Tag Archives: grommets

Finishing the Elevator

Hours: 2.5
Leave a reply

With most of the preparations out of the way and half of the skins riveted, I took one more session to finishing the Elevator.

There was only one extra part I had to do for 3 of the rivets that were on the bottom edge. In order for them to fit correctly, I had to shorten the rivets so they wouldn’t protrude out.
Rivet too long to fit Fitting rivet after I shortened it I mounted the rivet in my bench vise and filed it down to size Shortened Rivets on the right and one with normal length on the left

Aside from that, I just went to town and pulled the rest of the few hundred rivets.
Time to pull some rivets Halfway done riveting the skins Final set of rivets ready to be riveted Riveting the Trim Tab

The last part on the riveting side was the front lip.
Clecoing the front lip Riveting the front lip

One of the holes on the lip has to be enlarged to fit a grommet for the wiring for the Elevator Trim Tab. I enlarged the hole using my step drill bit and then installed a snap bushing.
Marked out the hole that needs to be enlarged for the wiring Marked out the size on the step drill bit Hole enlarged and Snap Bushing installed

The last part was to install the center balance counterweight. I did some test fitting with this, but the AN3-13A bolts that one of the versions of the manual that I have mentioned are too short, so I’ll check with the factory on the proper length.
Test fitting the Balance Counterweight - the bolts are too short

With that being said, the general assembly of the Elevator is completed:

Timelapse of the complete construction of the Elevator

With the Elevator construction completed, I’ve also finished my video timelapse of the process:

Technical Counselor visit & Vertical Stabilizer Antenna wiring

Hours: 5
1 Reply

This morning I had my first visit from my local EAA Chapter 84’s Technical Counselor to look over my build and give me some advice as part of EAA’s Technical Counselor program.

This was the first Sling kit for him and he was impressed by the quality of the kit, its completeness and the instruction plans. We looked over my completed parts of the Empennage and talked about wiring, avionics and things to look out for. He also gave me some good general advice and stressed the point of documenting, particularly around wiring, since many years down the line there’s nothing worse than finding a wire and not knowing what it is for exactly, so he was happy to see my label maker and my active use of it.

We filled out the visit report and agreed to meet again after I’m further into the build and working on the interior of the Fuselage.

Vertical Stabilizer wiring

Now, back to building. As I finished the match drilling of the dimpled holes the other day, I had to dimple the hole that was missing a dimple, so I got out my modified hand dimpling tool and quickly did that dimple.

After that I worked on finishing the wiring the run through the Vertical Stabilizer for both the Anti-collision light on the Rudder, as well as the NAV Antenna.

First I had to make another hole to run the Antenna wire through the top rib since the factory plans assume that you either install the light or the Antenna, but not both. I marked the hole location using the center punch, then drilled a pilot hole and then used my step-drill bit to up-drill the hole to the right location for the snap bushing to go in.Center punch to mark the hole location Pilot hole drilled and ready to be drilled up using a step drill bit Finished hole and snap bushing installed

After that was done, I wrapped the wire for the light in some braided sleeving for some extra protection and then ran it through the rear holes. I also installed some flexible edge protection for the hole where the wire will meet the wire from the Rudder.
Wire for the light installed in the Vertical Stabilizer Flexible edge protection

Quick test fit on the Fuselage

I then quickly measured out the length of the Antenna wire to install in the Vertical Stabilizer, cut it to size and ran it through the front holes. After I was done with that, I wanted to do a quick test fit of the Vertical Stabilizer Structure on the Fuselage to see where the holes would pass through.

Quick test fit to see where the wires come out Looks almost like an airplane

Antenna Coax wiring

Once that was figured out, I moved on and did my first crimped coax connection. After a tip I saw on the homebuiltHELP channel, I bought this rotary coax stripper, which strips both the front, as well as the braided shielding in one go.
Rotary coax stripper

Before it was ready to use I had to do some adjustments for the lengths and depths for the cut, so I took it apart, while following the instructions and then moved the blade as needed. I’m using the SteinAir BNC Connectors, so I had to move the blade that exposes the outer shielding back by one position to the point marked E and the inner blade on mark B.
Blades set on mark E & B for the SteinAir BNC Connectors Correct location for RG400 stripping
Then I adjusted the blade depth using the screws on the bottom and did a few test cuts to make sure the results are repeatable. I then put some light strength thread locker on the screws so they stay in position so I can now just use it without any further adjustments needed.

After that I did a quick test crimp of a connector to the small piece of wiring I used to calibrate the wire stripper, following the instructions from SteinAir.
Test crimp successful

Looked all good, so I repeated everything on the actual wire for the Vertical Stabilizer.Wire stripped and ready to install the center tip Connector attached and ready for the back shielding to be crimped Completed crimp of the connector Test fit of the connector on the Antenna

With all that done, I installed the wire in the Vertical Stabilizer and now I’m ready to install the Antenna and close up the skin.

Interesting side note on coax wiring and the use of a balun

One other interesting thing I learned while doing this – I tested the wire I crimped for continuity to make sure there are no problems with the wire itself by checking (lack of) continuity between the shielding and the center core. This was all good, so my crimp is good.
After attaching the wire to the Antenna however, I figured I’d also check it with the wire attached to the Antenna and had a brief moment of confusion when I did get a positive continuity readying between the core and the outside. So I did some digging and found out that the use of a balun (in my case with the Rami AV-525, it is an internal balun) can create a DC short and thus will produce a continuous reading using a Voltmeter.

Vertical Stabilizer Navigation Antenna & skin fitting

Hours: 2.5
2 Replies

Before I can close up the Vertical Stabilizer skin, I need to fit the Navigation Antenna, run the wires for the Antenna and the rudder light and fit the skin including up-drilling the countersunk holes in the skin with the rib structure.

So one thing after another, first I gave a quick test fit for the skin and then drilled up all the countersunk holes.
Test fitting the skin and aligning everything to match up-drill the countersunk holes And found one hole that should be dimpled as well

After that was done, I went to work to fit the Rami AV-525 Navigation Antenna I’m going to use. I already fit the Antenna onto the inner rib a while ago before I built the rest of the structure, so now it was a matter of fitting it all with the skin to be able to close the skin around the Antenna.

On the left side, the Antenna comes out one of the pre-drilled rivet holes, so I just had to up-drill that to the correct size.
Enlarged hole for the Antenna on the left side

For the right size, the Antenna comes out offset a bit further behind, so I marked out where I needed to make the hole in the skin, then used a center punch to get a good center to drill the hole:
Marking where the notch for the Antenna has to go Centerpunched the spot for the hole to goHole drilled on the right side for the Antenna

With the hole in place, I cut back a small notch, so that the skin can slot around the Antenna since the arms of the Antenna are fixed to the internal balun.Notch to slot the skin around the Antenna

After all that was done, I put it all together for a final test fit:Left side view of the Antenna in place on the Vertical Stabilizer Right side view of the Antenna in place on the Vertical Stabilizer

Looks all good, so now I need to finish running the wires on the inside and then I can rivet the skin closed.

 

Vertical Stabilizer Navigation Antenna Mount

Hours: 1.5
1 Reply

Now that the Rudder is finished, it’s on to the next few tasks. I received the reinforcement plate for the Rami AV-525 Navigation Antenna to go onto the Vertical Stabilizer, so I had everything to get that fit in place.

First I did a bit of test placements and confirming the correct alignments with the plans. Then I marked the hole that needed to be enlarged and the part of the opening on the opposite that needs to be trimmed back.
Reinforcement plate for the NAV antenna to mount into the Vertical Stabilizer Rib Test placing the Antenna on top Test placing the Antenna on top Hole marked for enlarging Area marked to be trimmed

Once that was figured out, I got out the step-drill bit and enlarged the hole for the Antenna to fit through. Then I trimmed back some of the other side for the second pole and deburred everything. Finally I put a grommet into the hole and some flexible edge protection for the other side and placed the antenna in for a test fit.

Grommet installed in the hole and side trimmed Rami AV-525 NAV Antenna in place

Rudder Anti-collision light wiring

Hours: 2
Leave a reply

Now that the Rudder is almost complete, I needed to make the wiring for the Anti-collision light permanent. The existing wire of the Aveo Posistrobe Minimax I’m using has 4 wires (ground, power, strobe, sync), so I needed to splice those onto the wire so I could run it through the structure.

Since this is a permanent connection, I’m using Heat Shrink Solder Sleeves, which have solder in the center and when you heat it up, the solder melts and the sleeve shrinks down to create a good seal.

After that was done, I added some expandable braided Sleeving over the wire for extra protection.
Expandable Braided Sleeving for the wire

I up sized the hole for the wire to pass through the fiberglass tip using my step drill bits and then ran the wires through the structure and out the front hole, which I also had to drill up as per the instructions. After some more research, I replaced the rubber grommets with snap bushings. They last longer and for the front hole in particular, they hold on better since they snap in place.
Finalized hole size for the wiring to pass through the fiberglass tip Snap bushing for the wire to come out of instead of using rubber grommets

Here’s the light mounted and completed wiring done.Light mounted and wiring finished

Now the last thing to do is close up the top. Inspired by a discussion from a while ago on the Sling Builders group, I was contemplating the idea of making the fiberglass tip removable using nut plates and screws, but I think I’ll end up just riveting it closed.