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January, 2010

 

Nose gear door.

This is an area that's been bugging me since day 1. The main gear
doors a attached to the gear legs. But the nose doors are hinged.
They are brought up by means of a rather complicated hydraulic
system. Here's a picture of a completed plane. This picture is
looking aft at the canard bulkhead. The greenish looking pipe going
down is the nose gear leg. The opening at the bottom is the space
that the nose gear comes through when it retracts. You can see the
rear hinge arms of the nose gear doors (they're white). Those doors
are closed by a hydraulic cylinder (gold at the top center partially
behind the large red flexible duct) which pulls up on a pair of arms
that extend down to the door hinges. The hydraulic cylinder is
activated by a switch (off to the right near the bottom of the
cylinder) that gets triggered when the nose gear is up.



I don't like this level of complexity. The nose gear doors in our
Cessna 182-RG are closed with a really simple mechanical arrangement
that is activated by the nose gear itself.

I've seen a couple other builders that used this method. Here's a
very refined and elegant solution.

I asked the builder who came up with this if he could build one for
me. But his fabrication guy was unavailable. So Malcolm told me he had
built one that it's in a plane nearby. A call to Terry Miles had me
stopping by to take some pictures and measurements.

Same view as the previous picture but with the Hangar 18 mechanism.

The spring is so that when the gear bounces a little while in the up
position, the doors will stay closed.

Some fabrication I can do. But I'm not a welder and I don't
have a milling machine. So Lynn, my current A&P put me touch with a
guy who put me in touch with a guy who does metal work. I sent him my drawings and measurements. In return, he sent me:






Here are those parts installed.


Now I have to get the linkage and
spring so I can drill for the pins to fix the arms in place.


Finishing the plenum

The front of the overhead plenum tapers down to the roof. Here's this picture again where you can see what I mean.



It occurred to me (after painting the darn thing) that doing the
interior is going to be a challenge. Most of the ceiling is covered
with a thin flexible board (almost like cardboard) which is covered
with fabric or vinyl or leather or whatever you want. But what to do
at that taper? So I decided to lop it off and square is up. After that, I had to paint the area and blend it in with the existing paint.


February, 2010

 

Overhead Switch Panel

The overhead switch panel is the beam which joins the A-pillars
across the top. Just like the B-pillar beam, I added a couple BID of carbon fiber inside and out to increase the strength. Next, I had to decide how to join it to the A-Pillars. Here you can see that it doesn't quite line up.



I could mount it as is and transition it or I could cut it down.
As I'm taller than the average bear, leaving it as is mean that it hangs lower. This COULD become a visual obstruction. It also means a bunch more work where it transitions to the A-pillar. On the down side to cutting it to fit is that I'll have less room to work with when installing switches.

So I cut it down until if was even with the A-pillars. Then like I did with the B-pillar beam, I made a flange out of carbon fiber uni using the foam rubber trick. Here's the result on the pilot side (the nylon tube is for routing wires).


Before permanently installing the beam, I needed to cut an opening and create a flange for where the switches would go.

Once again, here's the beam before the opening:



And here it is after:


Closeup of the flange and nutplates:


With a blank aluminum panel in place:


Closeup of the panel:


To mount the beam, I used structural adhesive on the inside and a couple layers of carbon fiber uni on the outside of the seam and BID along the front and rear.

This is the beam after mounting and during filling.


 

 

Stuff you don't think of until it's (almost) too late.

Andy Millin came up with an absolutely brilliant though. Rather than run the wiring for the plenum lights all the way from the front to the aft wall of the cabin, then up, then forward to the lights; Why not create a tunnel between the inner and outer skin of the roof from the switch panel to the plenum? It's only 4 inches instead of 20 feet! He did his BEFORE installing the overhead beam. But where there's a will, there's a way.

I drilled two holes; one where the forward edge of the plenum will be and the other behind the switch panel.



Then I started tunneling. Using a sharpened clothes hanger and some other MacGuyver-type tools, I was able to break though. Then I inserted at length of nylon tubing.

Then I filled the area around the tube with epoxy/micro.



Once the micro cured, I cut the tubing flush.


 

March, 2010

 

Window trim pieces.

The kit comes with interior trim pieces for the windshield and rear windows. Apparently, these were made from molds that don't exactly match the windows. Which means that they require a lot of work to get them to fit and even then, they don't. So I decided (on the advice of other builders) to make my own.

Here's the right rear window. The plexiglass is covered so it doesn't get scratched during building.


I covered the window area with duct tape. Here's the right rear window.


Then I covered the edge with three (maybe four) layers of BID.



This is the windshield with the layups around the edge.


Top is the factory left rear window trim and bottom is mine.


In the middle is my one-piece windshield trim and the two-piece factory trim.

 

Overhead lights III

First I built my overhead courtesy lights. Click here for a refresher.  I even etched my own circuit boards.

 

Then I decided to add an "all on" feature which required a circuit board redesign. For version 2, I had the circuit boards etched by a company that specializes in that work.

 

Then I decided that I wasn't happy with my dimming choice.  There's a good chance that I'll want to dim these lights. My plan was to connect a potentiometer (variable resistor) to the supply side. But LED's are weird little ducks. With incandescent lights (24 volt, for example), they begin to glow with about 1 volt and get brighter with increasing voltage up to 24 volts. So to dim incandescent lights, you connect a pot (short for potentiometer) that allows you to adjust the voltage going to the lights.  This works just like the dimmer in your house.

 

But like I said, LED's are different. First, they're current driven instead of voltage driven. But to keep things simple, we'll approach this from the voltage side. The second (and this is what caused my current problem) is there operating range. The LED's I chose were 3 volt LEDs (I reduced the voltage to the LED's using a fixed resistor). But here's where the dimming problem came in. These LED's don't start to light until about 2.4 volts. So with the pot installed, you turn it and nothing happens for the first 3/4 of a turn and then the slightest movement of the knob causes a huge difference in brightness for the remaining 1/4 turn.

 

So I had to ed-u-macate myself with how to power and dim LED's. Usually people use "LED drivers". These use a method know as Pulse Width Modulation.  What they do is to send thousands of pulses to the LED of the correct voltage/current to light the LED. I had already decided against this because I read that the pulses cause radio interference.

 

So I started looking for dimmers. I found a guy that makes a bunch of stuff for the experimental aircraft market. He makes a dimmer called EGPAVR (Extraordinarily General Purpose Adjustable Voltage Regulator). With it, you can define the lower and upper voltage levels for your lights. So I picked up a couple and started testing my new design. One other modification I made was to increase the number of LED's in each fixture. You can always dim or turn them off, but you can't make them brighter than max brightness.

 

Here's my test setup. The LED's are on the breadboard. The EGPAVR is to the right. A variable resistor used to determine the fixed resistor values is to the right of the EGPAVR and I have two meters to monitor the voltage and current levels.

 

Once I had the values for the fixed resistors determined, I designed my new circuit boards and sent them to be etched. When they came in, I disassembled the old lights and got to work.

 

The new PCBs

 

Each card and circuit boards for two light fixtures.

 

Marked for cutting.

 

And after cutting.

 

Here the light fixtures ready for assembly.

 

Circuit boards have been mounted to the back and holes drilled.

 

Resistors and diode inserted.

 

LEDs mounted.

 

And finally the wiring harness and connector installed

 

One the previous versions, I hardwired the lights. With the connector, I'll be able to remove them easily if I need to replace them.

 

April, 2010

 

Overhead plenum

Now that the overhead beams are installed, the modification to the front of the plenum if done and the lighting for the overhead air plenum is finished, it's time to install the plenum itself. I had to cut away the side where it meets the overhead beam to the B-pillars. Then I spread structural adhesive and riveted the plenum in place. Most builders probably leave it at that, but I put down a 1 BID layup.

 

Here's the plenum after the 1 BID layups had cured.

 

Then it's finishing time. Most builders cover the A-pillars, B-pillars, beams and plenum with some type of upholstery (leather, vinyl, cloth, etc).  But since I decided to follow Andy Millin's lead and paint these parts, it was time to get to work. As much work as the plenum was, it was EASY compared to these surfaces! The plenum was on a workbench. The surfaces I was working on how were not so easy to work with.

 

But eventually it was time to paint. That's when I discovered the flaw in my plan... and surface. I went with a satin finish thinking it would hide any minor imperfections and fingerprints. Well, after the painting was done, it was obvious that the surface wasn't close to "good enough" and fingerprints left noticeable smudges. So I did two things: 1) sand the paint off and keep working the finish and 2) change the paint to a textured finish.

 

Here's the result:

B-pillar and part of the plenum

 

Closeup of the plenum with the map light.

 

Hand hold on the pilot's side A-pillar.

 

Overhead switch panel (with sample switch).

 

May 2010

 

Seats

 

The seats consist of a pan (the part you sit on), a seatback and a hinge. The front seats use a new adjustable hinge which lets you change the angle of the seatback. The rear seats have a fixed angle.

 

Here are the three parts for one of the front seats. There's also a rail that the seats mount to which allows you to slide the seat front-to-rear (not pictured).

 

Now the this adjustable hinge is new and it doesn't fit to the seat pan very well.

 

Here's the approximate position of the hinge on the seat pan.

 

But the hinge is wider than the seat pan.

Notice the space between one the hinge arms and the seat pan? If I were to screw it in place the hinge would bind.

 

The gap is exactly 1/8". And I just happen to have some extra 1/8" stock laying around so I made a pair of spacers.

 

I used structural adhesive to bond these to the sides of the seat pan. Then I marked the holes, drilled and tapped them.

 

The seatbacks have been redesigned to work with the new hinge so no modifications were needed there. It was simply a matter of drilling and tapping the holes. Then I put everything together.

 

 

Next I had to mount the finished seats to the rails. Four holes are drilled in the seat pan that go through to the rails. Once I located and drilled the holes, then I started thinking about how to attach the pan to the rail. I could use bolts and nuts, but then I wouldn't be able to remove the pan from the rail once it had foam and upholstery. And I've spent enough time fussing on my current plane about stupid engineers who design things without thinking about someone needing to take it apart later.

 

So here's what I did. I cut some 1/2" aluminum into 1.5" squares.

 

Then I cut an opening in the top (inside) layer and dug out the foam to make a recess.

 

Then I put the aluminum hardpoint in the recess with structural adhesive.

 

And then cover the hardpoints with a layer of BID. Once it cures, drill and tap the holes.

 

Now the seat can be removed from the rails.

 

June 2010

 

Nose gear door mechanism.

 

Finally finished the nose gear door mechanism. I had to redo one of the parts. It was... okay, but not perfect.

 

Here's the view from the front with the gear down.

 

And here it is in the retracted position.

 

Big changes!

 

So things have been moving along. I got a bit stalled when the plane got upside-down. The landing gear went okay, but I was having a hard time getting started on putting the wings on and finishing the bottom. I just couldn't figure out how to get a wing on and without a crew of people to help. But I was getting there. I built a jig to hold the plane at the correct position and was getting ready to attach a wing.

 

And that's when my lovely wife told me she was being relocated back to the Atlanta area. Now I was okay with that. The only reason we were up here was her job and it will be nice not having to plow the driveway a couple times per year and get sweet tea, BBQ and grits.

 

But then it occurred to me that I had a purpose-built workshop and that we may not find a house in Atlanta that had a workshop to hold the plane. So we made a scouting trip down and I discovered two things:

 

1) The chances to finding a home with a suitable workshop were almost non-existent.

 

2) The population of metro Atlanta has exploded in the 11 years we've been gone. It's just plain DENSE with people.

 

And add to that, Ann got an offer that would allow here to work from home most days and she could live anywhere.

 

So the bottom line is; We're moving.

 

Which means that I went into warp drive trying to figure out what to do with the Velocity.

 

I could rent commercial space or get a hangar to build in. Either of those options would cost something per month but my biggest issue is that I would no longer be able to walk into my shop and spend 30 minutes on something. I would have to drive somewhere which would be at least a 30 minute round trip commute. I would also have to move all of my tools there so when I needed to do something around the house, I'd have to drive 30 minutes to get a wrench! Plus, no internet access (you'd be surprised how much time I spent in my shop looking something up on the internet while building).

 

So renting space looked like a no-go.

 

Which brings me to Hangar 18. Malcolm Collier (who I've mentioned before) is a professional builder who has built numerous Velocities (He's been my "go to" guy when I have a question). That's his business. People buy the kit, ship it to Hanger 18 and spend time there working with Malcolm building their Velocity.

 

But the economy has been hitting everyone. Malcolm finished his last project almost a year ago and his new builds kept getting pushed back by their builders while they wait out the economy. So he made the decision to shut down Hangar 18 and go to work with a startup company developing a new airplane. Which kept getting pushed back. So I asked if he was interested in "one last build". And he agreed.

 

I'm really excited about this for a couple of reasons.

 

1) I'm going to have one of (actually THE) best in the business looking at everything that I've done. If there's anything that isn't right, it'll be made right.

 

2) No more scratching my head for 2 hours trying to interpret the manual or figuring out how to do something. Now it's "Hey Malcolm. How does this go together?"

 

3) Labor. There will always be at least 2 people around so when something needs to be moved, lifted, etc...

 

4) Labor (again). Nothing is as tedious as filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding. With Me, Malcolm and his worker, it'll go much faster.

 

Of course, the downside is I'll have to spend a couple weeks a month in Greenville, SC. And I'm now going to have to pay for Malcolm's time and his worker.

 

But then again, I'll probably be in the air sooner.

 

So I've spent the last month getting ready for the move. Disassembling some things, packing, organizing, etc.

 

Of July 22nd, Dan Fast (same guy who brought it up 2 1/2 years ago arrived to take it down to SC.

 

On the trailer and ready to go.

 

I got a call from Malcolm on the 23rd that the plane arrived and had been offloaded.

 

 

Now I'm looking for a room in Greenville where I'll spend a couple weeks per month. For now there's a bunch of filling and sanding and I've got to do "real" work for a good part of August so I probably won't get down there until September.

 

Oshkosh

 

On Tuesday, it's off to Oshkosh for a couple days!

 

Oshkosh was a blast as usual. Although this year it was sometimes referred to as "Sloshkosh". The airport was closed on Sunday because so much rain had fallen and the ground was so soft that there was nowhere to park the incoming planes. 

 

This year we went for two days instead of the usual one.  On Tuesday, I net with Tom from Firewall Forward and told him I would be needing the engine around the end of September. Tuesday evening the Cozy Girrls had a spaghetti dinner for the "Canardians".  While we were eating spaghetti, Jack Roush had his incident. We were less than a mile away and had no idea it had happened.

 

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday night in Green Bay. It was about a 45 minute drive to the hotel. Next day I put in some orders for parts (pitot tube, nav lights, etc)  and then went to the Velocity Burger and Brat dinner.

 

Pictures from Oshkosh

 

A 60 year-old Cessna 195

 

 

Watching the daily airshow

 

 

One of the many aircraft parking areas

 

 

Camping with your plane

 

 

 

This year they had one of the largest gatherings of DC-3's since WWII.

 

 

 

Most people can only fit one tent under their wing.

 

 

 

Jerry's One Man Band.  He's been at Oshkosh for 627 years.

 

 

 

Not only is Jesus Lord, but he's got a really sweet Cessna.

 

 

 

Ann was amused by some of the "fashion tragedies" at Oshkosh. I have no idea what was wrong in some of these pictures.

 

Maybe the shirt clashes with the hat?

 

 

 

Gotta be the mini windsock on the hat.

 

 

You did NOT wear that shirt with that scarf!

 

 

I don't even know where to begin.

 

 

Post OSH

I think that I've found a room in Greenville for when I'm down there so it looks like things are coming together.

 

 

August

 

The big flip II

Malcolm has a chain hoist so we don't need a bunch of people to flip the plane. It also makes for some very interesting photo op's.
 

Ready for lift-off

We have lift-off.


Coming back down.


Back to upside down.



Something I never got to. Upside down with both wings on.


Malcolm says now is a good time to start fitting the engine cowling. If I had to guess, it would have taken me weeks to do this. But when you've done it dozens of times, it's easy AND fast... With one minor exception. For some reason, My upper cowling didn't have a flange. The flange is a lip that is created when the cowling is made. This flange is used during the initial mounting to hold the upper and lower cowls together. So we had to make some temporary flanges.

Lower cowl in place.



Here you can see where the cowl is cut for the trailing edge of the wing.


Lower cowl cleco'd to the fuselage.



Upper cowl mounted. You can see the "temporary" flange on the upper cowl (small white tabs where the clecos are).



One day, there'll be an engine in there (the middle opening is where the prop will attach and the two small holes are cooling outlets).


The two cowling halves get joined together. Here you can see the layups that make the two halves one.



Here's the other side.

 

Once the inside layups cure, the flanges are cut away and the outside gets a layup.




When the outside layups cure, the one-piece cowl is made into two pieces. A line is drawn from the trailing edge of the wing and then the cut is made.

 

The lower cowling cut away and removed.


Now it's time to make the mounting flanges where the cowl will attach to the wing root.

First the lower skin of the wing needs to be trimmed back. Masking tape is used to help follow the lines.

After the cut.


The lower cowl is remounted and some tape is used to hold the upper and lower halves together.


Then some tape is applied to the inside of the cowl so the layups don't stick to the cowl.


Malcolm likes to use an old piece of garden hose to create a radius. Here it's held in place with tape.

Ready for the 5 BID layups.


Ta-Da! CoPilot side lower mounting flange.


Pilot side lower mounting flange.


Slightly out of focus closeup.


Now that the cowling (lower) is done it's time for the PITA part. Sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling. This is what I did to the top of the strakes and wings last year. Some people don't flip the plane and do this on their backs. I can't even imagine the difficultly of doing that.

First a quick sanding to remove any real bad areas.
Left winglet (remember, it's upside down)


Left wing and strake (looking from rear).


Then comes finding the low spots. Just like the top, a spline (in this case a 6' piece on hinge rod is used) to find the obvious low spots. Then they're marked so we know where to fill.

The outlined area with the lines are low spots.




The line I cut on the bottom between the strake and wing didn't meet with Malcolm's standards (I was laying on my back when I did it). So it's going to be redone.

Laying a straight-edge as a guide will make for a really straight line.


Malcolm has some aluminum stock he uses to make perfectly straight seams between the strake and wing.


And the fill goes on.

And then it gets sanded off. Malcolm really likes my Hutchins orbital air file. I think that I may have to fight him for it when we're done. :-)



Then it's time to find and mark the low spots again.

The wing mounting bolt access holes also get cleaned up now


And now it's time to get ready to prime.


First coat of gray primer.


And sand to create "the spotted dog" effect.


Next we'll fill any remaining low spots and put on another coat of gray primer. Then it'll be time for the finish white primer.

 

The white primer has a very nice semi-glossy finish and Malcom says to fly it with that for a while. But painting airplanes is a pain and it's soooooo much easier to do now. So I'm still on the fence as to whether to leave it in primer or not.