RV Project

I finally got my engine and panel in - actually got them a couple of weeks ago, just haven’t posted anything about it yet! Only waiting for a couple more things now: Cowl (this covers the engine), my propeller (any day now), and some small but important fuel things.

I’ve been waiting for the fuel components for awhile and I finally got the last piece a couple of days ago. Turns out it can’t connect/couple with the other component I need it to connect to! (From the same company no less!). So it looks like I’ll need to upgrade my fuel selector to the newest version so I can use the extender I need to use.

Here’s a quick picture of my engine, as it looks crated in. This is a 2007/2008 Eggenfellner E6 6-cylinder Subaru engine (normally aspirated).

And here are a couple of pictures of my panel, as delivered by Aerotronics. Very nice wiring in the back, I hope I don’t have to break any of those bundles!

I just found out that my Eggenfellner Subaru engine is shipping this week! I can’t wait to get it. The cowl and the new ‘official’ manual will be delayed, I’m told - but I really just need to get my hands on the fuel pumps so I can start putting in fuel lines.

My constant speed prop and avionics panel should also be shipping this week, so I’ll have quite a Christmas in July if everything gets out on time.

Just got a new picture of my panel being built over at Aerotronics, lookin’ pretty sharp.

The folks at Aerotronics were kind enough to send me a picture of my panel. Can you guess which avionics goes in which spot? Me neither! (Just kidding, I better know .. ).

Let’s see if this thing works.

I don’t really care for Picasa, but I haven’t found a better photo manager.

Last Tuesday I took delivery of a very large crate (well, 1 big one and one sorta big one) from Fedex Freight. My Quickbuild (partially pre-built) wings had arrived! (Several thousand dollars, months, and $600 in freight bills later).
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I had made a stand of sorts to hold the wings after they were taken out of the crate, but my “cradle” is a bit wider than it should have been - requiring chunks of foam to hold the wings upright. Once I break the crate down and get rid of it (a huge chore in and of itself!) I will modify that cradle to hold the wings more securely - they will be in them for about a year or however long it takes me to finish the fuselage.

Speaking of fuselage, I had just started the first steps of that kit last week. Unpacking and sorting everything took a whole day. You can see a picture of almost everything here:

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That last picture is of my firewall. On the otherside is where the engine attaches, this side is inside the cockpit and will have the longerons (the long shafts that go from nose to tail) attaching to those white braces in the corners. As soon as I get the crate out of the garage I’ll be finishing up one of the major bulkheads that the wings attach to.

I’ve started school again, taking AES 1800 (Instrument/Commerical Flight textbox learning) and ENG 1020 (Metro’s research paper class). Hurray for 20pg research papers!

I’m also on Active Duty and have been since August started. I’m doing a funky shift: 24 hours every 3 days. It’s not bad, because you work during the day (usually 7am to 1-3pm) and then hang out until bed time. I’ve gotten pretty good at foosball, but no where near as hardcore as some of the guys.

Being on alert means we have to be on hand to launch our F-16s within 10 minutes of the siren. It hasn’t happened yet, and it probably won’t as I only have a few more weeks left - then I go back to my regular job. I was hoping to use my 2 days off between alert shifts to bang out some work on my fuselage, and it has to some extent, but with school and the less than stellar timing of the arrival of my wings it seems like I haven’t gotten all that much done.

Ah well, gotta keep plugging away or it’ll take forever!

I bought the very first instrument for my panel, very exciting!

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The Aerospace Logic FL-100-R resistive fuel gauge.

Finally finishing up with the garage. We have a couple more shelves to put up before I’d declare it “finished”. I’m also looking for some kind of rack to put Cheryl’s kayak on, so it’s not in the way when it’s not being worked on (and, when it gets finished, it’ll need a place to live). If anyone has any suggestions ..

This weekend (and most of last week) I worked on getting protective epoxy coat on the floor. I probably spent more time on it than necessary, but it turned out pretty nice. Since the floor was a mismatch of different concrete slabs, I thought this would a) make it look a lot nicer, and b) be super cool to have. I mean, all the “serious” mechanics and tinkerers have something like this, right? Right! I ended up using a water based epoxy from a company called UCoatIt.

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One thing I knew but never really realized: when you epoxy the floor, you really are just painting it. It’s not like it’s some thick coat that’ll hide all of the cracks. Think of how thick paint goes on your average wall and that’s about as much epoxy/paint that gets on your garage floor. Don’t get me wrong, it came out great but it would require you to fill in cracks and sand away rough spots if you didn’t want them to show.

On to the next topic .. Cheryl’s garden is very nice this year. Here’s a couple of pics from it:

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Now that the garage is done, hopefully I can make some leeway on my airplane. It’s been sitting for quite awhile as we waiting for this garage to get finished up. I have a whole fuselage kit just sitting there, begging to be opened let alone worked on.