Instrument Panel: Final Fit-Up

The instrument panel is complete, save for the four push-pull knob and cables (carb heat, choke, cabin heat, parking brake). Here is the panel I cut from blank stock and had powder-coated locally for $15.
I installed all of the instruments into the panel.


Here is the back-side of the panel and the variety of depths encountered with each instrument.

The structural tubes were a big hindrance in the panel design. Turns out my Hobbs gauge and several of my switch-breakers contacted the tubes and required some improvising.

Here is the completed panel ready to be screwed to the boot cowl, once it is painted and ready for installation.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, in spite of, the limited panel space and underlying barriers. Combination switch/breakers were a huge space-saving factor. Next thing will be to install labels for each switch/breaker and fuse.

Engine Mod. (cont.) & Installation

After quite a few weeks, I've finally got the engine installed. Here is the forward engine mount bolt connection to the block. Both bolts on both sides received loctite and safety wire.


Here is the right side bolts and safety wire, plus the mounted ignition module bracket.

The ignition module was previously mounted to the right intake manifold. Since the latter was moved to the left side, the corner had to be resupported. Here is the z-channel bracket installed on the forward engine mount and the above item supported. Ground wires were run to this fastener and an additional ground wire will run to the engine block, for an optimum ground connection.

After switching out carbs and manifolds, a longer compensating tube was required. Here is the new one installed, with rubber hose leading to a freshly "loctited" elbow in the intake manifold.

Here is the aft engine mount secured to the forward engine mount. Rubber donuts are installed at each fastened location to dampen vibration.

Here is me wrestling the aft engine mount to be bolted to the airframe. The engine hoist is a must-have.

Here is the final installed engine. Still need to hookup fuel lines to the carbs.

Airstrip Emerging Turf

I applied 125 lbs of the following "pasture seed mix" to the runway surface:

*Climax Timothy-25.0%

*Orchard grass-9.6%

*Tetraploid Perennial Ryegrass-34.1%

*Norcen Trefoil-4.4%

*Alsike Clover-14.7%

*Medium Red Clover-11.0%

The runway was then fertilized and disked. Here is recent pic of runway 2.5 weeks later, following a considerable amount of rain.

Engine Modification

The Rotax engine needed to be modified, mostly, so that the forward engine mount would adapt to the engine. This entailed swapping out left and right hand intake manifolds and carbs and turning coolant system elbows to gain clearance (among a host of other things). Below is an engine hoist I borrowed to assist in working on the engine and will ease installing it on the airframe. Rans manuals are weak in Rotax mod procedure, fortunately Rotax schematics are strong with good information (variety of loctite required for each fastener, required torque, etc.). Good advice from a fellow builder forewarned cost in damaging Rotax fasteners, hose, etc. as it is sold by the angstrom. So far so good. Specialized loctite alone priced at liquid gold.

Next several pics show removed carbs and fuel lines.

Here is relocated intake manifold (right to left).

Here is a drip tray supplied by Rans and installed on each manifold.

Following two pics show relocated carbs on drip trays. A new throttle bracket was installed and throttle spring was redirected.

This next one shows the dismantled water pump with housing removed.

Here is the housing (inlet removed and not shown). I had to heat up the upper elbows with a heat gun to soften loctite and faciliate removal.

Here is the forward engine mount trial fit before rerouting elbows and coolant hoses. Close tolerance fit would be an understatement.

Here is final assembled water pump housing, rotated and loctited inlet/outlet elbows and hosing rerouted through engine mount and clamped to elbows. What a PITA. Rotate pic 90 deg. CCW. Wife keeps asking "what's all the yelling from the garage"?

Here is electrical assembly I installed (pressure switch?). It is used to operate engine hour meter, so when engine quits, the hour meter quits.

Twin boys-for scale....
I've got the 2 of the 4 engine mount bolts torqued and loctited. Alignment is way off on bottom two and will require my Dad's assistance to align. Pray can have dang thing mounted by weekend.

Airstrip Construction Completion

The airstrip is finally constructed. First pic shows my Dad dragging a "disc" to drive the seed and fertilizer further into the soil, which was simply broadcast over the dirt. The four-wheeler helped immensely in seeding/fertilizing. I sat off the front performing while my dad drove. All we need is rain now. The seed was a pasture mix. I also threw in oats for quick cover to protect the loose soil until the grass seed comes up.


Here is the as-built runway looking south. Only one set of culverts were needed, as drainage ditching will convey majority of runoff around both ends of the runway.

and from mid-field...

Have a lot of rocks to contend with plus some ruts. I will let the soil "setup" for one year and then return with my dad's loader and mini-excavator to extract good fill and fill-in ruts. Probably stuck with having to pick rocks by hand. This Fall I will burn existing pulled stumps and remove remaining ones next year.

Airstrip Construction

Beginning this past March, I had a 200' x 1,380' area cleared for an airstrip. Here is the before picture.


Here are pics following the clearcut. I had the logger stockpile all of the tops on the left side for fuel for the stumps to be pulled later. I will burn them later this Fall. Proceeds from the timber sale will pay for all of the dirtwork.

This past week my excavating contractor began grubbing the stumps and placing them on the tops. The grubbed width is 75' and conforms to the runway surface.

Here's a typical grade stake I placed for the contractor, so he can construct the grade I designed.

Final grading began on the far south end.

Runway surface is final trimmed with a dozer. Note the crowned surface and side ditch on west side. I was very pleased that the material turned out to be a sandy loam with significant clay content. This will help in moisture retention and likewise in growing grass. A few rocks were encountered but no bedrock yet.

Here is the middle portion of the site where a major "cut" was.

Here is view looking north from completed end of runway.

Runway is roughly halfway done. Need to grade north half and install culvert. Will then seed and fertilize.

Instrument Panel: Fit-Up

It's amazing how much cumulative time I've spent on this instrument panel over the last couple years. It first began conceptually with which instruments to outfit the plane with and then entailed laying out the configuration, which I repeatedly changed using a panel design software program. More recently, I cut out scaled cardboard cutouts and placed them on the panel. I would sit in the front seat and pretend I was manipulating them in flight and, likewise, move things around until everything felt and looked right.

Next, I accumulated everything that I would mount on the panel and take measurements and check for clearance behind the panel with other instruments and just as important with the structure.
After laying out the linework, for rectangular openings I would drill holes in each corner and scribe inner lines where I would cut the metal with dremel cut-off wheels. Here is stepwise procedure I used for the turn coordinator.




Next, I would file the opening to the final cut-out lines.



For the smaller holes, I would drill out with a step drill bit. For the larger holes, I used a drill bit with an adjustable hole cutting assembly (not shown).

Here is the completed panel, with all cut-outs complete. I should note that I had constructed a mock up demo panel with my first piece of aluminum.

Reagan continues to want to jump into the cockpit and pretend to be pilot-in-command.

Next, I will drill all of the mount holes for the instruments and then take to Baraga for gray powder coating. Called today for a quote and was told only 10 bucks!