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5 Mar 2006 - Troubleshooting electrical, Throttle Assemble

Since I installed the Dynon EMS a couple months ago, I was plagued by erroneous readings on the instrument. I had talked to the tech support at Dynon and they were most helpful. I returned the unit to them and they promptly checked it out. Unfortunately, they couldn't find anything wrong (Story of my life), and returned the unit to me with a clean bill of health.

This weekend was spent "undoing" the Dynon EMS installation. My first approach was to use some jumpers that I had made up, and jumper between the plug and the Dynon EMS until the problem reoccurred. The main problem, there are 37 pins on the connector and I only have 10 jumpers. After several hours of no luck (it worked) I finally started pulling one wire at a time and double checked it against the diagram.

FINALLY. About half way through the wire list, I found a wire that had 12 volts on it that shouldn't. This was one of the Centroid Fuel Probes mounted in the left wheel well. A quick check of the wheel well diagram, and I discovered that I had reversed the wires on the fuel probe. When I corrected this error, PRESTO, the Dynon EMS came to life and all readings were now correct.

Converting the standard "bicycle cable" to a standard push-pull. This bracket mounts using the original Speed brake and Pitch Trim mount bolts.

26 Feb 2006 - Sand and Fill, Sand and Fill, Sand and Fill

What's with the paint brush thingy on the gear door? While doing the "Sand and Fill", I need to constantly open and close the gear door to check fit, etc. The fit on the gear doors is so good, its almost impossible to get them open, so I drilled a small hole in the door, and routed safety wire around the axel and through the hole. I couldn't find a wooden dowel, so a paint brush was the next best thing.

You know the routine. After three iterations, the strake bottoms are ready for primer. I still see a couple imperfections, but these can be taken care of with a dab of body filler.

25 Feb 2006 - Clean the shop and get ready for EAA 582 visit

I got the throttle cable mount bracket finished. When I flip the fuselage over, I'l get it mounted.

Members of EAA 582 will be visiting the project on Wednesday, 1 March. SO, that means I got to get busy and clean up. Take a look at their web site at www.eaa582.org.

17 Jan 2006 - Aileron Roll in the Pole Barn

Rolling the plane over to finish out the bottom of the strakes, then prime and paint.

1 & 2) One of the advantages of 10 ft ceilings is the ability to "roll" the plane over. I have a rope straddle in the front, and a come-a-long in the back. Its just a simple matter of raising the plane off the ground, then just give it a little push sideways, and around she goes. The whole process takes about ten minutes and only one person.

3) Landing gear door fairing on the bottom of the strake is almost completed. The gear door is actually made up of three doors. The large black (Carbon Fiber) door hasn't been cut yet for the "Grass Cutter" door, but you can see the outside door near the bottom portion of the photo. This door is spring loaded and slides out along the bottom of the wing as the gear swings open.

16 Jan 2006 - TILT TILT TILT

One of the features I have built into my landing gear controller is the ability to "Kneel". You may have heard of city busses that kneel to make it easier for passengers to get in and out. Well, my LongEZ will do the same thing. When parked on its nose, the main landing gear will be able to compress the Oleo struts by almost 10 inches, thus lowering the entire airplane and making it easier to get in and out. Unfortunately, this feature also makes it easier for the LongEZ to fall back on its tail if the "Kneel" function is energized from an incorrect airframe deck angle. This is the purpose of the "Kneel" safety switch. This switch only energizes when the deck angle is such that the kneel function will not place the aircraft in danger of falling back on its tail.

1) A mercury switch, similar to those found in most older bi-metal household bi-metal thermostats. This one was purchased off of E-Bay for $3.

2) The leads were soldered to the mercury switch and two layers of heat shrink applied. The switch was then mounted in a 1/4 tube clamp to the inside of the electronics cabinet that's located in front of the instrument panel. Note the diode below is the steering diode used to isolate the two batteries in the dual battery electrical system.

3) I'm replacing the original Brock Throttle quadrant with a standard Aircraft Spruce push pull Throttle quadrant. This template is made of cardboard and will secure the three cables (Carb Heat, Throttle, Mixture). Note that the cable bracket will make use of the original Landing Brake bolt and the Pitch Trim bolt.

Note the conglomeration of tubes and stuff above the cable bracket is the Main Landing Gear emergency down valve. This valve is designed to relieve the UP pressure, then it punctures a CO2 bottle and dumps the contents into the DOWN line.

4) Template for cable assembly mount. I'll use 1/8 inch stainless steel for the actual piece. Hopefully, I'll have it finished this week.

1 Jan 2006 - Happy New Year

After about a month of not being able to work, I got a little done today.

Marked wires from the Dynon EMS to go back to the engine compartment. Hooked up the fuel gauges and power lines for the manifold pressure sensor and the fuel flow sensor. The other sensors are single wire to ground i.e. fuel pressure, oil pressure, oil temp, carb temp, tach.

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