This is what I used to buck the flap spar rivets.
It worked better than I thought it would.
Wing wiring and plumbing. Standard except I used 1/4" aluminum lines for my vent lines.
The 3/8" aux tank to aux pump line has a service loop allowing for thermal expansion and removal of the aux tank finger screen.
It took a while to get to this point. Photo Op!
Just another solution to the…
VOR antenna installation problem.
Functional, but more complex than necessary. Everything will be simpler next time. I'd use a foil dipole in the aft fuselage as others have done.
The antenna coax that came with the QB fuselage was hot glued in place, then a couple squares of BID applied. Not pretty, but quick and who's looking anyway?
Finally, the instrument panel. After many paper revisions, here goes.
The local EAA Chapter's greenlee punch was a little dull, but still worked OK.
Hindsight: The top of the panel edge would ideally have been a little lower than the window, so the 2 BID glareshield's edge would tuck against the fuselage in that location.
I followed Charlie Burton's lead and made my panel foldable. Feature I like best: glovebox. What I'd do different next time: fewer circuit breakers, more fuses. And I'd use Klixon breakers exclusively. They're so much nicer than the Potter Brumfeld units.
The folding feature did create some extra constraints.
This cable assembly has good fit and aesthetics, but was heavier than I'd like. Remove 5 screws and all the cables drop to allow panel folding. Next time: space for 5th cable. Tip: skip the cheaper friction carb heat cable and get this locking one.
Wires were routed in a bundle along the hinge line and the vacuum lines needed extra slack.
Drain pan installation.
I wish I had played close attention to the location of low points during installation. You want the low point to be at the aft outboard corner, so a hole through the fuselage at that point will drain the whole pan. As it turned out, I got pretty close to that by chance.
I've since added 2 more jacks for oxygen in this panel. The bottle is behind the seats. The light is 10W halogen. Very nice to have, but now I'd look into LEDs.
The carb is not aligned with the aircraft centerline, but I wanted the scoop on the centerline.
I put one end of this pipe in the airbox, aligned it with the centerline and bondoed it in place.
The pipe became the anchor of the rest of the scoop prototypes.
They started with a block of foam
Some foam was 'turned' on my drill press for the leading edge of the scoop.
The rest was hand carved.
I made several prototypes before I got something I liked.
Gelcoat was sanded away in the bonding area. The tube was laid up over a waxed PVC pipe, then tapered at the forward end to match the scoop inlet.
Nice fit now, but no planning for engine sag (currently off 1/8" after 600 hours).
The carburetor plate that attaches to the Van's airbox failed near the two lower bolts after a couple hundred hours. It was replaced and braced with two 4130 straps to the carb mount studs.
Zach's window installation technique can't be beat.
Classic Zach Chase window installation
Dave Hulse loaned me his adjustable clecos - thanks Dave!
Finish the windows and it really starts looking more like and airplane.
These are aluminum arm rests.
I wanted something secure and pretty light. I had this extra sheet stock and had acquired some bending skills...
I embedded T nuts in epoxy in the door for the door handles and the door pockets.
After this step, I laid a circular patch of BID over each T-nut.
A double exposure allows accurate blind drilling of the forward spinner bulkhead, but there are quicker ways to get the task done. Still cool, though.
Installing brackets for the battery and ELT.
Tradeoff: 15lb battery installed as shown or 22lb battery closer to BH A. I can reach this battery with my knees in the baggage area, but I don't do it every day. The marker beacon antenna is visible in the upper right. It's a Jim Weir design and extends several inches past BH B.
This is Bulkhead A looking down (I made it with a foam core like BH B). The red ground power receptable is from McMaster. Charlie Burton turned me on to this part. ELT antenna on left: no ground plane.
Odyssey PC680 Battery in a powder coated aluminum box made to match. The box is fastened to 6 hard points in the foam mounting board with 5/16" bolts. T-Nuts are embedded in the hidden side.
Looking forward from the tail: battery & ELT are visible. I used an Odyssey PC680 battery and battery box.
I used too much nylon along the lower edge of BH B; the cables will never deflect very much.
This is how I sealed my filler necks with 3M 5200 Marine Adhesive Sealant (Fast Cure). The trick to cut the mask is to lay the tape on some plastic sheet, then trace and cut the pattern.
The gas caps were spendy and pretty heavy. But they look nice. Big deal. Keep an eye on the O-rings that seal these caps. When they crack you can get water in your gas.
I removed and resealed the filler necks with Fuellube. Then I took the opportunity to see how the 3M 5200 sealant looks in cross section.
The door dogs. Apparently Sportsman builders are now spared this step. But Jeff Liot pointed out that not only were nutplates a good improvement but also, and more importantly, the clevis modification to the indoor handle dog makes for much more positive operation.
I fabbed some tie down rings from 1/8" Stainless steel. This scale was very handy for mixing resin.
Belleville washer upgrade for the nose gear strut. The replacements were larger and thicker than the originals, producing more friction in the nose gear pivot. New part is 2.5" OD; old 1.875" OD, both 1.25" iD.
The new washers are each 5/32 tall. I replaced a single pair of the originals with two pair of the replacements.
The old ones were 3.5/32's tall (ea.). Note that with any such washer, the top will eventually be ground down, requiring the nut to be retightened; check at annual.
The HS and Elevator are algined in cruise. I used 1.4 degrees down on the HS and have a heavy Hartzell C/S prop. Taken out the right rear window along a frequently traveled route.
Many flight paths of my GlaStar recorded on my Garmin GPSMap 196. San Francisco lies between my frequent stops in Watsonville (lower right) and Little River (upper left).
To minimize venting of fuel, I followed Chris Wills advice and routed the main wing tank vent into the aux tank, then overboard. This worked as long as the aux tank was not full as well.
Because my vent system still allowed fuel to vent in a nice stream when topped off and turning on the ground or parked on a slope, I added an Andair checkvalve, part# 250-B which has 2 sizeable bleeding holes, to each vent. So far it seems to work well, dribbling a little fuel in situations that used to produce a stream. Static flow rates at my gascolator dropped only from 26.2 GPH to 25.7 GPH - very little loss of head pressure. This arrangement had an additional and unanticipated benefit: I can no longer pump fuel overboard with my aux pumps. Instead, if I turn on the aux pump too early and the mains overfill, excess fuel is pumped back into the aux tank. The extra wiring is a coax and 2 power lines for future tinkering.
This is my 22cu. ft. Mountain High oxygen setup. I wanted to carry a bottle big enough to last for a long cross country trip without refilling (and I didn't want to drop 1500.- on a pulse-demand system). I also wanted it be easily removed and easily turned on and off from the pilot's seat. This is my solution.
From the bottle's CPC fitting I routed some silione tubing to the overhead panel and added valved CPC connectors there, next to the headset plugs (the third headset plug provides 9V to the ANR circuit). These fittings are available from Mountain High and other sources like Chester Paul. http://www.chesterpaul.com/pdf/colder/Medical_Device_Catalog.pdf Inserting a cannula connector opens the valve for that port.
The trickiest part were the mounting clamps. I found the SS clamps at a speed shop. I considered all possible locations for the bottle, but this one satisfied my requirements: access by pilot and minimal intrusion on baggage area.
After several prototypes, this was the final design of the clamp mount. The bottle can be removed with 2 nuts, the clamps with 4 AN3-4A bolts. Simple and solid.
I put a little UHMW tape on the clamp surface. The material is an 0.063" aluminum alloy from the scrap metal dealer. I used a cheap roller (one of those $300 brake/shear/roll units from Harbor Freight) to achieve the round shape, but could have produced it with simpler tools.
The mechanical mount is provided by 8 unpadded adel clamps holding some pieces of 0.032 (0.040?) aluminum to the cage. Four #10 nutplates were installed in the aluminum sheet. All screw and rivet holes were dimpled/countersunk so the seatpans and closeouts fit well.
Although I made the bottle easy to remove, I find I keep it in the plane most of the time. You never know when the ability to go up might come in handy. The overall weight is about 10 lbs. If you spend a lot more you can get a light composite bottle and a pulse demand system and save 5 lbs.
Crossing the Sierras on 4/21/06. Oxygen made this possible, but the cannulas can be uncomfortable and dry out your nasal passages on long high legs. If you're congested, the cannual may not be effective.
Departing Punta San Francisquito, Baja on 11/19/07. Photo by Heidi Tillinghast.
Approaching Bahia de Los Angeles, Baja, from the south on 11/19/07. Photo by Ann Walker.
