NEXT

20 JAN 2008 Firewall Stainless

A view of "Waiters Auto clave", Otherwise known as "Goldfishes Cookie Oven". Curing the heater bulkheads and the Blower motor mount flange inside the oven.

I cut a piece of stainless to extend the firewall down. Cut and trim the metal for a good fit.

19 JAN 2008 5 Deg Outside, 85 Deg Inside

Its 5 degrees F outside and the wind is blowing about 20 MPH. The heat in the shop is turned up so its about 85 inside the shop. This should give a good cure.

Layed up 2 and three layers of BID on both sides of the heater box bulkheads. The bulkheads are made of 3/8 foam. These were then put under a vacuum to get a good bond and cure.

The Rabbit Blower has a ridge all the way around. The ridge rests against a corresponding raised lip and is then held in place with one bolt. I'm going to duplicate this method of mounting in my EZ.

The mount flange is made up of four layers of BID. This will be trimmed so the motor rests inside the mount flange. The mount flange will then be bonded to the inside walls of the heater box.

12 JAN 2008 REAR SEAT OIL HEATER

The cooler on the left is the new cooler, its 4 rows. Its also 1 inch shorter than my original cooler so this gives me more room in the thigh support for mounting.

The mock-up/ fit check. with and without top cover.

Air from the 82 VW Rabbit heater blower blows air down and into a sealed plenium (the lower back of the thigh support), the air then moves across to the back side of the heater core, forward through the heater core, and into the hot side plenium. It can then blow out a small eyeball vent that points at the GIBs feet, AND, it goes out the right side of the plenium, through 2 inch SCAT tube to the Pilots feet.

In the back seat, with and without the cover. ALSO, I'm sitting in the back seat. No part of my body (bottom or legs) is touching the mockup. Theres plenty of clearance for my feet in front and enough room in the bucket (bottom) to wiggle around.

I'll transfer the cardboard mockup pieces to the foam sheet then glass them. I also need to make a mold to make the mount for the blower motor.

6 JAN 2008 DYNON REMOTE DISPLAY

I'm putting together a "Demo" program for the Yahoo Glass Panel group, to display Engine data on my computer. Well, I got carried away.

I need to do a little more work, but basically, this program will capture serial data from a Dynon EMS 10 and display it on the computer. The PCs screen will look almost exactly like the Dynon EMS display. As soon as I get it finished, I'll post it up here for download.

The intent of the Demo was to show one method on how to interface just about anything to a PC, USB devices, Serial Devices, OPC devices, etc. and create a meaningful display at a very reasonable cost.

The Demonstration program is being written with a FREE authoring language (Visual Basic 2008 - FREE from Microsoft) and a special addin ActiveX control ( IOComp). This ActiveX is a group of "Automation" devices, switches, instruments, displays, etc. that display and interact on the computer screen.

(NOTE - I've already got a request to do the same thing for the Dynon EFIS display. Real Soon)

5 JAN 2008 Rear Seat Heater

I cut out cardboard and made mockups of the oil heat system. (See mom, those Kindergarten skill are paying off Big Time :-).

The new system will be built into the rear seat thigh support.

I spent a little time at the local auto parts store looking through catalogs for blowers. I finally decided to continue to use my 1982 VW Rabbit blower ( I ordered a new one, $110). This is a nice small compact squirl cage type blower that puts out a LOT of air.

After a couple hours of test fitting the heat exchanger (Oil Cooler), I finally decided that my old exchanger was just a little to large to fit in the required space. A look at the Aircraft Spruce catalog and I found the exact same exchanger, only smaller. My old exchanger was a 6 tube, I ordered a 4 tube, it about 1 inch small, just what I need.

3 JAN 2008 Cutting in a Fuel Vent

I received a couple e-mails asking for more specific information on how I cut in the new fuel vent. SO, I sat down and made up a drawing.

A couple points:

Use the soft 1/4 inch aluminum tube for vent, it bends easy.

When you do the initial hole drill, don't drill all the way through and into the tank. This makes it easier to use a small Dremel grinder to clear out foam and scratch the inside glass surfaces to get a good FLOX bond. AND - it keeps all the foam and debris out of the tank.

Before drilling the final hole into the tank, use air and vacuum to clean out the debris. Then, place a vacuumed hose next to the drill as you drill the final hole into the tank. This should catch the small amount of debris from the final hole.

Scratch the aluminum tube with 36 grit paper. This will allow the FLOX to grip the tube and get a better seal.

The tube should extend into the tank an inch or two.

After FLOXing the tube in place, blow in the end of the tube to clear out any FLOX that got inside the tube.

1 JAN 2008 HAPPY NEW YEAR

Finished up the labeling in the front seat. I need to redo the labels on the red switch guards. I ordered a label cartridge for the printer, Black text on a red label. I'll use that for the switch guards. I'm very impressed with this little label machine.

Routing wires through back seat and firewall. I still need to route the control cables through the firewall. I'll mount the electric fuel pump on inside of the firewall, just behind the sump.

The two compartments of the sump are now connected. That effectively makes this a single point fuel system. The two vents on the top of the compartments are connected together and routed to the right fuel tank (This was the new fuel vent that I just cut into the tank)

There is a also a 3/8 inch interconnect tube between the two compartments this is the main fuel path between the two tanks and compartments (left and right). NOTE - The Pressure relief line from the electric fuel pump will also go to this line.

The Interconnect tube is at the very top of the sump compartments. Each compartment (left and right) is still plumbed to the selector valve. What this means is. If I keep the fuel selector on say, the right side, it will burn the fuel out of both tanks, If I run the tanks dry, I could move the selector to the other tank, and there should be about 3 gallons in the compartment of the sump (This is below the 3/8 crossover tube, so this compartment will always have fuel, even when the other compartment is empty.

On the left side, you can see the new air duct for the vent. The original vent location hit the GIB in the knee and blocked air, so I made this duct to route the air to the top of the seat back.

On the right you can see the mini instrument panel, this is original, mag compass and airspeed indicator. (Maybe someday, I'll figure out how to remote the EFIS to a display in the back seat)

On the bottom center You can see Ken Miller electric landing brake actuator.

On the left and right of this are the foot rests. These are a must, otherwise the GIBs feet get cramped up while jammed up under the pilots seat.

I'll be adding the Oil Heat system as the GIBs thigh support. Probably start working on it this week.

PREVIOUS