The white tube will carry the three wires going to the outboard strobe
light. But HOW to get these wires through four meters of (slightly bend)
tube? I learned the trick via an internet forum (where else you learn useful
things nowadays ;-)Wire Conduits (Oct 28th, 2006)
This is the plumbing of the right wing
The white tube will carry the three wires going to the outboard strobe
light. But HOW to get these wires through four meters of (slightly bend)
tube? I learned the trick via an internet forum (where else you learn useful
things nowadays ;-)
Make a graft from some old cloth, don't make a too tight fit with the
tube. Knot a rope on (I used some rope from the kid's kite)
Stuff graft into the tube, and soome extra rope too, then blow the thing
forward with max compressor pressure (6 bar). Remove the air pistol. The
rope's tension will pull in some more rope, blow again, and again, and....
until graft appears on the other side (pic above).
The rope securely tied to the wird boundle, some tape around to cover
sharp wire ends, a few drops of oil on the taping, and then puuulll through
the wire. Actually the wires slipped in quite nicely because the PU tubing
and the teflon isolation of the wires act in a self-lubricating way.
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Fairings (Oct 22th, 2006)
Currently I'm waiting for a bag a new rivits (from Sonex Ltd) to close the last wing panels. In order to kill the time I made some fairings for the pitot/static probe and for the lift indicator probe.
At left is the fairing for the Winter pitot tube. The fairings are made from 0.025" material. The leading edge rivet-holes are coutersunk on -both- sides. I used AD-3 solid flush rivets, the factory head grinded down until barely visible. The rear countersunk will be filled when hitting flat the rivet stem. At last I polished everything nice and smooth.
My new rule is: when it feels nice in the hand it probably is also nice to the slipstream ;-))
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Strobe (Oct 14th, 2006)
Just test-fitted the strobelight on the right wing
The plastic cover is from a french aicraft/ultralight supplier. The
stobe itself is not certified but relatively cheap one. It has only an 'U'
tube instead of the usual double-helix of the expensive ones. What I like
about this one is that I can choose from several flash patterns. My favourtite
is three short blips and then a bright long one. The right and left strobs
will flash alternatingly.
The strobe cover is mounted parallel to the rib chord line.
What I missed when I mounted the strobe lens was that one endrib attach
screws is covered by the lens, so this is a catch-22 situation now. Only
a nutplate can solve this problem.
A view from the top of the wing. Even that I omitted any fancy strobe
fairings, the lens extends laterally far enough to shed some light also
above the horizon (which is required by the FAA).
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Wing Tip Rib (the Whale) (Oct 11th, 2006)
I spent almost 2 Week's nights to complete the outer cover of the right wing
38 countersunk machine screws fit (when I say 'fit' then I mean 'fit'...)
into the 38 dimples of the 38 clips...
Each clip is attached with two M2.5 countersunk stainless steel screws
into the dimpled wingskin. So we have a total of 152 dimples, 76 M2.5 screws
and nuts, 38 nutplates attached with 76 AD-3 solid flush rivets to the 38
clips. Each M2.5 nut is secured with loctite - man am I proud of this deviation
from the Sonex plans ;-))
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