Day 3--Left Wing Finishing, Motor mount, & surprises!

Hello Everyone!
By the Two Weeks to Taxi timeline, we are now 25% of the way to our first taxi and about two weeks from the first flight of our airplane!!  After today, we are actually a couple of hours behind, but nothing we can't make up.  Today was again filled with new experiences (trend item!) as we finished the left wing and mounted the engine to the fuselage.  In addition, while we were working some things magically 'appeared' on the airplane...we had to scurry to find the folks who put them in so we could see how things are done.  Here's the wrap-up!

First, here's the progress on the left and right wings:

This morning we put the right wing up in the rivet room next to the nearly-riveted left wing.  Immediately after this photo Ryan put the upper skin surfaces on the right wing and prepped them for riveting.

This is an example of my sometimes not-so-Zen-like qualities...didn't put full pressure on the rivet head prior to depressing the trigger.  The rivet bucked in the back but obviously isn't flush in the front.  This hole had to get the bad rivet drilled out and a new one put in.  For the record, Tracy's current pneumatic rivet score is 100%...no errors.  I married up.

Left wing right before it came off the jig--skin rivets complete!  I didn't count them.  There are a lot.

This picture clearly shows the different between flush rivets (top) and universal head rivets (the nubby ones below).  In this case the flush rivets are for aerodynamics over the leading edge of the wing.  The black circles are rivet holes that were filled with clecos until the final riveting.

Once off the jig, the next step is to put the "cove skins" on the wing.  The "cove" is at the trailing edge of the wing and it's where the flap fits (inboard) and the aileron fits (outboard).  If you look at the curve of the metal, it looks like it seats the leading edge of another wing--which it does, sort of.  Our flaps and ailerons are each shaped like small wings of their own.  When retracted they fit into the coves with minimal clearance, helping the airflow over the wing.

One of the interesting things about securing the Cove skins: they're actually glued to the top wing skins, not riveted.  The glue is Loctite epoxy, which is nasty stuff (hence the gloves and respirator) but should seal the trailing edge from moisture.  Check out all the clamps--only 1/4" gap between them to ensure a tight seal.  The epoxy takes about 3 hours to dry...so we will remove the clamps tomorrow.

I missed a picture of the fuel tank going in, but hope to get it on the Right wing.  In this picture the fuel tank is already in with the fuel lines run, and Tracy has almost finished riveting in the wing root rib.  The cylinder in the middle of the tank is the electronic fuel gauge--you can see the grounding wire coming out of it.  The fuel from this tank (the primary tank) comes out of the lower-most, silver-dollar shaped hole.  It's gravity feed so the airplane doesn't depend on electronic systems to get fuel to the motor.  Genius.

On the contrary, fuel from the outer wing tank (the auxiliary tank) has to get from the outboard of the wing through fuel lines to the main tank.  It does this with an electric fuel pump (above), which Ryan put in today along with the fuel lines.

Today was also Engine mounting day!  There's a lot of small but time-consuming work to be done on the engine during the mounting process:

First, the engine mount!  This is one of the first things Tracy did this morning.  Note the four big holes on the front end--these are the mounting points.  Unlike a car, you don't mount an airplane engine from all the way 'round--only the one side.  Therefore, the mounting points are reinforced and the engine/prop balance has to be perfect.  Those tight tolerances are one of the driving factors for aircraft engine price.

I caught Matt studying the manual for our motor--good on 'im.  With most of the work we're doing, the techs have the steps memorized, so they don't reference a checklist during a step--only at the end of the step, to make sure they didn't miss anything.  In this case, Matt is being more deliberate because of the various motor types to go on the Sportsman.  He is 'de-pickling' the engine and getting it ready for Sportsman-specific applications.

One of the Sportsman-specific applications is this gold-colored heat shroud that Tracy put over the main fuel pump this morning.  In some aircraft the airflow inside the engine cowling might be enough to keep the fuel pump cool--apparently not so in the Sportsman.

Check out the detail in the safety wire.  Today we learned that when safety wiring, you have to check: direction of twist, number of twists per inch (varies by application) and bend direction.  Note that if anything pulls on the safety wire, it will pull in a clockwise direction--tightening the bolt.  Ben demo'd this safety wire and it took him a good 10 minutes to put it in.

Mom, you asked how to get an engine on an airplane--here's your answer!  The engine weighs around 400 pounds.  No way we're going to lift it without hoist power.

Here's a picture of the engine (gold) on the mount (grey) with the massive shock-absorbing bushings (black) on both sides of the mount.  The bushings look almost the same but are not.  The right one is a "compression bushing" which is designed to dampen the compression forces as the motor pulls on the bolt head/washer.  The bushing between the mount and motor is a "tension bushing" which handles different vibrations as the motor tries to pull away from the mount.  On the bottom of the mount, the order of the bushings is reversed (because the order of the motor's push-pull effect is reversed).

This is my exact view to the lower-left engine bolt.  The working space in here is pretty tight.  It took Matt & me about 45 minutes to get all 4 cotter pins into the 4 bolts with the correct bend & cut length on the pins.  That's longer than it took to mount the engine. 

Finally, here are some of the random additions we either worked on or had to just keep up with today!

I caught Bryce putting a radio antenna into the tail.

Here's the radio antenna from the top of the tail, right before Bryce caps it.  Since our fuselage is carbon fiber, all of our antennas have to be external.  If they were internal or contacted the carbon fiber, the signals would get distorted since carbon fiber conducts electricity.  In this case, the exterior antenna (coat-hanger-lookin' thingie) goes through the rectangular cutout through non-conductive fiberglass glue to the antenna.  the antenna cable runs down the rudder and forward through the fuselage to the avionics panel.

Another thing Tracy worked on today is the control yoke.  Our aircraft has center sticks, not a traditional yoke--but the sticks are connected mechanically by this bar, which is still called a control yoke.  So if one stick moves--they both move.

Three pulleys: Left Flap, Right Flap, and aileron (remember the aileron crossover cable from yesterday?  That's why there's only one, i think.  I'll make sure tomorrow).  One thing is certain--these are right between and directly under the front seats (between the two control sticks).

The springs on the rudder cables (up by the firewall) are centering springs--to pull the rudder (or the tailwheel in taxi operations) back to neutral after a rudder push.

This is our future rear seating/cargo area.  The entire fuselage from the first bulkhead all the way to the tail will be empty to keep the plane within center-of-gravity tolerances.

Whew!  That's a lot.  Y'all gotta let me know when this gets boring. 
On another note--the Arlington fly-in and airshow is this Friday.  In this part of the country there are a lot of vintage and unique aircraft--we saw some of them flying in today.  We should get a small break on Friday and I'll try to post some photos of the happenings around the airfield here!

See you tomorrow! -zen

Day 2--Firewall, Wing assembly, and rivets!

Hello everyone! Thanks for following along--we hope you're enjoying the pics from here in Arlington.  Let us know if you have any questions or would like to see something else in the blog, and we'll try to make it happen!

Today was another great day for learning, with more 'firsts' for each of us.  Today we learned how to use a Nico press to fasten cables, attach cables to bell cranks & pulleys, use pull rivets, drill carbon fiber, countersink holes for flush rivets, cut & bend fuel line pipes, and use swage locks.  The list goes on!  Here are some photos of the things we were working on today.

First, here are the guts of the right wing coming together:

This is one of the flap pulleys in the right wing.  Each wing has two flap cables--one to deploy the flap and the other to retract it.  The big cotter pin next to the pulleys keeps the cables seated in the groove.  The third cable sitting above the pulley is one of the aileron cables--the other one isn't installed yet.

This is the aileron "secondary" cable (the primary cable is in the cockpit--the secondary is in the wing; we will attach the two later).  It uses a similar type of pulley system.  The other aileron cable, the "crossover" cable, isn't installed yet in this photo but also goes through this pulley.  As its name suggest, the 'crossover' cable works from wing to wing in order to ensure symmetric aileron travel during flight.

This is the completed aileron cable assembly.  The cables go to a bellcrank which attaches to a pushrod (far right, protruding from the aft wing spar).  The pushrod actuates the aileron in flight.

This is a closeup of the cable fittings we use.  The clamp that looks like an oil drum is a Nico clamp.  We hand-pressed them with a Nico clamp, then put heat-shrink around the assembly to keep it clean and prevent wire frays at the end.  The Nico clamp actually creates a strong point in the cable, so it is extremely unlikely to fail.

Tracy and Ryan.  Tracy is hand-riveting the right aileron trim tab.

This is the completed right aileron trim tab.  Nice work, Tracy!  Note the inspection hole in the upper right of the photo...

...Inside the inspection hole is the electric motor that actuates the trim.  Our airplane has 2-axis electric trim (pitch and roll), so we will have a motor in the tail as well.

Our left wing already has the 'guts' in it required to rivet the top skins on, so we did about 85% of the rivet work on it this afternoon.

 

Left Wing ready to rivet.  The porcupine look is the Cleco clamps which act like removable rivets. The hole in the wing is a fuel filling port--there are two on each wing for our 4 total fuel tanks.

The rivets are covered with Rivet Tape, which serves to hold them in place and also helps keep the rivet gun from damaging the surface when it impacts.

This is the inside of the left wing looking from inboard.  On the left you can see the rivets prior to riveting--once riveted they are more flush.  About 3 feet down into the wing you can see the first spar with the lightening holes cut in it.  The first 3 feet of wing are empty right now but will eventually contain the primary left fuel tank.  Our tanks are welded aluminum and contribute to the wing's final structural makeup.

Finally, today we installed the Engine Firewall:

Tracy with Matt drilling firewall holes.

Tracy's tool is a 90deg drill--think "dentist drill."  It's used for tight spaces.  We tried to get a picture of Eric working inside the fuselage but there wasn't room for the camera...just kidding.

This is the interior side of the firewall, with insulation to reduce unwanted cabin heat from the engine.

This is the exterior of the firewall, with cleco clamps holding the firewall to the fuselage.

Eric is using a countersink cutting tool to sink the wells for the flush rivets to the exact depth.  Matt is holding a vacuum next to the process to keep down carbon fiber dust...which irritates skin and also can short out electrical circuitry if it accumulates.

This is a typical buzz of activity around the airplane...yep, that's how you do it in two weeks!

This is the near-complete firewall with the flush rivets in.  I only had to drill out one of them & redo...lucky.  The red seal you see is fire retardant caulk.

Three months preggers and building a plane--my wife is awesome.  But Tired!  See you tomorrow!

Day 1: Like kids in a candy store!

Day 1 complete, folks--and neither one of us can wipe the grins from our faces!  It was a whirlwind adventure, with both of us getting a lot of 'firsts.'  Some highlights:

--First hand riveting, pneumatic riveting, impact gun riveting, safety-wiring, torque-wrench use, cleco usage, castle nut/cotter pin bolt assembly, aluminum deburring....

Overall, we can say that the "Two Weeks to Taxi" program is exactly what we signed up for.  There are five Glasair employees--Ben, Mike, Bryce, Ryan, and Tyler--permanently assigned to putting our airplane together and gainfully employing us while doing it.  They are constantly working on various parts of the airplane and calling for our 'help' when it's time for us to learn about a section of the airplane, or a specific component.  Instead of trying to describe it, here's a string of pictures:

Completed Aircraft (from the last 2-week build period) in the hangar.  Our fuselage is about to go on the yellow stands in the back.

This is our personalized checklist of signoff items for the Two Weeks to Taxi build....

...this is the entire checklist!

Ben shows us the fuselage mold, on which a fiberglass fuselage half is currently setting.  Ours is carbon-fiber and is already done.  The fuselage is made of two layers or fiberglass (or carbon fiber) with a foam sandwich in between.

Our engine--a Superior Air Parts XP 400.  For the airplane buffs out there, it's a Lycoming IO-390 with a few nice adds, like roller lifters on the cam.  It puts out 215HP and burns roughly 10gp in cruise.

Tracy worked on the rudder pedals and brake system for a good part of the day.  This is the brake master cylinder.

These are the brakes prior to lines being added or any fittings torqued down.

This is the complete brake system, including the brake reservoir.  The bright orange dots on the fittings are torque seal--so you can inspect bolts to ensure they don't back out.

Day 1 and we fit the wings to the fuselage in order to set the dihedral.  Our airplane has a 2deg dihedral in the wings which makes it more stable.  After we set the dihedral, we drilled holes in the aluminum wing spars to fit the final bolts (Ryan is in the background setting the jig for the drill angle). We then took the wings back off for the rest of the work on them.  Hi Tracy!

The flap lever after assembly.  It actuates just like a hand-activated parking brake in a car...totally different function, though!

The left wing (after setting the dihedral) in its jig waiting for the fuel tanks to go in and final riveting.

The pitot tube viewed from inside the left wing.  The metal tube is for airflow to the airspeed indicator; the wires are for the pitot heat (in case of icing in inclement weather).

Tracy's first rivets--in the engine transducer bracket.  It will hold our engine oil and fuel transducers which will transmit engine readings to the cockpit.

Our wheels!  I never thought i'd be unpacking a wheel bearing and re-packing it today.  We did this to remove the shipping grease (keeps the wheel from corroding) and put in the working grease (helps it roll, baby!).  This was messy but only took about 20 minutes.  This is one of the great parts about owning an experimental--you are supposed to change the grease in these about every year at a minimum--like changing oil in our car.  If this were a certified airplane we'd need to pay somebody to do it.  We will just do it ourselves.

The vertical fin spar.  These are Eric's first rivets--woo-hoo!  The plate at the top is where the rudder attaches.

Okay folks, hope you enjoyed it.  More to come tomorrow!!
Cheers, Eric & Tracy

Airplane Project, Day 0--the mundane, and homework!!

One of the mundane problems we had to solve coming out here is "where the heck are we going to live?"  Seems pretty easy at first, and there are some nice hotels in Arlington.  But at $100 per night for a month...well, the price of an airplane is suddenly going up!

Luckily, we got a military hook-up on this front.  Just 3 miles south of the Arlington airport (and our airplane factory) is a small Naval Outpost called Naval Station Everett.  It is a tiny, unguarded & ungated Navy facility with a couple of lodges, a Commissary, and a Navy Exchange.  We scored a suite at the "Navy Lodge Everett Smoky Point" for $60 per night...full kitchen and all!  The commissary is about 100 yards from us, and the Navy Exchange is fairly over-the-top--thing Super Target with military prices.  Anyone need a good deal on a flatscreen TV??

Anyway, for those interested here are some pictures of the mundane:

Front of our new home, the Navy Gateway Inn

Our outside "airplane building study area"

Our Suite little kitchen.

Tracy, already in study mode.  I am behind!

Now, back to the airplane!  We anticipate the build process to be fairly intense.  Beginning tomorrow, our daily routine will be building from 0700 to 1730.  The intro packet says "our workers (that's us) get a 10-minute break at 0900 and 1400, and a 30-minute lunch break from 1200 to 1230.  Thank goodness for the commissary--gotta bring grub!

The intro packet we have from the company goes fairly out of its way to remind us that the program is not for wusses!  I have attached a picture of tomorrow's tasks--actually, it's just page 1 of 4 of tomorrow's tasks!  All told, there are 102 tasks...which by my math equates to a task every 6 minutes.  Go!  Check out task #2 on the picture..."Mount Wings to Fuselage."  I can hear all the F-15 maintainers laughing at me right now...I can hardly wait to get going.

Page 1 of 4 of tomorrow's tasks.  Note task 2: "secure wings to fuselage."  Wow!

Speaking of which, time to go--got studying to do!

So it begins...the airplane project!

Thanks to all who are visiting our Blog to check out our airplane project.  This is the culmination of about a decade of saving and two years of serious planning for us.

For those who are new to the project, we have decided to build a Glastar Sportsman, which is a high-wing utility aircraft manufactured by Glasair Aviation in Arlington Washington.  It looks like this:

We decided to build this plane for a host of reasons:
--It performs very well (about 150mph with 4 people and luggage)
--It can get into and out of backcountry airfields with ease
--It is an "Experimental" category--which is much cheaper than buying a certified airplane like a Cessna
--It has a very impressive structural safety record (it is a composite fuselage around a steel roll cage, with aluminum flight surfaces)

But the biggest determining factor of all for us was the factory-sponsored "Two Weeks to Taxi" program, through which we can build our own airplane and have it flying in about 2-3 weeks.  This is the only way we could dream of building our own aircraft given our current work schedules.

If you are interested in the airplane or the Two Weeks to Taxi program, you can look here:
www.glasairaviation.com
If you would like to see a YouTube video of the Two Weeks to Taxi program, you can look here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZWRlFa3nOw

Our adventure begins July 8th...we will try to update this page daily with posts so you can see how the build is going.  Wish us luck and stay tuned!