The results are in!

Well, I put it all together and ran the heck out of the 9A this weekend and guess what... NO MORE OIL TEMPERATURE ISSUES!!!!  I am pretty excited about this.  I did a high power climb from sea level to 8000' this morning to test the new oil cooler and the hottest I could get it was 190.  If I had tried that same stunt 2 weeks ago my oil temps would have been well into the 200's. 

Very excited for two reasons, first I don't have to worry about oil temps any longer on hot days.  Second, I can now go back to work on the 10!  :-)

This is the oil cooler bolted in place.  The hoses are not yet attached because I was messing with the plastic elbows above.

Another shot of the oil cooler and shroud.

Oh yea, the 10 didn't go without a little love this week either...here are the 6 new cylinders for the engine...mmmm toys.....

On Saturday Jeff, Harry, Bob and I got a chance to fly to Mulino for lunch.  This is 3 of us staging outside of Harry's hangar.  we brought along a couple of new people (Jay and Danny) to give them a little RV time.

The remaining photo's on this page are courtesy of our passenger Jay.  :-)

I wonder when Jeff installed smoke?!?

A little 9 time

No work on the 10 this week other than ordering the cylinders and piston pins for the engine.  This week and probably the next week are dedicated to the 9A.  I mentioned working on the oil cooling system last week and this week I hope to finish that process up.  My 3D printer has been running non stop for over a week crunching out parts to me to test fit.  I think I'm about ready to lay some fiberglass and reinstall the baffles that I removed.  Here are a few pics of the process so far.

New Oil cooler sitting in the old mount location.  Notice that the support arms are about 2" too short.  

A little better picture of the oil cooler.

Not as much room under the cooler for an exit duct so I will have to rethink the heating air inlet again.

 

One of the 3D printed inlet ducts that I created as a test.  This one did not fit well so I have another one designed and on the printer that is a bit shorter and has a little different angle to the inlet ring.

Here is the new back baffle configuration.  Still a bit of work to do including a little primer and paint but this is a much better location for getting cool air for the oil cooler.

This is the outlet duct I created.  The bend on the corner was way too large so I had to redesign this one as well.  

Las Vegas Baby

Yep, I spent a few days in Vegas this past week.  Thats nothing special until you learn that I flew my 9A down for the trip!  I rarely get to use my airplane for work related travel but at times like this its just plain fun.  No worries about what time the flight is, how long the line at security is, overhead baggage space, noisy kids/other...I could go on...

Since its been a couple of weeks since my last post I guess I have to say something about the 10 build so I will say this...I finished the bottom skins....finally.  I have prepped most of the aileron parts and its almost time to start some riveting.  No pictures of the ailerons this time since its just more of the same thing.

On a related note now that the temps are starting to rise I have to pay attention to the oil temperature on the 9A.  Well I am bound and determined to resolve that issue so I ordered a larger oil cooler (15 row).  I am also reworking the plenum to allow the cooling air to be taken from a higher/cooler point on the back baffle.  I will have pictures of that process later but I did post a picture or two of the current configuration.

This is one of the many pictures I took while riveting the bottom skins on to make sure I had properly set all rivets.

And here is the finished product.  The left wing bottom skin is riveted in place.

This is a picture of the 9A oil cooling solution.  You can see the duct that I 3D printed and will cover in fiberglass once I know its the correct dimensions.  On the upper left side of the picture you can see the 4" outlet that I clamp the 4" ducting to on the back baffle.  This is the outlet that I am moving.

Here is a picture of the inside of that same outlet.  The final location will be up and to the left.  I had to replace the entire baffle panel but you will see that soon.

Right wing work continues

Still working on the right wing.  I finished up the trim servo mount and I was able to prime the control tubes so that I can get those installed.  This wing project is certainly taking longer than I had anticipated...but doesn't it always?  The bottom skin in now riveted in place.  I managed to do the entire side by myself.  I didn't try that on the 9A wing but I'm guessing I could have done it if I tried.

Control tubes after I had primed the interior of each one.  Unlike the outside where I spray the primer on the interior requires that I mix up some primer and then dump it in and swish it back and forth.  I set the tubes up like this to allow any excess primer to drain out.

Roll trim servo bolted into its mount which will be bolted to the bottom of a wing access plate.

Roll trim servo mount sitting on the wing inspection access plate.  

Wiring for Autopilot roll servo. 

Wiring runs completed including lock stitching the wires together and running a pull string for any future wire runs.

Roll trim servo wires hiding behind the inspection plate opening.

Outboard bottom skin cleco'd in place for final riveting.  On the far left side of the picture you can see the coiled mass of wires that will be pulled into the fuselage when the wing is finally attached.

And finally here it is with both bottom skins riveted in place.  I still have a little work to do on the root as well as installing the control rods/belcrank.

More wiring and a one bottom wing panel complete

This past week seemed like a slow week for the 10.  This time of year my attention seems to move to the 9A to get it ready for the big flying part of the year.  I did a little flying on Wednesday to get IFR proficient again and then I spent Saturday wrapping my fuel lines forward of the firewall with a reflective insulation tape.  The hope is that I can deflect some of the radiated heat from my exhaust and cure the flashing fuel issue I have.

On Sunday Jeff, Harry and I flew to Boise to meet a friend of Harry's for lunch.  It was a glorious flight, smooth as butter with just a bit of cloud dancing.  Its been a while since we have done a longer cross country and while its only 2 hours to Boise, it was enough time to let me get back into cross country EFIS/iPad use.  I recently shifted back to using Garmin Pilot as my EFB so I had a bit of re-familiarization to do.

Jeff took this cool picture of us somewhere over eastern Washington.

The inboard bottom wing skin is riveted in place.  I am waiting to do the outer skin until I have the rest of the wiring completed.  That should happen this week.

Wing skins and a little engine work

Yea, I guess its been a couple of weeks since I've posted anything.  I've been busy when I could be but really this past couple of weeks have not been exceptionally productive.  A few things have happened so ....

I am ready to rivet the bottom skins on the wings.  There is a lot of wire that has to be run down the wings so I decided to do a little wiring before I put the skins in place.  This was kind of fun to switch gears a little and work on something that's not aluminum.  The right wing is partially wired now with the coax for the VOR antenna, the landing light, and the strobe/nav lights.  I started running the wires for the AP roll servo but since I'm not 100% certain how much wire will be needed in the fuselage I have put that on hold for now.

I also started riveting the inner bottom skin on the left wing.  This is going very slow because my back is a bit sore.   Amy and I were rear ended on the highway last week and while it seems neither of us is hurt permanently I did end up with some back pain.  Its slowly going away now so hopefully I will be able to move a little faster with the riveting.

Finally the engine is home.  Harry and I drove to Bremerton last weekend and picked it up after a very unsatisfying round of discussions with the owner of Avian Aeronautics who insisted on charging me $2400 more than was originally quoted.  We finally came to an understanding but I won't be taking any more engines to that shop while the current owner is running the show.  The lead mechanic was a good guy to work with and he seems to do great work so I'm happy with that side of the equation.

Oh, I also spent a bit of time in the past couple of weeks finishing up my annual condition inspection and taking care of a few tasks that I had on my list for the 9A.  One of the tasks was to install a couple of headset hangars under the panel.  While doing so I found that the passenger side air vent had almost broke free from it's glue mount.  There was about 40% of the glue holding it on.  When I removed the vent I found that I had neglected to scuff up the aluminum before applying the epoxy.  I took care of that and then re attached with some good epoxy.  No pictures, just lots of scraped and scratched skin where I was using a wire wheel under the panel to remove the remaining glue.

On with the show...

Inside view of the connector on the wing tip.  This connector has wires for the landing lights and the Nav/Strobe lights.

And outside view of the two connectors installed in the wing rib.  The loops in the wire are there so that if I need to pull the connectors out there is enough slack to allow them to come out the end of the wing.  Much easier than trying to work inside the wing with my arms in the lightening holes.

Started riveting the bottom skins.  This is done completely blind and as you can see by looking at the right rivet in the picture not all rivets come out pretty.  I will drill this one out and redo it because I'm pretty sure it's strength is compromised by the over driving of the rivet.

These two rivets look better but you can see on one that the bucking bar moved off to the side  toward the end...easily fixed.

Here it is...my bright yellow engine block.  Ben was nice enough to loan me his engine hoist and his help to get the engine mounted on the stand.

Right fuel tank leak check...SAT

This week I performed the leak check on the repaired right fuel tank and I am happy to say there were no leaks.  I installed the fuel tank on the wing and went back to drilling, deburring, and priming the bottom wing skins. 

On a somewhat related note I have been working on the wiring plan again since I need to run some wires in the wing before I rivet the bottom skins in place.  As part of that process I ended up buying a couple of used tools on Ebay (Daniels DSub pin crimper and adjustable turret).  Usually this is a great place to get used quality tools but unfortunately the USPS can ruin even a quality tool.  I have to send one back and get a replacement.  Bummer.

Nothing new to show so the only pictures I have this week are of a flight that Harry, Bob and I took to Mulino for some great Mexican food.

Bob flying Harry's rocket from the back seat... yes Harry was in the front seat.  Bob didn't have rudder pedals so this was about as close as he could get safely.