Year-end Update

Off topic, from the '70s. Here's an old photo of me and my buddies making a practice jump at East Troy, Wisconsin. We were getting ready for regional 10-man speed star competition.


It was a good year, but I do regret not getting to fly and race this thing.

Having said that, I am really getting close. I'm working on firewall forward and things aren't too bad. I just had two days of working with the hangar door open and it is really a morale booster. So much better than trying to think and fabricate in a dungeon.

My most recent success (meaning overcome obstacle) is mounting my ignition coils. With the RWS EC3 injection/ignition system, each plug gets it's own LS1 coil. I understand these coils are used on Corvette engines. I took a cue from Lynn French's creative installation and mounted two of them directly on the engine mount. I think this will work pretty well.




My short-term goal is to fire up the engine by the end of January.

I don't work in a total vacuum and certainly don't have the skills to do it all myself. Here are just some of the people that helped me this past year. I know I don't have everyone and if you don't see yourself here, please don't be offended. I probably lost those brain cells connected with your name.

Billy Cheek
Bob Knuckolls and the AeroElectric Connection e-mail list
Bruce Dallas
Charley "C-Rod" Rodriguez
Cory Steinkoneig
David Posey
Dennis Hannon
Don Bartlett
Grither's Auto Body
Harry Hinckley
Jerry Marstall
John Cotter
John Eynon
Ken Robinson
Larry Dauer
Keven Mitchell
Lynn French
Mike Bergen
Mike Burgener
Mike Dwyer
Mike Most
Rob Hoskins
Various SIU Aviation Technology students

And the award for the most help and patient understanding goes to:

My beautiful wife, Sandy

My original target date, for project completion, was May 1, 2008. I still think that was realistic for the original project list, but I kept adding things and it grew and grew and grew. Not on the original list were; replacement of the rear wing, new canopy, and TWO PAINT JOBS.

I just need to stay at it.

Composite Oil Sump is 99.4% Complete

Don't try this at home!

There were just a few things to attend to for the oil sump; like installing a filler cap and post curing the thing. You can refer back to this post to see how I got it this far. http://samhoskins.blogspot.com/2008/06/carbon-fiber-oil-sump.html

I was able to get into the composites lab at SIU AvTech to make the final parts. I used an AN825-20D cap and an AN824-20D nut as the final fitting. I intend to insert a 1/8" welding rod as the dipstick. Thanks to Justin Mace for that idea.

After the thing was complete, I used an oven at SIU to post cure it. This particular epoxy remains quite brittle until the crosslink reaction is complete. I kept it at 140 degrees for 10 hours, then ramped it up to 300 degrees for about 20 minutes. This oven has a precise thermostat and a circulating fan. As you can see, it just barely fit!

After I fabricate the dipstick I'll have to shorten the oil sump suction tube. Then it'll be time to bolt it up and add oil!

I sure hope it doesn't leak.

Today's report

Just a quick update. I'm working on the firewall forward stuff now. The bigger challenges here are to install the trigger sensor, the four LS1 ignition coils, complete earlier work on the carbon fiber oil sump, and install the new Jenvy throttle body and linkage.

As usual, the biggest hurdle is just starting. I had been fretting about it a lot, but I found once I got started on the trigger sensors bracket that it was no big deal. Using a free CAD program, I laid out the drawing. Then it was just a lot of cutting, drilling and fitting.

My main tools are a band saw, drill press and a vice. No mill or lathe, unfortunately. Here's a couple of photos of the trigger sensor. Click on the photos to see 'em bigger.

NOW we're making progress!!!

Here's couple of photos of both behind the scenes and the new panel. I still have another day of hooking up some of the Dynon and ICOM wires, but we're pretty much good to go.

This first photo shows the pilot's rudder pedals, the finned voltage regulator, and the blue thing is the filter capacitor. You can also see the high pressure fuel tubing and the blue return hose.


After setting the instrument panel in place and crimping on about a hundred wires (well, maybe 25) I hooked up a battery and connected power. At first nothing worked. Couldn't get the master switch to operate.

Oh yea. I have to hook up the instrument panel ground plug. Still nothing worked.

Oh yea. I have to hook up the fat engine ground wire. Still nothing worked.

Oh yea. I have to hook up those five other grounds. (I'll have to get a photo of the forest of ground tabs).

Still...

Found a broken wire on the switch that goes to the master solenoid.

NOW SOMETHING WORKS!!!!

I was able to switch on the master and run some fuel pumps and the strobe lights. But, I couldn't get the main distribution bus to run on it's own. No nav lights either.

But, the nav lights are on the same bus as the strobe. Damn. I hope I wired up that bridge diode correctly. Checked it out and it seems okay, but maybe I drew the diode in backwards and wired it according to the drawing . Let's take the meter and work backwards to see where power is feeding from.

Oops! I forgot to install the fuse for both the bus and for the nav lights.

Now EVERYTHING works! Well, everything meaning everything that's hooked up. So, in a couple of days I should be able to start working on the installation in earnest.

Thank God I didn't let any smoke out of the wires.

The Instrument Panel is In

It's been almost exactly one year since I pulled the instrument panel and yesterday I set the new one back in place. Still working in a 43 degree hangar, but with the halogen lights, I actually feel like I might be getting a sun burn.

I recorded a couple of weights before it went in. The .050" aluminum panel, switches, wire, and brackets comes in at 7 pounds. Adding the Dynon, the hand held GPS, transponder, and com radios brought it up to 15 pounds.

Like I said, I have better than a hundred wires in this set-up. It's relatively easy to work behind the panel area, before it's installed, but becomes much more limited now that it's in place. This was so much easier 22 years ago.

I'll sit on my haunches for quite a few minutes at a time and when I have to get out of the plane to get something, it takes a while to unfold myself. Toward the end of the exercise, as I was crawling over the side rail, I got a sudden damned charlie horse. Ouch!

After a few adjustments, I stuck the panel in place and started hooking up some wires. Each wire is tagged with a number; Axx - general airframe, Exx - EC3 Engine Control Unit related, and Dxx - part of the Dynon D180 FlightDEK. Everything is pretty well identified on my drawings and, in theory, it's just a matter of crimping on a terminal and sticking it on the proper switch.

About two hours into it I did find I had forgotten to run a critical wire - the wire that feeds +12V to the ignition coils. Rats. Well, it won't be bad to run the new one.

I keep imagining the fun I'll have as I actually apply power and start flipping a few switches. With a little luck, things will operate and I won't let the smoke out of the wires.

No photos today.