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Europa #435 G-RODO Build Journal - 2016 10

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1 Order some M3 x 5mm stainless steel button-head screws and some 10-32 CSK stainless steel screws from Westfield Fasteners. Make up a right-angle form for internal corner layups from a couple of pieces of melamine-faced chipboard. Find a short length of the smaller conduit to use as a form. Find a couple of suitable-size offcuts of polyethylene sheet for underneath and on top of layup. Cut off about 200mm x 250mm peel-ply. Mark and cut out 2 off 100mm x 250mm BID and lay them superposed on one of the pieces of polyethylene sheet. Mix a peg-1 (30g) batch of standard epoxy and wet out BID. Apply peel-ply over BID then polyethylene sheet on top of that. Support the right-angle form on a block and with the conduit in the corner lay the stack of BID etc onto it. Place a couple of pieces of metal against the conduit to keep the BID in shape. As it's quite cool and damp in the garage, bring the whole thing in to the boiler cupboard and leave to cure there overnight. 2670.6
3 Take clip layup from boiler cupboard to garage, remove polyethylene sheet and peel-ply. Mark long edges and trim with padsaw. Smooth edges with Perma-Grit block then mark at 10mm spacing along length. Extend marks across width with small try-square and cut off 22 clips.

Remove the forward brackets and take the panel support shelf out of the fuselage. Move the cushions on the starboard seat out of the way. Mark up one of the previously-cut blue foam pieces for the length and angle of the forward end of the starboard inboard seatpan recess. Get out the hot-wire cutter and cut (freehand) the marked chamfer. Mark protruding bolt locations (rudder pulley and seatbelt anchor) on inboard side. Fit Dremel to router frame and rout out slots in the foam for the bolts. Try to fit the foam into the recess but it won't go - there is a significant draft on the side of the hump for the control runs. Looks to be about 10mm over the full height of the hump. Rig up a support on the fence with a piece of aluminium extrusion to allow cutting at an angle. Do a test cut on the offcut piece and it looks just right when offered up. Now drops in quite readily, but needs chamfering on all edges and relief for bolt head at aft end. Rout out clearance slot and chamfer corners with Perma-Grit block. Fit now better but the aft face also needs to be tapered, although not so much as the side, so do that with the Perma-Grit block. Fit now looking very good and it's clearly bottoming all the way along. It's slightly proud of the hump (I did cut the blanks a bit thicker than the originally measured depth) so mark a line against the top of the hump and take a (freehand) sliver off the top with the hot-wire cutter. Now it fits just barely proud of the hump. Similarly carve the starboard outboard foam block (for which the blank was already a bit tapered) to the profile marked on the aft end from the paper template. Cut 3 straight lines with the hot-wire cutter and sand the corners down to the profile. This one finishes up a slightly looser fit as it got sanded too much in places, but still perfectly adequate.
2673.9
4 Screws delivered from Westfield Fasteners. Roll fuselage out onto drive for access to port side. Move cushions across onto starboard side on top of the shaped foam blocks. Check angle between floor and seatback with angle gauge and transfer to side of a blue foam block. Taper to that line with a Perma-Grit block. Measure the flat length from seatback to beginning of thigh support and mark a line across bottom of block at that distance. Extend it up the sides slightly. Check depth of hump at forward end (60mm). Measure length from seatback to forward end of hump and mark that distance on top of block. As block is 65mm thick, extend line 5mm down each side. Mark an angled line from that point to the intersection of the bottom line with the bottom edge. Hot-wire cut along that marked line. Offer up and then remember that I will need to allow space for the fuel level sensor. Print out the PCB layout to be sure I know which end of the sensor goes to the fuel tank and which to the vent.

The tube for the sensor (fitted to the TEE-piece under the tank) is marked Tygothane C-210-A by Saint-Gobain, but it will not be long enough to reach to the vent connexion on top of the fuel filler neck. Find some silicon rubber tubing (4mm ID, 6mm OD) that is an excellent fit on the sensor but it is also too short. However, before ordering a longer piece, put a small sample length in a jar with some petrol to see if reacts. It would not be good if it could not handle petrol, should the diaphragm in the pressure sensor ever give way and allow petrol to flow up the vent tube. Trying out various layouts, it looks best to have the tank pressure end of the sensor box aft and the wires and vent forward. The test piece of silicon tubing has already swelled considerably in the petrol, so that is no good for this purpose - nor for the connexion to the manifold pressure sensor which will also be exposed to petrol fumes. I think the Tygothane came from LAS Aerospace so will have to order more from them. A quick check with the tape measure shows the tube will have to be about 2.3m long. The same tubing would be OK for the manifold pressure sensor as it fits both of the hose nipples. (I still haven't figured out a way to arrange a filter and moisture trap for that connexion.) Cut off tubing for fuel level sensor at what seems to be a sensible length. Spend some time with boiling water (heat gun is no good - just melts it!) checking how easily the Tygothane will go onto the sensor. Although the tubing softens quite well in the hot water, it cools quite quickly and the force required is hard to manage safely on the sensor. Try fitting the softened tube to a heated mandrel instead, and cooling it before removing the tube. That leaves the tube slightly distended for a short distance from the end and it slides onto the sensor pipe with less drama.

Set up the fence on the hot-wire cutter for the angled cut as before, do a test cut on the offcut, adjust slightly then cut the taper along the side of the main block. Mark the positions of the bolts, tube and sensor box on the sides and underside of the foam block. Roll fuselage back into garage.

Poke around online and find a small cheap air filter and moisture trap for compressed-air lines and order one.
2677.5
6 tick Order some circlips for the door locks from Bearing Boys, although at present I'm not sure if I want to install them - at least not in the way described by the factory.

Phone Neville and ask about my proposed aft baffle shape. He says I should minimise any gaps where air could get through other than past the cylinders, so it could come nearer to the ring mount at both top and sides - there would be enough air to cool the alternator getting through in front of the mount. He also says he has made my new duct sides and they are on their way to me via David Joyce!

Get exhaust system parts out of trailer. Roll fuselage out onto drive. Remove exhaust port caps and store with copper stiffnuts. Fit exhaust downpipes with plain M8 nuts. Start trying to attach silencer to pipes with springs, then realise it would be easier to do it the other way round, so remove downpipes again. Attach each pipe to the silencer box by first fitting the springs at both ends with the pipe angled to make that easy, then tilting the pipe and levering the end into the socket on the silencer. Offer up whole assembly to engine and it's quite easy to attach the first nut on the port aft pipe, then once that is secure move on to others. Starboard forward pipe falls off while fiddling about, but it's quite easy to re-attach it with the above technique. It now becomes obvious why the M10 capscrews securing the Rotax ring mount to the Europa mount should be shortened - the end of the port bottom one is fouling the silencer. Remove whole silencer assembly again. Re-checking the manual, I note that the instruction to fit the starboard bottom capscrew head forward seems only to apply to the 914 installation. It does look as though the capscrew could be inserted from the aft side if it was shortened as directed. Measure required length (95mm) then remove screw. Mark at 95mm and cut off with angle grinder. Tidy the end on the bench grinder and run an M10 die down it to clean the threads. Offer it up to the aft end of the hole but it won't quite go in. Take off a little more (find it's actually easier with a fresh hacksaw blade than with the angle grinder) and clean up end again. This time, it only just goes in but it is now too short - only about 1 thread visible beyond the nut, so will have to order a replacement. Swap across the full-length capscrew from the port side, and fit the shortened one on the port side so that it will clear the silencer. Re-fit the silencer and snug up the nuts. The upper one on the starboard aft port is hard to get the spanner onto. Possibly a tubular spanner, or a right-angled open-end spanner will be needed. The pipe is too close to allow a socket to get onto the nut.

Offer up card template for aft baffle. Crease the top and bend down at about the aft end of the carb air filters. Slot the flange to clear the mount tubes. The top surface could come nearer to the ring mount. Mark some other places where it could be extended to close gaps. Maybe it could also be made slightly narrower and thus clear the air filters better - the distance across the outside edges of the bushes for the Lord mounts is 290mm. I may have to start the whole template again! Roll fuselage back into garage.
2681.1
7 Water trap air filter delivered. Check the space on the firewall and there should be room for it. Inlet is 1/4" NPT male, outlet is 1/4" NPT female. Will have to turn up adaptors for the 3mm (1/8") ID tubing, and arrange a way to attach it to the firewall.

Get a set of metric tubular (box) spanners from Screwfix. Try the 13mm one on the starboard rear exhaust port upper nut. It turns but rubs slightly against the pipe on the corners.

Start to modify the card template for the aft baffle. Make vertical creases on the sides and cut the bottom flanges so that the sides can bend in at the forward end enough to clear the carb air filters. Extend the sides forward to near the ring mount and upwards to the edge of the flat top. Taper off the bottom edge of the starboard side to clear the starter motor. Extend the flat top forward to near the ring mount, and remove the downward flange. (With the longer top, it might not be possible to actually get the baffle into place if it had a flange at the forward end.) In line with Neville's latest recommendations, I will bridge the small gap to the ring mount with rubber strip. Add tabs to the top of the sides so they can be riveted to the top to keep everything in shape.
2683.2
8 Circlips delivered. The 6mm E-clip fits the end of the door lock barrel perfectly. Search online for a 13mm open-ended spanner with a right-angle head; find one by Facom at Prime Tools and order it.
10 Since David Joyce is not able to be at the Gloster Strut tomorrow, drive down to his place and collect the new duct side pieces he brought from Neville Eyre. They match the paper template nicely. Take the door locks back to box 8 in the garage along with all the other door latch parts. Prepare a list of things to order from the Europa factory.
11 Order from Europa factory F33P & F33S door latch cover plates (made to order at an eye-watering £60 each - but I'm willing to spend money to save time now!), TAPK33BS pop rivets, MS21047-3 anchor nuts, M10 X 110 socket head capscrew, MS24693-C272 & MS24693-C274 CSK screws, NAS1169C10 Tinnerman washers, firewall fabric (baffle seal), EURO11 washers & TAPD46BS rivets. Karen can't find a part number for the L-bracket for the oil tank bracket but will try to find if such a part is available. 13mm offset-head spanner delivered from Prime Tools; try it on the exhaust port nut and it is perfect for the job.

Roll out fuselage. Get CD1, CD4 & CD5 out of trailer. Offer up CD4 & CD5 to ends of footwells but CD5 does not clear silencer. Loosen exhaust downpipe securing nuts and wiggle silencer. It will move forward enough to clear CD5, but that leaves the flanges on the pipes considerably non-parallel to the ports, and checking more carefully against the photo in the manual, CD5 has to be further down the face of the footwell with its bottom end about in line with the bottom of the footwell. So, restore silencer position to get the flanges as square to the ports as possible and snug up the nuts again. Make a card template traced from CD5, offer it up and and trace onto it the shape of the silencer. Check fit, then trim back to give a good 5mm clearance. Could make a completely new CD5 from the 6061 I have in stock, but it seems less bother and quite satisfactory to modify the original.

Clamp CD1 to Neville's duct side pieces and offer up to tunnel - it's a pretty snug fit. Get lower cowl out from trailer and see how duct fits into it. Sides need to be bent in at forward end. I notice that CD1 is asymmetrical - there are 2 bends required on the starboard side but only 1 on the port side. Using aluminium angles as extension vice jaws, bend both duct sides to fit against CD1, and clamp them to CD1 with 2" and 1" G-clamps. Now the assembly fits better into the lower cowl, but there is still a gap between CD1 and the cowl inlet lip. Offer up the duct assembly under the engine and it is a snug but acceptable fit between the footwells. It can come up quite close to the silencer, and the 5mm clearance called out in the manual can easily be achieved with the forward end in what appears to be a sensible place. However, both cowl and duct need to be in position before the duct support brackets CD4 & CD5 can be positioned for fitting. Try laying the duct in the lower cowl and offering up the combination to the fuselage. The duct slides backwards before I can get the first 2 cowl screws inserted so give up on that approach.

Get water radiator and oil cooler out from box 22 in trailer to check fit. Initially the water radiator seems too narrow but the duct sides are bowed out a bit so can probably be corrected to fit. The oil cooler bosses do not quite fit into the holes in CD1 and unless they do there will be a gap between the mounting flanges and the top of the duct - and the AN4-5A fixing bolts won't reach either. Put radiators and lower cowl back in trailer. Look for door hinges without success. Roll fuselage back into garage.
2687.0
12 Roll fuselage out onto drive. Trace card template onto CD5 and cut along marked line with hand nibbler. Clean up edge and offer up to footwell - the clearance from the silencer is now fine.

Peel protective film off Neville's port duct side and deburr edges. With the nibbler, open up slightly the split between the aft sections of the flange to remove interference and allow flanges to bend fully. Round roots of all flange splits with round and half-round needle files. Mark a line along all the flanges about half-way across (16mm) with a chinagraph pencil. Mark across line at 30-40mm intervals and centre-pop. Clamp it to CD1 at aft end and through oil cooler hole. Drill between the clamps at the pop marks 3.3mm, inserting a cleco as each hole is drilled. Clamp at forward end while pulling both parts as firmly into contact as possible. Continue drilling and inserting clecos. Deburr and adjust flange splits on starboard duct side as for port, start to mark out and centre-pop flanges then notice it's started to rain.

Clear garage floor and pull in fuselage. Wipe rain off tailplane tubes and apply 3-in-1 oil to them with a tissue. Wipe dry all steel parts visible on engine. Mop out port seatpan and take top soggy cushion from starboard seat in to boiler cupboard to dry off. While moving things around, notice door hinges sitting on open page of build manual - I'm sure I already looked there several times both yesterday and today! By now the rain has stopped, the sun has come out and the sky upwind looks clear so pull the fuselage out again to let the sun dry off the remaining moisture.

Finish marking out and centre-popping the starboard duct side flanges. Clamp to CD1, drill and cleco as for port. Turn fuselage round to get the sun on the other side. Get oil cooler and water radiator out of trailer and check fit in duct. Looks feasible to draw sides in to meet radiator flanges. Oil cooler inlet and outlet holes need to be enlarged from 30mm to about 40mm to clear bosses. Start to file them then decide it would be quicker (and quieter!) to cut them. Before dismantling duct, check again for fit in tunnel. It will go in and up until it touches both the silencer and the U/C swinging arm, so that is OK. Dismantle duct and cut starboard oil cooler hole by a series of nibbles then file smooth and finish with a small drum sander. Offer up oil cooler. Needs easing slightly at one side. File a bit more, smooth off and check again - now fine. Check where port slot needs to be relieved. Again nibble off most and file to finish. Check again, file a bit more and now it's fine at both sides.

It occurs to me that there is going to be a large space underneath the heat exchangers where air can pass unimpeded; will need to ask Neville what to do about that.

The duct side flanges need quite large holes to match those in CD1 for the radiator pipes. They are 35mm; I don't have a holesaw closer than 38mm but that looks to be OK.

Dark Sky app on iPhone says rain is starting again in 14 minutes so clear garage floor and pull fuselage in again.

Mark a centre for the 38mm hole on each flange. Offset the bench drill table and support duct flange on a block of wood. Cut the part-circle with the 38mm holesaw. The aluminium is a bit soft and tends to clog the saw teeth, but with light pressure and slow feed it goes through OK. Clean up edges with a file and offer up to CD1 - alignment is near-perfect. Repeat for other duct flange. Centre-pop the oil cooler mounting holes already marked through from CD1. Drill through with a long-series 3.5mm bit from inside the flange, then open up from other side to 1/4". Alignment with CD1 is not perfect, so open again to 6.5mm. The starboard pair of holes needs a little touch with a round file to draw them over slightly, and then a trial bolt will go through.

Send e-mail to Neville about the gap in the duct and the gap between duct and cowl lip at the forward end. He replies promptly saying the oil cooler should be dropped as far as the duct will permit, and that the gap at the forward end of the duct can be sealed with the rubber fabric tape. He also says to position the duct by hanging it on strings before fitting the cowl then adjusting the strings for best duct fit. I reply asking about protection of the oil pipes where they pass through the duct metalwork, how best to seal the gap between the oil cooler and the radiator, and how the rubber sealing tape can be attached to the oil cooler.

Send e-mail to Karen at Europa Aircraft asking for a straight connector for the oil cooler to be added to my order.
2694.2
13 Mark a strip of the "firewall fabric" rubber with a line about 20mm from the edge using a white paint marker. Mark inside face of starboard duct side at 50mm intervals, 10mm up from bottom edge (total 15 places). Centre-pop and drill 3.3mm. Hold the rubber strip under the duct side, with the duct edge aligned with the white line. Drill through the rubber and cleco it to the metal with EURO11 washers, doing a few holes at a time to keep the rubber aligned with the curve of the metal edge.

Neville replies to my e-mail query, saying high-temperature silicon RTV is the preferred adhesive for the rubber sealing fabric. He has fitted an aluminium bracket across the cowl to support rubber strip for sealing at the bottom of the oil cooler in one installation. He also suggests fitting a piece of aluminium to the bottom of the cowl lip to smooth the airflow down to the base of the duct.
2695.2
15 Mark, drill and cleco rubber strip to port side of duct as for starboard. Mark, centre-pop and drill 1/4" holes on flanges of water radiator. Assemble sides of duct to top (not enough clecos left so take off the rubber seals). Offer up water radiator - need to remove some clecos to avoid fouling it. Holding in position, mark through holes onto starboard duct side. Centre-pop, drill 3.3mm and open up to 1/4". Ooops, drilled out one of the rivet holes for the rubber sealing strip by mistake! Drill the correct hole out to 1/4". Offer up radiator and align it using AN4-10A bolts. Mark holes on port side and drill. Offer up radiator and insert AN4-5A bolts. Need to squeeze the sides in quite a bit to get plain nuts started on the bolts. Once all nuts fitted, it is obvious that they will be threadbound on the bolts before the flanges are in contact with the duct sides. The sides would also be quite severely distorted if shorter full-thread bolts were used. I can only conclude that the bolts must have been specified for thicker radiator flanges. An easy solution is to interpose spacers of about 3mm between the flanges and the duct sides. Cut a couple of pieces of 3mm aluminium plate roughly to size with hacksaw. Set both pieces together in milling vise on top of wavy parallels and mill one long side true. Invert and true up 2nd long side. Lay flat on parallels and true up ends, yielding 2 pieces about 88mm x 19mm. Clamp each piece to one of the radiator flanges and mark the holes through. Centre-op and drill the spacers 1/4". Assemble the radiator to the duct with the spacers and it looks fine. Offer up the oil cooler and check the spacing of its flanges from the top surface of the duct when its bottom edge is aligned with the bottom of the duct - 80mm. Adding 3mm for the thickness of the flanges gives a required maximum bolt grip length of 83mm or about 3.27". AN4-35A seems suitable with a grip length of 3.188". 2698.5
17 Review and add some items to the order with Europa Aircraft.

Look again at possibilities for mounting the fuel pressure sender, and for taking the fuel return line through the firewall. Consider that it might be desirable to have the joint in the cable to the sender aft of the firewall - but that would require mounting the sender on the port footwell and having a longer pipe across to the penetration on the starboard footwell, so may not be worthwhile.

Order the AN4-35A bolts for mounting the oil cooler, a 5/8" x 18 UNF nylon stiffnut for securing the fuel pressure sender, 12 feet of 1/8" bore polyurethane tubing, and other items, from LAS Aerospace.

In Karen's reply confirming my order with Europa Aircraft she says that she has been told by an engineer who worked on the factory aircraft that no extra bracket was fitted to the oil tank bracket. So, rather than relying on only 3 fixings, I think I will use a long screw and a spacer to provide a fixing direct onto the recessed area. A quick measurement shows that the screw will need to be about 30mm (1.2") longer than the AN525-10R10 (5/8") called out for the other 3 places, which would make it AN525-10R30 (1 7/8"). Of course now just too late to add that to my LAS Aerospace order! Check through the odd screws in various boxes but I haven't got a suitable one in stock. Create new small-drawer storage for misc screws and bolts, and another for misc rivets. In the bolts and screws drawer put AN525-10R19 & AN525-10R20. In the rivets drawer put AN470-AD4-9, TLPD-435BS, TLPK-429BS &TLPK-440BS.

Get out a length of 12mm OD aluminium round bar from stock and hacksaw off 2 off 80mm+ lengths and one 30mm+ length. Re-check carefully the distance from the aft face of the oil tank bracket to the forward face of the firewall recess, at the correct location as indicated by the baffle cutout. That is 29.5mm so deducting 1.5mm for a washer AN970-3 gives 28mm as the length of the spacer. Put the 30mm length of bar in the lathe chuck and face off. Reverse in chuck and face to 28mm length. Centre-drill then drill through 3.4mm and 4.9mm. Store in labelled bag, in oil tank box with bracket.
2699.5
18 LAS Aerospace order delivered. Store AN525 screws in small drawers.

Recall that I need 4, not 2 of the 80mm pillars for the oil cooler mounting, so hacksaw off 2 more 80mm+ lengths of the 12mm aluminium round bar.

Cleco the rubber strip to the starboard duct side in preparation for drilling extra holes each side of the one accidentally opened up to 1/4". Realise that instead I could just put a EURO11 washer on the inside of the hole. Even better would be a stepped washer that fitted into the hole, to locate it. Put the remaining stock length of 12mm aluminium round bar in the 3-jaw chuck and face it off. Turn the outside true for 2mm from the end. Turn down to 6.3mm for 1mm from the end. Check if the recently-acquired parting-off tool can be used for this job - it will need a little packing to get to centre height, and more on top of the mounting tongue because the capscrews don't go in far enough to grip it.
2700.3
20 Centre-drill workpiece and drill 3.3mm, 2.5mm deep. Set up TC insert parting tool in holder to centre height and add packing above the holder tongue to allow the capscrews to grip it. Fit the MT0 live centre to the tailstock, bring up to workpiece, lock tailstock and barrel. Line up right-hand side of parting tool with left-hand edge of turned section and feed in carefully. Inclined to squeal a bit at first but quietens down once a slow but firm cut is established. Part off the stepped washer and remove it from nose of live centre. Retract tail centre and further advance parting tool with care to check if it will cut cleanly to the centre, which it does. Deburr each end of hole in stepped washer with a large drill bit hand-held. Try the fit in the enlarged rivet hole in the duct side and it is a perfect press fit. Store stepped washer in EURO11 drawer.

Set up one of the 80mm+ pieces of 12mm round bar in the 3-jaw chuck and set end to run true by eye. Face off end, centre drill and start to drill 3.4mm, then realise I can't drill through as the bit is nowhere near long enough! Instead fit a 3.5mm long-series bit (110mm). This can only be done by sliding the tailstock almost completely off the lathe bed. Slowly drill all the way through the workpiece.

Don't have any long series drill bits larger than 5mm in stock, so get a 5-pack (smallest available quantity) of 6.5mm x 148mm bits from Toolstation. Shorten the shank of one to give overall length of about 110mm like the 3.5mm bit; quite easy to cut with a hacksaw as the shank is not hardened. Clean up the end on the bench grinder.

Fit the shortened bit in the tailstock chuck and feed it in to enlarge the bore to 6.5mm. Have to do that by sliding the whole tailstock at first as the tailstock clamp is almost out of engagement with the lathe bed; and that proves a convenient way to continue right through the workpiece. Remove workpiece from chuck and make a small scratch at about 80m from the faced end. Replace reversed in chuck and true end by eye. Face to near the scratch. Remove and check length with vernier caliper, then return to lathe and face off to bring it to 80mm length. Remove burrs from ends. Do a trial assembly of this spacer on the AN4-35A bolt with a plain nut to mount the oil cooler in the duct. Quite tricky to reach the nut on the oil cooler mounting tab. The assembly looks good, with the bottom edge of the oil cooler nicely aligned with the bottom edge of the duct.

Repeat the process of making a spacer from the 2nd piece of 80mm+ round bar. Find that a little paraffin oil (kerosene) on the drill bit helps to stop the aluminium picking up on the tip of the drill and makes cutting a little easier. Fit it to the oil cooler. Repeat again for the 3rd piece. With 3 spacing pillars fitted, the assembly looks fine and is already pretty rigid. The spaces at the sides of the oil cooler will need to be blocked - it looks as though the rubber sealing strip would be OK for that. Getting a bit tired standing at the lathe, so stop there for tonight.
2704.4
21 Repeat machining process to make 4th spacer pillar. Clean down lathe from the handfuls of swarf generated. Fit pillar to oil cooler with AN4-35A bolt and plain nut. Everything looks good and is very rigid. Try grommets SP93-A48 in holes for oil cooler hoses and they are just right. 2706.2
24 Wonder if the high-temperature silicon RTV would be enough by itself to fill some of the smaller gaps around radiator and oil cooler. Find an offcut of aluminium extrusion with a slot 8mm wide in it. Apply a bead of RTV to the slot and it fills it easily.

Take clecos out and disassemble cooling duct. Deburr all rivet holes with hand-held 8mm drill bit. Spread Duralac on inside face of duct starboard side flange and assemble to top with clecos. Remove clecos one by one and replace with TAPD46BS rivets, dipping each rivet in Duralac before inserting and pulling. Accidentally destroy one rivet because I didn't change the riveter nose nut - although the rivet stems would enter the fitted smallest nose, they wouldn't eject after pulling. Insert the rivets in the area around the radiators from the inside to provide most clearance there. Wipe off clecos with white spirit as they come out. Once all rivets pulled, wipe off excess Duralac with white spirit on tissue. Repeat whole operation on port side of duct.

Mark, centre pop and drill 3.0mm the door hinges in the locations called out in manual. The pins are quite a loose fit in the hinges and tend to drop out if handled carelessly. Take out the pin and drill each hinge separately, replacing pin before moving to next one, to keep pins correctly associated with hinges. Drill holes out to 4.8mm and deburr.

The silicon RTV has cured OK on the piece of aluminium extrusion and seems to be fine for sealing gaps that size.
2709.9
26 Clean and degrease port side of cooling duct and port rubber seal with acetone-soaked tissue. Fit rubber to duct with clecos and washers. Replace each cleco in turn by a rivet, dipping rivet in Duralac before insertion and setting. Once all rivets set, wipe off excess Duralac with white spirit. Repeat process for starboard side, inserting the stepped washer in the accidentally enlarged hole with a coating of Duralac. Fit a long nozzle to a tube of silicon RTV and squeeze it in between the bottom edge of the duct and the rubber, on each side of the duct, to make a good seal. Wipe off excess RTV and clamp the rubber against the metal in places where it is tending to bow away.

Lay the starboard door upside-down on a piece of carpet, with its bottom outer face resting against the WorkMate. Clamp it lightly to the WorkMate to stop it sliding down. Lay a straightedge across the hinge tangs and mark a line on each tang corresponding with the edge of the door frame. The hinges are already numbered 1 to 4 and have arrows indicating forward. Check their fit in the fuselage recesses - the starboard recesses are slightly narrower than the port ones - and mark the hinges for best fit. #1 is port forward, #2 is starboard forward, #3 is port aft and #4 is starboard aft. Measure hinges; the centreline of the pin is 22mm from the edge of the hinge. The hinge pin is to be 45mm from the door edge line. Mark lines on each door tang at 45mm and 23mm (=45-22) from the door edge line. Lightly clamp the straightedge across the door tangs against the 23mm line. Offer up hinges #2 & #4 in their respective positions against the straight-edge and check that the hinge pins line up with the 45mm line. Mark through hinge holes onto tangs with fine felt-tip pen. Remove hinges and straight-edge and centre-pop marks. Drill 3.0mm in 4 places, trying to keep as vertical as possible to the tang inner surface. Drill out to 4.8mm. Try hinges for fit with screws inserted and all looks good. The hinges will need to be carefully countersunk for the CSK-head screws.
2712.9
28 Collect Europa parts package from local DHL delivery point. Add them to the parts database.
29 Order some cable tie mounts from CPC in the hope that I can use them to support the filter for the manifold pressure sensor.

File small parts from Europa factory order. Check fit of F33 on door - fits well but seems to go further aft than I expected.

Remove clamps from rubber seals on duct.

Countersink the hole in the door halves of the starboard hinges. Door tangs also need to be countersunk slightly to allow screws to sit flush with hinges. 1/4" socket for MS21042-3 stiffnut is 9.5mm OD. Counterbore outer face of tang for nuts with 10mm drill bit, which on the first hole grabs after penetrating initial surface and goes alarmingly deep. However, it turns out to be just about the right depth. Level the bottom of the counterbore with 10mm slot drill used at very low speed. Do the other counterbores with the drill running as slowly as possible, which is more controllable. Apply grease to stiffnuts and assemble hinges to door, aligning with straight-edge before finally tightening. Note that outer screws of each pair are protruding slightly beyond the door surface. Also the aft holes on each tang need to be counterbored a little more as the nuts are slightly proud. Grease hinge pin holes (to help keep pins in place) and assemble hinges. Offer up the door to the fuselage aperture. Looks as though the hinges will not lie flat on the fuselage mounting areas - flox pads will be needed. Take door off and check how well hinges close with AN525-10R10 screws in place. The heads of the countersunk screws and the AN525 washer-head screws meet just before the hinge leaves become parallel, so the fuselage mount will need to be angled slightly to accommodate that. (In passing, wonder why countersunk screws were not specified for both hinge leaves.) In preparation for making flox pads on the fuselage starboard hinge mounting area, apply parcel tape to the hollow inboard of the mount, to prevent epoxy/flox adhering there. Remove hinges from door. Check fit of door again, with paint marker applied to fuselage to find where door is making contact, and fettle door edges a bit more to get the door sitting more flush with fuselage skin around the hinge area.

Fit adaptors MMA5-8-105S to oil cooler, and fit HEF3-8 hose connectors.

Find an old sponge and cut pieces off it to act as springs between the door hinge leaves. Re-fit hinges to doors, again lining up with straight-edge before fully tightening screws. Cut strips of polyethylene sheet and attach them to the hinge tangs so they can wrap around the hinges to prevent epoxy/flox getting onto the hinges.
2716.6
31 Post query on Matronics e-mail list about screws protruding above door hinge tangs.

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