Category Archives: Engine

What’s under the hood?

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While I worked on the wiring, I made progress with mounting the engine cowling as I’m really starting the countdown to moving to the hangar.  The cowl had been at the airport for months, so I retrieved it to start measuring and trimming.  With the baffles and plenum initially fit, I started with the mock up prop spinner plate from Whirl Wind.  This mock up has spacers that position the backplate as if the propeller was on, which is then used as the template for positioning the cowl.

I also used the spinner backplate to tac the cowl halves together and do an initial trim on the front joint.  Clecos worked well holding it in place as I trimmed and ensured a good fit resulting in even circular openings for the intakes and prop.

I started with the top cowl, laying it over the fuselage skin and clamping it to the spinner backplate with spacers for a nice clearance gap.  I used the reference line method to mark the edge of the firewall on the cowl overlap and measured twice before cutting it long so I could sand it to fit.

The cut came out well and a few minutes blocking it with sandpaper resulted in a nice fit.  The bottom cowl was next and needed a clearing slot cut for the nose gear leg before even rough fitting.  The Show Planes cowl has a unique fairing that I still didn’t understand quite yet but did know that I need not worry about a finished product at this stage.  I cut the opening as small as I could while giving room to put the cowl in place.

With the two halves fitted and tapped in place, I established the horizontal split line and the Sky Bolt line.  It’s key to establish where the skybolts will go on the horizontal line so that the firewall line can be even creating a nice symetric appearance.  Once the split line was figured out and marked, the bottom was similar to the top for the aft cut and soon the overlap was gone and sanded to fit with an adequate paint gap.

Finally, I trimmed the horizontal split line on each cowl half and used the top as the line to match with the bottom.  A bit of sanding and fitting the bottom cowl 5-6 times, and I was happy with the result.  Next up was to lay out the skybolt holes and install the brackets for the receivers.  The manual gives a target spacing that I was able to hold to pretty closely.  I started from each side’s horizonal split line placement and did a bit of math to evenly space the upper firewall bolts.  I think used the same spacing on the lower cowl each side to confirm no interference with the engine mount bolts.  It’s tight, but it works.  Lastly, the horizontal spacing was calculated and marked.  In the end, the fasteners will be in line and evenly spaced and will look great.

I transfered the locations onto the fuselage skin around the firewall then positioned the tabs for drilling and riveting.  Pretty soon, those were primed, shaped to match the curve, and installed.  Next step is to use drill guides to drill the initial hole through the cowl.  I thought I’d be able to use the light method from inside but with the new grey fiberglass gel coated parts from Van’s, that option doesn’t work.  I couldn’t drill from the inside using the cleco adapters, so I wound up carefully measruing and marking the centerpoint of each tab and making a #40 sized hole to get started.

Once a few holes were in, the adapters allowed the cowl to stay in place and I then used the adapters as sight gauges while progressing drilling the holes big enough to accept the skybolts.  I stopped every few increments on the step bit to check alignment with the adapters in the tabs.  It was a bit time consuming, but the process worked well and I had no issues with all of the holes.

The split line fasteners were the last ones to be installed, as I used some walrus teeth (2×4) to prop the cowl in place and firewall fasteners to secure it.  Laying out the drill holes and then confirming with a #40 hole was the first step.  Unfortunately, you can’t drill progressively since you don’t have a way to hold the clecos adapters in place as sight gauges.  So I installed the tabs and then marked the centerpoint of the hole before taking time to step drill while the cowl was off the plane.  The skybolts have enough leeway to allow a small margin of error, so it worked out fine.

I’m not sure it was really that much more work than the stock method using the piano hinge, but I’m happy with the result.  It’s dirt simple to remove the cowl and I personally really like the looks of the fasteners.  They aren’t for everyone, but they are for me!

Brains and speghetti

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Hanging the engine seemed like a big step, but wiring it and plumbing it is the real work.  I knew the connections to the ECUs and sensors would be a big job, but I thought the days of electrical wiring were mostly over.  Boy was I wrong!

I brought it on myself, really, as I knew using SDS would be deep in a mess of wires resembling an Olive Garden menu.  It’s absolutely worth it though, as I’ll wind up with a powerful and efficient (relatively speaking) engine with lots of tuning ability and choice of running LOP with a simple flip of a switch.

I started by screwing the ECU relay box to the ECU case itself with a few screws tapped into the ECU case.  This creates a tidy package that will bolt into the cabin side behind the subpanel.  I also put the mixture knob relay box on with double sided tape to secure everything in one palce.  I had already mounted rails with nutplates in the subpanel.

SDS supplies a harness with labeled wires and prefabed Dsub connectors.  I fished all the wires that will go firewall forward through the stainless penetration and quickly realized there was no where near enough room to run all the wires.  I still had the CHT/EGT and other EMS wires that needed to come through for the AFS EMS plus a few other misc wires.  Without regards to symmetry, I decided to scrap more of the expensive firesleeve penetration kits and just run with a silicone high temp grommet and fire stop.  The plans call for a plastic grommet and fire stop, so I’m still above minimums here.  Two more holes painfully drilled and deburred in stainless steel allowed enough room for the tangled mess.

I underestimated the amount of connections and sensors needed for everything!  It seemed the wires never stopped and I always had more hanging waiting for their turn in the spot light for a trim and terminal.  Injectors, coils, EGT, CHT, hall sensor, TPS, MAP, AFR, oil pressure, fuel pressure, original bell telephone…okay not the telephone.  I routed everything as neatly as I could keeping in mind strain releif, heat sources, and interference from other wires.  I’m sure someone could do it better or neater, but this is working for me and I’m not really trying to win a neatness contest at this point.  I chose to use zipties for now and will experiment with a 500*F rated sprial loom from McMaster Carr to clean everything up a bit down the road.

I focused on the firewall forward and finally had everything connected and pinned out.  I created a carbon fiber plate for the THREE MAP sensors, yes, three of them.  I also used Bryan at Show Planes’ transducer mounts to avoid more stuff on the firewal and create less plumbing lines.  I also worked on the spark plug wires which use MSD terminals and wires.  They were pretty easy to make up and I went ahead and drained the preservative oil out of the cylinders to install the spark plugs with the adapters and anti-seize.

I did run across my first dumb ass moment when I relized my perfectly placed EGT probes are not perfectly placed.  They are smack dab in the middle of the spark plugs and thus need to be removed to change the plugs.  Not the end of the world, but will add maintenance time down the road.  If I get tired enough of them, I’ll remove the exhaust, weld up the holes and reposition them.  Speaking of welding, I had Charlie on base weld up a mis-drilled EGT hole (interfered with the induction intake) and the AFR bung.  As always, he did an amazing job for the reasonable cost of a few cases of beer for the shop.

Fast forward a week or two, I finished the brains by working cabin side of the firewall underneath the panel.  I just love contorting my body in some ungodly yoga pose upside down while having my face inches away from my work area to work under the panel!  Fortunately, the wife came out and stood by my side as an assistant for the three hours it took me to terminate all of the extra wires inside.  I had to pin out a few switches, mixture knob, sensors, grounds, power, and signal wires for the ECUs and EMS.  It wasn’t fun, but it went well and I got all of the connections made correctly with her help and a lot of triple checking.

We also remounted the air oil separator on stand offs I created and bolted the improperly drilled holes to seal the firewall.  Mounting the ECUs was a rediculously difficult endeavor but thank goodness I had already installed the rails and nutplates.  Without those, it would have been impossible, truely.  I hope I don’t have to get those boxes out very much if ever at all.  The wiring needs some tidying up underneath that I’ll do another day but at long last, it’s all hooked up.  The final step was to fire up the master switch and check out the ECU programmer now that it is installed in the panel filling the last hole.  It’s at long last a complete instrument panel!

Hate to say it, but you’ve gained weight

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About 375 pounds to be exact, all on your front end!

I enlisted the help of friend/flier/builder/neighbor Dan Olsen to help me hang this piece of art on the front end.  I had done a little prep work such as sealing a few penetrations in the firewall that would be tough to get to and removed the air oil separator, as I was pretty sure my original location would interfere with the back up alternator.

Some folks have had a lot of headache while hanging the engine while others have thrown it right on.  Overall, I’d say we were towards the later, as the engine behaved admirably and didn’t give us too much trouble.  We supported the tail of the fuselage to put the nose gear on the ground and used ratchet straps on the engine hoist so we could adjust the angle of the engine relative to the engine mount.

The top mounts went on easy, of course, and we secured the hardware enough to hold it in place.  The lower bolts were the more difficult ones, as with the dynafocal mount, the engine needs to be nested in the mount but gravity is working against you.  We found that using a easy grip clamp helped hold and compress the mounting pads enough that the bolts were able to be tapped in without much force.  It all sounds simple and easy but was 30 minutes of tough work and a lot of maneuvering tools.

Four bolts in and we have an engine!  Remarkable that all of the force, torque, and stress is secured with four bolts.  The mount modification by Barret was perfect for the cold air induction and it’s nice to have the fuselage balanced nose heavy now so no more tail stand required!  She is officially a tricycle aircraft now, not a four wheeler.

I took some extra time and used my sealant gun to really seal up the factory intercylinder baffles well.  I’ve researched and discovered this is critical to keeping cooling air traveling through the intended paths and fins which helps control CHTs in flight.  Doing it now before accessories and exhaust are mounted makes the task doable and the sealant gun with curved nozzles makes it easy.  It was actually really fun finding all the little spots to seal up and visualize where are can escape from the cooling envelope.  It also makes a lot of sense how you can not get great cooling from a stock engine and baffle setup without some extra TLC such as this.

The oil cooler was also installed and sealed carefully to maximize air efficiency through the cooler.  This is the next size up from the stock cooler and the modified mount works great without a lot of fuss.  I’m sure it could be better if I had mounted it paralell to the ground and had a nice clean duct, but folks are flying a lot with great results just as I am doing it.  The butterfly valve should help keep the oil temps higher in cold/high altitude flights that we have planned.

Baffles are up next and can be a bit of a tricky project to get completed.  There is also a well documented modification on number 6 cylinder that I’ll do to increase cooling and help reduce CHTs on that notoriously hot cylinder.  The baffle on number 5 is the hardest to fit onto the engine, so I taped up about everything to avoid or at least minimizing messing up the goregous paint job on the engine.  There are a lot of unique pieces of metal and I am awed at who ever designed the presses to stamp these things out.

Behind number 6, the fins are not deep enough to allow air to channel between the cylinder wall and the baffle.  Some have put a washer here which just pushed the baffle out a bit and allows some air to go through.  The RV-14 has a new mod where a channel is built in which provides clearance in that area, so I made the same modification to mine.  A few mockups using manilla folders, and I finalized a design which I riveted on and will seal once painted.

Once all the stock baffles are on, it was time to fit my RV Bits carbon fiber plenum.  I had this shipped all the way from South Africa and it’s a nice piece.  If someone wanted to create their own, it really wouldn’t be hard but it would take some time.  I positioned it to maximize the opening up front around the intakes but keep it clear of the cowl which should help keep the pressure higher on the cooling side.  That increases (in theory) the delta P between the high and low side of the engine as the hot air passing through the engine is sucked out the bottom of the cowl exit.  I initially drilled holes in the baffles and plenum but later redrilled the baffles after fitting the cowl (to be documented in a future post).

The Airwolf remote oil filter has a spot reserved low on the firewall near the battery box and wound up being perfectly placed.  I installed the brackets and doubler along with the fittings and tested the filter out.  The lines run up to an adapter that mounts on the accessory case and includes the vernatherm and oil temp sender.  This and a quick drain oil plug should make changing the oil a no-mess event.

Put some pants on

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The last big delivery of the project arrived containing our engine in a pickled state from Aero Sport Power.  A huge thanks to the guys on base who have helped me get the deliveries and saved so much headache by avoiding home deliveries!  I loaded it on the trailer with a forklift and then got it off at home by disassembling the crate and using my engine hoist to lift it.  It worked out quite nicely and I used a few cinder blocks to rest the pallet on so I could put the hoist away.

The engine was preserved (pickled) by Aero Sport since it will be a few months before first flight.  This prevents rust and corrosion from setting in and keeps everything coated with a special rust inhibiting oil until I’m ready to fire it up.  I couldn’t help but bolt the prop governor on and start working on the aircon compressor install, as I’ve been concerned with that for some time.  We’re off to a lack luster start.  The studs for the prop governor were about 1/2″ short and had to be replaced.  My steep learning curve with threaded studs in a Lycoming equaled a four day project to remove them, but thanks to Amazon aircraft tool supply, a little heat, and a smack with a hammer (great tip Darren at Aero Sport, thanks) the studs finally backed right out.  I replaced them with longer studs which are ludicrously expensive for what they are and a week after I started, torqued the nuts on the prop governor.

The aircon compressor was another swing and miss, not surprisingly I must admit.  I knew I had an original design bracket from Flightline and wasn’t sure if everything was going to work out.  My setup moves the alternator to the port side and puts the compressor on the starboard side.  Well, the brackets don’t allow the current compressor model to line up with the flywheel grooves.  The alternator also didn’t fit at all since the Plane Power alternators have a slightly smaller case than the antient models this was designed around.  Basically, nothing worked.

Of course, I had already taken everything apart and mixed hardware which was a huge mistake.  It took me an hour to sort things out and figure out where crap went back on the engine to be in original configuration.  Another call to John and Robert Skinner to brainstorm, I decided to push the easy button and buy the newest compressor and mount from Flightline.  That cost a lot, but I just don’t have the time, resources, or skills to engineer a new bracket and have it manufactured one off.  I know his newest setup works, so I sucked it up and paid the bill.

Meanwhile, the last project to do before hanging the engine is putting some pants over the beautiful red Beringer wheels.  The wheel pants and gear leg fairings add considerable efficiency to the airframe so it’s important to get these right and rigged properly.  I’ve dreaded them and was right in doing so.  For some reason, these were just a royal pain in the ass for me.  I started by building a jig to hold the main paints.  I used a laser to get all of the level and plumb lines which sucked.  Then I cleaned the two havles up enough to joing them together which also sucked.  What really sucked was trying to get the alignment perfect and the holes drilled in the right spots.

It sucked getting up and down off the floor about 50 times an hour too.  How was aligning the pants in the jig with the airframe?  It sucked.  I dropped a centerline for the fuse and then measured from that to set the alignment.  What sucks, is the new pants from Vans are grey fiberglass gel coat so you can’t see through them.  Which is why the directions suck because they assume you can just shine a light through the pants marking the proper holes to drill.  I finally sucked it up and used a combination of careful measurements and the laser to pinpoint the locations to drill into the pants and mounting brackets.

It also sucks trying to mark the wheel area to be cut out because you essentially have to mold yourself into the concrete floor to look underneath the pant that is three inches off the ground.  I’m using SkyBolts on the wheel pants, which suck to install, but will make maintenance and access so much easier in the long run.  I had to drill out the mounting holes slowly to ensure alignment stayed true, but they came out nicely in the end.  It also sucked that I forgot my wheel pant axle stand off was an aftermarket purchase to replace the stock Vans part which – you guessed it, sucked.  The stand off was way too long (by design) but I was afraid to trim it.  Eventually, like Tess’s wheels, I put my big boy pants on and cut the damn things off to length, never looking back.

But wait, that was the easy part!  The second sucky task was to do the gear leg fairings that cover the legs and brake lines.  Hide your house cats, because you have to use about 25 yards of string through all of this.  Wrapping string around the gear leg fairings and steps, you use that to align them with the prevailing wind in flight.  I can’t even begin to describe how I did it, but it worked.  Measuring, plumb bobs, levels, digital inclimometers, string, lasers, string, and lots of painters tape and string plus some more string all sucked into one giant suck.

In the end, it was worth the work to have properly aligned and nice looking pants.  I’m often complimented on my pants, and now my airplane will be as well.  I repeated much of the process for the nose gear using the workbench and engine hoist to level the fuselage off the ground as in flight condition..  I trimmed my nose gear leg fairing a bit too much, so may add a bit more material back before paint, but it’s fine for now.  I also attached the RV Bits intersection fairings and chose to split them with the pants as others have done instead of per plans.  This does not suck and makes for a much cleaner look in my opinion.  I epoxied them in place and will finish the filler and sanding work later after initial flights to save build time now.

Phew, even writing that sucked.  Enough of that, let’s hang an engine!

Garlic Sauce and Grape Jelly – Building an Airplane Engine

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Fair warning, there are lots of pictures in this post!

My dad and I were pretty darned excited (okay my dad was REALLY excited) about spending time together building my engine. We arrived at Aero Sport Tuesday morning with donuts and were instantly welcomed as family. Maybe it was the donuts, maybe it was my dad’s flirting with the receptionist. I don’t know, but it worked. We were in. Darren turned out to be our build guy so I really had a complete experience with him and couldn’t have asked for a better mentor. He showed us the whole shop, introduced us to folks and explained some of their equipment. We made it to a back assembly room where a cart sat containing all (most) of the parts for my engine – painted, prepped, and organized. We wasted no time and dove in starting with rods on the crankshaft. Darren let dad and I do pretty much everything with a sharp eye on us over our shoulders. This is exactly what we wanted, but we learned other folks may just want to sit back and watch a master at work which is just fine too.

One thing we quickly learned was how to properly lubricate EVERYTHING in the engine. Even bolts that were getting torqued were lubricated, something I had never heard of. The Lubriplate mixed with a little STP oil turned out looking like garlic sauce from Papa Johns and we put that crap on everything, just like you would with pizza. It protects the components during assembly, keeps oxygen and therefore rust at bay until operation, and lubricates the workings of the engine during first start until oil has really gotten everywhere. Our IPI (in process inspections) were completed by Darren as he double checked our torque values and work before proceeding on. It was apparent that Darren had done this before as proven when he picked up a journal bearing and by feel recognized the parts man had pulled the wrong part number. He gave us a task and ran off to the parts counter a few rooms over to retrieve the proper items. This happened a few times and showed that they are still improving their processes but highlighted the incredible amount of experience and knowledge all the employees there have about building engines.

The crankshaft monster quickly grew with rods and pistons before the case halves went on with journal bearings and a few accessories followed by the cylinders. It’s a lot of work, but it’s remarkably simple with pretty loose tolerances hence the inherent inefficiencies compared to a modern car engine let’s say. Lycomings have been around for a long damn time and not much has changed in the design even if manufacturing tolerances have been vastly improved. By the end of the day, we had what pretty much resembled an airplane engine including the accessory case on, for the first time at least. While putting on the cold air induction, we had a fit issue with the oil screen that was immediately handled by the machine shop who bored out a recess. The right tools make any job simple. That and having the right people who know what they hell they are doing. I sometimes think I should not own a Dremel, as I think I can CNC machine things freehand.

Day two started off with a Knock It Off, as we say in the Air Force. Darren wasn’t happy with having the tach drive shaft removed since it would create a leak point on the accessory gear case and be hard to seal. Even though I don’t need the tach drive and it meant pulling the sealed/gasket-ed case off, we did the right thing and removed it. The shaft adds a few ounces but can be left unattached to anything and is now properly sealed with the bearing and oil seal. We made the quick fix and all agreed we felt better. Dad even got to play with the Loctite that resembles grape jelly in looks but not taste. This is special gasket gel that only cures in the absence of oxygen. So it forms a rock solid gasket but any excess that oozes into the internal workings of the engine won’t cause any issues before it gets caught by the filter.

We fit the push rods and rockers in the heads and learned how to properly gap the valves along with a few neat tricks with safety wire that I have taken back home to others. Other than a crazy push rod that we suspect was cut and not remarked, it all went really smoothly and by lunch the cart of parts was just a lonely empty cart! After lunch, we bolted on a few SDS accessories to shift from building to prepping for first start. Dad and I took the afternoon off while the test department hung the engine onto the Test rig which looks like an old bread truck of some kind.  I can only imagine the number of hours that thing has racked up going from their hangar to the field at the end of the runway about 1000 yards away.  They are no stranger to various engine configurations and had the sensor and control package hooked up quickly.  An old prop was bolted on and ground adjusted to that looks about right and she was ready for the next morning.

We awoke the next morning to a blustery wind bringing a chill from the mountains across the plains of western Canada.  Oh wait, this isn’t a novel.  It was freaking cold and drizzling the final morning but we braved the elements and watched the guys pre-oil the engine.  Finally, it was time to burn some avgas so we followed the truck out to the field and held our breath as the tech turned the start key for the first time.  We were warned it may not start the first time but I wasn’t too concerned about that.  Sure enough, the second start attempt resulted in a few puffs of white smoke and a low rumble of our engine running for the first time!  Lots of smiles and hugs and handshakes all around, it really was an awesome sight and sound to see something that we put so much work into start up and run like a champ.  Dad and I built an engine (with a bit of help from Darren) and it’s alive!

Laura and I hopped in the truck and got to see a bit of the magic behind the scenes as they ran through the initial checks.  Aero Sport does a few hours of running total to start the shake down and break in process.  On each subsequent start, the engine fired off within a blade or two and only minor mixture (via the SDS knob) were made to keep temps under control.  The tech said that’s typical with the rough cut universal baffle setup they have on the truck.  As exciting as it was to see it run, we were hungry and cold, so let the pros finish up with the run time and headed inside to talk with Doug about some tips for our first start and break in. 

Running the engine at high power setting and avoid ground running was the biggest piece of advice given.  A few other notes about power and rpm along with oil changes and temperature expectations were good information to have and a lot to take in.  Meanwhile, the engine was removed from the test truck and had a complete checkout including draining the oil and checking the filter – no metal!  All of our garlic sauce and grape jelly did its job.  The tech will finish bolting the accessories on and preserve it for the few more months until we are ready to start it and go flying.

All too soon, it was time to say our goodbyes to the amazing team at Aero Sport Power.  We really felt like family there after three short days and genuinely feel welcomed back at any time.  I’m really excited to have the hands on experience of building my own engine and getting an understanding of how it is assembled and operates.  It was some great father-son time as well and the memories will last long beyond first overhaul!

Random pictures:

Let’s build an engine, eh?

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Perhaps the biggest and most expensive decision in building a plane is what engine will be powering the hopes and dreams of the builder while turning many dollars of avgas into adventures.  Some may know that I’ve been involved with an alternate engine that has unfortunately not matured enough to be on my plane just yet.  I’ll detail that in a future post, but this one is all about the Lycoming!

The backstory to what impacted my decisions stems from my flying experience, goals and missions for our plane, and personal preference.  I knew that I wanted to start off with a completely new engine, no overhauled components.  That is not to say an overhauled or even factory 0 time (but not new) engine isn’t as good as being brand new.  I just want a fresh start and a foundation that I could overhaul in the future.  I also want an engine that is efficient and powerful.  I’m not interested in exceeding Vne or supercharging the thing to 1000 horsepower, but I do want something a little hot rodded above the stock 260 horsepower of an IO-540.  I also want it efficient, not only for mission range and cost, but to be somewhat green and environmentally friendly.  Afterall, trees need hugs too, right?  Most importantly, however, I wanted to have a modern engine or at least as modern as you can with a 1930’s tractor inspired design.  That meant electronic gizmos and a lot of them!

While researching new engines, the usual suppliers popped up.  Van’s will sell a crate engine with few if no modifications or choices available.  Lycoming will sell directly through Thunderbolt lines with some options available and even paint the engine a custom color as long as that color is red!  Barret Precision Engines can get a new crate engine or overhaul a used core to build essentially anything you want.  Lycon will put 54 to 1 compression pistons that require nuclear fuel to run and charge you the equivalent fee for it.  Numerous local shops can build from parts or rebuild a core engine.  Or you can simply purchase a running engine from a sellar and slap it on the plane.  For me, it came down to two vendors, Barret and Aero Sport Power.

Aero Sport Power is in Kamloops, BC and has been building experimental and certified engines for decades.  They have a great reputation with the aerobatic folks and have an entire business division to cater soley towards ameature built aircraft engines.  They also have a unique offering, a build school that is a three day course where you get to participate as much or little as desired in the build of your engine capped off with a first start and test run on their test stand.  Darren is a phenominal resource and will hand walk you through everything from figuring out which engine you actually need (IO-540-R2D2 hah!) all the way to which hotel is best to stay at in BC and how to run your new engine during the first few flights.  What I liked about Aero Sport the most is technical:  they are an authorized Lycoming builder that can order a new engine kit unassembled.  What that means is they build the engine to my specs, not take a crate engine and rip components off to replace with aftermarket upgrades.

So I called Darren and started talking about what I wanted.  Lycoming 540 with 9:1 compression, SDS dual ECU injection and ignition, BPE cold air induction, no mechanical fuel pump (not needed with SDS) dual groove flywheel for aircon, remote oil filter, 70 amp alternator with 30 amp back up, and of course custom paint scheme.  This all was an easy kill for Aero Sport who promptly gave me a quote and lead time.  They then put up with me asking questions, requesting information, putting the purchase off, and finally committing in January of this year with a July build date.  The price wasn’t the cheapest, but it also wasn’t the most expensive, apples to apples.  They were, though, the only shop who could build (not re-build) the exact engine I wanted.  The icing on the cake was the chance to come up and help build it! This is how excited I was!

With the deposit paid, planning began on keeping the copilot happy by having a vacation in conjunction with the build class.  We worked out flying into Calgary and taking our time traveling west over the mountains to Banff then to Kamloops before spending a few days backpack camping back in Yoho then flying home.  To top it off, my dad and step mom had a similar idea, taking a cross country train from Toronto to Vancouver then meeting us in Kamloops so pops and I could build the engine father/son.  I won’t get into all of the vacation details, but we now have free tickets from American thanks to our luggage traveling halfway around the country before making it to our hands on day three of the trip.  We traded the backpack camping for day hiking and an Air BnB with a hot tub due to snow and head colds and came home happy!

The summary for builders is take a lot of time and research the build shop you want.  Build the engine like you build your plane, just the way you want it.  Need to save money?  Do it.  Want the bling?  Chrome everything.  More power?  Do it.  Your life and the lives of your passengers depend on your powerplant more than any other component so make sure you are comfortable with your engine and are happy with your decision.  I’d be happy to talk with anyone about the finances and other small decisions to help a fellow builder.

Stay tuned for the build school write up.

Sit back and relax

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After spending three months away from home and the build, I am happy to be back from my TDY and immediately got back to work on the project.  The time wasn’t completely wasted build-wise though, as I spent a lot of time researching, studying, and designing the remaining aspects of the build.  The biggest accomplishment was the finalization of my electrical schematic, specifically the power distribution.  I haven’t quite finished the final touches on the Visio product, however, the design is now on paper (digitally) and vetted through several external sets of eyes.  I’ll detail it more in a later post.

I also spent a lot of time talking with engine shops and builders.  I narrowed down all of my requirements to get quotes and solicited those out to several shops.  After lots of discussion, emails, and phone calls, I am really excited about what Aerosport Engines out of Canada has to offer.  They are one of only a few who can still get a new “kit” engine from Lycoming so all parts are brand new but not assembled.  That’s important to me since we’ll be adding SDS EFI and some other tid bits that would differ from a stock IO-540 without wasting money.  They also offer a build class that allows you to spend a weekend helping assemble your engine and learn a lot through the process.  I plan on turning it into a little vacation with my dad to build up our engine.

That’s plan A for the power plant.  Plan B is much more exciting but I’m keeping that one under wraps for a bit longer.

Back in the shop, a big morale booster is getting the rear seat back panels installed.  These were super simple to make with the panel and L angle.  The piano hinges were already cut as part of the floor / bulkhead and the backs fitting were a nice confirmation that I did it correctly way back when.  The seat backs show how roomy the 10 really is, not only in the passenger area but also behind them in the baggage area.  We are very excited about filling it all up with people, puppies, and packs for the adventures that lay ahead.

Decisions, Decisions

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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve done a lot of work on making decisions based on a lot of research and discussions. This might be a boring read, but I want to document my decisions for the build process and keep my own thoughts straight.

First the engine. It’s a big decision and complicated. I’ve decided to overhaul a used engine and do most of the work myself with the help of a few experienced professionals. There is a local guy who has built many engines for race planes and has a reputable engine shop that has offered to be a technical resource and allow me to use his facilities and equipment. While this won’t be for a while, our hours long conversation has reassured me of this approach vs. buying a new engine. He also advised me on which variants and the things to look for in a run-out or used core. So I’ll be keeping an eye out for good deals on eBay, Barnstormers, etc. over the coming year or so and hopefully make a purchase when the right opportunity comes along.

Building my own engine will also allow me to customize it with the options efficiently and cost effectively. I have committed to running the full EFII electronic ignition and fuel injection system. I like the ease of operation the system provides and most of all, the efficiency of the system. I will use the dual ECU option to provide redundancy for IFR operation. Combined with the Show Planes cowl, Flightline AC system, and possibly a horizontal induction pan, there will be some modifications required for sure. But this will be the airplane that I want and an efficient, modern platform.

It will also be heavily electrically dependant. I’m starting on the electrical schematic to include one main battery, one 70 amp alternator, one backup 30 amp alternator, and integrated back up batteries for the EFIS systems. Using the VPX Pro system will integrate my electrical loads with a few exceptions and provide a better insight into the health of the system.

More details to come on all of these decisions, but it paves the way for planning purposes and at least lets me get started on some of the systems side of the build.