Tailwheel and Service Bulletins

 Service Bulletin 70 - complete.

Trident shaped reinforcement fully installed.  All bolts torqued and marked.  Rudder stops reinstalled, but I still need to adjust the stop plate to get full rudder travel.

Forward tailwheel mount:

Upper and lower mounts test fit:

Drilling the hole was a challenge.  The sheer web mounts are already in place, so I had to get creative on how to drill the hole between the forward upper and lower mounts.

Two right angle drill adapters coupled together.  It worked out in the end...

Bonding the forward mounts in place...

1/4" bolt holding them in place now while the resin/cabosil dries.  Then will enlarge to 3/8".

The resin started eating away the Zinc Chromate primer.... the acetone to clean up the mess made more of a mess.  Will have to try and prime in place, however the epoxy will protect - plus all the brackets have been alodyned - so this is really cosmetic at this point.  Not a structural issues.

Next:

- Drilling the forward mount to size.

- Aligning the T3

- Drilling the rear mounts

Tailwheel has been shipped, and should be here by end of week.  Tail pull handle is on the way as well, so it can drilled and installed.  Forward gear truss upgrade started.  The 1" OD 4130 tubing has been split in half and is ready to be fit.

Panel, glare shield, floorboards, camera windows, upper cable cover etc ordered from Glasair.  3 to 4 weeks out (no rush).

Next order is hubs, brakes and bush wheels.  Hopefully later this week.

Progress is being made...

Fuselage.... progress

 Have continued to work on ordering parts.  Next orders will be:

1. Alaska Bushwheel mains, rims and brakes.
2. Glasair:  Floor boards (front and rear), instrument panel, glare shield, seats, upper tunnel cover. 
3. Stainless brake lines and fittings (already done)
4. Firewall aft UL Power components (pumps, etc) (already done)

Ordering parts - while it sounds easy - is not.  Many businesses will not ship to Canada, or accept credit cards / PayPal.  Many cheques have been sent... plus, the Glasair manual lists of their part numbers, and sometimes some sleuthing is involved in finding the actual part number.

However, at this point I have everything on order for the gear, fuselage upgrades, and interior.  The credit card is warm.

Getting to building... fuselage has been leveled in the garage.

Service Bulletin 70 (Vertical Fin Cracks)

GlaStar/Sportsman Service Bulletin 70REFERENCE: Vertical fin cracks

As the aircraft has never flown, there is no signs of damage on the fin or bulkheads.  However, I am going to reinforce them while I am at it.

Vertical fin spar reinforcement

All of the sheerweb angles and lower rudder hinge were removed, and the doubler drilled from the aft side.  Then crawled up the fuselage (wasn't as bad as I thought.... but I took my phone with my in case I had to call for help LOL) and drilled the existing mounts from the back.  Everything fit correctly.

However, the existing bolts not long enough now, and need to be ordered.

I am going to do the bulkhead reinforcement, and then rivet this doubler in place.

Tailwheel mount:

The forward mount consists of two aluminum mounts.  The upper ties into bulkhead D, and the bottom is epoxied to the bottom of the fuselage.  The bolt runs all the way through this entire assembly.

My T3 arrived.  It will fit nicely...

And my tailwheel will be ready in about a week...  From the tundratailwheel.com site...

Next step is fiberglass work.  Service Bulletin 74.

GlaStar/Sportsman Service Bulletin 74-Rev AREFERENCE: Fuselage Tail Cone Damage.

I really dont think this will be an option with the T3.  The rear saddle contours to the fuselage, rather than a standard leaf spring mount where the leaf springs are compressed against the fuselage with a mount and bolt on each side.  But I am not going to take the chance, and do the work anyway.

All the 4130 for the gear truss upgrade arrived yesterday, and the tail pull handle should be arriving any day now.

Moving Day!

 Yesterday has a BIG day.  Wings moved to the airport for storage, and the fuselage came home...  caused quite a stir in the neighborhood...

Trusty wing transport jig is working out exceptionally well.

So part II was to get the fuselage home.  We knew it would fit in the trailer, as that is how we received it from the transport company.  My wing jigs had to be dismantled in order for the fuselage to fit in the shop...

There was no way I was just going to pitch them... so I remade them into 4 smaller benches.

And then poof - it fit (barely)...

Then it was off to the hanger to organize down there a bit.  We had to move everything around to get the wings in, and did the bare minimum at the time... It is really nice not having a fuselage in the corner of a T hanger.

Been ordering lots of parts this week

1. Extended gear legs from Langair
2. T3 from Airframes Alaska
3. Tundra lite tailwheel from Jim Pekola
4. Seat belt upgrade kit, upper cable cover, and other bits from Glasair
5. Tail pull handle from BAS
6. Axles, 4130 tubing, etc from Aircraft spruce.

Items 2 and 4 arrive today.

Wings - Part XV

 Wings are done...

Jig construction starting in August 2018... Spars went on the jigs in September.  So 2 years, 4 months.

Cove skins fresh from declamping.  Turned out pretty good - a bit better than the first ones.

Cove skins after riveting and trimming.

Outboard tank in the right wing... slipped right in as it should.

Right hand root rib riveted in place.

Left root rib... done.

So when I say the wings are done, there are a few things that need to be finished.  Some I am going to wait on, some I am going to putter away on while waiting for the weather to dry up to move them to the airport.

1. Drill 2nd line of rivets on bottom skins station 69.  Going to use cherrymax.
2. Tone out wiring and label on fuselage end.  I had them marked, but had to trim them to get them to go through the conduit.  Going to use an inductive toner, which should make this fast.
3. Couple rivets that need to be redone
4. Alodyne inspection covers.  Low priority
5. Vacuum out the wings (again).  Every time I move them I find more debris / shavings in the wings.
6. Fuel drains, plugs, fittings, fillers.  All of these openings are taped closed.  Am not going to put any of this on until the wings are moved and painted / vinyled.  
7. Order Torx aluminum screws for inspection rings.  New spinner on the emeraude came with Torx, and I am sold.  I hate Phillips screw heads.

What comes next?

1. Move wings to hanger, bring home fuselage
2. Dismantle / repurpose wing jigs
3. Reinforce forward gear truss per Ted's instructions
4. Order new extended gear, T3, tailwheel.  
5. Reinforce fuselage for tailwheel
6. Vertical stab service bulletin
7. BAS tail pull handle (going to do this at the same time as the Vertical stab SB... might as well since you are already in the fuselage)
8. Install new gear and tailwheel
9. Order new rims, brakes and tires.
10. Make it a rolling chassis!

Wings - Part XIV

 Cove skins part 2...

Cleaning and alodyne...

Drilling the angle aluminum to hold everything straight for bonding

Laying down the structural adhesive

Clamping it up.... 

And then waiting....

I like lists.  Write them all the time.... I started writing lists on the vinyl covering the wing skins - that way I dont lose it.

The goal is to have the wings ready to move by 1/4/2021.  But I need a nice day as the Emeraude has to come out of the hanger, move out the fuselage, put in the wings, bring the fuselage home, dismantle the benches that are taking up half the shop.  Weather forecast looks horrible...

It will be what it will be...

Wings - Part XIII

 Tanks... 

Tanks welded for the 3rd time, no leaks.  Yay!

Tank support brackets mounted in outboard fuel tank bay.  These are REALLY HARD TO PUT IN.  Doesn't matter if they are laying down, or upright in the jig - the rivets farthest away suck.

Left Outboard tank installed.

Fuel sender.  Going to redo the wiring... not happy with it.

Inboard left fuel tank installed.

The big flip.... left wing back onto the jig, right wing onto the table.

Repeating the whole cove skin process.  The first set of coves took me what seemed like weeks.  These are going much faster because (a) Ive done it before, and (b) everything is already cut (but not fit).

All the coves and doublers need to be acid etched and alodyned, then can be bonded in place.

Once this is done, then the tanks go into the wing, the ribs get riveted and then off they go to the airport, and the fuselage comes home!

Wings - Part XII

Unfortunately the fuel sender flanges that were welded in the tanks are in the incorrect orientation... unless you was to measure fuel quantity when going vertical...

New flanges have been ordered and should be here any day.....

So I have moved onto the flap and aileron coves.  They have all been fitted, so next step is bonding.

Big shout out to Kyle for explaining what he did...

I needed to etch and alodyne the skins, and I figured I would take the opportunity to do the struts while I am at it.  The goal for the struts was to fully clean and protect the INTERIOR.... so I made a big trough...

It is 98.5 inches long.... 1.5 inches longer than the strut.  I bought a roll of poly from Home Depot and layed it in to hold the chemicals.  Prior to this, I put some Alumiprep in some poly in the shop and let it sit for a week.  No signs of deterioration...

Before and after

So with all the coves and doublers ready, I full assembled everything.... and then took it apart in order and laid everything out for rapid assembly when bonding the skins.

Order of operation:

1. Put adhesive on top skin
2. Lay down doubler
3. Put adhesive on doubler
4. Lay down cove skin
5. Cleco bottom edge (which is up in the pic)
6. Cleco inside coves
7. Put down aluminum angle
8. Cleco aluminum angle through cove, doubler, skin, and 2nd doubler (makes a big sandwich)
9. Clamp the whole thing together...

The finished result...

Now to fit the flap and check clearance...

Overall I am pretty happy.  They are not perfect, but are pretty good.

Onto the 2nd wing.... hopefully the flanges arrive and I can get the tanks welded, then install.