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TParker

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TParker last won the day on January 26

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  • Real Name (Public)
    Trevor
  • Location (Public)
    Ohio

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  • Plane Type
    Long-EZ

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  1. Thanks for the suggestions Kent. Gear is manual, so the travel of the retract system is pretty much fixed; any more retraction angle and it will draw the spring/strut into the retract mechanism, and more extension angle is further over center and would reduce travel. I'll check the vertical rig of the strut. I left sealing the nose opening as a problem for later; filed under nice to have, eventually, but not worth delaying the project from flying to solve.
  2. Extrusions are the stock size. Not sure how far I moved the bracket (closer to the pivot, away from the wheel); I know I took some measurements to get a rough idea of how far it needed to go, and then I used the outer bracket, without the inner piece so it would cinch up on the leg, temporarily installed and testing it to get it right. I ended up marking an acceptable range on the strut to guide where to put the bracket when I bonded it back on. Haven't decided what to do about the engine, I bagged it up with some desiccant and left it in the corner; was hoping to find a good deal on a core or mid-time 320 at some point but haven't. I'll probably tear the 235 apart and rebuild it, probably with overhauled cylinders, that'll probably be the cheapest route to getting it flying. But I'm also toying with the idea of putting a Rotax in it (for stupid reasons), I want to get the wings on to see where the empty airframe CG is to see how much or little engine weight I can tolerate. This weekend I opened up the aileron torque tube recesses to get full aileron travel, and started working on the spanwise gaps. I've got the travel I need now, gotta clean it up a bit and close it out (Maybe? plans call for extending the root layup in about an inch, but I can't see that it really serves much purpose. Gotta think about it). I found the spec for the gap, same 0.080"-0.200" as chordwise, on the same page of the plans, just didn't realize at first what the other cross section was. These were just as razor thin to non-existant as the others. I've got the right one done, left is up next. Example before: And after, at about 0.085",:
  3. Thanks Marc! Appreciate the concern, and checked that as I was milling the cove out with the new weight taped on (thus that picture) before I made it permanent.
  4. Been a while, much of it without much activity. But I have gotten some stuff done. EM Extrusions: Did some stress calcs for landing loads, decided to leave them alone for the most part. Didn't want to do the surgery to add hard points for the bolts that missed and inadvertently cause more damage than I was fixing, so I came up with a laproscopic flox repair to locally address those. Engine Mount: Cut the extraneous stuff off, blasted it, and painted it. Figured out what I'm going to do when I reinstall it to try to minimize/mitigate potential local EM extrusion cracking at the attachment points. Nose gear: The retract system couldn't be rigged to have full extension (fuselage longeron level, proper nose wheel caster angle) and full retraction at the same time. Full retraction was also not flush. Ended up relocating the clamp on the gear leg, and modifying the gear strut tunnel. Tunnel wasn't pretty, and still isn't. The wheel well and gear alignment aren't great. If the wheel is a bit cocked in one direction, it will hang up on the wheel well before it fully retracts. Not sure if wind stream and the bit of vibration in flight will make this a non-issue; going to leave it be for now. Need to figure out a new nose pad/bumper; think I'm going to make one out of HDPE or similar to sit right in front of the strut, and maybe on the strut too. Strake ends were filled with micro, and were cracking and delaminating; right side was worse, left wasn't too bad. Did the lower right first, tried to be clever but was a lot of work. Simplified it to just flox for the rest. Managed to screw up the left side because of how much filler there was on the outside, so a bit more work needed there. Elevators: Spent a bunch of time on these. Stripped one side of one thinking there'd be a lot of filler and that would help balance. Basically no filler; the exposed surface looks ok, they're just heavy. Plans allow for 3 oz extra balance weight to the outer mass, doesn't say exactly how/where to add that. To make my extra 3 oz as effective as possible, I increased the moment arm and resized the cove in the canard to compensate; now they're in spec for balance and weight. Hopefully this wasn't a bad idea; don't copy me. Ailerons: Similar deal, they didn't balance. These had a ton of filler on them, took about a pound off of each, but that wasn't enough. I've learned to love an angle grinder with a flap wheel for stripping stuff off, gotta be careful though. Balance rod was a steel tube instead of a steel rod, haphazardly packed with lead. Cut the tubes off, bonded on 1/2" steel rods instead. I know others have gone from the plans 3/8" to 7/16", don't know if anyone has done 1/2". Might alter the roll handling a little. Didn't see a max weight spec'd anyway, and there's a later CP that says (to deal with vibratory aileron hinge wear) to add more weight with no specified limits in order to balance with top surface level. Velocity ailerons are about the same size, shape, and hinge length and spec a 9 lbf max; mine are about 7 lbf without paint right now. Currently working on the gaps between the ailerons and the wings, they were way too tight before (like 0.005"). Plans call a spec for the chordwise gap between the aileron and the cove and I'm pretty much there now, need a bit of final prettying up; can't seem to find a spec for the spanwise gap. Also working on deflection; looks like the universal joint boot on the aileron torque tube hits in the wing and needs some extra clearance for full aileron travel, they're not too far off but shouldn't be the limiting factor. The bellcrank brackets in the wing root cove have witness marks from the rod end attachment bolt, and don't have the aileron stops (and never did, no holes). The aileron pushrods are all missing, so I'll have to make new ones once I get the wings on.
  5. Thanks for the heads up! I bought one as soon as I found out about it, got it about a month ago.
  6. I joined. Doesn't look like they have scanned copies of the past CSA newsletters (yet?).
  7. Ah, thanks. I saw it labeled as VariEze and didn't quite understand what I was looking at; should have looked closer. Thanks. I should have been more specific; the way your initial reply was worded made me think that there were fuselage mods that went along with the increased sizing of the EM12 extrusions. The mention of the control stick is interesting, I'll have to look into that. For my purposes, this is pretty much a single seat airplane. I may give someone a ride if they're interested but otherwise the backseat is cargo volume. The electric gear is neat and would be nice to have but my goal is to get the thing flying and the manual system is serviceable. Same thing goes with other mods; I'll do them if they're necessary, make sense, or make the aircraft safer but otherwise they're extra work and I've got plenty ahead of me without looking for more.
  8. Thanks Kent. Are there other mods to the fuselage besides increasing the size of the angles? Can't seem to find it in his gallery. I am familiar with this one. I'll have to evaluate mine. Good idea, and good tip. Thanks! I'll check mine for play. I don't think there's any obvious scoring that would imply relative motion between the spacer and the bearing race but I'll double check.
  9. I've made some small progress: The nose gear retract worm drive had a significant bind in it. This was noticeable through the hand crank when I originally acquired it, but was more evident after it had been cleaned up and turning just the gear. Seemed to be caused by the worm gear shaft not being perfectly straight; the worm gear also had a small chip in it, so maybe it had a (hard?) landing without the gear fully extended. Ended up flipping one of the worm gear bushing blocks around and shimming it with a couple layers of UHMW tape; spins pretty freely now. The nose gear fork faces where they interface with the wheel spacers were as cast and nowhere close to square, so the fork was making very little contact with the spacers. The axle bolt had some signs that the spacers were moving relative to the bolt. So I filed the faces; they're not perfect but they're a lot closer. Didn't have any blue, but a sharpie worked pretty well. Before: After: Most of my effort has been expended on trying to figure out what to do about my engine mount extrusion (EM12) situation. What I've got is non-standard in a couple of ways. Firstly, it has this aluminum bar on the bottom, going from left to right and an extra bolt to mount it. I presume, but don't know for sure, that this is one of the mods that was done when the 360 was installed. In my opinion, it does nothing except add weight, so I removed it. But in doing so, I noticed the biggest issue so far. There is supposed to be, per plans, another horizontal bolt holding the EM12 in, which is part of why I was asking this. This bolt is missing on both left and right sides on the bottom, but is present on the upper pair. Normally, I would just install said bolts, but given that installing them would require drilling into the fuel tanks, I've been trying to avoid that. I've done some analysis, and so far haven't come up with a load case that stresses that missing bolt in a meaningful way. However it's a pretty complicated joint with a variety of materials; and the fact that I don't quite get the way it's intended to function means I may be missing something. On the other hand, my conclusion is supported by the fact that the epoxy and flox surrounding the EM12s shows no signs of cracking; though, with the limited hours in service, it's not a guarantee of future success. The other potential mitigating factor is that, as another mod to support the big engine, the engine mount has had two extra legs welded on to it which bolt onto the main gear carry through bolts; mount shown below. These extra legs add weight and require extra holes in the firewall; I'm not a big fan of either of those things but I like the extra load path and not having to puncture the fuel tanks. If others have reasoned opinions on the best course of action, I'd appreciate hearing them. In the course of all this, I also discovered that three of the 10 vertical bolt holes that are used to mount the EM12s miss the spruce blocks embedded in the spars. So I've got to fix or mitigate that somehow; probably cut the hole open from inside the spar and bond in an additional spruce block. I wasn't the biggest fan of the aluminum firewall because it was pretty beat up. Removing it became necessary anyway in order to do something about the spinning studs that held the angled rudder pulleys; the pulley brackets have to be replaced with steel ones per CP49. What's interesting is that the plans mentions that they may spin and to slot the ends to hold with a screw driver; so this is a known problem and, in my opinion, not a great solution. Four of the six were already slotted, and I had to add another. The combination of the slots and locking nuts resulted in two of the studs being damaged during the removal. The rudder bellcrank brackets also require replacement with steel and their bolts also spun which required making holes in the fuselage. Not a fan of all these buried fasteners with no anti-torque mechanism other than flox and hope (in vain). I'm going to figure out something better so this doesn't happen again. Given that I am missing one of the bellcranks, need new brackets, and that I don't have rear mounted brake master cylinders, I'm looking for other solutions to rudder actuation. The most straightforward is, I think, to use pulleys instead of bellcranks like the Cozy does; if anyone knows of something better please chime in.
  10. Thanks Kent. I've got some issues in this area (EM12 to fuselage) that need attention and I'm trying to figure out how I want to address them. Do you mean the bolts that attach the engine mount to the angle? Or the bolts that attach the angle to the fuselage? I saw that you built yours like the Cozy, what did you do on forward side of the firewall? Particularly interested in how you tied in the lower mounting points. Apologies if details are in your thread and I missed it.
  11. Does anyone have/know of any loads analysis done for the engine mount extrusions (EM12) and their attachment to the fuselage? Or are there any examples/pictures of this joint failing or being damaged due to overloading (like in a hard landing)? I've seen others have increased the vertical web of the EM12s or substituted steel in anticipation of a heavier engine and I was curious if the extrusion was actually the limiting factor or if it was something else like the bolts that attach the EM12s to the rest of the structure, or failure or the composite structure itself. The plans state a max engine weight of 246 lbf and a max vibrating weight allowable of 286 lbf; I presume that number came from some analysis (available?). I'm further curious as to how much the bolts contribute to this system as this implementation seems a bit strange to me; in that: If the bolts are intended to carry tensile loads, using small OD (AN960-416L) washers against relatively soft spruce doesn't seem effective If the bolts are intended to carry shear loads they're likely to split the spruce and the shear handling capability of the fiberglass is also likely low This installation is significantly different from the wing attach, where an aluminum puck is used to transfer loads into the composite Any insight here would be appreciated. TIA.
  12. Thanks for the info! That's pretty interesting. Do you remember what grit you ordered? According to the logs, these cylinders are already bored 0.010" over. So, unfortunately, it's unlikely that they'd remain within Lycoming's minimums. The reference I have (SSP-1176-4) indicates that 0.010" over would be, in itself, out of spec; I'm assuming that the nominal dimension, which isn't listed, is the 4.375" of the cylinder bore in the basic engine specs. The Lycoming parts manual doesn't list oversized pistons or cylinders as acceptable parts, but does have oversized rings. Superior makes oversized versions of pistons, rings, and cylinders. Probably worth trying though and then measuring against the limits.
  13. Whilst I haven't been as productive as hoped for due primarily to work obligations, I've managed to get some things done. Before I got too carried away on the elevators, I tried taping some weight onto them to see how much it would take to bring them into spec. It looks like I can get the elevators to be within spec for weight and angle by adding ~0.1 lbf to the outboard balance on each. So I'll sand the paint off the balance and glass on a bit more lead. The cylinders on the O-235 are significantly corroded above the rings, which while disappointing isn't surprising: The bottom end, however, looks to be in surprisingly good shape. I had a couple of A&Ps look it over, who commented that they've seen much worse in active, flying aircraft. Unfortunately, the case was assembled with some sort of silicone sealant rather than any of the Lycoming approved methods and that sealant has deteriorated, so it needs to be, at a minimum, tore down, resealed, and reassembled. I'm holding off on further engine work while I decide whether to rebuild this one or pursue a 320 of some sort. Built a rolling wing rack to hold the main wings and the canard while they're not on the airplane. I figured out how the brakes are supposed to work, looks like it will be a usable system. It was jammed up, thus the initial confusion, but the attachment between the master and the pedal has a slot in it to allow for rudder deflection prior to brake engagement. I measured the various linkages in the rudder/brake system to see if there was enough adjustment available to allow for max rudder prior to engaging the brakes and it does. This system seems to have a rather significant motion ratio advantage in that ~5 deg of rudder pedal is ~25 deg of rudder surface deflection; but the linkage geometry looks like it matches the plans, so no reason to build something different until I try it. Rebuilt the brake masters and calipers, installed new brake pads, cleaned up the main wheels, inspected and repacked the bearings, and replaced the tires. Pulled the nose gear and retract mechanism out of the aircraft. This was a bit tricky, the pivot bolt was stuck in the bushing (NG7) and wouldn't come out. Friend of mine saved the day with a rivet gun. Unfortunately I did some minor damage to the side of the fuselage trying to pry it out that I'll have to repair. The retract mechanism was pretty gummed up with old grease and gunk: But it cleaned up nicely: Similarly, the nose strut hardware: Cleaned: The nose strut compression spring (from CP25) and the nose wheel itself got the same treatment. So at this point, I need to reassemble all this stuff at the front of the airplane that I've taken apart.
  14. Nope, not yet. If you do, please share. The weights of the surfaces are close to the maximums listed for balanced and painted surfaces. So if they're not balancing that's because the weight is in the wrong spot. I can think of the following possibilities: I've misunderstood how this was supposed to be measured Balance weights are in the wrong position Maybe I can move them if this is the case Balance weights are too small Can't do much with this, as the surfaces are already very close to the allowable weights Elevator brackets have the pivot in the wrong position Elevator has too much paint on trail edge Elevator was built poorly Needs to be replaced
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