| day |
notes |
hours |
| 1 |
Clean up CS14s, scraping off streaks of Redux while trying not to scratch the aluminium. Buff up with ScotchBrite sheet. Cut and file corner out of C15 port as described much later in the manual, but much easier to do now. Draw-file cut edges and smooth with ScotchBrite. Rub down CS13 pushrods with ScotchBrite |
1235.3 |
| 2 |
Mask off outboard faces of CS15s where phenolic pads will eventually be bonded. Clean up CS15s, CS14s & CS13s with acetone-soaked tissue and hang up for spraying. CS14 can sit on top of the spraying stand as the wood-covered side doesn't need to be sprayed. Give them all 2 coats of aerosol etch-primer. |
1236.1 |
| 3 |
Strip masking off parts sprayed yesterday and re-assemble CS14 & CS15 with plain nuts. |
1236.4 |
| 4 |
Start to plan BID cutting for tank spacer. Need 24 off 100mm x 75mm and 8 off 100mm x 100mm. Dismantle resin pump for refurb (NB tube spanners or deep sockets needed for outlet valves are: resin 5/8" A/F, hardener 1/2" A/F) and leave all the parts soaking in acetone. |
1238.0 |
| 6 |
Look for fuel transfer pump so I can take it to Croft Farm for refuelling Tim's aircraft, but it doesn't seem to be where I though I'd left it by the jerricans in the trailer. No time now to search further but will have to investigate later. Retrieve Mr Funnel from Tim - it went to Ireland in G-BZTH last year and I forgot to reclaim it at the end of the trip. For the XS style filler, an angled funnel would be better. Mark out 8 off 100mm x 100mm & 24 off 100mm x 75mm pieces on BID. |
1238.9 |
| 7 |
Mark up rectangles for tank spacer layups on polyethylene sheet at 90 degrees to each other but 45 degrees to side of sheet so a piece of wood can be put across the ply pieces to ensure they stay vertical while curing. |
1239.2 |
| 8 |
Cut out BID pieces for tank spacer layups and leave in glass cupboard. |
1239.4 |
| 9 |
Take the hardener piston out of the acetone soak and rub off most of surface rust. Degrease with Restore solution and then leave in Restore rust remover for an hour. Clean the cylinders with toothbrush and tissues and take out the O-rings with the long pointy tool (old screwdriver reground to a very long point). Take piston out of rust remover, rinse, coat with WD-40 and wrap in paper tissue. |
1240.4 |
| 10 |
Degrease and de-rust 2nd (resin) piston as for first one. Clean up all other parts with toothbrush and rinse in clean acetone, leave to dry. After a break of an hour or so, take piston out of de-rust, rinse and spray with WD-40. Insert new white (TFE) O-rings into cylinders. Grease pistons lightly and tap into cylinders with hide mallet. Tap outlet valve balls onto seats with brass drift. Assemble outlet adaptors onto cylinders with balls and springs inside, using Loctite 577 on the threads. Assemble resin cylinder to base with greased links attached to lever. Likewise assemble hardener cylinder, but find I have to add a thick washer to the lever pivot screw to make everything line up. Seems odd - I don't think I lost a washer during disassembly but I can't find one now and it won't line up without one. Assemble reservoirs with new (rubbery) gaskets, after cleaning off the last remains of the old (paper) ones. Fit outlet pipes and re-bend for better alignment with a single small cup. Fill reservoirs with last remaining cans of in-date resin and standard hardener. Pump a couple of strokes to prime the valves and get a small amount out of each delivery pipe. Leave in resin cupboard to get back to working temperature. |
1243.5 |
| 11 |
Tidy away tools from resin pump rebuild. Do a calibration run, measuring with both digital scales. Enter values into spreadsheet. The small (and much cheaper) Satrue scale gives much lower standard deviation and variance than the older Ohaus. Obviously the extra digit of resolution is worth having, and the linearity of the Satrue scale seems good too as there is no trend away from mean between lightest and heaviest. The mean volume ratio (excluding the first stroke which is often slightly odd depending on drips hanging or fallen off the delivery spout) is slightly low at 27.7:100. Although this is within the acceptable range, I'd prefer slightly over 28:100 as advised by David Cripps of SP Systems. As there seems to be a slight discolouration, particularly of the hardener (probably picking up small amount of grease from the pistons), decide not to decant the samples back into the reservoirs but mix them and pour into a shallow tray to cure. |
1244.6 |
| 13 |
The epoxy in the tray is well cured and scratches crisply. Measure distance between centres of resin pump pivot and links for both hardener and resin pistons - approximately 41.5mm and 150mm. That should give a volume ratio of 27.67:100, pretty close to what I observed and considering the lack of centre marks on the pivots for measuring to, it's closer than I might have expected. To get an approximation for how far the hardener pivot must be moved, assume the 150mm is correct and calculate the theoretical arm lengths for the hardener link to give the observed 27.7:100 and the desired 28.1:100. The absolute values are not important, but the difference is 0.6mm, which is how far the hardener link must be moved outwards along the pump lever. Make a jack from an M6 threaded pillar and an M6 full-thread hex head bolt. Adjust it to just fit between pivot block and hardener link block and mark it there. Put another mark on the pillar just over half a turn further out (as M6 thread pitch is 1mm). Measure distance between the blocks with the digital caliper. Slacken off hardener link clamp bolt and wind jack out to move the hardener link the desired distance. Re-tighten clamp and re-measure distance between blocks - it is indeed about 0.5mm wider than before, as close as I can tell given the difficulty of ensuring a true measurement. Pull pump lever down to horizontal and hold in position with a G-cramp while I check verticality of hardener link. Slacken hardener cylinder clamp nut slightly and tap it outwards very slightly. Re-tighten cylinder clamp nuts. Do another calibration run with fresh cups, using only the Satrue scale this time. Mix results as before and leave to cure in tray again. Enter results into spreadsheet and the mean ratio is now 28.2:100 over the last 7 strokes, which is as good as I'm going to get. |
1246.2 |
| 14 |
Turn on both fan heaters to thermostat 4. Degrease PLY5 pieces with acetone, trying not to completely remove the orientation marks made with felt-tip pen. Lay 2 off 8-thick layers of BID onto the pre-marked polyethylene sheet (having first turned it ink-side down). Mix 3 strokes epoxy and pour onto BID. Encourage wetting-out by stippling with brush. It takes quite a while to work right through. Need to turn over the polyethylene sheet to check that it's fully wetted to the bottom layer. Set PLY5 pieces in position. Paint sides with remaining epoxy. Mix 1 stroke epoxy and add 2 small doses flox. Form fillets. Mix 3 strokes epoxy and lay on side pieces 1 layer at a time, wetting each out in turn. Cover with peel-ply. Set a block of wood on top to keep PLY5 pieces vertical and leave to cure. At bedtime, about 5 hours later, it's 26C, 34% RH and seems well cured so turn off heaters. |
1248.1 |
| 15 |
Take tank spacer layups off polyethylene sheet and remove peel-ply. |
1248.2 |
| 16 |
Cut and file off sharp edges of tank spacer layups. Undo port end of link rod to allow sliding tank spacers into position (can't come in from starboard side as the spar cup obstructs there). Position spacers with aid of metre stick against corners of CS09s to get them parallel. Clamp each in position in turn with the sole deep-reach G-cramp. Drill for retaining screws with tight-fit drill kit from aft side, rather than trying to transfer the position round to the front of the seatback. The 3/16" bit in the kit is is just a bit longer than the others and won't fit, but take it out to 5/32" with the tight-fit kit and then dismantle and bring to size with an ordinary drill. Re-fit brackets to ply using stiffnuts and Duralac, then fix spacers into position using screws, washers, stiffnuts and Duralac. Clean up excess Duralac with white spirit on paper tissues. |
1250.8 |
| 17 |
Put inspectors lacquer on all tank spacer nuts. Measure up and cut off already-bent piece of 3/8" OD aluminium pipe for starboard tank connexion to fuel selector. Bend by hand the line up at tank end and re-check length. Trim off about 2mm. Put nut and sleeve on pipe and form flare. Offer up and adjust bends slightly by hand until both flares seat well and squarely. Start to do the port pipe but forget to fit the sleeve before bending so that piece is wasted. Must be getting a bit tired after a long day preparing for tomorrow's Air Scout camp and much other stuff, so quit now before making any more mistakes. |
1251.5 |
| 18 |
Collect TruTrak wing leveller kit from David Corbett at Croft Farm Air Scout camp. Back home, offer servo up to intended mounting position and all looks OK. |
|
| 20 |
Start to make the port fuel pipe again, trying to remember the correct sequence - cut, put on nut & sleeve, flare end, make bend. OK on first one for valve end but forget at other end and there is only just room the get the straight end of the pipe into the flaring tool with the sleeve fitted. Adjust bends by hand slightly for best fit and squareness of joints and tighten up. Open fastener etc packs in wing-leveller kit and check contents. There is a stop bracket that I don't remember seeing in the mod instructions. Send e-mail query to Ian Rickard about this. |
1252.3 |
| 21 |
Ian replies agreeing that the stop bracket is new and is not required in the Europa installation. Realise later it can't be used anyway as it would protrude beyond the bracket and foul the rib. Start to temporarily assemble servo in preparation for offering up and checking access hole and pushrod hole positions. Fastener kit has 4 lock washers, 4 washers AN960-10 and 2 washers AN970-3. The LAA mod instructions say to use 4 safety washers on the rod-end bearings, but the AN960-10 are barely big enough for the purpose and the AN970-3 are a bit too big - could interfere with locknuts and also restrict sideways movement, although the latter shouldn't be an issue here. Everywhere else in kit, EURO01 is used. Discuss with Ian on the phone and decide we need a washer like the EURO01 but 3/16" ID instead of 1/4". Had forgotten that these are MW3 rod ends - kit uses nothing smaller than MW4. Ian says he will look for suitable washers. Order some fasteners from Europa to take the place of the ones I'm using from stock to fit the servo. Take off servo arm to allow fitting bolt in middle hole. Screw has a blue patch on the threads and seems reasonably firm to undo and re-fit. Try to remove the brass screw that locates the arm against the pinned collar to check if it has Loctite on it, and the head shears off it. I guess it was locked! TruTrak website says it is a safety shear screw in case the servo jams, but it's a pity that the instructions did not explicitly warn about its fragility. Order a couple of replacement shear screws from TruTrak and some Loctite 243 from Bearing King. Re-assemble servo arm with a plain chrome-plated brass 6-32 cheese-head screw in place of the shear screw for now. Mark out position of pushrod on thigh-support rib, using dimensions of actuating arm from CAD drawing, and measured thickness of rod-end bearing (with AN960-10 washers for now). Measure required length of pushrod (allowing for length of rod-end bearings) and cut to slightly oversize with hacksaw. Put in lathe and face off to final length. Tap 10-32 with tap held in tailstock chuck for squareness. Drill through the thigh-support rib at measured spot with tight-fit drill kit and enlarge through the range, finally taking countersink right through. That just fits the pushrod. Put a light in the centre bay of seat and mark position of ribs on top of thigh support. From that mark out the access panel, centred between ribs. Cut out with Minitool jigsaw with fine blade for minimum kerf. Blade about worn out by the time I get all the way around. As the pushrod will move that way as it goes away from centre, enlarge pushrod hole slightly towards cockpit floor with Perma-Grit round file. Offer up servo and try temporarily assembling pushrod. Pretty close but more clearance needed. File some more, and use sanding drum in Dremel to round it a bit. Mark out and cut the access panel in the inboard bay as for the first one, with a fresh jigsaw blade. Check that there is enough appropriately-shaped thin area on the piece cut out of the D-panel for a cover sheet that will cover both access panels in one. |
1256.2 |
| 22 |
Mark and drill an extra 4.8mm mounting hole on the servo bracket to replace the one that was cut away. Clamp the servo on its bracket lightly to the thigh-support rib and adjust its position until pushrod is level in both planes. Mark bracket holes onto rib using a felt-tip pen. Unclamp servo, disconnect pushrod. Drill mounting holes in rib with tight-fit drill kit, going up in sizes as usual to 3/16". Mount servo with AN3-4A bolts, AN970-3 washers and plain nuts. Quite tricky to get spanner or socket onto nuts. Connect pushrod and check centring of both arms. Unwind both rod-ends by 3 turns to get it as visually correct as possible. |
1257.3 |
| 23 |
From thinner outside edge of pieces cut out of D-panel, cut a piece to cover both wing-leveller servo access holes. |
1257.7 |
| 24 |
Drill a 14mm hole in base of cockpit module near tunnel for sight gauge tubing. Pass end of tubing through from upper side and push a little way onto fuel tank fitting to check routing. Would be good to fit a clip to prevent it moving around and touching either pitch torque tube or rudder cables. The 14mm hole seems quite large for the tube; in fact the manual calls for 15mm, and there is no reference to any grommet. |
1257.9 |
| 25 |
Order a Trig TT21 transponder from Airworld at their special introductory price. Draw up TT21 and TruTrak DG2 heads for panel in CADintosh and put them on the radio panel drawing. Rout out brown foam from around access holes and covers with 1mm thick "circular saw" cutter (#199) in Dremel. Start to mix epoxy for filling those edges with flox and find that the hardener is not coming out of the pump. Find that the valve in the base of the hardener is seized but it releases when pushed down with the end of a mixing stick. Do another stroke to waste to clear any airlocks then mix 1 and a half strokes of epoxy. Wet out 2 layers of BID on polyethylene sheet for the tube clip. Drape it over an M12 bolt and lay another sheet of polyethylene on top. Weigh down alongside bolt to form clip. Add 2 doses flox to remaining epoxy and butter into edges of servo access holes and cover plates with mixing stick. No heat on but 17C, 44% RH. Leave to cure. |
1259.6 |
| 27 |
Remove rough edges of flox on servo access holes and covers with Perma-Grit block. Remove polyethylene sheet from tube clip layup and trim off edges with diamond blade in Minitool jigsaw. Dress edges with fine Perma-Grit round file to ensure no sharp edges against tube. |
1260.3 |
| 28 |
Position thin pre-preg piece against access holes and mark their outlines on top with felt-tip pen for approximate alignment. Position one cut-out piece against it and drill through in 2 places for cocktail sticks. Insert cocktail sticks and place against seat. Position 2nd cut-out piece and temporarily hold in position with long-reach G-cramp. Drill 2 holes for cocktail sticks. Dismantle and scuff-sand all mating surface areas with fine Perma-Grit sheet. Likewise scuff-sand underside of tube clip and back of seat area where it will be bonded. Drill and bandsaw a small piece of wood to form a bridge that can be used to apply pressure to clip flanges without touching arch of clip. Mix 20g + 8g of older Redux and butter thinly onto tube clip with mixing stick. Position, add bridge and put lead weight on top. Spread Redux onto each cut-out piece and the corresponding area of the pre-preg sheet in turn, place in position and insert cocktail sticks. Clamp together with 3 speed-clamps on each cut-out area. Wipe off excess Redux. After several hours, when cured to a leathery state. remove clamps for better access, chisel cocktail sticks flush and chisel off excess Redux around edges of bonds. Lay on a flat surface and put another flat piece of MDF on top. Put the arbour press on top to weigh it all down well for remainder of cure. |
1261.7 |
| 29 |
Take weights off servo access hole cover. Try it for fit and it needs a little bit of easing. Chisel off more small beads of Redux that have squeezed out at edges of bonds, and file the edges of the cut-out pieces with a flat Perma-Grit file to get a good fit. Use a scrap piece of the foam-cored pre-preg to confirm that the proposed fitting of anchor nuts will work. Drill out the rivet from the test specimen and recover anchor nut. Mark the retaining screw positions, taking care to keep them clear of the ribs, and drill 2.4mm, then open up to 4.8mm. Hold anchor nuts temporarily on top face of seat with short screws and drill seat for rivets. Countersink rivet holes with small Perma-Grit countersink. Repeat for all 4 anchor nut positions. |
1262.8 |
| 30 |
Servo shear screws (3 off) arrive from TruTrak. Put spares in bottom of small drawer units. Degrease and fit one to servo with Loctite 243. Fit one servo access cover anchor nut with short screw and insert rivets to ensure alignment before snugging up. Dip each rivet in Duralac and pull up. Repeat for the other 3 cover attachment positions. |
1263.8 |
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