Build log

Getting close…

I have my airworthiness inspection scheduled for Wednesday morning.  One of the fine folks from the FAA (Windsor Locks office) is going to come out to my hangar at ORH and have a look.  Hopefully everything will go ok.  I’ve been busy making sure all the paperwork is in order and going over all the […]

Skyview data logger

Dynon says they’re going to add on-board data logging at some point, but until then, they only stream data out one of the RS-232 ports.  So, I bought an inexpensive data logging device from SparkFun called OpenLog.  At only $24.95, you can’t beat it.  It takes a microSD card, so its pretty easy to transfer […]

Engine back in plane

On the home stretch now…My rebuilt engine is back in the plane and running…sort of.  After a bunch of horsing around I found I had two issues.  Firstly, when I went to start it the first time, I had a real tough time.  After a few days of pulling my hair out, I realized I […]

Gear test

I’m now getting ready for my airworthiness inspection and starting to go through the list of things to check.  I haven’t done a thorough check on the gear for awhile, so I jacked the plane up and cycled the gear.  This video shows cycling it several times, I probably cycled the gear ~15 times more […]

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 […]

Engine reassembly

I’ll try to step through the process as I did it.  First, preparation.  All the parts that did not go out to ECI for refurb had been inspected, cleaned or replaced.  All fasteners were thrown out and new MilSpec hardware was used.  A mixture of 50/50 STP/oil was used to coat most moving parts before […]

Engine parts arrived!

Here’s what I’ve been waiting for – my engine parts back from ECI!  From ECI, I had the cases, crank, rods, cam and lifters refurbed.  I also bought a gasket kit from ECI as well as piston pins and con rod bolts/nuts. In addition, I had the fuel servo refurbed by Airflow Performance – they […]

Data plate

More busy work.  For the data plate, I cut a piece of 316 stainless steel into an appropriately sized rectangle.  I created a design in CorelDraw and sprayed a laserable paint on it and used a CO2 laser engraver to lase in the dark lettering.  This laserable paint is pretty cool, wherever the laser hits, […]

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 […]