GlaStar Kit # 5615 with wings on, and firewall installed. Making progress!
Here's a modified cable comb design. I had to modify the one in the GlaStar manual to minimize the cable interference with the cage.
Modified cable comb design.
Copilot side view of the modified cable comb. I modified the spacing between cables, and depth of the cuts to minimize cable rubbing on the cage and drag on the pulleys.
Modifed cable comb view from Pilot side.
Modified cable comb.
Here you see minimal deflection in the fore and aft direction. When tailoring yours for your airplane be sure to watch you don't deflect the cables much from their standing position (fore, aft, and top to bottom). Minimizing this helps reduce cable drag.
Here I'll walk you thru my fuselage fuel line install pics from Wings, to header tank, to Andair 4-way valve to Gascolator on the firewall.
Picture shows the wing to fuselage juncture cutouts needed to allow the flexible fuel hose to fold inside the fuselage. Take your time on these cuts.
Pilot side header tank installed. I moved mine as far aft as I could to avoid rubbing near aileron and flap cables.
Fuel line transitions from the header tank and sweeps around the landing gear. I felt this minimized chances of rubbing near a cable.
Fuel line then transitions to the bottom fuel drain. Watch your bends near the flap pulleys.
Floor reinforced with a couple layers of BID to support the brass Tees.
Fuel line is bent close to the cage and supported with WDG clamps. Be sure to fit your seat pans before you bend these lines...-OR- you'll be tweaking them again later.
Another shot of the center fuel line transition sweeping up over the rear flap pulleys.
Watch the bends around your flap deployment arm. Mine hit the first couple times, and required slight adjustments for the flap arm, and the seat pans.
Note the bend inboard around the flap deployment arm. WDG clamps work great supporting the line where needed to prevent interference.
Fuel line then transitions up to the center forward cable cover.
Watch the clearance around the center elevator pulleys. I had some rubbing here and ended up redoing the spacing on this pulley assembly to make it work.
Rough fit of the Andair 4-way fuel valve. Here I was trying to decide if the valve sat low enough for the fuel line to fit underneath. See next few shots to see my solution.
A close up of the Andair fuel valve. I used the same style clips from the floorboard to secure the valve to the forward cable tunnel cover.
In order for the valve to fasten to the fuel lines, I had to drop it down slightly in the tunnel. So how to fasten it in the Fwd Cable Tunnel cover?
Shows the 180 deg bend of the starboard (copilot) side fuel lin to the fwd side of the Andair valve.
Shows the interference with the cage and my inability to fasten the fuel line. The fix was to drop the Andair mounting slightly to give some clearance.
Note that the teflon paste sealant has since been removed on all fittings. My early builder mistake...don't use teflon paste on fuel fittings. 37 deg fittings require no sealant, if you want to use a sealant use either Fuel Lube or EZ Lube (see Aircraft Spruce catalog).
Finding the center of the Andair valve.
Shows the finished depression I metal worked into the top of the cable tunnel. I used two pieces of oak wood, .75" thick to make a mold, with a threaded rod down the center of the sandwich. I heated sheet metal with a torch, and slowly tightened the threaded rod forcing the metal to the shape of the mold. I finished up with a hammer and sand bag to finish the edges.
Here's my finished Andair Fuel Valve installation.
Another view of the finished Andair 4-way valve fit up to the forward cable tunnel cover.
Shows the bends required for the fuel line from the bottom of the Andair valve to the forward firewall bulkhead fitting.
I used a Swagelok AN bulkhead union thru my firewall. Part # SS-AN-600-61-6AN with two stainless steel washers picked up at Lowes ACS. Checkout http://www.swagelok.com/search/product_detail.aspx?part=SS-600-61-6AN
Shows the position of the hole drilled for the bulkhead AN fuel line fitting, and the cutout space for my Andair Gascolator.
Fuselage interior side of the hole cut for the AN bulkhead fuel line fitting.
Shows bends of the fuel line used for the Andair Valve to AN bulkhead fitting run.
Another shot of the Andair valve to AN bulkhead fitting run.
Fuel line fit up to the Andair valve. Notice the snake around the rudder pedal weldments and the nose landing gear.
Be sure to exercise your rudder pedals when checking the fit of this line. It took me a few trial bends to get a part that fit right.
Shows the Andair bottom feed fuel line to bulkhead fitting mounted in place.
Top view of the Andair valve with fuel lines attached.
Another view of the Andair valve to forward AN bulkhead fuel line fitting routing.
Fuel line feeds through the bulkhead. Be sure to check that the slope of your fuel line from the bottom of the Andair valve to the firewall slopes down consistently to the Gascolator.
Fuel line for the AN Bulkhead Swagelok fitting to the Gascolator.
Shows final bulkhead fuel line to Andair Gascolator setup. Note I rotated the Gascolator 180 deg. to allow the line to feed right into the gascolator. The other side will have to feed back to the engine driven fuel pump.
Engine driven fuel pump cooling shroud. Glasair Aviation has these.
Shows the Airlink Carbon fiber baggage floor. This is a great product and Airlink provides super instructions on how to install. Wolf at Airlink is just great to work with! I'd buy again from Wolf for sure.
Beginning to build the baggage floor fitting jig.
Here's the completed baggage floor fitting jig.
My finished baggage floor with carpet and tie down points installed.
Example of engine control bracket installed on Marvel Carb.
Glasair Aviation Carb air box installation example.
Port/Pilot side view of Glasair Aviation example of Carburetor Duct installed
Aft view of example carb air duct installation with engine control bracket
Port/pilot side view of Carb air duct installation example w/ engine control bracket
Port/pilot side view of carb air duct with engine control bracket.
Example of Carb engine control linkages.
Close up view of Carb engine control linkages
Engine control cable and bracket example installation.
I'm using the Sportsman cowling to fit my XP-360 engine. Here are a few shots of what it looks like out of the box.
Another shot of the Sportsman cowling out of the box.
Top side of the Sportsman cowling out of the box.
Side view of the Sportsman cowling out of the box. Note the slight mismatch in fit around the starter ring gear and spinner area.
I'm using a BN-3 Lycoming spinner kit from Aircraft Spruce. It's a beauty. See ACS catalog: http://www.aircraftspruce.com/pdf/2007Individual/Cat07178.pdf. Used a 3/4“ piece of plywood for a fit up jig to located the proper position of the cowling face to spinner.
This is what the Sportsman cowl looks like (UNCUT) with the aft edge of the cowl sitting in the fuselage joggle. See how its really made to fit a 4“ spacer. The cowl will have to be trimmed a bit to fit my 2” spacer and Sensenich prop combination.
Front view of Sportsman cowl with 2“ inch spacer sitting on front of Starter ring.
Side view of BN-3 spinner. Actual positioning of Spinner with the real spinner back plate in place would position the spinner aft about 3/8“.
BN-3 spinner ...front shot view.
Spinner jig in place.
Side view of spinner to cowl positioning jig. Mating the cowl to the backside of the plywood will give me 3/16“ clearance to the backside of the spinner. Used 3/4” I.D. plastic pipe as spacers.
Initial fitup of the top cowling. Note the extra length on the backside by the firewall joggle, that will need to be trimmed off.
2 May 2007: Oil check door cut out completed.
12 May 2007: Bottom cowling fits well....Still need to trim the top cowling aft edge to fit in the joggle.
Front fit of cowling spinner face to spinner is slightly off due to the starter ring spacing required. I'll fix this with a little cowling cosmetic magic epoxy and filler down the line.
Pilot side fit of bottom cowl is coming together...now to fit the top cowling aft edge.
Underside shot of the bottom cowling and cutout for the nose wheel.
Checking the cowling fit one more time....you'll put the cowl on and off a couple dozen times trying to make the nicest fit.
Picture shows copilot cowling inlet view. Shows the 1/2“ clearance spacer in place to be sure I have the top cowling spaced properly.
Another shot of 1/2“ clearance spacer...but this time from the pilot side cowling inlet view.
Another starter ring clearance view. If you go with the 4“ spacer this isn't an issue. But if you want to use either the 2” spacer or compact constant speed prop...be sure to check this.
Front spinner face matches up pretty well. Still will need to do some composite fill touch ups to close the gaps.
Another closeup of the starter clearance to the bottom of the cowling.
When using a 2“ prop spacer...you'll find the starter to bottom cowling spacing is limited. I elected to cut a hole here and add a small and eventually un noticeable fairing to the outside to give me some clearance.
Show bottom cowling clearance to starter ring and the starter itself. Looking from the copilot side forward.
Rough cut out of the nose gear for bottom cowling. This will get enlarged a bit when I add the nose gear glass fairing.
Copilot side of cowling fit up. It's getting there!
Starting to fit up the cowling side hinges. Prepping for drilling.
Hinges drilled and ready to start riveting.
Squeezing the hinge rivets....but later switched to bucking...less distortion of the hinge this way.
Bucking my pilot side hinge to the bottom cowling.
Copilot side hinge in place.
Pilot side hinge in place.
Close up of pilot side hinge. Need to sand glass smooth next.
Copilot side hinge riveted in place.
Bucking the camloc fastners for the bottom cowling.
Oil door hinge...I elected not to use this...and instead went with a hidden hinge.
Reinforcing strips glassed in place to make a nice flat mounting surface.
Comparison of two types of Hartwell latches. I chose the bottom one since it fit the oil door gap a bit nicer.
Shows how the Hartwell latch fits with the factory provided latch.
Shows how the oil door fits with the other version of the Hartwell latch.
Interior view of the oil door, hidden hinge, and Hartwell latch. Note I went with a H-5100-2 series latch...my preference.
Shows the oil door latched in place with hidden hinges. To read more about how to do this hidden hinge...checkout this web site: http://www.rvproject.com/ and look at the section http://www.rvproject.com/20031029.html (Dan has a bunch of great ideas out there to mine.)
Close up of the hidden door stainless steel hinge.
Another view of the hidden door hinge.
Top view of completed hidden door hinge.
Oil door opened with hidden hinges.
Having a clearance issue with the carb heat valve assy at bottom left of picture interfering with the intake tube and oil return line. The carb heat inlet tube also looks like it will have to be cut off and re-welded 90 deg pointed downward.
See how the carb heat inlet points directly at the oil return line. I also don't like how the carb heat air overboard outlet is dumping hot air right onto my manifold pressure line. Might have to move that too now. Ugh!
One option is to extend the induction housing at the forward end with fiberglass, allowing me to shift the whole housing aft giving me some clearance. Will also have to cut off the carb heat inlet pipe and reweld into a 90 down position instead of its existing forward pointing location. Wondering how Glasair Aviation gets this system to fit on their birds?
Here it shows a nice fit on the forward copilot side baffle. Fits well to the inside of the cowling too to be glassed in. But will have to resolve this carb heat valve assy clearance issue first.
Here's the start of a string of pictures showing my Top Deck and Quarter Hatch Panel install. These two tasks have to be some of the most challenging to do well and make it look nice. Here's my attempt... ; ). I hope other builders can benefit from a few of these shots.
I'm using a Hammerhead GlaStar Panel. See: http://www.hammerhead-aviation.com/GlaStar.htm. Here's my initial paper instrument panel layout. I'll be using two Grand Rapids Horizon 1 - High resolution EFIS displays as my primary set of flight instruments. Backups will include 2.25“ airspeed, altimeter, TruTrak ADI, and TruTrak Auto pilot. Radio stack planned is PS Engr 8000B, GNS 430 Waas, SL30, GTX 330, and GRT Engine Information System (EIS).
Here's my first paper layout of all the instruments. YES it is tight...but it might just fit! The dashed line represents the fiberglass support structure. The dashed lines on the GRT black and white EFIS panels show the actual size of the box cutout. Placing them side by side will fit...with the only area being the upper left corner cutting into the fiberglass support edge. I don't think this is an issue. The 2.25“ round dials will also be tight...as they will cut into the support structure as well. I may space these farther apart.
