Support the General Aviation Pilot Protection Act

As a life-long aviation buff and active commercial pilot I urge anyone that is interested in protecting this great freedom of personal flight to show their support by endorsing this law.  I hope you will join me in contacting your state congressmen and senators to express our viewpoint.

This legislation builds on the overwhelmingly positive safety aspects of the Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) category introduced in 2004 which permits pilots to operate certain types of aircraft with a valid driver's license in lieu of a traditional medical certificate.  The category and its medical certification standard have been a resounding success, and there is no significant difference between the medically-related incident rate of LSA pilots and pilots with traditional medical certificates.  This shows that self-evaluation is already working and can be expanded to a wider pool of recreational pilots.

I am an active member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association (AOPA) and the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)  The EAA and AOPA make it really easy to take action to support this legal proposal.  Just select "Take Action" in the box below.

Thanks,

Greg.

Too Cold to Work

So it's been very cold here in the past few weeks.  Too cold to spend much time in the shop.  Need to wait for a warm up.  So what do you do when you can't build in the shop?  You find somewhere else.  I have been doing some small part work inside the house.  Made some more bell crank parts for the ailerons.  And did some scavenging for parts.  Was able to find a nice Falcon sensitive altimeter and a VSI that a guy removed for a panel upgrade.  

No where near ready for these parts yet but the price was really great and it helps keep my momentum up having these parts on hand.

I also found a great deal on a wet compass.  

So let's hope the weather warms up a bit so I can get back in the shop.  Meanwhile I'll just place these instruments on the bench and make airplane noises ;)

Thanks for checking in, 

Greg.

First Post for 2014

Back from the Holidays.  Back to work in the shop.  Had a great trip to the Florida Keys over Christmas.  I hope everyone had a great holiday season.

This is what I did most in Florida:

And

Want to get back to work on the CX4 but the weather is not cooperating.  Frigid temps and an unheated workshop makes it hard to get anything done.  It should be warming up a bit this weekend so I hope to get back to it then.  I need to do the wiring for my lights in the leading edge (see prior post) and get the wing done.  Until it warms up a bit and we're through this "Polar Vortex" (I thought that's what the airliner in the Langoliers flew through) I will not be working in the shop.

Thanks for checking in -

Greg..

Aileron Bellcranks

While waiting for parts and materials to continue work on the right leading edge wing I started working on the aileron bellcrank pieces.   For my first attempt I traced the shape of the bellcrank parts onto .030 6061-T6 and cut the shape out with aviation snips.  Well, the result was not good.  The pieces I cut were "warped" during the cutting process.  So I chucked them in the trash can.  For my next attempt I traced the part from the plans to tracing paper then used a glue stick to adhere the tracing paper to poster board then cut it out from the poster board to use it as a template.  Instead of cutting out the piece with tin snips I decided to use my bench band saw to cut the shape and then finish off shaping by hand file and 3M green pad.  The resulting pieces were much nicer.

In this photo you can see the plans, the template I made, and the cut out and shaped pieces.  Much better.  I have to finish the other two pieces and then cut out the piece of 2024-T4 1" x 1/4" bar stock then drill.  I am much happier with the results I get with the band saw for cutting out the pieces.

Tomorrow I will be installing the new MIL-SPEC 18 gauge wire I got for my lights in the leading edge and then drill the bottom leading edge skin.  And the lights I ordered (see previous post) arrived.  It will be a while before I install those.  Have to finish the wing and make the fiber glass wing tips first..

Thanks for checking in  -

Greg.

Skinning Bottom of Leading Edge (Right Wing)

Started the skinning on the bottom of the leading edge for the right wing.  First rivets on rib #1 drilled and cleco'd.

I will be replacing the wire for the lights.  I originally used automotive wire for the lights.  However after doing some research I have discovered that while okay to use automotive wire the recommended material is MIL-SPEC shielded or un-shielded wire for use in aircraft.  Shielded wire is used for ignition, strobes, and any other "noise producing" electrical connections.  Un-shielded is okay for non-strobe lights so that's what I'm going to use for the wing navigation lights.  I found nice plain old navigation lights online for a decent price.  About $70 per side for normal incandescent lights.  These are the lights I ordered.

Regular old incandescent lights for my CX4

I also ordered 100' of 18 gauge un-shielded MIL-SPEC wire to hook them up.  I will be taking out the automotive wires shown in the photo above and replacing with the MIL-SPEC stuff then complete the riveting of the skin to the leading edge.  Then I'll start attaching the main ribs and getting ready to skin the rest of the wing.  

While waiting for my wire I have been fabricating the aileron bell crank parts.  I'll put some pics up of that work later.

Thanks for checking in -

Greg.

Back to it

Finished drilling, de-burring and riveting the top skin to the leading edge.  Here are a couple of pics of the work.  I peeled back the plastic film coating the skin stock to de-burr and rivet.  Ugly but it protects the skin from work bench scratches.

And yes, my hands are a bit sore from hand squeezing the rivets.  I will continue with the manual rivet tool.  I believe there is more control over pulling rivets with a hand squeezer.  The pneumatic squeezers seem to be harder to use.  I think my hand riveting gives me more control when setting and pulling the rivets.  

Next I will flip over the leading edge and drill, de-burr and rivet the bottom.  I will run electrical wiring for lights and add a "pull-string" for any other things that I might want to run through the wing.

Thanks for checking in -

Greg.

Slowly -

It's been a few weeks.  Busy and not able to get into a work session without interruption.  I want to spend a couple of hours finishing the leading edge skinning and getting the remaining wing structure together.  I had to order some more .020 6061-T6 aluminum.  Should be here in a week or so.   Also spent some time cleaning up the work shop.  It is getting a bit cluttered.  Only myself to blame.

Will be getting back to it tomorrow and I will report progress.

Thanks for checking in.

Greg.