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Europa #435 G-RODO Build Journal - 2016 12

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3 Give door handles another coat of walnut oil and leave to soak in. Clear floor and roll fuselage out onto drive. Hang cooling duct on ropes as before. Fit lower cowl with just 4 screws each side, making sure it is snugged up to the propshaft before tightening. Tape a broad-point felt-tip pen to a small piece of thick board, so the point is about 28mm above the underside level of the board. Reach in from aft end of cowl and slide the board up along the bottom of the cowl, so that the point touches the inside of the duct sides and makes a line 28mm above the floor of the cowl. Check from forward end that the lines go as far forward as necessary. Take off cowl. Remove duct. Line on port side is further up from the bottom edge of the side than the starboard one, which is not surprising as the port side of the duct seemed to be lower. Offer up water radiator to see if trimming the sides will affect its fitting. Seems to be no problem. Fit oil cooler to duct to check how it will be affected by the trimming. It was originally positioned with its bottom corner nearly flush with the bottom of the duct sides. It might still be OK, as the trimming of the sides is partly to accommodate the curve of the cowl, but it will need a final check assembly of duct and cowl with cooler fitted to see if the pillars need to be shortened (and different length bolts used!). Remove oil cooler from duct. Decide to take off about 10mm from each duct side to see how that fits. On each duct side, mark a line, parallel to the one at 28mm from the cowl floor, 10mm up from the bottom of the duct side at the aft end, tapering to about 5mm up where the duct is shallowest. Trim each duct side to that line. Try using aviation snips, but get better results with hand nibbler. Smooth off cut edges with coarse file. Find a sheet of packing that can keep silencer and duct the recommended 5mm apart. Hang duct with packing interposed. Fit cowl as before. Duct does seem to be a better fit now and the packing sheet can be moved slightly, so not under excessive pressure. As before, the port side of the duct seems to be lower than the starboard one. The fit at the forward end seems a bit odd; the bottom of the starboard side tapers in so much that it looks as though the gap may not be sealed by the rubber strip. Getting dark so roll fuselage back into garage. Wipe the excess oil off the door handles. 2733.6
27 Drill holes 5/32" over DL02P & DL02S in a pattern like that in the manual illustration, and deburr them.

File edges of DL05 guides to an easy fit inside DL09 springs.

Taper end of square on DL04S shaft slightly with a flat needle file to ease entry. In small stages, carefully file square hole in DL03S inner handle to be a push fit on the shaft. Assemble both handles to DL02S plate with bolt and washer to check fit - looks good. Open holes in DL05 guides and DL03 handles to 4.8mm for AN3 bolts. Assemble DL05 guide to DL03S inner handle with AN3-5A bolt, AN960-10L washers & plain nut. Fit OR9 spacer to DL02 stud and compress DL09 spring to fit DL05 slot over stud. Fit DL03S handle to DL04 shaft with AN3-12A bolt & AN960-10 washer. Handle operates freely and spring holds it firmly at each end of travel.

Repeat filing and fitting on DL04P & DL03P and assemble to DL02P as above.

Check pushrod lengths in printed manual, mark and cut 2 off 147mm and 2 off 754mm from the 1m lengths of B1RM.

Looks as though it should be as easy to mill the pushrod ends as to file them, so set up one 147mm length in the milling vise, locate end and side with a 4mm end mill and cigarette-paper and zero the dials. Raise the mill head and start to mill a slot 24mm long from the end.		 2736.7
28 Continue milling the slot deeper. Find I can take a cut of 18 divisions on the vertical feed, which is 2 cuts per revolution of the dial. However, after several cuts like this and just before the cutter is due to break through to the other side of the workpiece, it gets really noisy and slow to cut. When I eventually withdraw the cutter from the end of the slot, I find the flutes are packed tightly with swarf. I can't pick it out while the cutter is in the collet so have to take it out. It takes considerable effort to dislodge the swarf with a sharp point - it's almost welded on. Once it's clear, return cutter to collet and spray some lubricant onto cutter and slot. Run the cutter along the slot several times again, starting from near the top and lowering a turn each cut to clean it up. Continue cutting with plenty of lubrication when it reaches the bottom of the slot and then breaks through after a couple more cuts. Run the cutter lightly across the end of the workpiece to clean that off. 2737.3
29 Remove workpiece from milling vise. The slot is not quite truly in the centre (mainly because of the swarf picking up on the cutter), but that is not too important. Think about how the angle at the inner end of the slot might be cut. Haven't got a round, square or flat file that will fit in the slot. Draw up the required angle in CADintosh - 33.7 degrees. The digital level is too large to set on the workpiece so can't think of a way to set that angle.

Set up the second 147mm length of B1RM pushrod horizontal in the milling vise and with the Y dial zeroed locate the end before clamping. Check that the X dial is still correct for locating the back side. Wind the X feed in 7mm to centre the cutter on the workpiece. Spray lubricate and cut the slot as before with 24mm Y feed.		 2738.8
30 Download Rotax Service Letter [SL-912-016 R1_SL-914-014 R1_Essential information regarding engine behavior, performance and manifold pressure data for ROTAX Engine Type 912 and 914 (Series)] with advice about avoiding detonation etc.
31 Order a small cheap digital level on eBay that looks small enough to set up the B1RM pushrods for cutting the angled part of the slot (and will have other uses where the big one will not fit). As a fall-back position, buy a flat file from Toolstation that is just thin enough to fit the slot.
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