Showing posts with label controls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label controls. Show all posts

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Fabricated a replacement bellcrank spacer and installed it. Fabricated replacement jury strut. Disassembled flaperons and primed them. Riveted flaperon root pins. Greased flaperon bearings and reinstalled flaperons. Cleaned up wing root skins and ready them for final trim. Installed a stiffener underneath the dashboard trim, partially pulled the panel lights and re-installed them so to not tension the dashboard again.

Punch List:

Got a ton of stuff done this weekend:

Fabricated and installed the oil door, installed a few cotter pins, removed the elevator trim and modified the hinge to accept safety wire, installed the elevator tensioning bungee, re-installed the doors, fabricated access panels into the seat pans, installed the access panels and re-installed the seat pans.

Punch List:
FINISH TRANSITION TRAINING
FINISH PROCEDURES\MANUAL
install wingroot covers.
W&B
Final placement of battery ( pending W&B )
Engrave & install EAB plaque
Fuel Filler Marking for 10G 92MoGas\100LL w/TCP
Post registration in cabin
mark "EXPERIMENTAL" on entry way
bleed brake lines
VGs on elevator
nuetralize aileron rods & control
Fuel tank calibration
Final securing of wires after of seats in luggage
install first-aid kit and fire extinguisher
Washers for aileron bellcranks
Nose gear pushrod boots
Install dorsal fin
Two additional cowl fasteners
More cotter pins & safety wire
Safety wire turnbuckles in "double wrap" style
Torque seal push rod jam nuts.
fabricate, install streamlined strut covers. ( post first-flight )
finish priming bare surfaces.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009


The pilot and passenger grips are now wired and ready.

For the FlightGrips you need to trim 1" off the factory Y grips, use a bushing to allow for the 1" shaft and drill a 7/32" hole for a bolt that secures everything.

The grips are very sturdy and use aviation grade heavy duty buttons and switches.

In my configuration the pilot and passenger both have PTT and Flip/Flop.

The pilot has a memory set button, elevator trim up/down and an intercom isolate switch.

Wiring the passenger grip was easy. The PTT and F/F are both on an off center trigger. Pull on the bottom is PTT, pulling top is F/F. It is very hard to accidentally pull the wrong trigger. FlightGrip's trigger is removable from the shaft. The grip is designed to open up down the center with the trigger being removable. There was plenty of room for the wires and some heat shrink.

The pilot's grip was harder. The trim and mem set switches are on the top of the stick. These buttons are mounted on a removable disk, making wiring easier. The pilot has the same PTT/FF button config as the passenger.

The passenger intercom isolation toggle is mounted as a thumb shaft on the grip. Accessing the connection points was much harder for this one.

To get the wires down the stick some scotch tape was used to secure the various bundles together and then shoved down. Fitting 15 wires down the shaft ( each in sub bundles by function & destination ) was a little tricky due to the narrow passage where the "Y" forms and the pivot point at the base of the stick.

Once the wires were out I closed the grips and bolted them onto the stick. Closing the passenger grip was easy. The pilot's grip had the problem of heat shrink and wires made inflexible by solder. Some bending and finessing had to be done to get the stick to close with wires routed around the holes for the mounting bolt.

Almost all the connectors I have been placing are DSub 9s. The originally intention was to use a DSub 15 for the pilot's grip and a 9 for the passenger. Instead the pilot's grip has two 9 pins. One connector has the PTT,FF,MemSet and isolation buttons. The PTT and FF's pins are in the same location on the passenger's grip. You could interchange the two connectors with the only side effect being to disable two buttons. This seemed like a more resiliant configuration and also lets me have the option of disabling the trim in the field if I need to.

To use both the rocker switch in the panel and the switch on the joystick a relay had to be used. Ray allen sells one for this purpose. In addition to the relay a small circuit had to be made. This multiplexes the two switches. When the relay is used what the switches are really doing is selecting what ground is being closed.

Two IN4001 diodes are placed in line to the joystick ( DPDT ). These are split from lines that go to the rocker. From the rocker and joystick each a line is sent to the ground.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

I recently moved. Packing a mostly finished airframe and a "used" workshop and then moving it across town is harder than you would think.

First the plane with the gear was about two inches wider than the trailer. This required removing one wheel. Next there is the organizational issue. The new garage is smaller and needs more organization. The plane needs to sit at a diagonal to fit. Once the engine is hung the door from the garage into the house will need to be removed to fit the plane.

Recent progress has included mounting the rudder pedals, brakes and nose steering. I also fabricated the rudder cable pulleys and some rudder mounting parts.

Here is the new workspace ( Requires Silverlight )



Thursday, January 08, 2009

I have been very bad about posting recently, but this should not be construed as the project not being worked on.

The whole workbench was partially redone and lowered about half a foot. This is so the plane can sit on its wheels on the ground.

The engine mount holes were drilled out to their final size and bolted on.

Work has started on the controls. All three bell cranks have been fabricated. The lower torque tube bearing was un-riveted to allow for the torque tube to be placed. I then found an unacceptable amount of ply, so a new lower bushing was fabricated to raise the torque tube up and remove the wiggle.

In addition I have fabricated the flaperon mixer bearings and started placing the "L" angle that supports them.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

It has been a while since the log has been updated, but that is not to say progress has not been made.

The roof has been drilled into place. The doors have been test fitted, and problems have been found. The windshield is sitting in place. The front landing gear is not being worked on.

PROGRESS:
Controls ~2h ( 2h )
Fuselage ~237h ( 3h, 3h, 2h, 3h, 7h, 2h, 5h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 2h, 3h, 6h, 2h, 2h, 1.5h, 2.5h, 1h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 3h, 4h, 1h, 2h, 1h, 3h, 4h, 3h, 3h, 4h, 3h, 4h, 4h, 6h, 3h, 3h, 4h, 2h, 2h, 2h, 4h, 2h, 2h, 10h, 4h, 4h, 6h, 3h, 4h , 6h, 3h, 2h, 2h, 5h, 2h, 3h, 3h, 2h , 2h, 3h, 4h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 3h, 1h, 2h, 2h, 5h )
Wings: ~157.5h ( 1h, 1h, 0.5h, 2.5h, 4h, 1h, 1.5h, 1h, 1.5, 4.5, 1h, 1h, 2h, 4h, 1h, 3h, 1h, 2h, .5h, 1.5h, 2h, 2h, 2h, .5h, 1h, .5h, .5h, 2h,3h, 1h, 3h, 3h, 4h, 2h, 3h, 7h, 3h, 1h, 4h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 4h, 2h, 2h, 2h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 3h, 2h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 1h, 1.5, 2h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 1h, 5h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 4h, 2h, 3h, 3h, 3h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 3h, 6h, 3h )
Flaperons: ( DONE! ) 23.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 1.5h, 3h, 6h, 3h, 4h, 1h )
Paint Design: 2 hours spent ( 1h, 1h )
Elevator DONE!: ~31.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1.5h, 3h, .5h, 3.5h, 2h, 4h, 1.5h, 2h, 4.5h, 1h, 6h )
Horizontal Stabilizer DONE!: ~28 hours spent, 3 pieces replaced ( 3h, 2h, 2h, 2h, .5h, 1.5h, 3.5h, 1.5h, 5, 4.5, 2h, .5h )
Rudder DONE!, minus horn : ~16 hours spent, ( ~8h, ~8h )
-----------------------
Total Done: ~496h