Brakes

Finished all the minor touch up under the inner wings, mounted the landing gear and turned the fuselage back to finish the electrics and engine stuff (the rest actually). Also removed the wind shield (thanks to AirWards kits).

Started to finish the hydraulic brake lines, and then I remembered something from earlier. The brakes are upside down in the drawings.

The break bleeder is on the lowest point. Unless someone have found up a gravity defying device, the only way to bleed the brakes is to put the aircraft upside down. Obviously the brake should be turned 180 degrees.

This is the wrong way:

But this is the right way:

This will also make the bleeder to be on the very top, as it should. The problem now is the brake lines are too short, and I need to get some new ones. I don't like the brass fittings either, brass screwed directly into the aluminium pads. It won't take long before corrosion occur here. I am actually contemplating getting some real Beringer wheels and breaks that are made to last, but I have to try these first and see how well they last.

Right inner wing and canopy finished

Finished riveting the skin on the right inner wing.

Then finished the canopy. Used some 1 and 2 mm rubber sheets and cut out pads to be able to fine trim the canopy glass onto the frame. The handle also works OK, could be smoother, but I think that requires a different design. I also found a small crack that I didn't see when the plastic was on. Just stop drilled it, but have to find out how to fix it properly later.

Right inner wing skinned

It will stay unpainted for a while, until I'm finished with the internals.

Skinning the inner wing sections

Finally time to skin the inner wing sections. They have to be skinned before mounting the landing gear, or there will be no room to pull lots of the rivets. I also need to get get it on it's feet so I can sit in it and make cool sounds :-)

First I fastened the "Tygon" pitot and static pressure tubes. Just stripped them on to the electric wire lines. I have never heard of Tygon tubing before, so I googled it:

Clear, Phthalate-Free Tubing
Tygon S3™ B-44-3 tubing is specially formulated for transferring a wide variety of beverages including soft drinks, fruit juices, flavored teas and bottled water. In virtually all cases, Tygon S3™ B-44-3 tubing will not affect the taste or odor of products transferred through it, while its excellent non-wetting properties facilitate complete drainage and permit simple flush-cleaning.

The glass-like clarity of Tygon S3™ B-44-3 beverage transfer tubing allows the user to see product flow through it, so visual monitoring of flow is easy. This is particularly helpful in controlling or adjusting flow during processing.

Features And Benefit

• Clear as glass for easy visual monitoring of flow

• Lightweight and flexible for easy, quick installation

• Broad chemical resistance

• Non-wetting properties allow easy cleaning and complete drainage

• Contains no BPA or phthalates

Aha, so that makes it good for pitot and static pressure tubing? Lightweight and flexible is good. Chemical resistance is also good I guess. Non-wetting properties is probably very good. Any water condensate will not stick to the walls, and therefore easily drain and evaporate, I guess.

Then I took some last pictures before putting the skin on (already drilled and countersunk)

Then I saw I had forgotten to prime the mating face under the doubler, so primed that and started riveting on the skin.

Canopy frame riveted and painted

Canopy, crossover tubing

Fixed the crossover tube on the aft of the canopy.

Canopy screwed on and fits

It's actually on and fits !!! Sort of almost gave up for a while, but eventually it is there. All holes countersunk and threaded. Only need some riveting and priming, and it is ready to go.

I made 4 small drainage holes at the bottom of the frame. Some water is bound to get into those tubes somehow, and it is better to drain it out at once. Also need some spacers here and there.

Canopy frame and screws

Some of the screws go into the steel angle inserts in the frame. I also threaded the steel angles, but these stainless MS screws are not really up to quality to handle this. They will bite between the aluminium and steel and it all ends with the head of the screw being twisted off.

Re-drilled and threaded to M4 standard and used some real industry quality M4 screws instead (made of real steel, and with metric shaped threads). Doing this, and all of a sudden the biting problem was gone. Only had umbraco heads avaiable, but will probably change them later.

Sloooowly, but surely this canopy is finally coming together....

Canopy frame and handle

Had to trim the handle to make it glide smooth. Made the hole for the lock. Also drilled up and threaded the holes in the steel angle tubes.

Canopy frame

Drilling the canopy frame.

Canopy

More canopy work. Step by step.

Canopy

Sometimes I do stupid things because I don't think. Other times I think too much, and end up doing strange and complicated things. This time however, I must have been brain dead. Dirk Verdonck from the Netherlands emailed me and showed how he fixed the canopy using plywood former on the turtle deck. The obvious solution of course. So I made myself a set of formers. I need some other bolts to fasten them. No I can simply adjust the formers so the canopy fits perfectly to the turtle deck, and then fasten the bows afterward.

Canopy and visit from Denmark

Should be towing gliders today, but Mr Winter decided to come back for a visit with some heavy snow. So, back to the canopy. The canopy is much more fiddly than anticipated. My son and I worked all day, and got a few inches further.It would be much easier if the aft edge was made similar to the fwd edge with a defined mating edge (the end of the wind shield, the wind shield bow). It would also be much easier to get it water tight. There are too many variables at once; the fwd edge, the aft edge, and the aft bow, and everything is moving around. It just takes lots of time and fiddling to get it right, and it requires lots of patience.

Sawing that canopy is also very difficult. I tried several fine saws, but it didn't really work well. Then I tried my Dremel with a cutting disk. This seems to kind of cut/melt the plastic, and works OK. It takes some time.

Yesterday we had visitors from Denmark. Bjarne and his wife were visiting Trondheim and came by to look at the Onex. He and several others are completing an Europa they have been building for 20 years. Now he is wondering about building a Onex on his own. They have a very nice web page here. Time will show if he decides on a Onex :-)

Canopy and things

Lots of bits and pieces. Made and mounted brackets for the tiedown hooks. Finished the windshield Airward kit (straps with anchor nuts on the side, and anchor nuts on the front strap). Finished up the "fine tuning" of the wing pin handle and securing mechanism. Started with the canopy which seems rather difficult stuff. Also had a visit from my inspector. I probably also need a third tie down hook for the aft fuselage.

  

Main lights

I wondered where to put the lights. On the tip, or on the inner wing. I ended up placing it on the inner left wing close to the hole. But, this is a tail dragger, and the light is really meant for nose gear... I had to make a bracket, so I can angle the light down about 7 degrees. I made that from wood. Then I made a plate of aluminium plate (a 1 inch by 2.5 mm rod  actually) to put on the inner side. Drilled hole for the screws and electric wire and threaded one of the hole to M4, so I can just screw it in place without a nut (maybe I will use a nut just to secure it). I will RTV the plate to the skin in the end. I also tried it, Ahh lights :-)

Gave the wooden block an additional cover of paint.

Electric line tubes

Made the brackets and riveted them on. Then fastened the electric line tubes.

Wing pin handles, safety pin

The spring operated safety pin to hold the wing pin handle in place needed lots of work. First the cut out in the wing skin is all wrong, so the safety pin will be too far fwd and too much inward to actually do anything.

The safety pin on both sides needs to be re-positioned, and because there already are holes and cut out in the skin, a skin doubler needs to be made. Found some scrap metal to make this.

Then I looked at the safety pin itself. It is spring operated to stay in the locked position by default. A closer look reveals that the spring is only held in place by an insanely tiny clip that easily can be removed by hand. If this clip is removed, the whole spring operation will fail, and the pin can simply slide to the side. It's function will be lost. I decided to make an extra safety mechanism to hold it in place. My old man has built RC planes for almost a century, so I called him to ask if he had some piano wire. He had lots of it, and I "borrowed" some 1 mm wire to make a a small wire with loops in each end. One end goes through a m4 bolt in place of the rivet, and the other end can be placed around the safety pin to physically hold it in place. A very simple fix that should do the trick if the original clip should fail (until it rusts away, and then I will make a new one).