Starting to look like an Airplane...

Slow but satisfying progress.

First door installed.  Starting to look like a finished airplane (kinda).

Working on the doors (silpruf between window and doorframe) and ailerons in parallel.  The temp has gotten cold so doing the door silpruf at home.  On my last tube... which is PERFECT.

Right aileron installed.  Push rod not connected yet.  Balance is spot on with the servo tab installed.  Still need to install the pushrod for the tab.

Getting all the bits together for the fuel vent.  Everything sealed and installed.

New connector for the wing tip nav light / strobe (forgot to take picture).  4 position Deutsch bulkhead connector.

The weak bit of the wing tip broke by the fuel vent, so its coming apart.  Need to strengthen that section.  Easy yet time consuming job.

Flap adjustment for full travel, stops and cable tension.  Works like butter.  So happy and grateful.

Prepping the next door for the silpruf layer between the window and the door.

Right wingtip vent assembly.  New connector for the wingtip light.

Aileron in place, but needs spacers, etc.

One last door to silpruf.

ELT... and ELT woes... and fire extinguisher

Ordered the last two major items I need to complete the build... my ELT and fire extinguisher.

Wanted to get this in before the tariffs come into effect.  Picked them up from my box in Blaine, WA on the weekend. NO TARIFFS!  

However... upon opening the box, the ELT does not appear to be programmed.  And even though I ordered the Canadian version, I appear to have received the USA version.

Emailed Aircraft Spruce... response, please call.  So that is what I did.

I went with the Kannad Integra 406 with integrated GPS unit.  It's more expensive, but simpler wiring and better overall reputation.

Been struggling to determine where to put the fire extinguisher.  Usually most builders mount it on top of the fuel selector tunnel... however I dont have that option because of the header tank.  Will most likely go between the seats attached to the cross bar.  Will have to see.

Fast forward a few weeks... after a bunch of run around from Aircraft Spruce USA (they freely admit they screwed up and are going to fix it), enter Aircraft Spruce Canada.  They provided me with a Canada Post shipping label, and off the ELT went to Ontario to get programmed.  It arrived on Monday, March 31 and they shipped it back on Wednesday, April 2nd.  Will have it next week.  Very happy about that, and they are paying for all the shipping etc.  Glad to have that sorted.

Fast forward... months!

Bracket fabricated and installed in fuselage.

Next is wiring and antenna.

I boxed myself into a corner on the fire extinguisher.  Most of the common places to install it are used for other things.  The center of the overhead is used up with a center console.  The top of the tunnel ahead of the fuel selector has my header tank.  So my plan is to either build a bracket that goes from the aft of the center seat rails up to the crossbar for the rear seat, or a bracket that runs along the center seat rails.  I need the seats installed to figure out the best (or least bad) spot.  The seat pans (aka tubs) are still at the paint shop.

Wire bundle run up front for the RC200.  The wire diagram is bizarre, but I wired it to the diagram.

On the RC200, the ON and RESET pins are bridged, and then connected only to the reset pin on the ELT.  This makes no sense.  So I wired pin K on the ELT and brought that wire up but have not connected it.  Left additional slack in the cable in case I have to cut it and start over.

Installed in panel. That is the last component to go in.

Will test once I get the antenna installed.  Not looking forward to that.

Build the bracket on the weekend to hold the antenna.  The fiberglass L brackets are attached to the floor with resin / cabo / milled fiber.  Going to overlay some fiberglass strips.

Next is ground plane. Going to use copper foil, 24" radius (48" diameter).  A screw head is bonded under the bracket to the floor, and will serve as the bridge point for the ground plane / copper foil.

This was a royal pain to install, essentially 1 handed (one hand holding myself up).  I finally cut a piece 48" long, doubled it up in the middle, and removed the backing paper at the middle and left myself some tags to pull.  Then pull, stick, pull, stick along is length.

ELT install complete.

Just need to tie wrap everything up.  3 of the cable tie mounts came loose... re epoxied.

I installed the strap upside down... had to take the mount apart to fix.

I armed it and the buzzer went off as expected, and the LED on the panel came on.  Just need to test the switch - after I read the manual.

All the tidy up is done except a final vacuum.

Finally found a home for the fire extinguisher, and simple mounting solution.  2 adel clamps to the cage on the starboard side up high.

Done done... put a fork in it.

Assembly... ongoing.

Big day today (Tue, Oct 14).  Was laid off today, AND got my wings back on the Sportsman!

Such a great bunch of folks at Langley Regional Airport.  8 people showed up to help. 35 min start to finish.

And my friend flew his RV6A today for the first time.

Now I have clear runway for a TON of stuff to get done.

Fuel sender wiring underway, fuel lines connected, fuel filler necks installed, and antenna installed.

Crossover cables connected, but not yet tensioned.

Wing umbilicals fed through and connected.  Cleaned up the wiring for the inboard tank sensors.

First landing / taxi light installed.  Just need to put the pins in the connector (once I remember how I wired it... luckily I have documentation).

4 outboard strut attach bolts installed and torqued.  Total pain in the rear.  Using the clevis bolts inboard for tie down points.

Progress is so slow.... life is getting in the way - but I have a bunch of stuff I can work on.

Inboard delta wings installed.

Plan is the install the pins in the forward spar for good!

Flaps are connected.  Need to tweak the tension a bit, but everything works well.

Ailerons next.

Forward spar pins installed!

Lights attached and wired.

Pilot side door getting its final silpruf.

Spinner!

Lots more to come...

Wings! Back from paint, prep for assembly

Wings back from the paint shop!

I had slightly tangled the control cables and untangling them was impossible with them on the aircraft... piece of cake with them off the plane.  Quick little cardboard piece to hold them in place temporarily.

The wings are pretty much ready to go on.  The wing fold strut attach points are refitted post paint.

Wingtip lights are installed... but I need longer screws.  Holes are drilled at least.

Seat tubs are back from paint!  Same colour as the rest of the interior.  Jet flex slate grey.

I have never had the interior properly bolted in... always just clecoed in place, and the seatbelts were still in their bags... took forever to find the hardware for SB69... and the crossbar retrofit.

Waiting for a good weather window to put the wings on.  Hopefully this coming week.

Keep on truckin...

First thing will be to see how the window 'dressing' looks...

Turned out OK.  Few spots could be better.  Overall I'm happy.

Exhaust shield aft bolts in place and tightened.

Started integrating in the ELT wire into the bundles from the back.

On Sat, Sept 13 we are having an Air Fair at CYNJ, and the Sportsman will be on display (minus wings...).  To add a bit of 'wow' factor, my buddy said we should put the big tires on.  So we did.

For comical reference, the last time the bush wheels were mounted was April 2021.

Hoping to have the hatch covers, doors, elevator tips and rudder base fairing back in time.  

Fuselage door hinges installed.  ELT wire run up front and panel installed (covered in ELT post).

Elevator counterweights... going to build these out of tungsten shot rather than lead.  I have 6 lbs of tungsten.  Going to encase it in epoxy.  Looking for something at the dollar store I can make a mold out of.

Glareshield installed temporarily.  Pain in the ass to get in correctly with the window in...

Thursday night installed the rudder base fairing and elevator tips, and cleaned the inside floor of the cabin of 'sworf'.

I think it looks really good.  Very pleased.  The elevator tips are interfering with the stab slightly.  The fairings are not quite aligned correctly.  Will be an easy fix... just order of insertion I believe.

Progress... getting on a roll.

Tuesday evening... (Sept 2, 2025)

Pin keepers installed in the stab / elevator / trim.  THAT was a challenge solo.  Thank god for the body work stand.  I use that thing ALL THE TIME.

I was flying solo tonight, so had to get inventive on how to hold the elevator up.  Tape worked!

Peeled a lot of tape off the front window... looks reasonable, but not perfect.  I think I can fix the problem areas.  Also got some silpruf on the interior, but it is coming off with a bit of effort.  Forgot to take a pic.  2 days until the clecos come out.

On the last engine run the pipe off the turbo had a shake.  It was only supported with 1 mount, and its a long pipe.  Added a second mount at 90 degrees (roughly).  I think this will work.  It is definitely less 'shakey' just wiggling it.

That was a 3.5 hour evening.  But it was definitely progress.

Front window came out of the clamps!

Looks pretty good.

Put lock nuts on the new exhaust clamp... I found some.

Installed Deutsch connector under the tail cone for the rudder trim.  The bulkhead connector finally arrived from China.

Seriously impressed with these connectors.  The elevator side has been converted (from molex) as well.

OK, well my trim connector upgrade did not go as planned.  I temporarily assembled everything to test the wiring, and nothing worked.  Very quickly I found that the thin 26 gauge wires were either broken, or about to break.  I have spliced on larger gauge aviation wire on both sides and am testing again.  The ray allen 5 conductor wire is very thin and weak.

The strange / weird thing... I attempted to use solder sleeves to graft on new wires.  The solder in the sleve would not stick to the ray allen wire.  I ended up tinning them first with solder and an iron first, and then using a solder sleeve.  I did a sample piece first (finally learned my lesson) and it is a strong joint now.

I put everything together, and nothing would work.  Zero.  Took it all apart and realized that on the socket side I did not have the pins fully engaged.  It seems like there are two 'clicks' when you push the pin / socket into the connector.  I only got past the first 'click' the first time.  Once fully engaging the pins everything worked as intended.

Checking the elevator travel.  Manual calls for +23 and -20 (+/- 1 degree).  I am getting the -20, but not the +23... about 2 degrees short.  Filing the stop plate through the belly inspection panel.  After an afternoon of filing and checking, I gained a degree.  One more to go.

Sunday... Sept 7

Put the prop on.  3 times :-)

The manual says to pack the cavity between the thrust bearing and threads with grease... it says to use a spatula.  So I did... the blades were not fully seating.  The ferrule was lose... and it was visible.  Later the manual says too much grease will cause exactly this.  So I took it apart and cleaned out the grease and reinserted the blade.  Was better, but not correct.  So did it again.. on each blade.  Finally they were all seating correctly and torqued per spec.

Next was the bead of silpruf between the window and fuselage.  Lots of cleaning of crap out first... my theory is to get all the leftover crap out.  The 'dressing' needs to stick on all 3 sides.  So lots of pulling out the leftover bits (I could have done a better job during the insertion of the window... being honest).  Then taping the gap... 

Then cutting the gap...

Then filling the gap and smoothing it...

That was a 10 hour day... Monday will be seeing what I have... fingers crossed.