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Europa #435 G-RODO Build Journal - 2020 08

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8 Move car and roll out fuselage onto drive.

Check card templates for joining starboard NACA duct to eyeball vent and trim slightly to improve fit. Trace outlines of templates onto an offcut strip of pre-preg with a felt-tip pen and cut out with a junior hacksaw. Check the fit of each and file as needed. Abrade edges, and outer surface for later BID layups. Abrade mating surfaces around duct and vent. Degrease all mating surfaces with acetone, taking care not to linger on duct.

Mix a batch of Araldite Rapid (5-min) and add flox to stiffen. Apply to edges of top piece and to mating areas. Offer up the pre-preg piece and press into place. Wipe off some excess epoxy. About to bond the middle piece, but the epoxy has exothermed in the mixing pot, despite taking care to keep it out of direct sun. In fairness, the thermometers in the headrest are showing 37C/38C!

Mix another batch of Araldite Rapid and add flox. Apply to the middle piece and mating areas and place the piece. Wipe off excess epoxy. Discard the remainder of this epoxy and mix fresh with flox for the last piece. When I come to offer up the bottom piece of pre-preg, I find the middle piece is slightly higher than it should be - must have dislodged it when wiping up. Anyway, fit the bottom piece as well as possible and leave to cure.

Try the card templates on the port side. The top one is close enough, but the other 2 have to be re-made, using the originals as guides. Trace the outlines onto pre-preg and hacksaw out. Fettle them all to fit. Abrade and degrease all mating surfaces and edges. Mix a batch of Araldite Rapid and add less flox, making it easier to spread. Manage to coat and bond both top and middle pieces before the mix goes off. Mix anther batch of epoxy & flox and bond the bottom piece.

Roll fuselage into garage and tidy up. 		3342.8
13 Smooth off some rough patches of epoxy/flox on the pre-preg pieces joining the starboard NACA duct to the eyeball vent mount, and file down some protruding edges. Degrease all around with acetone. Get out some offcuts of BID and from them cut a few small pieces to overlay on the duct-to-vent area, cover the joints, and, (I hope) make it all airtight. 3343.2
14 Mix a peg-1 (24g) batch of Ampreg 21. Spread it onto the pre-preg pieces joining the starboard NACA duct to the eyeball vent mount. Apply the pre-cut pieces of BID and stipple them down. Cut some more small pieces of BID to reinforce critical areas and add them to the layup. Apply plenty of peel-ply in small pieces and leave to cure. 22C, 41% RH in cockpit. The remainder of the epoxy in the mixing cup has exothermed by the time I've finished. Fish out the cured hot lump with a mixing stick and put a label on the small remainder. 3344.2
15 Remove peel-ply from yesterday's layup. Quite tedious as I had left almost no free ends so have to start each peel by poking at the end with the X-Acto knife until I can get enough lifted to grab with the pliers. Remove eyeball vent from mount to smooth off some protruding glass hairs. Re-fit vent. Smooth off some small areas that the peel-ply missed. Re-position the fuel return line and it pops into place very comfortably.

Remove some odds and ends from the cockpit and tidy things up to make room for me to sit in the port seat. Dress the wires from the firewall over to the starboard footwell to keep them out of the way of my feet.

Climb in and across to port side. Add some more cushions at my back so I'm nearer the work area. Rub down some rough spots of epoxy-flox around the pre-preg pieces. Abrade all the layup areas and degrease with acetone. Cut 5 pieces of BID to cover the pre-preg joints and have good overlap at the bottom edge where there is a slight gap. Put each piece of BID on a small piece of polyethylene sheet for wetting out. Cut plenty of small strips of peel-ply ready for use.

Mix a peg-1 (24g) batch of Ampreg 21. Wet out the 5 pieces of BID. Apply each in turn to the duct-vent joint area, peel off polyethylene sheet and stipple into place. Not sure if I actually put each piece in the originally intended location, but all the joints (particularly the bottom one) seem covered. Apply the numerous small pieces of peel-ply, trying to leave better free tails this time, and leave to cure. 22C, 37% RH in cockpit. 		3347.3
16 22C, 41% RH. Epoxy in sample cup well cured.
17 ticktick Climb into cockpit and remove peel-ply from Saturday's layup. Remove eyeball vent and file off a few protruding whiskers of glass. Note while I have it open that the airflow between duct and vent will be anything but smooth!

Prepare to fit F14 Instrument Module and notice while collecting screws for it that one of the screws on the joint between the forward and aft starboard baffles is not done up. Access to it is awkward because of the carburettor in the way, but manage to get it done up tight using a ball-ended 1/8" hex key held in pliers.

Offer up IM to firewall and dress wires through it and out of the main panel aperture. Fit 8 off AN525-10R12 screws around the top and 4 off AN525-10R10 screws along the bottom.

Get out the panel wiring support tray and try it for fit. I had forgotten that the throttle lever needs to be at idle for it to sit properly, but it's still not quite right as it was set up before the vents were installed. However a bit of relieving of the notch on the end of the support strut with the powerfile does the trick and it fits OK. Place each of the main & radio panels face-down on it to check that they will actually sit safely, which they do - I don't think I checked that when I made up the tray, probably because the panels were not readily to hand at the time.

Draw the comm radio antenna coax through the bush at the starboard side of the IM and then out through the radio panel aperture. With a bit more fiddling because of the tape flags and the differing wire lengths, draw in the harness from the transponder through the bush and bring it out the same way.

Check the roll servo wiring diagram and change the 24AWG wires to 22AWG. Update the wirebook. Print out the wire labels for the 500 group (navigation, wing leveller, transponder). Try feeding 20AWG and 22AWG wires through the starboard footwell conduits and that is reasonably easy in either direction. Consider how to terminate and label the wires at the bottom (servo) end and conclude it would be best to do that out in the open and then draw them into the conduit as a bunch. Mark and cut the 20AWG wire to length while it is still in-situ, then take it out again. Label one end of it as wire 522, with the heatshrink sleeve about 75mm from the end to keep it outside the connector shell. Put an insulating tape flag on the other end. Cut a piece of 22AWG to the same length and label it 521 in the same way. Stagger the position of the tape flag so as not to have them all together in the final wire bundle. 		3350.5
18 Cut to length and label wires 520, 519, 518, 517 and 515, measuring against wire 522, and staggering the tape flags further from the end for each one.

Solder the 7 wires to the DE-09S connector. Slide a short piece of heatshrink sleeving onto the wire bundle from the free end (would have been easier to do it before soldering!) and shrink on where the cable clamp will go. Assemble the clamp and shell but the clamp is a bit loose in the shell allowing the wires to flex slightly - not good for the soldered joints! Disassemble it and wrap some insulating tape around the heatshrink where the clamp fits, and further out around the wire bundle where the shell aperture sits. Re-assemble and that looks much better with the taped wires held quite firmly by the shell.

To make it easy to pull the wire bundle through the footwell conduits, slide a length of braided sleeving over the free end, long enough to cover all the tape flags. That is just too big to go through the first hurdle, the hole in the face of the thigh support. Enlarge that hole a bit with small and large Perma-Grit files until the sleeving will pass through. However, it baulks a short way into the conduit and can't be encouraged to go any further. Give up on that idea and instead shrink a short length of heatshrink sleeving onto the very end of the wire bundle, leaving the tape flags to fend for themselves. This pushes through much more easily and the insulating tape flags are flexible enough to fold in without tearing (as paper ones have done before) when they reach the conduit entrances. Take the bundle up through the bush into the F14 Instrument Module. Fit the connector to the roll servo and tighten the securing screws. Dress the wire bundle neatly between the connector and the hole in the face of the thigh support.

Lace the bundle out from its entry to the IM to about where it should connect to the Digitrak DT2 autopilot control head. Remove the heatshrink sleeve from the end of the bundle. 		3354.0
21 Try pushing a length of 22AWG wire through the starboard conduit between headrest and panel for wire 332 but it baulks and won't pass the chicane in the middle. Try the 1.5mm 250lb nylon line and it won't go through either. I've got some short offcut lengths of RG400 which is quite stiff, so try a piece of that and it goes through easily. It looks as though wires could be pulled through one at a time by taping them to the RG400, which cold then be pushed back for the next one.

Look for the stall warner harness but it is not in box 26 as last documented. After a fruitless check of the few boxes left in the trailer, find the stall warner stuff in the starboard baggage bay well. Check the lengths of the wiring harness against the conduits and decide that I will replace the supplied harness completely, to avoid multiple joints.

Get out the OAT sensor for the RTC-1 and check how far its cable will reach. It's not long enough to get through the side cockpit conduit so will have to be joined somewhere. It seems good to bring the double-insulated cable through the fuselage side for protection, but the joint would then be dangling beside the seat which is not attractive. Perhaps if the joint is made outside a bush could be used to protect the wiring passing through the fuselage wall. Next question is the vertical placement of the hole; the hole for the stall warner tubing is quite low, but there seems to be merit in keeping the wiring hole higher, remembering that the strobe wires need to pass over the spar to get to the connexions aft of it. 		3355.4
22 Amend stall warner wiring diagram to show that I am discarding the supplied harness. Also tidy up some other diagrams, update the wirebook and add page numbers in PDFpen Pro .

Lead the end of the 22AWG stock in through the radio panel aperture, behind the fuseblocks, down through the starboard bush and tape it to the forward end of the RG400 cable in the starboard cockpit conduit. Draw the wire aft through the conduit as wire 332. Consider again where the hole should be in the fuselage side and eventually decide on a spot forward of the spar hole, near the top of the aperture. On the inside it will be close to the spar pin retaining bracket but clear of the hole in the bracket for the stall warner wire, and also clear of the tail of the spar pin. Drill a 10mm hole for a 6mm ID grommet and insert it. Draw the wire out through the grommet, cut to length at the panel end and fit a tape flag on each end (as I haven't yet printed out the proper labels for these wires).

Push the RG400 back through the conduit, tape end of the wire stock to it and draw in wire 333. Cut to length and add tape flags.

Push in the RG400 for the next wire. 		3356.3
25 Re-check and update wire label database for wire and cable routes. Now it's easy to select wires for any particular route. Print out all the wire labels for those passing through the starboard cockpit and baggage bay conduits.

Shrink the labels onto the external ends of wires 332 & 333. Cut the ends staggered and fit blade connectors. Shorten the cable on the MGL OAT sensor, trim the ends staggered and fit matching blade connectors. Get out 4 off 4mm composite cable clips. Mark on the fuselage the position of the OAT sensor, the wiring to it, and the positions of the clips. Abrade the clip locations. 		3357.2
26 Add location link tables for wires and cables and enter relevant data, providing a useful cross-check between the routes and the locations. Update the main circuit diagram to reflect the current wiring plan for the magneto switches, and update the wirebook.
27 David Joyce posts on the Matronics Europa e-mail list that he has some spare memory foam; I make a successful bid for some and arrange to collect later.

Respond to a query on the Matronics AeroElectric e-mail list, mentored by Bob Nuckolls, about using the lug on the starter motor as the engine earth point, and include a link to a picture of my starter wiring. Bob responds with the suggestion that the Nyvin wire I have used is too stiff, and will put undue stress on the terminals under engine vibration. He suggests using welding cable which has a large number of very fine strands and is very flexible.
28 After a quick online search, order 1 metre each of orange and black 25 mm sq welding cable and some M6 lugs from CEF . Bob Nuckolls says either soldering or crimping is fine for these big wires as long as the joint is airtight. Also order on eBay some adhesive-lined heatshrink of the style that Bob recommends for supporting soldered terminals.

Thinking about having to remove the aft baffle to fit a new starter cable, notice that I have installed the vertical section of the port footwell conduit so as to block access to one of the baffle fixing bolts. Looks like I will have to shorten the conduit slightly unless I can get a slim open-end spanner on the bolt head.

Using RG400 as before, pull 22AWG for wire 614 through the starboard cockpit conduit and down through the hole in the spar pin support. Make it long enough to reach any corner of the seatpan recess. Shrink a label on that end, cut the other end to length and put a tape flag on it.

Thinking about the route for the wires to the overhead panel, I thought I had installed a conduit between the starboard side and the top centre behind the D-panel but inspection proves that has not happened. Draw a doubled length of sisal rope through a length of the small conduit to keep it in shape and bend it to the approximate curve of the fuselage with the heat gun. Once cooled and satisfied with the shape, pull out the rope.

I will need to order some 90-sec epoxy for the various cable clips - for the conduit just prepared and for the OAT sensor wiring. 		3358.1
29 Search online for suppliers of 90-second epoxy adhesive and order several packs of Araldite Instant from Robert Dyas .

Check the orientation of the stall warner vacuum switch - port A, same side as the electrical terminals, is the one to use for the tubing from the wing. That makes the organisation of things under the seat quite easy. Will need to carve a recess in the starboard seat foam for the sensor and the tube & wiring, remembering that there needs to be enough of a service loop to allow it to be withdrawn so the switching point can be adjusted by the person in the P2 seat in flight.

Draw in 22AWG stock as wire 616 through cockpit and baggage bay starboard conduits using the RG400 cable as before. Then take it into the roof conduit and finally through the braided sleeving for crossing the top-hat reinforcement. Shrink a label onto the overhead end of it and then remember that it needs to go through the newly-curved piece of conduit. It will need to be taken back and re-routed through that before the panel end can be cut to length.

Order some ratchet ring spanners from Heamar . 		3358.4
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