Kit #7 arrived

[Utah-Jay]

Who would have thought it would take six and a half hours to make/fit/install two mounting plates. The stringers are not parallel so that added time. I used angle aluminum at the front and back of each shield to make them extremely stiff. I ran out of time, so the GPS plate/shield still needs to be riveted to the stringers.
I am on the final stretch prior to jumping full blast into the covering phase.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Engine arrived

 

[Utah-Jay]

Seats are all installed on the on the seat frames. I must say they have a great fit. Thanks to Daniel at Sport Aircraft Seats for the tips on installation.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Took some time to fabricate the tray for the ADAHARS to get the required +/- 1.0 degree from level to the datum. It turned out to be 0.1 degrees


Not posting much here, but this was particularly satisfying.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Started covering, luckily the wrinkle will be covered by the top layer as this is the bottom. Good news is NO paint booth

On to the prep for the top

 

[Sir Newton]

The time required to build a airplane is very difficult to estimate enjoy your posts!

 

[Utah-Jay]

Got back to work this week after being out of town for the past 3 weeks working.
I did some wing root panel work, lots of measuring and cutting to get the template just right. Then transferring to .025 and working on the cutouts.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Installed the seat bottoms after Daniel at Sport Aircraft Seats redid my bottom cushions as the originals were too tall/thick. These are PERFECT

 

[Utah-Jay]

Finished the wing root panels… Well I still need to do the sight gauges and headset jacks, but they are fitted and fit with ZERO pillowing I also drilled the holes for the clamps to secure my brakes lines on the gear legs

 

[Utah-Jay]

A couple of buddies, one in the blue is rebuilding a Husky, the one in the black is building a Kitfox, they felt the need to check out my Sport Aircraft Seats. Great local community here in Heber

 

[Utah-Jay]

Hmm, when you are not happen with how the fabric when on, removing fabric and cleaning off the glue is NOT fun. Fabric removal took a few hours, glue removal will take me a few days.

 

[spinningwrench]

What are you glueing your tabs on with?

 

[Utah-Jay]

spinningwrench I am using Clickbond adhesive, it is super strong

 

[Utah-Jay]

After my original diabolical with covering, I got a two day lesson on covering with Oratex. I finished up at home today after 27.5 hours the past two days. I learned when you think you are going slow, like REALLY SLOW….. you are still going too fast. The edges required attaching about 1 inch at a time. I was pretty frightened about rib stitching, but it was not that bad. Everything came out really well.

 

[Utah-Jay]

The man cave is all set up to finish up covering the tailfeathers

 

[Utah-Jay]

Covering is… Well I am making progress, here is the bottom of a Horizontal stab from this afternoon, top gets done tomorrow.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Got some hats to match

 

[Light&Sweet]

I suppose practice makes perfect. Really, it doesn’t appear that you had to practice a lot to get your nice results. Perhaps the empennage is the most difficult part to cover, too.

Have you discussed anywhere your decision to build a Companion to replace a Rans S21 (if I have that supposition correct)? The Rans appears to be close to the Companion in performance and payload—lesser, but close.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Light&Sweet

I spent 24 hours and 38 minuted over two days learning to cover with Oratex from a “professional” fabric coverer. It was the best money I have spent so far on the build. There is absolutely zero chance I could have gotten the results I am getting without the help from Monika. She does the covering for RMK (Rocky Mountain Kitplanes), who are a Rans dealer. I will say that I can get impatient, I like to get stuff done, and I would have never dreamed of going so slow while covering. Based on what she told me, the only really challenge covering the fuselage is the curve of the empennage up the vertical stabilizer.

Bottom line it takes me about 10-12 hours of actual work to cover one piece of a tail feather. I have two to go, the right horizontal stabilizer is next, I hope to get it finished prior to leaving Monday for a 6 week work trip. That only leaves the rudder, gear legs and fuselage.

I will address the Companion vs. Rans in a different thread as it may create a thread string.

 

[jaredyates]

Addressing the Rans question would be great for a Beartracks article!

 

[Utah-Jay]

Before shrink and post shrink

Finished:
2 trim tabs
2 elevators
2 horizontal stabs

The oratex is looking better than I had expected

Off to work tomorrow for 6 weeks then it’s “Back to (airplane) work!”

 

[Utah-Jay]

This is what I do after 9 hours and 45 minutes of doing tapes on ONE horizontal and the rudder. I decided to stop for the day, but have about another hour on the rudder, both straight tapes so super easy and they can wait for tomorrow

 

[Utah-Jay]

Some progress from the past few days.

How many hours????? The tail feathers have taken well into two hundred hours

 

[Utah-Jay]

This has kept me up at nights for the past few months… Well maybe not every night, but I was very concerned about the tape on the rudder on the curves. The BH rudder has a sharper curve than the cubs, so this was a huge challenge. Hey, it is a home built plane, but I give the tape on the rudder curves a 97.5% grade

 

[Mark Goldberg]

Looks first quality to me Jay. Mark

 

[Mark Dickens]

I certainly wouldn't lay awake over results like this, except maybe to lay there and smile!

 

[Utah-Jay]

Thanks Mark Goldberg and Mark Dickens It was a lot of work, I was trying for perfection, which we all know is unobtainable

 

[Utah-Jay]

Yesterday did templates for the two skylights.

Bundled up wiring from the tail area today trying to get everything ready for covering after my next long work trip

I have been trying to get my head around the covering/lining of the cargo area sides. I have a plan now, so brought home the outside half of the left window frame to attach the fabric to the frame. I am happy how this turned out, just note it is not shrunk/final fitted so it looks a bit messy at this time.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Some days you are the bug, some days you are the windshield…. Today I was the windshield

I measured, measured, and measured, then…..

Yep today was skylight day. Right wide was perfect for width, but needed one trimming cut after the initial cut. Left side required two length trims, but both are fitted. It was surprisingly easier than I thought, I was expecting the worst with the compound curve.

 

[Nev]

Nice work.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Thanks Nev

 

[marcusofcotton]

What thickness did you use? Thanks!

 

[Utah-Jay]

marcusofcotton, it is .125 Lexan

 

[Utah-Jay]

Today was a left side cargo covering day. I had planned on doing the window too, but an unscheduled trip to the ER which cost me 2+ hours. But I did go back to the hanger… Damn plane is not gonna build itself

Photos posted in chronological order

 

[Mark Dickens]

Well, that's what I call commitment! Work until you're almost dead and then get back to it! A better man than I am!

 

[Utah-Jay]

Planes don’t build themselves. I was not gonna let an unscheduled trip to the emergency room stop me from getting my day’s work done.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Right window frame installed

The inside window frame will be black for contrast

 

[Utah-Jay]

And the inside frame was added this morning, decided to add some contrast

 

[Utah-Jay]

Cargo area is done.
Next up is drilling holes in the Lexan skylight…. Tomorrow morning as all the marks have been made

 

[Utah-Jay]

Panel arrived today from Advanced Flight Systems

I peaked in the box, but it was perfectly packed and just closed the box back up until covering is finished

 

[Utah-Jay]

Inverted so I can start covering from the bottom

 

[Utah-Jay]

It was a gear covering day

 

[Utah-Jay]

This little gem proved to give me lots of fits prior to finally coming up with a plan. I had many different ideas on how to make this look as clean as possible even though it is very well hidden behind the tire.

 

[rodsmith]

Very nice job

 

[Utah-Jay]

Thanks rodsmith

 

[marcusofcotton]

Looking very nice! Don't forget drain holes.

 

[Utah-Jay]

marcusofcotton I will use a soldering iron to put in the drain holes. Seem sacrilegious to put holes in perfectly covered gear though

 

[Utah-Jay]

Today was an amazing day, I started covering the fuselage. Eric aka @Uintabearhawk from nearby Kamas came by to lend a hand which really helped. I got 70% of the bottom covered today, well it is all covered, but not all shrunk and fitted to finished product. Probably 2-3 hours more tomorrow then I start prepping the right side.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Bottom is done, 15 hours in two days

 

[Utah-Jay]

8 hours… I cut and marked the left and right sides. I glued and tacked on the right. I figured a before and after would be fun to see

 

[jaredyates]

I love the color, and thank you for keeping us up to date on your progress!

 

[Utah-Jay]

What a difference a day makes
Seem tapes have not been put on yet

 

[Utah-Jay]

Not the easiest area to cover using Oratex but here is my effort on the right side. I can’t final shrink until I rib-stitch

 

[Utah-Jay]

Flipped and ready to cover the left side

 

[Utah-Jay]

Starting to look like an airplane.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Starting to look like an airplane

 

[Utah-Jay]

Left side is finished, there is a bit or a wrinkle that will not be visible once I close out the top. Tapes not on the seam yet

 

[Utah-Jay]

I will finish the covering process tomorrow



And here is some prep for the last piece

 

[Utah-Jay]

Today was a huge milestone… At 5:30pm I finished my covering.




Only thing I have left to do on the covering is taping the seams which I will do tomorrow.

 

[Utah-Jay]

DONE!!! With the covering and tapes. Finished taping all the seams today, so on to a new task

 

[Utah-Jay]

Did some painting tonight

Center section of the overhead



Hub Caps


Shock struts

 

[Utah-Jay]

Back on the gear

 

[Utah-Jay]

Today was really about putting things back together. Had to remove the plastic from the boot cowl, then used scotchbright followed by self etching primer in prep for reassembly.​



All set up for the panel installation tomorrow… so then I got moving to get the engine to mounted…



Ran into a snag and will have to do some research before hanging the engine.
​​​​​​​

 

[Utah-Jay]

Some days as a builder you are the bug, other days you are the windshield…. Today I was the windshield

Seats… Yep
Panel… Yep
Top overhead panel… Yep

 

[kestrel]

Is an adel clamp strong enough for mounting shoulder harnesses?

 

[Utah-Jay]

I suspect your head will fly off before the adel clamp breaks, I did look up the breaking strength of the 3/4” size and could not find it

 

[Nev]

Looks great. If I did my panel again I'd also mount the USB drives on the panel. Also like what you've done with the seat belts.

 

[Paul Johnston]

Yes-If it fails at 6 g’s would be good

 

[jaredyates]

When I asked Bob about this he suggested a steel strap around the tube with a quarter inch diameter bolt. He said you can calculate the strength of the strap based on the steel strength PSI and the cross section area of the strap but it should end up around an eighth inch of total thickness. While there are different flavors of adel clamp (aluminum, steel), I don't think most of them will be anywhere close to the thickness Bob suggested.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Today was a very visual day

Hung the engine this morning, and for those looking closely I was lacking a bolt so you can see one is mount hole is not bolted in. But still a big step



Next up was the Vetterman exhaust. Upon opening the box I was like this is a jigsaw puzzle. But it was relatively straightforward




And…… If you have an engine, and if you have an exhaust you need a prop



The prop is temporary as I need to time/set a magneto

But it was a really cool day

 

[Mark Goldberg]

I am looking forward to learning how well this new Sensenich prop does on your Companion. Mark

 

[Utah-Jay]

Mark Goldberg It is an 82” so might lose a bit on the cruise speed, but it will be amazing for short takeoff. I have 6 different pitch choices, from 39 to 51

 

[Utah-Jay]

Hmm, NACA holes in the boot cowl for “air conditioning”? Easy



Only took a few tools and files of various shapes. It was something I had been procrastinating about for about 5 days, but done now

 

[Utah-Jay]

I got brave and started working on wiring and avionics stuff.

Used the paper template to cut the two trays for the remote avionics boxes




I clamped the trays in position to start checking for wiring harness length and reach.


Cut “conduit” for the wires/coaxial to run down the front of the doorframes. Ran the headset jacks through the conduit up so I can mount the jacks on the wing root panel. Ran the Comms coaxial down the same conduit to the right tray with the remote box



Explored several places to mount the ACM (red box) and decided on under the left avionics tray

Spent a lot of time looking at wiring diagrams to try to get my head around this totally foreign task

 

[Nev]

Really looking good. On a few occasions I emailed Dynon or Advanced Flight Systems. Turns out they have more diagrams on hand. The ones I needed were to integrate the ACM with the Vertical Power PPS. Just in case you don't find what you're looking for.

 

[Utah-Jay]

It took a phone call to both Jared and Bob, help from TrueAirSpeed and some thinking outside the box, but 5 hours later my engine is fully mounted

 

[jaredyates]

What did you figure out was the problem?

 

[Utah-Jay]

jaredyates

I never diagnosed a problem, just kept working it till it fit

Terry had hung three engines and he had never seen one so tough

Bill (whose hanger I’m building in) said he had to ratchet strap an engine mount when he built his Rocket

 

[Brett795]

I had a similar struggle when I built my Velocity. It was my 1st experience with a dynofocal mount.

 

[Bcone1381]

If this guide is not an industry best standard at hanging an engine, please advise of a better method.

https://vansairforce.net/articles/IllustratedGuideToEngineHanging/enginehanging.htm

Before using the guide I thought my engine mount was defective. Mark G. convinced me to just keep trying, then I came across this guide. I was alone, never hung an engine before, and got in done in several hours.

I've left my engine attached to the engine mount. With a hoist, I can attach my mounted engine to my fuslage in about 20 minutes.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Bcone1381

That was the guide I used

 

[Bcone1381]

What torque value are you using for those four bolts? I think they are size 7....am I right?

 

[Utah-Jay]

What torque value are you using for those four bolts? I think they are size 7....am I right?

They are AN7’s and I am using 35-40 as per R & B aircraft

 

[Utah-Jay]

Is problem solving progress? Because it seems as if I got nothing done/built today?

The past few days were spent on avionics trays and wiring

 

[Utah-Jay]

Working on avionics/wiring, but took time to mount and secure the oil cooler to the firewall

 

[Utah-Jay]

Working on wiring. Sticks with quick disconnects done, both servos hooked up to the D-Subs.

Sadly photos are not in the correct order, but oh well

 

[Utah-Jay]

Working my way through the wiring process
On the 3rd version of stick wiring, but all set now, just need to add the connectors
AP Server harness is laid out, just need to finalize the exact routing so the D-Sub can be attached
Left avionics tray is all set with items “permanently” attached (nutplates) and ready for the tray to be final attached
Engine monitor harnesses are plugged in and through the tray ready for the firewall pass through
Horizontal stabilizer inspection covers are all final fitted and ready for paint​






Horizontal inspection covers are all final fitted and ready for paint

 

[rodsmith]

The rate of your progress never ceases to amaze!

 

[Utah-Jay]

The rate of your progress never ceases to amaze!

Thanks Rod

I’m doing my best

 

[Sir Newton]

I am currently changing my Mustang's wiring over to Deutsch DTM connectors. Next time I am only going to use the DT series. The connectors so neat & clean. Your connectors look like they are professional assembled. Nice job

 

[Utah-Jay]

Thanks @Sir Newton

I had a very good teacher

 

[Utah-Jay]

Still working on wiring: Cut hole in floorboard under right seat to all the routing of the PTT wires from the control stick to pass down and forward as well as the AP Servo wires to pass up to the servos. Installed the Servos in the brackets and secured with safety wire.

​

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​

​

​

 

[Utah-Jay]

Somehow I lost the covers for the trim actuating lever, so I remade them… Better than before




Laid out the PTT wire routing, installed a grip tie tie down to secure the wires/tubes to the deutsch connector. Installed the male deutsch connector to the pilot and co-pilot PTT wiring. Triple shrink wrapped the wires leading to the deutsch connector. Secured the roll servo harness wire to the tie down. Safety wired the connection to the roll servo

 

[Utah-Jay]

After weeks of procrastination… Used flat aluminum 1/16” to create a window frame to sandwich the window. Top swing up doors were fairly easy, bottom door was much more difficult with lots of angles. I did the top two and the bottom left door


Wired the D-Sub plugs at the servos, secured the wires and connected. Shrink tubing goes into the D-Sub plug and has another layer that terminates at the plug housing.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Lots of little things have been done the past few days, but nothing big until…. Today I had to start drilling a bunch of holes in a perfectly good firewall.
Brake fluid reservoir
Battery box
Cabin hat pass through

And yes I need to clean up the cabin heat holes, just ran out of time.

 

[Utah-Jay]

Had to adjust the battery box as it flexed inward on the sides (note to others: measure/fit box with battery in it before drilling firewall), luckily it only required a very small adjustment

Finalized the fit, drilled and installed both cabin heat pass throughs


Decided I needed some reinforcement in the handle areas, used a 3” tape

 

[Utah-Jay]

A slip and fall on some ice has curtailed my progress the past few days, but got some work done today.

TrueAirSpeed gave me a throttle/mixture cable bracket to attach above the carburetor…. Only it did not have the correct configuration. So it was a day of fabricating.

I used the Vans bracket as a template.




It’s night to have a brake and a shear to work with. The nice thing about fabricating my own is I got to set the angle just right for my setup.


Installed
Also did all the measurements to order my control cables.
Throttle
Mixture
Oil Plenum butterfly
Carb Heat
2 Cabin Heat

 

[Utah-Jay]

Alternator installed

 

[Utah-Jay]

I have been working on the skylights the past few days as well as miscellaneous wiring. Today both skylights were installed with weatherstripping and nice tight fit using nylon washers on the bottom to put upward pressure of the weatherstripping/glass on the upper part of the window channel



And there was some painting today too.
Firstly the metal center section of my overhead which is home to my GPS antennas is the front middle and the comm antenna in the right rear. This will get installed tomorrow.


Inspection covers were painted. They are the same color but look different due to the lighting. They will just come home and remain off until after the DAR visit


Coaxil cable ends were trimmed and the appropriate ends were installed and put on the corresponding avionics. Comms and GPS connections will be done as soon as here antennas are installed on the overhead.

 

[Utah-Jay]

And I am at 749 hours to date