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30 April 2005:CLOSING OUT MAIN GEAR.

1) Notice the small indentation at the bottom of the spar plate. I wasn't happy with the clearance between the actuator and the plate, so I machined out a small recess to provide clearance.

2) The end plate is cut out of a 3/8 piece of foam that has 4 layers of BID on both sides. The plate is then cut out on one side so it fits nicely onto the end.

3) Liberal amounts of flox were laid into the cutout areas. The plate is placed on the end, and held in place with the rope and boards.

4) Note the inside view of the plate.

When the flox cures, I'll grind the outside down so its even with the existing strake, I'll then put three layers of BID all the way around.

25 April 2005:Gear Wheel Well Clearance.

1) The machine work performed on the half fork works like a champ. I now have a minimum of 1/4 inch clearance all the way around, on both tires.

2) The laser was aligned on the center of the strut, look at the bolt on the bottom, and the strut hydraulic hole on the top. Now, carefully look at the axel bolts, Note that the laser isn't in the center, the Half fork is actually tilted forward 1/4 inch. PERFECT.

3) Note the small indent that I machined into the half fork. This provides additional clearance for the brake caliper slide.

24 April 2005:MACHINE SHOP, GEAR PARTS.

1) One of the Infinity Aerospace gear ADs has you remove the Allen retaining screws from the strut/half fork mounting flange, Drill the holes all the way through. Then install AN3 bolts and nuts (seen in photo). One of the problems with this, the strut bottom seal now rests on these nuts, instead of the nice flat surface of the half fork. This may not be a problem, as this seal (it looks like a brake caliper piston) doesn't move, its job is to seal the bottom of the strut. However, it doesn't look right, I wanted it resting on a nice flat surface like it did before the AD.

2) The solution was to fabricate a small dowel, 7/8 in diameter by 1 inch deep. This was drilled with a #10 screw clearance and countersunk. A mating hole was drilled in the Half Fork, and threaded for this 10-32 screw.The screw is held in place by a liberal coating of Blue LocTite. When the Half Fork is installed on the flange, the bottom strut seal will now rest against this dowel, instead of the three nuts.

While I had the half forks off to do the AD, I elected to modify the half forks to solve a wheel well clearance issue. (SEE 22 March 2005) The Half Fork flange mating surface was re-machined so its forward edge is 1/16 inch lower than the Aft edge. This new mating surface causes the half fork to tilt forward 1/4 inch as measured at the axel. This 1/4 inch repositioning moves the tire forward in the wheel well by 1/4 inch.

When I bolt everything back together, I should have a perfectly centered tire in the wheel well, with no rubbing.

NOTE - This exact same procedure was performed on both sides.

CAUTION, If your thinking of doing this, verify that the half fork is bent to exactly 90 degrees. My left fork is bent at about 88.5 degrees. (the right is 90 degrees) We had to shim the half fork in the mill to make sure our new mating surface was correct, in relation to the old surface. Because of the way the gear slants forward, this 88.5 degree will aggravate any toe out issues. It will also cause a slight camber change, but this shouldn't be an issue. During some initial measurements several weeks ago, I noted that the left gear appeared to be toe out. I don't think the 88.5 angle is causing all the problem, but it is contributing to it. I'll probably solve the toe out by inserting alignment shims behind the axels. These are inexpensive, and an industry acceptable solution.

3) Another issue I was concerned about was the close tolerance between the brake caliper and the half fork. I machined a small indent into each of the half forks. This provides acceptable clearance between the brake calipers and the half fork. When I reassemble everything, I'll post a photo that shows this clearance detail.

4) Photo 4 shows the lower gear door support bracket. This bracket is made of a bent piece of 6061-T6, welded to a pre-machined Clamp on Collar, (McMaster Carr # 6436K168). This will support the lower portion of the door and the brake hose assembly.

5 & 6) I used this same collar to manufacture these Landing/Taxi light mounting brackets. These are the small projector style lamps. The housing is cast aluminum and the lens is glass. These are 55 watt fixtures, that should be able to handle the 100 watt bulbs. The beam is very narrow in the vertical dimension and is about 5 - 10 degrees horizontal. (Pilot #PL-2038)

23 April 2005:?????? IS THIS DATE CORRECT, SNOW?

Need to change the site name to "Waiters Winter Wonderland". Night time sunset

22 April 2005: Rear Seat Sump Tank

1 & 2) Rear Seat Sump Tank installed and plumbed. Still need to clean up wire routing.

3) Seat Sump in post cure. (this is important for tank integrity. 170Deg F for four hours, or until wife throws me out.)

4) Fit checking foam pieces.

5) Rear seat are before installing tank.

6) Plywood skid plate.

7) plywood skid plate as seen on bottom after glassing.

The following text was also posted on http://www.canardaviationforum.dmt.net. Check out this source of canard information.

The question of gas in the back seat?

I pondered this issue for many months before deciding to go ahead with the aft seat sump tank.

Obviously, survivability would be better by not having the tank. But the tank has to go somewhere. I modified my train of thought to approach the problem from this angle. "Think of every possible crash scenario, will the seat sump be a factor". Then build the tank to minimize the risks.

In my analysis, whenever I reached the severity where the strakes were failing, at this point seat sump failure was insignificant, because we were probably drenching everything with fuel from the exposed strakes. (Strake/wing hitting something on landing/crash).

The exception to this is an accident where somehow the fuselage is compromised, yet the strakes survived. (Trees, stumps, signposts coming through fuselage during crash/landing). In this case, fuel lines routed through the fuselage may be compromised, However, if the impact is sever enough to damage fuel lines, Most likely, the occupants life is also severely damaged.

Gear up landings present the greatest risk. In one scenario, the aircraft will hit on its tail, then skid flat on its bottom. Depending on how hard the initial impact is, it could compromise the rear seat structure. (This is probably worst case for the seat sump). The follow-up skid will do little damage.

Without getting into pages of analysis, I'll skip to the conclusions;

STAND ALONE TANK - DO NOT BUILD THE TANK INTO THE AIRFRAME. The seat sump is a stand along tank, Its not an integral part of the existing structure, but is built separate, then mounted to the existing structure. This provides better protection should the airframe start coming apart. The Tank is attached to the strakes with rubber hose, This allows the tank to "move" a little in a crash without compromising the tank/strake connection.

SKID PLATE - In the event of a gear up landing, I have a piece of aircraft grade 1/2 inch plywood (18x24) that is part of the rear bottom structure. In a hard gear up landing, this plate will fail in the UP direction (pushing the rear seat UP), In this case the seat tank also moves up, and remains intact. The connections to the strake will not be damaged, because they are made of hose. The Skid plate also provides a sacrificial plate, that the aircraft can skid on, without exposing the rear seaters rear.

Waiter

18 April 2005: RAM AIR & Fuel Vents

Someone had asked me about my RAM AIR system and how I had my fuel vents run. So Heres the photos.

1 & 2) The RAM AIR (AUX AIR) door is controlled by a cable that runs to the cockpit. If you looked up in my NACA scoop, you would see this door about 8 - 10 inches behind the scoop. It almost touches the bottom of the cowl. I carved a piece of blue foam for the shape. and glassed 4-5 layers of BID. I the soaked it in gasoline to melt the foam. The aft part of the fitting connects to my airfilter/carb heat valve that's tucked up behind the alternator.

NOTE - This is going to be changed during my current retrofit. I no longer have a NACA scoop. I will be converting to downdraft cooling, and will most likely pick up ram air from the insides of one of the cooling scoops.

3) I have two vents in each tank one all the way forward and one in the back. At any given time, one of these vents should be above the fuel level. (Unless I'm absolutly topped off with fuel). Note that there are four holes, the two on the left are the forward vents, the two on the right are the aft vents. By splitting up the vents, I hope I reduced the possibility of total vent plugging by something like a bird strike completely plugging a set of vents.

4) AFTER - The two vents in the center were added for the Sump Tank

17 April 2005: Gas & Throttle!

1) The Sump is floxed into place. I Started making tube fittings to connect to tanks, fuel, and vents.

2, 3, & 4) This is a standard Aircraft Spruce throttle quadrant. I added micro switches for full and idle throttle, these will tie into the gear controller for alarms and gear control. I also replaced the nut on the pivot bolt with a nut plate. This allows the friction to be adjusted without putting a wrench on the nut. I also modified the handles so they mimic the old Brock throttle assembly. (Carb Heat / Throttle / Mixture)

5) Two layers of Carbon Fiber BID are laid up and vacuum bagged. These will serve as the outside skins of the Main Landing Gear Doors.

6) I dug up an Old Vacuum pump, its still kicking.

7) Hydraulic and Brake line hoses run in wheel well. The connectors on the gear actuator cylinder are swivel type.

8) Shows how the hydraulic lines are run through the center spar, then come out the end and are routed to the inside leading edge of the strake. a "D" panel will be mounted on the end to provide for structural support for the outside of the strake.

12 April 2005: All Hydraulic lines mounted.

All the hydraulic lines are now run. I need to go back clean up, and secure everything.

The Strut valve is located inside the Center Spar. The two Pressure switches are located on the rear seat left arm rest. I can get to the adjustments from the front of the arm rest. The two pressure gauges and the emergency bottle are located in the front seat left arm rest. The Pump is sits on top of the nose gear.

I made one change from the plans hydraulic layout. I mounted the "UP" pressure switch in the "UP" line between the pump and the strut valve. The plans had this switch located between strut valve and the gear actuator.I will not be using the original controller, so this should have no impact. My software only looks at this switch when the strut valve is deenergized.

10 April 2005: Hydraulic lines and Web Cams.

Added the "Watch Waiter Work" web cam. This is a live view from inside my pole barn work shop. The camera is an Axis 205. The first time you access the camera, an ActiveX control needs to be downloaded to your computer. This should happen automatically. I have it set up to refresh twice a second, and I limit each connection to 10 minutes.I also had to update my Smoothwall Linux Firewall. It was running on a 386 machine with 32 meg.I modernized it to a Pentium I that has 128 meg ram. Its screamin.

Running hydraulic lines from the main gear to the nose. Built up the pilots left arm rest. Made several trips to the Hydraulic hose place to get hoses and fittings. I'll get all these next week and get some photos of that installation.

The final armrest will be glassed in, with a cover that can be removed to service the Blow Down bottle.

1) I made a small support for the pump to mount on. This is 3/8 foam with a plywood insert, and 4 layers of BID on each side. The Hydraulic Pump bolts to this pad. The pad sits on top of the nose well, and is glassed to the lower portion of the F22 bulkhead.

2) The pump is mounted on the pad and hydraulic hoses are connected. All the wiring gets cleaned up when I do the panel.

3 & 4) Show the left side Pilots arm rest. Note the two pressure gauges. These are recessed and will have a hinged cover.

Location of the Emergency Blow Down valve is important, as it must be operated with the left hand, while keeping the right hand on the control stick.

Moving forward, you can see the emergency blow down bottle and valve. The "T" handle is temporarily removed. The "Recessed" area where the "T" handle is located will have a cover installed (area just behind the throttle). This recessed area will also contain a covered switch that allows the Strut Extend Solenoid to be energized. The emergency procedure is to remove the access cover, slowly turn the "T" handle, this dumps the "UP" pressure into the vent, and then fires the CO2 bottle into the "DOWN" line. Once you confirm that the mains are down, you can break the safety wire on the EMER strut switch cover, and move the switch to the "EMER EXTEND" position. This applies power to the strut solenoid and dumps the strut retract pressure into the vent line.

I'm installing a three position Throttle quadrant. This is the standard Aircraft Spruce unit that sells for about $50.

The three hydraulic connectors that go to the pump are mounted on the instrument panel bulkhead directly in front of the throttle quadrant.

Hopefully, I'll get the plumbing done before next weekend. I also need to install the two pressure switches. These will most likely be mounted in the Hell Hole.

1 April 2005: Running Hydraulic Lines in the Center Spar (NO FOOLIN)

The Hydraulic lines are run on the inside of the center spar, all the way out to the end. They then cross to the front of the CS via a small groove and connect to the hose fittings. When everything is finished, an end cap is floxed and 3 layers of BID are run all the way around. This forms a "D" that is structural and supports the end of the strakes.

1) Note the slot, all four hydraulic lines will go in this slot. A structural "D" end cap will be fitted on the end and cover all of this as the last step.

2) I sharpened a piece of 5/16 threaded rod, This makes for a nice long drill bit to drill four holes in the bulkhead plate inside the center spar.

3) Note the four holes on the left. This is the bulkhead plate that the four hydraulic lines will pass through. I have some rubber tape that I will wrap around each line so it will not chafe where it passes through this plate.

4) All four lines are rough bent and are ready to install in the hose connectors. The ends that are in the center spar need to be measured and cut. They will connect to "T"s, Strut retract valve, and the brake lines will be connected to through connectors to be routed to the front of the plane.

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