Wiring up the wings

With the wings finally on, we can now finish up all the wiring: the nav/strobe lights, pitot heat, autopilot on the wing, fuel senders, pitot and AOA plumbing. Took almost a day to wrap this up (8hrs).

Also had to finish the wingtips, wire them and test everything for operation:

 

The images below show how the wiring to the tax/landing lights were secured. Here is a place where experience really counts. For example, you don't want the power connection going to the lights ever touching the airframe. Consequently its imperative that you insulate it well. Harley (Glenn's brother) advised on how to insulate using wrap around the connection. Lots of small details took quite a bit of time (6 hrs).  

 



 

Here is the final product!

 

We test fired the strobes and landing/taxi lights. Everything works except for the wig-wag functionality. Realized that we need to get a new flasher module. Its on its way from B&C and once that's in, we got everything wired up in the panel!

Installing the Wings

Last big piece of the puzzle: Installing the wings. Before that we needed to make sure that our gears tracked straight, and had zero tow-in/out. We had to use one 0.5 degree shim. We also went ahead and finally installed the brakes, finalized the axel assembly and started to work on the brake line (8 hrs).

 

 

 

With the gear out of the way, it was time to install the wings (2 hrs). We were able to easily fit the wings between Glenn, Dennis and I. I held the winds at the outboard end, while Dennis helped slip the wings in the correct position. Glenn inserted the bolts in the fuselage. This looks like an airplane! Here are some shots on the big day:

We also drilled the rear spar bolts as well. Took 4 plumb bobs, a fishing line, a couple of levels and lots of patience to get this right (5 hrs). The plans mention clearly that there is no scope of any mistake here, so we took our time and spent an entire afternoon measuring and then finalizing where to place the hole. Also needed to finalize the holes where wiring from the wing would enter fuselage.

Also, we ended up test fitting and rigging the ailerons, flaps etc. It took few hours (10 hrs) to get that right. Once done, we pulled the wings out, painted the area on fuselage where the wing will bolt on and then did the final assembly! The wings are on for good now!

Canopy skirts and windscreen

The third and the final stage in building the canopy is really the fiberglass skirts. As expected out of the box fit for the skirt is poor. Had to spend quite a bit of time (10 hrs) trimming and fitting (With some layups at the aft end). Here is the canopy skirt trimmed, fitted and primed:

 

 

 

We also tackled laying up fiberglass fairing around the windscreen and above the roll bar. Here are the fiberglass pieces measured and cut:

 



 

The final product, dry and sanded. We still need to prime, but all in all this bit is done (10 hrs) !

 

Here is how it looks like. The canopy skirt is cleco-ed. We are waiting on an additional order of Sikaflex 295UV and will bond it once it arrives!  

 

Sikaflex the Canopy

Doing an update after a long time! We took some break from the build. I had lots of travel to take care off. Plus we moved to a new house and that took a lot of my time. Glenn and Dennis were gone quite a bit as well.

 

Last few months I have been mostly taking care of small things such as finalizing the manual trim cable, fitting and installing the interior, finalizing the battery compartment, installing the control sticks, tie wrapping the wires in the fuselage etc. These little things take a lot of time and still there is a tonne to do.

 

Once Glenn was back, we decided to get the canopy out of the way. Its really hard for one person to do this, and I am glad I had some help here. The canopy was already fitted and cut. We decided to use sikaflex instead of the traditional vans method. The sikaflex method is somewhat crack-proof (only time will tell).

 

I did some research online and asked questions on VAF. We used Activator, 209 primer and Sikaflex 295UV black. Here are the shots of canopy during the process of scuffing, cleaning, activating and priming: 

 

 

 

 

Same process on the frame as well:

 

 

 

Finally, applying the sikaflex. Applying the sikaflex probably took 30 mins or so, but the prep time was brutal (10 hrs).



Baffles and Ignition Cable Routing

I have asking significant help from Glenn and Dennis on the firewall forward. Their experience makes me much more comfortable dealing with this complex part of the build.

 

Over the past few weeks, we have been working tirelessly on the baffles (> 20 hrs). I have ECI cylinders that have slightly different shape than the baffle kit that Vans provides. Consequently, we had to modify things here and there. Mostly, the baffles did fit initially, but with any sheet metal work, there is cutting, deburring etc. no matter what. Decided to paint then red:

 



 

 

Here is snapshot with final baffles installations. Glenn and others have made many baffles in the past, so it was a non-event. It would have taken me a long time to get through this without their help.

Close up shots of the oil cooler mount and the inverted system. The engine compartment is beginning to look somewhat complete. Still lots of wiring to finalize.

 

Quick Drain Plug

Spent quite a bit of time head scratching about quick drain oil plug. Basically, I got a superior oil sump and with the inverted oil system, we needed to make some decisions about how to route the oil line and install the quick drain plug.

 

Here is what we started with. As you can see the exhaust lines are in the way and make the installation hard:

 

 

This is what we finally did. Re-routed the inverted oil line to the sump below the exhaust lines and in the center goes the oil drain plug (5 hrs).

Cowling and installing RAM air

Fiberglass work is never ending on cowling. Have been fitting trimming for a while and finally got it to sit the way we liked a few weeks back.

 

I decided to go the RAM air route instead of the traditional Van's snorkel. Two main reasons for this: first, it just fits, no fiberglass work like the traditional snorkel. Second, there is a good chance that it'll give us some boost in HP (especially at altitude with RAM air open).

 

Had to  modify the cowl a bit for the RAM air to work (10 hrs):

 

 

Here is the final fitted cowl. Took us too long to do this part (> 25 hrs)...

 

Also decided to go the hinge-less oil door route. Not too complex but just a little different than the stock solution (5 hrs):

Propeller arival and intial mounting

The prop is here! This i the last big purchase of the build (hopefully!). I got a whirlwind 200RV prop and it appears that this prop is suitable on nose heavy RV-8s due to its light weight.

 

 

Again , thanks to Glenn's previous experiences as a builder, mounting the propeller was not a big deal. The good thing about the whirlwind prop is that it comes with the spinner (unlike other props, where you have to build the spinner).

Canopy initial fit

Since the top skin is now riveted, we can start thinking about the canopy as well. It seems that many of the builders find the canopy the most challenging aspect of the build. I have doing a bunch of reading about it and it looks like we can divide the canopy build process into three steps: 1) Fitting the plexi bubble and making the big cut. 2) Attaching the plexi-bubble to the frame 3) Fiberglass (canopy skirts and windscreen fairings).

 

Currently, we just are tacking #1. That is fit the canopy and then make the big cut that separated aft section from the windscreen. It took a bunch of fitting / trimming / sanding and took probably good 10-15 hrs just to get the right fit.

 

 

 

The big cut itself was not a big deal (nervous of course, but once you get started you get it done pretty fast):

 

 

Here is the picture of drill and temporarily bolted wind screen.

 

I also started fiddling with the tail fairings etc. I am hoping that we can wrap up the tail section pretty soon. Here is the trial fit for the fairing. It took a bunch of trimming and sanding to get to this stage (2 hrs).

Riveting the front turtle deck

Since the panel is mostly in, we decided to go ahead and rivet the front turtle deck. There were a bunch of things that needed to be taken care off before actually riveting the skin. First, we got the cowl hinges aligned and positioned. That took a bunch of time. I spent a bunch of time fitting the skin, drilling and de-burring all the holes (5 hrs)!

 

Here is the shiny clecoed skin:



 

 

Another shot! The skin on makes the build pretty exciting now. With this riveted on a majority of the airframe work is done:

 



 

We pretty much spent the entire day riveting. Some rivets were hand squeezed, while a majority of them were driven.

 

I had to lay down head first in the fuselage to get some bucking access. Not very fun due to the tight spaces. I am glad its over! Here is the snapshot of how we did it!

Almost done! The skin is shiny! It was well worth our more than 8 hours of hard work!