Finished Oil Change and RAM Mounts

I wrapped up the oil change by installing a steel cap that Greg gave me to replace the aluminum one that I previously had installed.  I installed and torqued it down in order to mark where to drill for safety wire, then removed and drilled it.  I now no longer have any aluminum fittings anywhere forward of the firewall containing flammable liquids (oil, fuel and brake fluid).  I then filled the engine with oil.

While I had the interior out, I decided to install a couple of RAM ball mounts.  While the upper side panels were still in place, I marked and drilled through them and the upper channel here.  I then removed the upper side panels and installed some NAS1329A08K75 rivnuts.

I reinstalled the upper side panels and then attached the RAM ball mounts.  Here’s the one on the passenger’s side.

Here’s the one on the left side.

I’ve been flying with an iPad mini for ForeFlight since I like it as a nav backup and I keep my POH, avionics owner’s manuals, etc. in there.  I was just laying it on the seat, but that’s a pain when I want to do some acro.  Mounting it should keep it handy but also keep it from flying around the cockpit when inverted.

Oil Change

After letting the oil drain completely from the engine overnight, I pulled the oil filter and oil screen.  I really need to figure out a less messy way to pull the filter as I spent more time cleaning up spilled oil than actually removing the filter.

I also pulled the drain cap off of the low point at the oil cooler.  I captured some of this in a cup to get an idea how much oil is in here.  I’m guessing it’s at least half a quart.

Here’s the oil screen.  I’ve heard it’s not uncommon to find some carbon particles in here, but mine was clean as a whistle.

I reinstalled the screen with a new crush washer and safety wired it shut.  I’m really happy with how easy it is to access all of the parts of the engine necessary for an oil change.

Firewall Forward Inspection and Flight Testing

I got down to the airport really early this morning because I wanted to take care of a couple of things and get some flight time before heading back to Hollister to help Greg.  I pulled the cowl and gave everything a thorough inspection.  One of the things I found was that the oil filler tube could be rotated a little bit by hand.  Since the safety wire hadn’t moved, I think the fiber washer just compressed a bit.  I used a wrench to snug the tube back down and then redid the safety wire to keep it tight.

I also adjusted the high RPM stop on the governor 1 full turn to increase the maximum RPM a bit.  I’ve only been seeing a little over 2600 RPM at the stop.  Although I’ll likely have to adjust it further, I redid the safety wire to ensure this can’t move.

I buttoned everything back up and took off again.  I figured I could get at least an hour of flight time before landing at Hollister again.  I decided to shoot an instrument approach to get some more experience with the autopilot and interaction between the GTN and the SkyView.  I loaded up the GPS 31 approach at CVH with the RUDNY transition and engaged the autopilot.  I duplicated the approach waypoints in the SkyView since they don’t yet automatically stay in sync with the GTN (though this is coming).  The GTN did turn anticipation and smoothly guided the autopilot onto the initial leg of the transition.  I programmed an altitude step-down and commanded a 500 fpm descent.  The autopilot turned smoothly to intercept the final approach course and held the descent rate rock solid.  I broke off the approach a couple of miles out and climbed back up to 6,000 ft.

I headed over to the acro practice area and did a couple of rolls to warm up.  I then tried a loop for the first time.  The plane really builds speed fast on the down line, but pulling some G’s takes care of that nicely.  Next, I tried a hammerhead on about an 80º upline to keep some positive G on the engine for oil pressure.  The rudder is quite a bit more powerful than anything I’ve flown before, so the rotation at the top was crisp and quick.

Finally, I decided to do a few spins to learn how the plane recovers.  The plan was to start with an incipient spin entry with an immediate recovery.  I climbed up to 8,000 ft and positioned myself near the South County airport in case I needed it.  I pulled the power smoothly back to idle and started slowing up.  Right at the stall break, I fed in full left rudder and the plane rolled about 90º to the left and the engine stopped cold.  The prop came to an immediate stop straight up.  I had already initiated the spin recovery and I immediately rolled level and got the nose down into a glide.

One of the questions Dave Morss asked me to determine if I was ready for flight testing was how I reacted in an emergency situation.  I’ve only had a couple of surprises in my years of flying, but I knew that I tend to remain calm and work the problem.  When the prop stopped, my only reaction was to utter the word “interesting”.  After establishing the glide, I hit the engine start button and got the propeller windmilling again, but the engine still wasn’t producing power.  I still had the mixture pulled way out, so I opened the throttle to give the engine some more air.  After a few seconds, the power came back smoothly.  I climbed back up and decided to try again, but this time over Hollister since they have much bigger runways in case I couldn’t get the engine started again.

After arriving over the airport, I again pulled the power to idle and started to slow up.  I slowed more gradually this time so that I could monitor the engine more closely.  As the plane slowed, the engine RPM slowly dropped.  When it got down to around 400 RPM, I knew something was wrong and I added power back.  The engine stumbled a bit as the power came back up, but it ran smoothly again at around 75% power.  I pulled back to around 40-50% power and the engine started running rough again.  I brought the power back in and started examining the engine monitor more closely.  My EGTs were down a bit, so I decided to try leaning the engine further and repeating the approach to stall.  This time, the RPM held steady at about 700 RPM all the way through the stall break.  I didn’t repeat the spin entry, but I feel comfortable now that the problem was simply an over rich mixture for the altitude.

I landed at Hollister to help Greg with his RV again.  It took much longer than we expected, but we were able to wrap up all of the spar bolts and get the nuts torqued.  The ailerons and flaps still need to be hooked up, but other than that, the plane looks pretty close to being ready for inspection.

I knew I was pretty close to empty on the left tank, but I wanted to run it dry on the flight back, so I left a little early to ensure I would have sufficient light.  I ended up flying for nearly 20 minutes before the tank ran dry.  I then switched to the right tank and landed at South County.

Full Power Engine Run

I didn’t get any pictures, but I did the first full power engine run today.  I’ve been having an issue with high oil pressure even though the adjustment screw is backed all the way out.  The main thing I wanted to determine was where the pressure would top out.  It turns out that with the oil pressure regulator turned all the way down, it peaked at 103 PSI at 1800 RPM and stayed there all the way up to 2700 RPM.  AeroSport power said the red line should be at 95 PSI, so it’s clearly too high.  I’ll call them tomorrow to see what I should do about this.

I also started adding some glass to the lower empennage fairings to make them line up with the upper fairing.  I needed to stiffen up the leading edge so that I could add some lightweight filler without it cracking due to the fairing being so flexible.

Finally, I spent some time using the MicroMesh kit on the canopy to remove a few spots of paint overspray and some minor scratches.  I worked all the way down to the 6000 grit sandpaper.  I’ll use the polish tomorrow.

Primed Cowling

I cleaned off the cowl and shot a few coats of primer.  There are a couple of runs since I was trying to go heavy to make this a fill coat.  This will all get sanded down before any finish coat is applied.  Here’s the upper cowl.

Here is the oil door.  I elected to paint the latches; I hope that will not be a mistake.

Here’s the bottom cowl.  Although I skimmed coated this with raw epoxy several times, I still have a few pinholes to deal with.  It’s way better than it was when I started though.

Continued Reassembly

My buddy Andre stopped by the hangar this morning to help me remove the canopy one last time.

I inadvertently used the wrong weatherstripping on the flange at the forward edge.  It was too thick, and the canopy skin kept catching on it and was tearing it off.  After Jenn and I reinstalled the canopy the last time, I found the correct weatherstripping in a box, so I decided to swap it before first flight.  Unfortunately, after Andre and I removed the canopy, I could no longer find it, so I have some new weatherstripping on order.

I didn’t get any pictures of it, but I lubricated all of the bearings on the plane.  There are nearly three dozen of them, and many are exposed to the elements.  I’m using a product called DriSlide.  It wicks into the bearing and dries, leaving behind a film of molybdenum disulfide.  This film is extremely slippery, but because it’s dry, it doesn’t attract dust or dirt, is highly resistant to water, and prevents rust and corrosion.  I’m also using it on the sliding pins in the brake calipers to keep dirt from sticking to them.

After wrapping that up, I installed the wingtips.  I used some DriSlide on the hinge pins and they slipped in effortlessly.

I reinstalled the alternator with the washers in front of the pivot shaft.  I checked the alignment, and it looks perfect.  I adjusted the tension so that I could turn the alternator pulley with 13 ft-lbs of torque (with the pulley slipping on the belt), but couldn’t turn the pulley with 11 ft-lbs of torque.

After fully inspecting all of the controls under the seats, I installed the forward center section cover, fuel pump cover, spar covers, seat pans and tunnel cover and screwed everything down.

The DAR mentioned that he doesn’t like Van’s design for the flap pushrod attachment since the rod could come off if the rod end fails.  Every other rod end on the plane is either captured by the surrounding attach point or has an AN970 washer to keep the rod end together in case of bearing failure.  The failure of a rod end can be a catastrophic failure since a split flap condition can cause a violent rolling motion.  Since full flaps are usually used on final approach when low and slow, a failure here could be fatal.  By switching to a regular rod end from the ball joint linkage supplied in the kit, you can prevent the joint from ever coming apart.

Fortunately, my friend Greg had already warned me that the DAR would like the see these parts upgraded, so I had the parts in hand.  I also upgraded the pushrod from the one I made to the one sold by Avery Tools.  I still need to adjust the pushrod length to get the flaps back into alignment with the ailerons, but I’m much happier with this arrangement.

Since my CG ended up farther back than I was hoping, I’ve been looking for ways to move it forward.  I purchased the Bell tailwheel fork a long time ago since I really dislike the Van’s design.  I didn’t realize at the time how much heavier it was though.  While researching other options, I found that the tailwheel fork sold by JDAir was even lighter than Van’s.  I haven’t measured for myself yet, but they told me that I should save about 1 pound from the Bell fork.  This doesn’t sound like much, but with an arm of over 249″, this change alone will move the CG forward by over 0.15″.  The fork comes plain or powder coated in either gloss white or gloss black, but I previously powder coated all of my tailwheel components in matte black, so I ordered it plain so that I could match the finish.  I stopped by the TechShop earlier today and smoothed out all of the edges and then sandblasted the areas that will be powder coated.  That produces a nice textured finish that the powder coat will stick to nicely.

I applied the powder coat and then baked it in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350º.

Airworthy!

I met with the DAR this morning.  After he inspected the plane, we went over the paperwork I submitted and then reviewed my operating limitations.  Finally, he issued my airworthiness certificate, so the plane is officially airworthy.  We spent a little time afterward discussing my preparations for flight testing and covering the test plan for my initial flight.

My airframe logbook also gets an entry stating the plane is airworthy.

With the final inspection done, I started buttoning up the plane to get it ready for flight.  First up, I installed the wing inspection panels (all but one which I’ll discuss below).

I then moved on and installed the wing root fairings.  The adhesive I applied the other day seems to have worked out well.

Before installing the last wing inspection panel, I needed to install the aileron servo stop.  I couldn’t get the bracket in place without enlarging the center slot a bit.  After ensuring it would fit, I shot a fresh coat of paint on to keep this from rusting.

Finally, I installed it on the servo.  Slipping it behind the arm and under the safety wire is a little tricky and it will only go one way.  I installed an AN960-10 washer between the bracket and the servo under each mounting screw to space the bracket away from the servo by the thickness of the servo mounting bracket.

Update: I subsequently caught that the safety wire on the lower bracket bolt was reversed.  This is another issue that I’m surprised wasn’t caught at the builder inspection party.  There wasn’t much room to work in there, but I managed to get the wire reversed.

While doing a thorough pre-flight before buttoning up each panel, I found this missing bolt (you can see the bolt over on the right).  I had removed this a long time ago because I was using it to hold an adel clamp for the servo wires.  When I rerouted the wires, it never occurred to me to check this.  I’m really surprised that this wasn’t found during my builder inspection party.  There were a couple of guys that were doing a pretty thorough inspection with mirrors and flashlights.  Regardless, I had always planned on doing a complete control integrity check from end to end, so I wouldn’t have made it to first flight without catching this.

I installed a new bolt (and way too much torque seal because I couldn’t see it well).

With nothing left to do on top of the engine, I installed the plenum for the last time before first flight.

I also installed the spinner.

Since I need to shift the alternator back by about 3/32″, I pulled the mounting bolts and removed it.

I’ll need to file off the aft end of the pivot shaft (not visible here), I taped up the alternator to ensure no metal filings make their way inside.

This shaft is about 2.992″ long, and I need to take about 0.094 off the right end of this shaft.

I can then use one AN960-616 and one AN960-616L washer to make up the difference.

After grinding down the shaft, you can see that I have the same length when I now include the washers.  I’ll reinstall the alternator tomorrow and re-tension the belt.  This ended up being way easier than I expected.

More Work on Cowling

I ground down the fiberglass filler I applied a couple of days ago.  After a coat of primer, you won’t even be able to tell it was damaged.

I started prepping the cowling for paint by masking off the inside so I don’t get overspray on the white paint, but I ran out of tape.  I’ll pick up some more tape tomorrow so I can wrap this up.

Alternator Pulley Alignment and Wing Root Fairing Seals

I spoke with AeroSport Power today about the alternator pulley misalignment.  Since I’ve never adjusted the alternator since receiving the engine from them, it must have been misaligned from the beginning.  They wanted me to check and make sure the flywheel tracked true, so I used a piece of stainless tubing against the back of the flywheel while rotating the prop.  I also aligned the tubing to the tip of the prop and checked the blade-to-blade tracking.  In both cases, everything looks perfect.

I tried taking pictures from a couple of angles to capture the misalignment, but the perspective of the camera makes it really hard to see.

In the end, I determined that the pulley is 3/32″ forward of the flywheel.  After speaking with AeroSport again, they determined I’m going to have to shift the alternator back by adjusting the spacers in front of and behind the pivot shaft on the alternator.

Afterward, I decided to glue on the wing root fairing seals.  I used 3M Super Weatherstrip Adhesive to glue these on.