. This provides a gap for the weatherstipping.
My buddy Andre stopped by today and we drilled all of the seat back rivets out to #30 and then deburred all of the seat components. We also deburred the forward ribs.
I finished fabricating the seat backs. I still need to drill all the holes out to #30, but at least all of the fabrication is done. My son just had to try it out.
I had to increase the angle of the bend for the upper seat adjustment mechanism so that it would slip into either of the slots in the upper seat support. Here you can see the two different adjustment positions. The seats can also be leaned all the way back so that the seats simply rest against the upper seat support.
I was not comfortable that the Dynon oil temperature sensor had no provision for safety wiring it to prevent it from backing out. I purchased this tool to drill a hole in the sensor. The sensor fits inside and is clamped in place with the black bolt on the right. I drill is then run through the small hole on the top (the one surrounded by metal chips).
Here is the oil temp sensor fully torqued down and safety wired
My order from Avery Tools showed up today. One of the items was a cover for the tach port. This is used for a tach cable if you have a mechanical tachometer. The Dynon will get its RPM information from the Light Speed Engineering electronic ignition box. I safety wired this, but it really can’t prevent this from unscrewing since the center part of the cap is separate from the outer part. At least it would prevent it from falling off though.
I don’t know if the high pressure fuel screen will need to be cleaned frequently or not. If so, I might want to find another place to safety wire this to so that it doesn’t run across the fitting.
My daughter was a big help with this. She kept pointing to parts on the engine and asking “what’s that?”
I also removed the regular 45º fuel outlet fitting and installed a 90º tee fitting. The bottom silver part of the fitting will connect to the fuel injection system. The black fitting has a restrictor inside and will tie into the fuel pressure transducer.
I also got an order from Van’s that included the prop governor cable bracket. After some grinding of the inner radius and elongating a couple of the holes slightly, it fits quite well. I had to cut off the safety wire for all six screw holding this ring on so that I could rotate the head and control arm. I can’t determine the final position of the control head until my prop cable shows up next week.
Here’s the entire bracket. The cable housing attaches to a hole on the left side and the cable passes through the slot in the bracket.
I also got an order from Aircraft Spruce that included some steel fittings to replace the aluminum ones I had installed for the brake lines. I’m trying to use steel fittings for all firewall penetrations if possible.
My order from Avery Tools included a couple of firewall pass-throughs from SafeAir1. These have a stainless steel tube with a spun flange so there are no sharp edges. I installed them with some 2000º fireproof sealant and then installed the outer fire sleeve and clamps.
Here you can see through the pass-through. These each provide a 1″ opening for all of the wires that need to penetrate the firewall. I’ll use the one on the right side for all of the large power wires and the one of the left for all of the engine sensors. After the wires are installed, they’re wrapped tight with another piece of fire sleeving and some silicone tape and then pushed into the tube. The outer piece of fire sleeve is then slipped in place and the clamps are tightened.
I drilled the upper seat back adjustment to the right seat back.
Here is the seat installed temporarily. I still need to drill out everything to #30, but all of the fabrication is done.
Here is the upper seat back adjustment showing how the flange fits into the notches on the cross member. Afterward, I knocked out all of the left seat except for the upper adjustment mechanism.
I found out that the new prop governor cable mounting bracket doesn’t attach to these mounting bolts, so I torqued these down and lacquer sealed them.
I also swapped the oil pressure fitting and the plug so that I have more clearance from the engine mount. This required removing the upper hold down clip from the right mag cover plate so that I could get a wrench on this fitting.
I also installed the fuel overflow fitting. A rubber tube will be installed here to route any fuel overflow away from the hot exhaust.
Update: This is the sniffle valve and shouldn’t be installed here. I searched all over the engine and couldn’t find any other fittings that this could screw in to, but the engine was mounted on the palette at the time and I couldn’t see where this should actually mount. See this entry for where this should actually be mounted.
I’ve heard that most if not all builders have a problem with the seat backs interfering with the roll bar. I took a measurement off the plans, and the rollbar is 3.5″ from the outer skin to the horizontal bolt on the inboard edge.
I measured 3.5″ in from the skin along the front edge of the seat back support and made a mark.
With the outboard edges of the seat backs positioned flush with the end of the seat pan hinges…
…the top of the seat back extends past the mark by just over 1/4″
If I move the seats over by one eyelet…
…then the top of the seat backs are inside the roll bar by a little less than 1/4″. Building the seat backs according to plans, but swapping the left and right seats will result in this inset.
I cut the lower hinge for the left seat and match drilled it and the lower angle to the seat back.
Here’s a closeup of the lower end of the angle showing the notch that is cut to make room for the hinge.
With the left seat back installed on the right side of the plane, I was surprised to see that the seat back was perfectly in line with the cutout for the controls. If the seats were installed according to plans, not only would they interfere with the roll bar, the stick would not be centered between your legs.
I didn’t get any work done on the plane today, but I spent several hours putting together orders from Aircraft Spruce, Avery Tools, and Van’s for various bits of hardware, fluid fittings, firewall pass-throughs, pressure manifold, prop governor bracket and other miscellaneous parts.
I also got a Dymo Rhino Pro 3000 label maker today and ordered some heat shrink tubing cartridges for it. I’m going to use these to label all of the wiring in the plane.
My buddy Andre stopped by and we started working on the seat backs. Andre started fabricating the various angles while I got started modifying the upper seat adjustment mechanism. I laid out and cut lightening holes according to the plans. I have no idea why they didn’t lay these out evenly along the length.
The ends need a couple of tapering cuts so that they look cooler.
I laid out all the holes along the four sides according to the holes and them drilled them through both seat backs simultaneously. I only drilled these to #40 right now. Once everything is drilled, I’ll step these up to #30.
Two of the 0.063″ angles need the corners rounded over. I used my trim router and a 1/8″ roundover bit to radius the corner.
After cleaning this up on the scotchbrite wheel, you can see how it tucks nicely into the bend at the top of the seat back.
Finally, we match drilled the side and top angles to one of the seat backs.
I did some reading today in the manuals that came with the engine to determine where various sensors are installed. This is the spot for the oil temperature sensor (which is included with the Dynon probe kit). Fortunately, Aero Sport included the crush washer under the orange cap that was in this spot. I haven’t torqued this down yet because I’ve been unable to find a torque value for this fitting.
I also took off the cover plate for the prop governor mounting pad. I put a thin coat of grease on the gasket and installed it on the pad.
Finally, I installed the PCU 5000 X governor on the pad. I haven’t torqued these either since the cable mounting bracket will have to attach using a couple of these bolts. It looks like there will barely be enough threads showing without that, so I’ll have to ask about whether I can just back these studs out a couple of turns or not.
I also took the cover off of the back of the magneto and installed the wire harness. These use T20 screws, and I wouldn’t have had enough room to get my torx driver between here and the firewall if I had waited until the engine was hung.
I also shaved a few thousandths off a couple of AN960-10 washers to allow this center control piece to pivot freely. The bearings used in the control mounts are very sensitive to side loading. Even 5-10 thousandths of an inch difference between the mount spacing and the spacing in the control piece was enough to make moving this have some noticeable friction. It’s completely frictionless now.
My engine shipped last friday and arrived at Apple’s loading dock this afternoon. The crate is bigger than I expected at about 3’x4′ and about 2.5′ tall. According to the shipping documents, it weighs 400lbs.
There was a little damage to the top of the crate near one end. Probably something that was placed on top of this crate that broke through. Hopefully there’s no damage to the components.
I rented a U-Haul pickup and the receiving guys loaded it into the back with their forklift.
Here’s the crate strapped in and ready for the ride to my house. My friend Josh from work helped me run this home and unload it with an engine hoist.
After work, I removed the crate (though the engine is still on the forklift pallet). The engine looks fantastic. It’s painted metallic blue (one of their stock colors) with chrome push rod tubes and valve covers. This is an Aero Sport Power IO-375 engine with a Superior cold air induction sump. It dyno’d at 196-198 hp on the test stand.
Aero Sport builds these from ECI components.
Here’s the Superior cold air sump. You can sort of see that the intake tubes don’t run through the oil pan which keeps the intake air cooler than traditional sumps. The intake tubes are stainless steel (just like the exhaust pipes will be).
This is the Silver Hawk EX fuel injection servo. Intake air will come through the opening covered by the plate on the right.
I also ordered a B&C Products 40 amp alternator that was preinstalled.
Traditional aircraft engine run dual magnetos for the ignition system. I’m using an electronic ignition for one set of spark plugs, but I’m using a traditional mag for the other set. This provides two independent ignition systems, one of which is not dependent on the electrical system.
This is the mechanical fuel pump. The fuel first passes through an electric fuel pump in the cabin. This provides fuel delivery redundancy in case the mechanical pump fails.
This is where the propeller governor will mount. Fortunately, the studs are already installed, since I’ve heard these can be a pain to put in.
This is where the other magneto would mount if I were using dual magnetos. Since I’m using an electronic ignition with a direct crank sensor, this is unused. I may install a B&C Products SD-8 standby alternator here at some point.
The oil filter mounts on the back of the engine.
Here is the fuel distribution spider mounted to the top of the engine. There are stainless steel lines from here to each of the cylinders.
These are the ignition coils for the electronic ignition. These will fire the top spark plugs while the magneto will fire the bottom plugs.
The electronic ignition detects the crank position using this crank sensor mounted inside the flywheel. There are tiny magnets installed into the flywheel that pass by sensors on this circuit board.
Aero Sport engines come with a Sky Tec Light Weight Inline starter. Early versions of Sky Tec starters suffered from quality problems, but the company created new clean sheet designs that are very high quality. I haven’t heard of anyone having issues with any of the newer model Sky Tec starters.
The B&C alternator requires an external voltage regulator. This has a built-in crowbar over voltage protection feature to nearly instantly take the alternator off-line if it starts to go over voltage.
The crate also included new aviation spark plugs for the bottom set.
There are also some fittings that presumably need to be installed somewhere.
Here are the spark plug wires for the magneto.
This is the propeller governor gasket with a stainless steel screen to keep debris out of the governor.
Aero Sport kindly included a small bottle of touch up paint for the inevitable scratches that I’ll get on the engine before it’s ready for flight.
The crate also included a couple of firesleeved oil hoses. I’ll need to figure out what these are for.
Aero Sport also included a Lycoming operator’s manual.
They also sent a couple of t-shirts which was super nice of them.
There is also a packet of info from Aero Sport that includes an engine log.
Here’s the brain box for the Lightspeed ignition. This will mount behind the firewall to keep it away from the heat and from engine cleaners and water.
The box from Lightspeed also includes a set of automotive plugs, adaptors, spark plug wires, etc. for hooking up the electronic ignition.
