Pre-inspection inspection
Hours: 5.0 | Posted in EndgameBrought the proper size hex wrench (5/16″ for future reference) to the hangar, so I was able to remove the towbar bolts and attach the nosewheel pant brackets to the nosegear fork.
Also fabricated and installed the retainers for the wingtip attach hinges. I had earlier installed a nutplate on the centerline of the aft tip closeout rib, so I added an 1/8″ hole above and below that nutplate. Bent the ends of the hinges at a 90* angle, and cut them off to a reasonable length. The bent ends go in the holes, and then I made up a coverplate from .063″ stock, which attaches with a screw to the nutplate. The coverplate holds the hinge pins into their holes.
Tom Berge, who is known in the area as one of “the guys” to have give your plane a serious inspection before it flies — and who also will be the test pilot on my plane’s first flights, and my transition training instructor — stopped by this afternoon to check it over, offer advice and observations, and answer several of my questions.
Overall, he found things were good, but I did come away with a lengthy list of things to check, fix, improve, or keep an eye on. Most of them are small items, but a few notables:
- Insert a piece of foam to the gap in the spar where it joins the center section, to block drafts; this seems to be where most of the air gets in that is known for cooling between one’s legs. This was on my list, I just have to procure some foam. Also recommended to RTV the smaller gaps at top & bottom of the spar for the same reason.
- Shorten the sticks, the stock length is too long. I left them stock length, not knowing any differently, but I believe this now after riding in Jim’s 9A the other day…his are short and the hand position is quite a bit more comfortable than mine. All I need to sort out is how the heck I’m going to remove the grips…I put them on with a single small vertical bead of adhesive, thinking that I may need to remove them for exactly this reason, but they are very well attached now.
- Found that I have weeping on the pilot side brake master cyls (again). Must have started after the taxis we did the other day, since the brakes were really used for the first time. I’ll have to get some different sealant on hand, since EZ-turn clearly isn’t getting the job done. Then re-bleed the brakes again…oh, joy.
- Biggest issue — apparently the cylinders that my engine has require a special modification to the stock baffles because of the tapered fins. It’s a curved blocking plate that is riveted to the inboard side of the inner baffle strip on the bottom of the engine, that prevents air from spilling out where the strip doesn’t make full contact with the cylinder. They’re fabricated from plans that ECI has at the end of a technical document on their website. And yes, all the baffles need to be removed to install them. Ugh — I am not looking forward to that. I’m sorely tempted to fill the gap with RTV, and install the plates the first time the baffles need to come off for some other reason. (Apparently this same thing happened to another local builder too; he filled with RTV and hasn’t had any problems because of it.)
Bunch of other stuff to fix and consider, but I’ll avoid retyping the entire list here for sanity.
After Tom left, I knocked a couple things off the “new” punch list…
- Removed tach drive cap and added loctite to the threads, then reinstalled.
- Added a few ziptie bases on the aft side of the center section, where a couple wires were rubbing or close to it.
- Bent the ends of the oil door hinge to secure it from vibrating out.
- Checked the sidetone adjustment on the SL-40. Tom recommended 75 from the default he thought was 138. Mine is set to a default of 0, which the manual says is “slaved to the volume control.” I’ll fuss with it when I roll the plane out someday to do a radio check, and see how it works in this mode.
