This will be one of two posts today with basically the same info. I worked on both the bottom wing skins as well as the last flap. I got all of the skins deburred (the only section I needed to debur was the overlapping section between the two skins and then the pitot mount) and I dimpled all of the parts. Pretty repetitive but glad to have it done. I just need to prime the parts tomorrow and then I can at least get the inboard skin installed. I want to hold off on installing the outboard skin so that I can get everything buttoned up electronically for the pitot, AOA, and wingtip lights while I still have easy access to everything.
I spent quite a bit of time today reading through books that I had bought that talked about how to plan for your electrical installation, how to design it properly etc. I wanted to try to get as much of a head start as I can on my class coming up here in two weeks as I could. I also wanted to make sure I was getting the wires that I needed to install now as the right size, etc. One of the wires I was not sure about was the wiring for the wing tips from Aeroleds. They gave me hardware for 18GA wire but from what I am understanding for the sizing I would need 16GA or even 14GA for the landing light and definitely 16GA for the taxi light and ACS. But they also recommended that I get three strands, each with four conductors. Well the largest gauge wire I could find in that was 18GA. I gave them a call this morning and spoke with one of their engineers/designers and he stated that while if you want full voltage (which my system will be putting out around 13.8 volts or more since it is a 14 volt system) then a 14-16GA wire is definitely the right choice, but the design of these lights is set to run on 12.5 volts and still be fully functional. This is why they gave you the 18GA connectors but of course they still leave it up to you on the choice of wire gauge. Ken stated that he had been running it on 18GA wire without any issues so that I what I plan to do. I got all of that ordered today from Steinair and hopefully I can get those run next week when it all arrives so that it will be there and ready when I get the wingtips installed. I need to research how much the connector at the wing root will add to the resistance as I will need to make sure I can disconnect the lights for wing removal. Luckily even if I do change my mind I can still do it and I can use this wiring somewhere else still.
Now on to the biggest story which was the pitot install. Since the pitot does not come with the four screws to attach it to the pitot mast I went by the local aircraft supply store and they just happened to have some AN526-632-4R which would fit this scenario just perfectly. I bought the bag for $5 and brought them home after work. The first three screws went in without an issue. The fourth and final one though felt just a slight bit more difficult to turn (remember all screws and fasteners for aviation are much tighter for vibration so it seems to always feel like you are cross threading things). I slowed down some but kept going when all of a sudden the screw snapped! And it didn’t leave enough for me to get ahold of with my pliers so I filed it down some to get a flat surface, used my centering punch and started drilling. Well that got off center and then ended up messing up the threads in the pitot. Well… I can always upsize the hole. So I went to drill out the remainder of the screw and then I screwed through the entire weatherproofing seal at the top! SMH With the ruined wiring, the messed up mounting hole, and now this weather seal punctured, I decided to just call this the spare parts pitot and order a new one. I have to look at the bright side that at least this new one will have excellent connectors on it which I don’t have to mend and I don’t have any work to do with it except slide it into the mast and install it. Boy… a lesson learned and definitely an expensive one at $670.
I did get good use of the rest of my time though and I started dimpling the parts for the left wing. I want to get the inner skin installed tomorrow if at all possible, but if I can’t that’s fine as I don’t want to rush just to meet an objective. I hope to have the new Van’s flap parts on Monday or Tuesday as I thought they were supposed to arrive yesterday but that was actually OAT probe or something else I can’t remember now. So hopefully I’ll get the flaps section done soon so that I can be wrapped up with those past sections and just be focused on the bottom skins section.
Oh! I did have a call with my EAA technical advisor about the exits or branches I wanted to do on my existing conduit. He said it is completely acceptable to make a hole for the exit and that I could use electrical tape to seal it off or since I shouldn’t be planning to go back in there for a very long time I could put silicon sealant in it. Just to allow for future changes and modifications I decided to do electrical tape so I cut those two exits (one for the OAT and another for the pitot heater control) and got those as finished as I could. I am waiting on the 14GA wire for the pitot heat and ground that should be coming in tomorrow. I will get my heat shrink and soldering out, connect those up and run the wires through the conduit and seal it up with electrical tape.
Lots of little things being done but it is good to keep making progress (even though this thing makes me feel like an idiot every day!)
I took the skins off the left wing today and decided I was going to finalize the OAT and pitot installation as much as I could today. I drilled the hole where the original pitot tube was to be installed but unfortunately I did not drill it to the right size. I drilled it to the size of the pitot hardware and not the OAT probe. I have some washers right now that will sandwich over the hole but I’ve ordered a sleeve as well so that it will keep everything centered and hopefully I can even press fit it in to the spot so that I can get rid of the washers all together. It is only 1/8 of an inch larger so the edges of the OAT sensor and the nut cover it all and give perches but I really want that sleeve. If that doesn’t work I’ll just use the washers as this is a fairly small probe which won’t take alot of wind force as it is. It is just unfortunately that I did not live by the motto of measure twice cut once.
After that I decided I was going to get the pitot cabling fixed that I had botched up a couple of months ago. Unfortunately the local aircraft hardware supply did not have the right spade connectors. They ordered them and should show up Monday. I can then recrimp these wires and it will be fixed.
I decided to up the rivet hole that is mounting the rear side of the pitot mast/mount to a -4 rivet to give it extra strength which didn’t take much time to do. I then did all of the work to mount the controller box which actually wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.
Oh and I forgot to mention that earlier in the day while I was on conference calls I flared the ends of the pitot tubes and got everything prepped there. I also added the union hardware on to the pitot lines that were already in the wings from previous work I had done.
I wrapped up the day by drilling the holes for the pitot into the mast/mount. I’ll have to get hardware for this tomorrow as well as I thought I had gotten some when I purchased this but I forget that almost all of the Garmin stuff does not come with any hardware and you have to provide it.
Between breaks at work, lunch, and then tonight I was able to get the rest of the bottom skins riveted on! I only have a few marks on my arm from trying to squeeze into really tight spaces but it all worked out pretty good! Now I need to work on getting the pitot system worked out on the left wing. Hopefully the OAT probe will arrive soon so I can get that installed. Luckily the rest of my Van’s parts should be arriving tomorrow so I can get the other flap finished too!
I got two quadrants of the larger outboard skin riveted on today. I also got all of the rivets loaded for the section they want me to finish first before moving down towards the main spar and then moving from inboard to outboard on the last three bays of the wing. I didn’t get too much time tonight as we has a service project for our elders quorum tonight that took a good 2.5 hours from door to door.
I also started planning the wiring that I will need for the wing tips so that I can get that ordered. I also ordered my outside air temperature (OAT) sensor today. That was $610 to get going. I’m going to install it in the factory location for the pitot since I’m using a different location for mine. This way I can get accurate OAT readings since it will not be in the slip stream of the engine exhaust, etc.
I spent a little bit of time today wrapping up the right inboard skin. I know one thing I am changing on the left wing is that I will remove more clecos to get to the rear spar. That was a very difficult reach to get done the way they described they wanted it done in the manual.
I didn’t get a ton of time as I thought this would take alot more time with two people. But I decided to try it myself and I got fairly good results. I’m not really happy with a couple of my rivets because it is hard for me to determine if my bucking bar is flat with the surface or not. It wasn’t a few times and it actually left a couple of marks in the skin because of it. Luckily this is the bottom side but still I want to do a better job than this. So I might have to have someone else with the rivet gun while I solely focus on bucking. I got almost all of the rear portion of the inboard skin done. As you can see from the yellow rivet tape I am still lacking a few rivets before that section is done.
Alot of work today! The first thing I did today was I went to the storage unit and did an inventory of the seat kit that arrived a few weeks ago. They emailed me one so I could do a proper inventory and I was missing more than I thought I was missing. I sent the list of items I was missing to them so hopefully they will ship those soon. Not like I’m in a huge rush for them but I hate having things hanging because I might forget.
The right wing is ready to be riveted which I’ll start sometime tomorrow. We’re heading to clean the church in the morning so hopefully not too long after that I’ll get started. This will be an interesting job since they are all solid rivets and the skin will be pealed back while I rivet it down one layer of rivets at a time from the rear to the front.
I also drilled the left wing and deburred at least the top of the skins while they were still hanging. But I’m going to wait on those until after I get the right wing done since I don’t have a ton of room to do both of the skins sets at the same time. I also need to figure out how to run the wire out of the conduit down to the pitot tube. Something more to research how to do properly.
I got the skins out of the attic today with the help of the boys. I got the pitot tube initially drilled along the spar edge and got the side bracket drilled as well. I used the 3D printed template from Allan Glen and it was almost spot on. the three holes along the spar did not match exactly so I had to drill out some of the plastic to make the template work but the rest of the holes are fine since the pitot tube does not come predrilled with any holes. I will get those drilled tomorrow now that I have the skins mounted and can verify they are good to go before removing them, dimpling, deburring, and priming them. I also need to drill the J channel stiffeners in specific areas to match the skin. I would have gotten further along but my network change tonight took way longer than I expected due to unforeseen issues.
