The stock roll trim system has a tendency to slip. Some have found that putting some belt dressing will improve things, but I have found the springs that are supplied are too weak, too (can’t put stronger ones due to slippage issues). So, I thought I’d take a crack at building a better roll trim. […]
Sparrow strainer
Taking care of the last few construction details. Here’s the sparrow strainer. The airfoil comes from Velocity, I traced the template of the two arms onto a pre-cured piece of 2-ply BID then cut them out on a band saw. Attached the two supporting arms to the airfoil with micro. Sanded it down, then added more […]
Vortilons
Doing busy work while I’m waiting for my engine parts to return. Vortilons took a bit longer than I thought, but they came out nice. I followed the manual – I cut out the vortilons using the templates from the supplied fiberglass panel. On the main wing, I laid two layers of BID where the […]
Pedal mod
After getting the rudders connected and filling the brakes with brake fluid, I put the pilot seat in and gave the pedals a test. My brakes are still squishy as I need some help bleeding them, but I was did not like how much I had to point my toes to depress the brakes. The […]
Aileron balancing
I was able to get the ailerons balanced while staying under the 9.5lb weight limit. I used stick-on weights applied to the top of the leading edge to balance each side. After applying the weights, I put a layer of BID over the weights to secure. Had to do a little filing to recover all […]
Elevator balancing
To get the elevators balanced, I needed to add an extra weight. I added the weight on the inboard side. I saw that it was advised to add the weight to the outboard side, but I can’t see how I’d add that weight there. I may re-think this later. To get the required maximum up/down […]
Pedal system
I removed the pedal system from the plane disassembled it and painted it. A paint I really like for these types of high-wear applications is the Rust-Oleum Hammered Metal paint. It always go on very nice, great finish and very durable. Once it dried, I covered the pedal surfaces with a couple layers of heat-shrink […]
Pitch AP servo
I’m using the Dynon Skyview EFIS which has built-in autopilot control. I have purchased AP servos for both pitch and roll. Most mount the pitch AP servo on the canard with a separate control arm connection to the elevator torque tube – this is also what I’ve done. I created an angle bracket to mount […]
Control stick
The previous builder had already constructed a control stick. It appears that he molded it out of micro and did a very nice job. I thought quite awhile about how to finish it, though. Any sort of paint would wear off very quickly. I finally found some very large i.d. heat-shrink tubing to cover it […]
Pitch trim
The previous builder had assembled the control stick with the Strong Pitch Trim system. Generally, I liked the system, but there was quite a bit of slop in it, so I disassembled the system entirely and rebuilt it. I sent the Strong Pitch Trim system back to Alex Strong to be checked out as I’d […]