It's about time!
We are finally about to get our Airworthiness Inspection with a local DAR right after the Memorial Day weekend. Pretty confident we will pass. There are a few things we still need to do and we will be busy all weekend working those items. I know - It’s about time! There are a number of reasons its taken way longer than expected to get here. Will save you the time - most have to do with other obligations and the day job getting in the way for our whole crew. Resources are limited and it is amazing how far we have come with the resources we have had. Our Verner Motor dealership has really made the difference for us - it sustained us through some pretty tough sea states (rough waves). The team is excited to be getting ready to fly. I sure am!
So what’s left to do? Our engine runs have been getting better and better. We are still blowing out a lot of oil from the breather. So we need to inspect the situation some more and see if anything requires fixing. It is likely just from blow-by of the new piston rings and possibly too much oil in the tank. That shouldn’t stop the inspection though. We are replacing some hardware for sure in the landing gear and checking all hardware on the plane to be compliant. We did use proper hardware throughout, but we will take a good look at it - might find something. Then there are misc. tests to do and some paperwork to scan and upload to the FAA on-line application.
We had replaced the landing gear before SNF 22 and had a rough trailer ride down and back. What we have discovered is that the Delrin sleeves are bending and distorting and that is allowing the lower gear legs to lean outward a smidge - its not much at all - but bugs me. Going to take a good look at them and see if anything we can do about it. It should be ok for taxing and even flight, but might cause excessive wear. We are planning to develop Oleo landing gear legs and we already have a backup plan to turn these legs into oleo if required. That will slow us down some if we have to do it and I don’t want to slow down the first flight - unless it’s necessary. Safety first!
When we got back from the show, we took a break to catch-up on sleep and all the neglected things at home and the shop. Then we got into finalizing calcs for the wing structure. This took a couple weeks to do as everyone has been slammed with our day job - Electric Boat. The Navy is pushing EB to get them submarines - faster! Our calculations are showing that we have a marginal tear-out condition at our bolted wing joint and to be ultra-safe, we are going to limit our G loading on this prototype. We can redesign the joint to eliminate the issue (thicker brackets) - but very hard to do on this example - this far into the build. The fuel tank installation is preventing us from replacing the inboard side of the joint. So we would just build new wings and we are planning to build a new kit production prototype anyway. So it will be done on the next example. On this one, the team decided to keep the bolt size originally called for and installed the final wing attachment bolts and did final wing installation for ailerons, pitot, lights, covers. Then we did a final weight and balance test after everything was back on the plane. Heavy as expected. We will do a weight reduction/optimization review for the next airframe and the kit design. Should be able to loose 30 pounds or more. We have learned a lot about this machine and how to do it better next time.
After that, Scott machined the brackets needed and we installed the canopy latch - it works great! We had replaced the brakes and had no time before SNF to get them working. After servicing them, they are working pretty good. Will know shortly during a taxi test if strong enough or too much. As a taildragger, I’d rather have too weak and just plan to slowly slow down. I do want them to be strong enough to break the steerable, full-swiveling tailwheel free from the detent and caster the plane around on a dime. Steering is by steerable tail wheel and rudder, then differential braking if needed.
Well, here we go. Final stretch on this airplane. Get her inspected and then flying! Will be posting videos. Look for one shortly of our most recent engine runs. It’s About Time!
