| day |
notes |
hours |
| 2 |
Remove sealing tapes from ends of pump-to-flow-sender pipe and re-fit it, positioning sender bracket against inboard rib. There will be plenty of room for a straight 6" run of pipe forward from the sender before a bend will be needed to clear FL15 and rudder cable. Sight through from underneath tunnel to check possible pipe routing forward - looks as though there should be no problem. Slide remaining stock length of 3/8" aluminium pipe aftwards through from the wheel-well to check length needed. There is about 250mm spare if the pipe is terminated at the tunnel bulkhead. Spend some time considering how and where best to make the joint between the rigid aluminium pipe and the flexible stainless-steel braided hose. There is very little space to get aft of the tunnel bulkhead with spanners etc so the bulkhead nut would need to be on the forward face. That is the wrong way round for the angled unions, so some other idea is needed. Also, whatever arrangement is chosen must allow the tunnel bulkhead to be removed for access, and without the need to uncouple fuel lines! Push the hose up and along the tunnel to check clearance from tyre and where clips could be fitted. Port of centre offers clip securing locations and keeps the hose well clear of the tyre on the horizontal run. Will probably need to wait until engine is offered up to decide whether the firewall union should be port or starboard of the bungee, and if it should be 45 degree or 90 degree. That union will probably also need to be fitted to the firewall before it is fitted, so there might be quite a bit of on-and-off for the firewall before it's safe to seal the firewall edges in place. Spend some more time offering up unions, pipe & hose in tunnel bulkhead area to examine location possibilities for the union. A small right-angle bracket fixed to the fuselage floor immediately forward of the tunnel bulkhead might do the trick. It would need to be offset fairly well to port for the outlet hose to clear the tyre, but not too near the rudder cable. It would be quite neat if a straight union could be fitted to the tunnel bulkhead flange high up on the port side, with a clearance hole in the bulkhead to allow fitting it afterwards. However, the bends required in the aluminium pipe for that routing would prevent the pipe being inserted into place. It might just be possible to wriggle the pipe into place if the union was mounted about half-way down the flange, requiring a shorter bent section of pipe. Ideally, that position calls for a 45 degree union to give best hose routing, but the bulkhead nut would again be on the wrong side and a quick try shows it would be impractical to get a spanner onto it. A straight union in that position would require a fairly sharp bend in the hose to clear the tyre and it's not clear if that would be satisfactory. |
2399.5 |
| 3 |
Cut off about 30mm of the 38mm x 38mm x 3mm aluminium angle. Mark and centre-pop centrally and about 14mm in from the edge. Centre-drill and then open out to 14mm with a step drill. That does not quite admit the AN833-6D elbow so open it slightly more from each side with the taper reamer. Fit elbow and try out position on fuselage floor at aft edge of wheel well, towards port side. Clamp in place with a piece of wood softening underneath to prevent damaging skin. Try inserting tunnel bulkhead and it can be wiggled into place behind the bracket. Might need a sizeable cutout to clear the pipe, though. Remove caps and fit the already-terminated end of the braided hose to the elbow. Push other end of hose up and forward, then reach in from the firewall and draw it through the LG01 frame. Hose seems to naturally take up a good position. Retract wheel and clearances are still OK. Lower wheel, check that there is room to get a spanner on the nut at the aft end of the elbow - no problem. With this looking so good, seems little point in investigating the possibility of mounting a union higher up on the bulkhead flange - especially since access would be worse, don't know if pipe could be inserted after bending, etc. Mark fuselage for bracket location., remove hose, bracket & elbow. Cut off and round the top corners of the bracket. As it will be mounted on a foam-cored section of fuselage, decide it would be better to bond it than use fasteners. Drill a pattern of holes in the bottom flange to provide bonding keys. Take sealing tape off one end of the 3/8" aluminium pipe stock. Clean up cut end. Fit nut and sleeve, make flared end for connexion to fuel flow sender outlet. Leaving 6" straight run clear of the end, make a crank of about 40mm in the pipe using the other bending tool which grips the bend more tightly and does not allow it to become so oval. That should bring it down from the line of the sender outlet to about the fuselage floor level. Slide it aft carefully into place from the wheel well, taking care not to damage the flared end. Looks promising, but needs further tweaking. Take out, adjust, re-fit several times until satisfied. This requires crawling underneath the fuselage each time to insert the pipe, crawling out and getting inside the fuselage to make the connexion, then crawling underneath again to see what the pipe run looks like. Removal is the reverse procedure, so quite time-consuming and a bit tiring. End up with original crank at a slightly increased angle for more height change, a small twist in the crank so the pipe runs at floor level towards the centre for a short distance to clear the corner of the baggage well, then another bend to run along the fuselage floor almost parallel to the longitudinal axis, lying between the feed pipe from the selector valve and the port side of the tunnel. Looks as though the forward end of the pipe will need to be flared and fitted to the elbow before the elbow bracket is bonded on, otherwise it will be tricky to get the length of the pipe right. Remove pipe and tape up the end; re-fit cap to sender outlet. Notice as I shut down that I have now passed the 2400-hour mark which I had once thought would see the end of the build - ho-hum! |
2402.6 |
| 5 |
Order some 1.5" x 1/4" UNF socket screws and stiffnuts (for mounting fuel flow sender) plus DIN 9021 M14 washers (44mm OD, for possible use on fuel union at firewall) from Westfield Fasteners. Measure up the various things the screws for the fuel pipe clips will have to pass through. Will need about 19mm working length (4mm composite + 5mm clamp + 2x1.5mm washers + 5mm stiffnut + 2mm spare thread). AN525-10R14 measures about 23mm (14/16" = 22.225mm) so AN525-10R12 should be just right (12/16" = 19.05mm). Order some AN525-10R12, AN4-10A & AN970-9 and some threaded drill bits from LAS Aerospace. |
|
| 6 |
Remove sealing tape from ends of pipe and insert into position again. Realise later that I actually have some plastic plugs for female AN6 ends - they were mixed up with plastic 1/4" NPT plugs. Making sure end is clean, connect pipe to fuel flow sender outlet. Look at the forward end and assess where slight bends will be needed to get a tidy run in the tunnel. Dismantle, adjust, re-connect several times until satisfied with the run as far forward as the tunnel bulkhead. The change in shape of the pipe is making it more difficult to slide in & out. Mark pipe with felt-tip pen where the union should be, take it out and and cut off the end about an inch beyond the mark to be safe. Make a small crank to bring the pipe up from fuselage floor level to the height of the union on the bracket. Re-fit, check position, take out, re-adjust several times until satisfied. Clamp union bracket to fuselage floor as before and mark pipe against end of union. Remove pipe, cut at mark, clean up end and blow out with air-line. Fit nut & sleeve, lubricate pipe and make flare. Blow out again. Slide pipe in and re-connect at aft end. with bracket free, fit pipe to union at forward end then clamp bracket to floor to check position, which looks fine. Feed braided hose into tunnel and fit it to the elbow. Need to slacken the bulkhead nut to allow fitting the hose as the elbow needs to be slightly inboard of vertical. Retract wheel to check clearance - all OK. Lower wheel and push a clip onto the hose to see where the best position would be for the first clip, on the aft curve of the tunnel. Looks as though it would be good to place it at the spot where the external surface changes from concave to convex, which would avoid the need for a profiled spacer. Remove hose, pipe, elbow and bracket. Abrade and degrease bonding area on fuselage floor, and base of bracket. Degrease forward end of pipe and fittings. Re-insert pipe and connect to sender. Fit bracket and elbow at forward end. A slight spring in the pipe is keeping the bracket clear of the fuselage floor, which is handy. Mix 10g + 4g Redux and add a small dose of flox to make it non-runny. Spread onto fuselage floor in bonding area and onto base of bracket. Clamp bracket in place, with a piece of polyethylene sheet as a release film and a small piece of aluminium sheet on top of the bracket foot to spread the pressure. A small piece of wood underneath as usual protects the fuselage skin. Do up the clamp firmly but not so tight as to crush the foam core. Wipe off excess Redux, taking care to keep it off the nearby rudder cable. Leave to cure at room temperature. |
2406.3 |
| 7 |
Capscrews etc delivered from Westfield Fasteners. Remove fuel flow meter from pipework. Remove temporary screws and replace with 1.5" socket-head screws and Nyloc stiffnuts. Re-fit sender to pipework. |
2406.7 |
| 9 |
Remove clamp from fuel pipe bracket and pop aluminium pressure plate off foot of bracket. Peel off polyethylene sheet. Trim excess Redux back to edge of tunnel. Offer up the tunnel bulkhead and check previously-made marks for extremes of pipe position. Mark out required slot, drill the end 10mm and cut from edge to meet that hole. Try for fit - won't go in. File in a few places and it goes most of the way in, but because of the insertion angle imposed by the pipe union and bracket the port bottom corner of the bulkhead is trying to go aft of the flange. Trim it slightly in that region to improve ease of fitting. Once finally in position and the slot is clear of the pipe, notice that the starboard rudder cable is just touching the bulkhead. Remove bulkhead and file notch to clear cable. Bulkhead not fits well and is quite easy to fit and remove. Have concluded that a hinged access panel is an unnecessary complication for dropping the gascolator bowl, and a simple circular hatch retained by screws, like the rear fuselage access holes, would be OK. Remove pipe connexions from fuel flow sender and gascolator and cap ends. Remove clecos and pull baggage bay bulkhead forward for access to fuselage floor. Remove gascolator bowl and check what size of clearance hole will be needed to allow it to drop out. 54mm or 2.125" should be OK. Check size of flanges and splash-moulding overlaps used for rear fuselage access holes - flanges are 0.5" and overlap is 1". Draw up the proposed diameters (54mm flange hole, 79.4mm skin hole & 130.2mm splash moulding) concentric to a 10mm locating circle in CADintosh and print out. Cut out centre hole and trim outside to largest circle. Lay on fuselage floor and it looks as though it should not cause any problem with the stiffening layup at the rib to fuselage joint. As the splash moulding will extend beyond it, the bottom edge of the rib will need to be relieved slightly in that area. Trace around the outside of the paper template with a felt-tip pen to show the extent of the splash moulding. Damp the fuselage floor and lay down a piece of cling-film to cover the size of the splash moulding and the surrounding area. Smooth it out and leave to dry. Mark and cut out 2 off 130mm squares of BID and trim corners to make octagonal. |
2409.1 |
| 10 |
Check length of screw required for holding access panels. The manual calls out AN525-10R8, but that is for the covers laid up on a splash moulding from 4 layers of BID, rather than the covers cut out from the original foam-cored structure that I am using. However, AN525-10R8 is fine when tried out on one of the fuselage rear access covers. Check stock of those screws and there are at least 5 spares in stock, so no need to order more. There are also plenty of spare MS21047-3 anchor nuts. Disconnect gascolator outlet pipe and fit caps. Remove gascolator bracket from rib. Support gascolator on vise jaws and centre-pop inlet fixing screws to lock them. At Gloster Strut, discuss progress with John Bean and he describes his method of fastening the fuel hose clips to the underside of the tunnel. To avoid needing 2 people, and having screw heads visible in the cockpit, he bonds a CSK head screw into a small piece of plywood then attaches that to the underside of the tunnel in the required position with Redux. The nut holding the hose clip can then be attached without the need to hold the head of the fastener. He says he's got the cowls off his machine at present for maintenance in the hangar at Enstone and I can have a look at the fuel line runs etc, if I come over. |
2409.3 |
| 12 |
Drive over to Enstone and photograph for reference the engine compartment of John Bean's Europa G-VPSJ while he has the cowls off for maintenance. Photo filenames run from P1130527.JPG to P1130569.JPG. Compare them to the photos of my own engine on the pallet, files P1080585.JPG to P1080620.JPG. It appears John has a different carb heat system from mine, possibly electrical, but it looks as though it moves the carbs back about the same distance as the Skydrive water heater system. There is still good clearance between the aft end of the carb inlet air box and the firewall. As it was dark in the hangar, couldn't quite see where the fuel line came through John's firewall, and the photos (with flash) don't reveal it either. |
|
| 13 |
12C, 67% RH. Start fan heater on floor. Mix a peg-2 (45g) batch of standard epoxy. Lay the octagonal pieces of BID on the cling-film and align with marked circle on fuselage floor. Wet out BID, apply peel-ply. Use some of the remaining epoxy to seal the filed edges of the tunnel bulkhead. Move fan heater to inside of rear fuselage, sitting on a piece of carpet to stop it walking around, and set to half power, thermostat 3. Soon up to 30C, 29% RH beside the layup. |
2410.3 |
| 14 |
36C, 16% RH, layup well cured, turn off fan heater. |
|
| 16 |
Add fixing screw and cleco hole centres to gascolator hatch drawing in CADintosh. Insert anchor nut symbols to ensure there is enough room for them with the tighter radius of this hole compared to the others at the aft fuselage - looks fine. Print out amended drawing and trim to outline circle. Carefully remove peel-ply from splash moulding layup so as not to disturb alignment. Mark forward direction on layup. Overlay the new drawing with the hole centres and, holding firmly in place, drill all 6 hole centres 1.6mm. Mark forward direction on template for reference. Lift off layup, remove cling film, trim to approximate size and smooth off edge. Lay drawing underneath layup, align holes and trace inner circle onto layup. Drill a 1.6mm hole on the marked line and tilt drill slightly to elongate hole into a slot large enough for the Minitool jigsaw diamond-coated blade. Cut around the marked line on the layup with the jigsaw. Smooth off the inner edge. Cut the paper template along the line of the outer circle for the hatch hole in the fuselage skin. Position paper on fuselage floor, align it with drilled holes and mark the outline of the inner edge of the paper onto the fuselage floor. Mark forward direction on hatch. Drill 1.6mm and tilt drill to elongate. Using Minitool jigsaw, cut around marked line. Smooth out slight joggle at beginning and reversal of cut. Position layup on fuselage floor, align with outer holes and drill them out to 1/8", inserting a cleco into each when enlarged. Having decided to adopt John Bean's method of fuel hose clip attachment, check fastener size for MS21919-WDG9 hose clips. Fixing hole is for AN3 (10-32 UNF) size bolt/screw. Lugs are a total of about 1/8" thick when compressed together. An MS21042-3 stiffnut is about 3/16" deep and 2 threads of AN3 (10-32) is another 1/16". An AN960-10 washer is 1/16" thick. So total thread length needed is about 7/16". A CSK head on a 10-32 screw adds about 3/16" so total length needed is 5/8". To be on the safe side, better use 3/4". Find a piece of 1/4" 5-ply that can be used to mount the screw heads. |
2412.0 |
| 17 |
Line up gascolator hatch on splash moulding flange using 1.6mm and 2 off 1.5mm drill bits in the holes, then clamp together with spring clamps. Drill through holes 4.8mm and insert button-head screws in turn to hold anchor nuts. Once all 3 holes enlarged, remove screws and hatch. Re-fit anchor nuts to flange with button-head screws fitted with nuts as usual to stop them entering the stiff section of the anchor nuts. Drill through anchor nut rivet holes 2.6mm. Remove anchor nuts and countersink rivet holes with hand-held 5.6mm drill bit. Do a trial fit of flange to fuselage floor and check that washers can be put on clecos fitted from below, by reaching through the central hole in the flange. Remove clecos and flange. Abrade bonding areas on flange and fuselage floor and degrease with acetone. Mix 10g + 4g Redux and spread onto bonding areas of both flange and fuselage with mixing stick. Position flange and insert 2 well-greased clecos from above to hold it in place. From underneath, insert another well-greased cleco. Reaching through to the inside, position a well-greased washer on end of cleco with fingertips, then squeeze and release cleco to capture washer. Remove one of the top-side clecos and replace it with one on underside, adding a washer as before. Repeat for 3rd cleco, finishing up with 3 clecos inserted from underneath, each with a washer on the inside of the flange. Wipe off most of excess Redux inside and out with dry tissues, then clean up finally with acetone-damped tissues. Leave to cure at room temperature (16C inside fuselage). |
2414.1 |
| 19 |
In a local hardware shop, spot a stainless-steel jam funnel (KitchenCraft, Home Made brand) which could possibly be converted into a firewall feed-through, so buy one to see if I can do anything with it. Cut out central outlet section of funnel roughly with straight cuts of angle-grinder. Mark an approximate circle on the inner surface and trim to that line with the angle-grinder. Smooth off the edge with the bench grinder. Find a piece of wood about 42mm thick that could be used for a support when trying to flatten the flange. |
2414.6 |
| 20 |
Drill the piece of wood 45mm with forstner bit. Drop funnel cut-out piece into the hole and try flattening the flange with a heavy steel offcut in the 1-ton arbour press. Partially successful, flange does seem quite a bit flatter. Set it on the vise anvil and tap all the way around the inner corner with a small hammer, which brings it nearer to flat. Further tapping around the outer edge to stretch it a bit brings it to an acceptable degree of flatness. The bottom of the outlet is slightly incurved which would present an undesirable sharp edge to the cables inside. Try to grind it off with stone wheels in the Dremel, but progress very slow and tedious. Instead, hold it over the nose of the vise anvil and planish the edge with the ball-pein hammer which does the job perfectly and much more quickly. Clean up the rough edges left from the grinding attempts with the ScotchBrite wheel. The OD of the outlet is about 43mm - so not sure if firesleeve is available to go over that - will need to check. Also could try to work out how big the wire bundle is that passes through the firewall - a flange with a smaller hole could well be OK. Remove clecos and washers from gascolator access hatch flange and file the sample from the cup. With a saw-style milling cutter in the Dremel rout out the brown foam around the edge of the hatch hole and the hatch cover, including the central hole for the drain valve. Cut away the foam around the screw holes in the cover with a small Dremel end-mill. Mix a peg-1 (30g) batch of standard epoxy and add 2 doses flox (almost too much). Spread into slot around edge of gascolator access hole, wipe off excess and clean up with acetone-wetted tissue. Spread flox mixture into slot around outside of hatch cover, pushing well into deeper areas around screw holes. Spread into slot around central drain-valve hole with split mixing stick. Clean off excess. Set on a block of wood to bring it near to the access hole and leave to cure. 16C, 60% RH. Turn on fan heater at half power, thermostat 3.5. By bedtime up to 20C, 38% RH. Hourmeter was left on in error and ran to 2422.7 so need to log another 5.3 hours (5:18) before I should start it again. |
2417.4 |
| 21 |
21C, 26% RH, sample cup well cured. Turn off fan heater. Start another timer to record hours until I catch up with the hourmeter. Put baggage bay bulkhead into position and mark the point on the port outboard rib where the relief to clear the gascolator access hatch flange should start. Check location of marks at edge of bulkhead for conduit pass-through. Consider where other wires will need to enter/leave the conduits. The captive lead on the analogue fuel level sensor will only just reach to the outside of the headrest if routed along the aft inside bottom corner of the headrest. As it's already terminated it will be tricky to get the connectors through a grommet of the right size for the cable. It might be better to have the connexion inside the headrest and this could be done if the cable was routed along the front inside corner instead. However, I think the supplied harness has the connectors already fitted to the main cable run so the grommet problem remains. Note that the holes in the inner faces of the headrests need to have the brown foam edges routed back and sealed off with flox. It would be useful to prepare a schedule of what wires (and pipes) are routed through the conduits and where they enter/leave. On the starboard side, not sure if the conduit will be able to pass between the F18 fuel filler moulding and the fuselage side. Also need to order more 1/4" aluminium pipe as the length in stock barely reaches from the firewall to the back of the tank. Start to check F18 and receptacle fitting. Looks like the hole in the fuselage for the fuel filler receptacle should be 70mm not the 75mm in the printed manual. Remove XSF02A baggage bay bulkhead and check depth of gascolator access hole flange - about 1mm. Mark a line 1mm up from bottom edge of port outboard rib and file back to that line, as far aft as the mark for the edge of the flange. Stop timer at 1:45. |
2419.15 |
| 22 |
Start to prepare a schedule of what wires etc go in the conduits on each side of the cockpit. Notice while doing this that the wire colours on the analogue fuel gauge diagram are reversed, so correct that. Think about how the stall warner sensor and sounder will be mounted might be room for the sounder in the headset jack box. The PDF manual shows 70mm for the fuel filler hole, and also says the receptacle is pushed into F18 (where the paper manual says screwed on). |
|
| 23 |
Get 70mm holesaw from Electric Center (sic). Measure position of hole needed for dual USB outlet on blanking plate to serve Airbox Aware & Dynon D2. Remove blanking plate from main panel. Dual USB outlet is 26.2mm across flats and 28.5mm over threads. Thus I could make a 26mm hole, offset 1.15mm from the centre, and file the other half to fit. Mark a centre thus, centre-pop & centre drill then open to 26mm with a step drill bit. Have to lubricate with paraffin oil (kerosene) to get smooth cutting and prevent pickup on the drill bit. Enlarge hole to oval shape with half-round file, testing at intervals until USB outlet fits into the hole. Deburr hole and fit outlet. Temporarily fit the mount and the Airbox Aware to check for satisfactory alignment and clearance etc - all looks good. Remove Airbox and outlet. Rub down face of blanking plate to remove scuffs etc from drilling and filing. Degrease with industrial spirit. Spray the front of the plate with a couple of coats matt black aerosol spray. Move the baggage bay bulkhead into position and fit the clecos. Check fit of all support ribs, particularly the port outboard one where it has been relieved in the region of the gascolator access hole flange. Cut fuel filler hole in fuselage with 70mm holesaw and clean up edges. Receptacle fits OK. Without receptacle in place, offer up F18 filler neck on inside. Looks as though F18 could fit flush to the fuselage wall, but that would leave no room for the conduit to pass outboard of F18. Top of F18 needs to be opened up to fit receptacle, but will leave that until I see how much the boss needs to be shortened. Remove clecos from baggage bay bulkhead to avoid unnecessary stress on the holes. Stop timer at 2:00. |
2421.15 |
| 25 |
Not happy with the mounting arrangements of the LEDs for the main panel warning lights - the press-fit sleeves don't seem to hold them very firmly and certainly don't prevent them being pushed back through the panel. Do some online research and order ones with metal bezel mounts, which should be more secure. Also order el-cheapo USB snake camera which I hope will let me check more thoroughly around the analogue fuel level sender in case the missing wing pip-pin has bounced in there somehow. Check dimension of fuel filler receptacle and work out how deep it will go into F18 filler neck and mark accordingly. Offer up F18 to inside of fuselage hole as far as mark and check how things align. It can go quite snugly against the fuselage side, but then there wouldn't be room for the rubber connector, never mind the conduit. Bottom end of F18 also needs to be a bit out from the fuselage side so that it aligns reasonably with the tank boss. Mark a line around the large (top) boss of F18 at 12mm length and hacksaw off to that line. Offer up receptacle; thread just starts but it will need a bit of relief to go in. Mount a 50mm sanding drum in the bench drill and run it around the inside of the boss, adding a small chamfer at the edge. The finish achieved is very good and much better than from a file or scraper. Try the receptacle and it goes in a little further. Find a piece of wood to use as a driver in the internal slots of the receptacle. Sand, try fit, repeat until receptacle can be screwed all the way in. Difficult to get the threads started square, but taking it all the way in and continuing to turn gets it squared up as the plastic slips over the metal threads. Assemble in-situ on fuselage and check how it fits. Now plenty of room for conduit and lower end lines up reasonably well with tank boss. Offer up aluminium pipe alongside to see how it might fit but it's far too long. If I can't calculate how long it ought to be I'll probably have to cut it incrementally which will be a bit tedious as I don't have a pipe cutter for that size. Cut off end of bottom boss on F18. Take duct-tape off tank bosses and clean up adhesive residue with petrol. Try fit of XFS07 rubber connector. Seems to be just a bit long on the upper (longer) leg as F18 won't readily line up with the fuselage hole. Re-start main timer at 1:33 on the temporary one. Mark centre of bend on XFS07 and measure length of legs to that line. Lower (short) leg is 110mm; tank boss is 25mm so lower leg of aluminium pipe should be 85mm. The larger radius bend on the aluminium pipe means that 85mm from the centre of the bend leaves only about 20mm of straight pipe. Probably should be 25mm for secure clamping of the rubber connector, although I suppose the rubber could go around the bend slightly. The upper (long) leg of XFS07 is 185mm to the centre line and the F18 lower boss is 50mm long. Thus the aluminium upper pipe leg needs to be 135mm which leaves a generous 70m of straight pipe. It will actually need to be slightly shorter than that as XFS07 upper leg is too long. Re-seal tank bosses with masking tape. |
2423.2 |
| 26 |
Measure the distance between the mounting screws for the balance ball and re-check best position for it under the TRX 2000. Holes should be about 4mm up from bottom edge of panel (which is nicely in line with bottom edge of hourmeter bezel) and starboard one about 4mm to port of hourmeter bezel. Hole centres are 55.86mm (~2.2") apart. |
|
| 27 |
USB snake camera and bezel-mount LEDs delivered. The camera works fine with my existing webcam software, but only seems to focus well at about 40mm. However, that should not be a show-stopper when searching for the pip-pin. The metal bezels for the 3mm LEDs fit the panel holes nicely. Try one of the LEDs out on the 12V battery and it seems if anything even brighter than the ones I had already. The wire tails are only about 200mm so will need extending. The bezels are supplied with a plastic insert which pushes into the back of the bezel to secure the LED, but the insert has a pair of holes that are only big enough for the bare LED spills and will not admit the soldered tails with heatshrink and particularly not the encapsulated resistor. Looks as though the hole(s) could not be made large enough to admit the wires, as the heatshrink is already touching the inside of the bezel. The LEDs could probably be secured in the bezels with epoxy or cyanoacrylate adhesive. The 5mm LEDs seem to offer more chance of using the plastic retaining bung, but the holes in the panel would need to be slightly enlarged to fit those bezels. Need to think a bit more about the options. Check diameters of wires for all those passing through the firewall (10, 12, 20 & 22AWG). Draw up a possible wire bundle in CADintosh, re-arranging a few times to minimise the size. It fits in a circle 8.38mm diameter, so the feed-through flange I've made from the jam funnel is much too large. Wonder if a feed-through could be made just by drilling a central hole in a short large-diameter bolt, as I have been considering for the magneto leads which should run separately from all the rest. |
|
| 28 |
Find a small funnel in the Tewkesbury Cookshop. The outlet is perhaps a bit small at about 8.2mm and the funnel cone and outlet are separate parts swaged together - but for £3.99 it's worth a try. Take the Mac down to the garage with the snake camera and spend some time poking the camera around in the space above the fuel tank. No sign of anything resembling a pip-pin, and the gap between the aft face of the tank and the cockpit module is too small for it to fall down there. As a final check, run one of the very strong little button magnets (powerful enough to support the pip-pin through a brown-foam composite sandwich) along the aft edge of the seatback area, but nothing magnetic found. |
|
| 30 |
De-populate main panel except for switches at far left and hourmeter. Using bottom edge of hourmeter as a guide, mark out previously-determined hole positions for balance ball mounting. Centre-pop scribed crosses, centre-drill, drill 2.5mm and tap M3. Assemble balance ball to check alignment - all fine. Dismantle and re-assemble stand-offs to panel with Loctite 243. Add plain nuts behind panel with Loctite 243. Re-populate panel including blanking plate and double USB outlet, noting sizes of fasteners and required drivers for future reference. |
2425.3 |
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