| day |
notes |
hours |
| 7 |
 Cross-check fuel system printouts - all now OK. File good copies in the system manual. |
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| 9 |
With Dorothy's help, take fuselage top out onto drive. Roll fuselage bottom on dolly out of garage. Insert tubes both sides to lock rudder pedals at neutral. Cut off starboard rear rudder cable (between turnbuckle and rudder bellcrank) with cut-off wheel in Dremel. Remove shackle from bellcrank for easier working. Find a couple of suitable cable offcuts and start to re-make the rear loop. First try not satisfactory as haven't quite sorted out the technique for using the hydraulic squeezer. Cut off and try again with better result. Check with gauge and it's fine. Mark head of clevis pin with felt-tip pen for hole orientation. Apply a small amount of general-purpose grease to shackle and bellcrank and re-assemble with clevis pin, washer & split-pin. Adjust starboard turnbuckle so both threads just enter the body and insert clips to hold, but without pushing fully home. Loop cable through a short length of heatshrink, a nicopress sleeve, the turnbuckle eye & thimble, and back through the nicopress sleeve. Fit one of the Eliza Tinsley wire clamps to keep the tension approximately right. Similarly cut off rear section of port cable, re-make rear loop, re-fit shackle and thread cable through re-adjusted port turnbuckle. Adjust loops at turnbuckle ends to get cable tensions approximately equal with bellcrank centred and secure with wire clamps. Remove rudder locks and check travel. Slightly more awkward than before (when no tailwheel cables installed) as now the tailwheel connexions keep fouling up the bellcrank movement. Hang the tailwheel cables over the TS05 restraint bulkhead and weigh down the ends with small G-cramps, which helps a bit. At the forward end, the starboard nicopress is just touching the landing gear frame at full left rudder. Re-insert rudder locks. Mark cable overlaps with felt-tip pen to monitor relative movement. Slacken starboard cable a little and slacken port one more to restore bellcrank to neutral. Remove rudder locks and check travel again. Looks OK now but bellcrank does not seem to return to neutral. After several more small adjustments, realise that part of the problem is that the shackles are still sticking slightly on the bellcrank and not returning to be in line with the cable at neutral. Repeat checks, making sure shackles are in line at neutral and all seems well now. Pull the loops tight against the thimbles and compress the nicopress sleeves with the hydraulic tool. For each cable in turn, interpose an old paint scraper between the cable and the dead end and cut off the excess with the Dremel. Pull the heatshrink sleeve forward and shrink it in place to cover the cut-off cable end. Bend the 4 split-pins to secure the 4 clevis pins on the rudder bellcrank. Note that rudder cables are just touching the sides of the containment bulkhead at full rudder in both directions. Mark the points of contact on the bulkhead. Find some offcuts of SRBF sheet about 1/2" thick which could be used as rubbing blocks. |
1799.3 |
| 11 |
Send e-mail to Steve Evans with copy of his squawk list incorporating my actions and other responses to his comments, plus a list of the stiffnuts at the rear end, and asking when he can come and sign off the 3 inspection dockets needed before I can proceed with bonding on the fuselage top. |
|
| 18 |
Bandsaw off a couple of pieces of 10.5mm thick SRBF sheet and mill them square to 17.5mm wide by 76mm long. Mill a 5mm slot along the length one face of each, leaving about 2mm thickness to the opposite face. Check fit on sides of containment bulkhead and file off some epoxy lumps. File tapers on ends to prevent cable snags. Scuff-sand bonding areas on bulkhead. Mix 10g + 4g batch of Redux (Araldite 420). Only need a tiny amount to spread all over insides of slots in SRBF pieces. Place in position on bulkhead and clamp for cure. |
1801.9 |
| 19 |
Redux sample cured. Remove clamp from SRBF rubbing strips on mass-balance containment bulkhead. Cut off a length of 1" diameter aluminium bar. Face both ends in lathe to 1" long. Centre drill and drill through 3mm & 1/4". Transfer chuck to holding fixture and drill through letter R on the bench drill. Transfer workpiece to milling vice and mill about 4mm (2 turns of fine feed + 8 graduations) off opposing sides. Re-grip across newly-milled faces. Fit edge-finder (10mm shank, 6mm probe), locate turned end and zero X dial. |
1803.5 |
| 21 |
Locate the other faces of the workpiece (actually the inside faces of the milling vise jaws) as 5 turns & 45 graduations (plus 6mm diameter of edge-finder) and set Y feed to half-way point (2 turns & 67.5 graduations). Lock Y axis of table. Feed X in 12.7mm + half diameter of edge-finder (3mm) which translates to 7 turns & 68 graduations. Replace edge-finder with 8mm slot drill on 10mm shank and drill as deep as possible, just biting into lower side of through hole. Transfer workpiece to drilling vise, supported and held with wooden softening strips. Drill right through the 8mm hole with a letter R bit. Tap all 4 holes 1/8" NPT, checking with the 18230-1 adaptor that the threads are cut deep enough. Steve Evans responds to my e-mail request for an inspection date offering Wed 23rd. Reply agreeing. |
1804.6 |
| 22 |
Start to work on the vacuum system documentation, using same principles as for fuel system. Check what adaptors are included in the Rapco vacuum pump fitting kit. Modify fuel system database to include system type field which will be fuel, vacuum or pitot-static. Enter vacuum pump kit parts. Find I don't seem to have recorded the info from the artificial horizon data plate anywhere, so note it now. Gyro Horizon; 115mm Hg Vacuum; TSO-C4c; manufacturer part number 8.048.003; Date 2/69; Serial number 0095; Salmoiraghi. The DG markings are: Directionnel type 910; No 174 Date 7 72; Alimentation - 15 pz; Sortie 9 72 B (the B is surrounded by a diamond); Societe Badin-Crouzet. Check the fit of the adaptors supplied with the vacuum pump in the right-angle adaptors I made for the artificial horizon; they barely go in one turn. The tap was already bottoming in the hole, so don't think I can get that much deeper without risking bursting out of the other side. I may have to make new versions of the adaptors from the 7/8" hex bar. One of the ports on the DG only admits the Rapco adaptor about a turn. Maybe a NPT die might be the answer, to bring the adaptors down a shade. Order 1/8" & 1/4" NPT dies from Tracy Tools, and plug taps; it looks as though the ones I have are taper or second. Continue adding vacuum system parts to the database. |
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| 23 |
Finish adding vacuum system parts to database, and start to draw up the vacuum system in CADintosh. Steve Evans comes to do the final inspection before bonding on the fuselage top. He notes several items that would be best attended to before bonding. The rod-end on the rear bellcrank for the rudder pushrod needs a stiffnut instead of the plain nut presently fitted. The ends of the split-pins that I curled round should be trimmed shorter to reduce chance of snags. It would be easiest to finish the trim link rod slots to final size before bonding on the top, and the best way would be to make a template of the exact size required that can be located on the outside, then fill the present slots completely and cut out new ones to the exact size of the template. He also points out that the flange of the upper moulding needs a bit more trimming in places, and an easy way to get that right is to use a strip of masking tape on the lower half with its top edge aligned with where the upper moulding edge should be. Then put the upper moulding in place and apply a strip of the same width over the first one. The upper edge of the second strip of tape will show where the cut line needs to be. He signs off inspection slips 21, 22 & 24 & leaves with me a list of Europa-related MPDs from SPARS (1998-019, 2000-008, 2005-004, 2007-004 R1, 2007-005 R2, 2007-006). He reminds me it's important to have as much preparation as possible done before the bonding party arrives, and suggests that I hot-glue on an appropriately-shaped batten each side to support the fuselage-fin junction so that I can trim that corner ahead of time. He also prefers cleco to rivets for holding the flanges in contact, as rivets tend to damage the glass when set without washers. |
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| 24 |
Post counterfoils for inspections 21, 22 & 24 to LAA Engineering. NPT dies & taps delivered from Tracy tools. Try 1/4" plug tap in right-angle vacuum adaptors for horizon; it bites a bit further in than the original tap. Try Rapco fittings in them and they now go in over 2 turns just finger-tight so that should be fine. The dies go all the way onto the Rapco fittings without cutting, so that approach is not appropriate anyway. |
1804.8 |
| 25 |
Complete vacuum system drawing in CADintosh, print out & file in systems folder. Take fuselage upper moulding out of garage. Roll lower half out on dolly. Get tailplanes out of trailer and rig them. Measure at right angles from top edge and aft edge of fuselage sides to surface of trim link rod (13mm diameter) for the 4 combinations of tailplane TE up & down and trim nose-up & nose-down. Measure top aft corner angles of each fuselage side. Draw up the starboard side rod positions in CADintosh, print out and trim to outline. Offer up to check alignment and all seems sufficiently accurate. Draw up port side, print, cut to outline and check - also OK. De-rig tailplanes and return to trailer. Put vacuum adaptors back in the Rapco box in trailer. Remove TS05 link rod assembly and measure from the centre of its fork hole to the surface of the cross-tube: 506mm. Thus to the centre of the cross-tube will be 6.5mm more - 512.5mm. Strike arcs from both extremes of trim movement at that radius to locate the fork centre positions at the intersections, and then draw arcs, 6.5mm smaller from forward centre and 6.5mm larger from aft centre, to describe the outside of the path of the cross-tube between tailplane up & down positions. Print out the view of each side and offer up to the inside of the fuselage, which shows how much the present slots can be reduced. Certainly appears to be much easier to fill the slots and re-cut them to the templates than any other method. Order from LAS Aerospace some more split-pins in various lengths for the rudder bellcrank, spare turnbuckle clips, and the outstanding fuel system AN fittings. Tip out the offcuts bin and find a couple of pieces of brown foam that can be cut to fit the existing trim slots. Mark and trim both to be a good fit. Have a look at a few possible laths for reinforcing the fuselage-fin area to allow the that to be cut to final profile, but can't find anything quite right. Maybe I should bandsaw off a thin piece. Also wonder if polyester body filler would be a better bonding choice than the hot-glue gun - experience has shown it does hold pretty well, but can be broken off quite cleanly with a sharp blow. Fit MS21042-4 stiffnut to rod-end on rudder bellcrank and add a dab of inspector's lacquer. |
1810.4 |
| 26 |
Take fuselage top & bottom out of garage. Clean gel-coat around trim slot with hob cleaner (mild abrasive) to remove release agent. Rinse off with water and wipe down with acetone. Sand inside faces with flexible coarse Perma-Grit sheet and outsides with fine ditto. Then realise I need to actually remove the gel-coat layer on the outer faces so I can bond to the pre-preg underneath. Fit flap wheel to angle-grinder and using just the edge of the wheel and a light touch, carefully remove the gel-coat for about 30mm all round the trim slot. Fix previously-cut brown foam pieces in place with Rapid Araldite. Cut 4 off BID 150mm x 250mm. 27 C, 37% RH in shade inside fuselage. Mix a peg-4 (75g) batch of epoxy and paint it onto layup area. Lay on BID and stipple out with brush. Trim off BID where it extends over the gel-coat or onto the sternpost bonding area. Add peel-ply as epoxy in pot just starts to gel. Wheel lower fuselage into garage. Dorothy helps carry in upper moulding. 25 C, 51% RH inside fuselage. Leave to cure. |
1813.6 |
| 28 |
24 C, 43% RH inside fuselage. Layup & sample cured. Remove 8 pieces of peel-ply from layups. Sand tops of layups flush with top edges of fuselage flanges. |
1813.7 |
| 30 |
Re-draw the trim slot template with 3mm clearance from the cross-tube fore and aft and 5mm clearance top & bottom. Thus inner radius (forward edge of slot) is 503mm from forward centre and outer radius (aft edge) is 522mm from aft centre. Parts from LAS Aerospace delivered. Update the systems database to show them delivered, and add them to the parts database. |
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| 31 |
Start to document the pitot/static system in the same way as the vacuum system. |
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