Joshua's RV-9A Project

Spent most of today working on the FAB install, namely fabricating a sliding-door mechanism for the alternate air intake, which is a safety feature which will allow the pilot to keep the engine running in the event the regular air intake becomes clogged (filter icing, bird ingestion, etc).  I’ve made a copy of a design that was floated on VAF, which utilizes a stacked-plate configuration affixed to the bottom of the airbox, rather than the hinged circular door supplied in the kit.  This design solves the weak spot (hinge ear) in the supplied piece, and further reduces the possibility of hardware ingestion if something were to come loose inside the FAB.

Along with the sliding door mechanism, which I’ve test-fit, a control cable is required.  I didn’t make any provision so far for this cable in the cockpit, but I was able to re-make the bracket near the pilot’s left knee that I’d put in previously to hold the parking brake control.  Now, the parking brake and alternate air controls are there, one above the other.

I also made labels (at least temporary ones, since I’ll redo them in black tape later) for the various control cables:

• Cabin Heat / Pull Open (x2)
• Fuel Purge / Pull Open
• Park Brake / Pull to Engage
• Alt Air / Pull Open

And, I removed the oil drain plug from the RH drain port, and installed the Fumoto quick-drain valve I picked up awhile back.  It doesn’t come with any provision for safety-wiring (being an industrial equipment piece, rather than aviation-specific), and I didn’t like the first attempt, which wrapped a loop of wire around the valve body; it seemed possible for the wire to shift and open the valve, clearly not a “safety” outcome.  I ended up drilling a hole through part of the flange, and safetying it to the boss provided on the engine sump.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 28th, 2011 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Engine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.