Section 35 Complete!

Knocked off another section this weekend! By far the hardest part about this section was installing the rear floor pans, discussed in a previous post. The rest of it is really for the most part final-drilling a bunch of #19 holes, dimpling a bunch of #8 screw holes, and maybe the occasional nutplate installation. Easy peasy. Of course, this section isn't really ever "complete" until every last panel has been upholstered/painted and then screwed into position, but that's not necessarily going to happen until the plane is ready to fly-- certainly not until a number of other systems have been installed like the flight controls, brake lines, fuel lines, and wiring. So, I'm calling this section "complete" but really there's just a pile of bare aluminum panels that still need to be painted or upholstered. That will come in time!

Some of the access panels in place (shown unprimed)

It's hard to get the whole bird in the photo nowadays... not a bad problem!

Oh! I almost forgot. Spent a good amount of time this morning modifying the oil cooler mount that I had added to the fuselage kit. Because my engine has the piston cooling oil nozzles, oil cooling needs to perform better than similar engines without this feature (with the positive tradeoff of lower and more stable engine temperatures overall, of course... at least that's the theory). Due to this, I will be using a one-upsize oil cooler, the Airflow performance 2008X. This cooler is the same width and thickness as the stock one, but is about 1-5/8" longer. The mount, then, will need to be modified to accept this larger unit.

The stock VA-186 Oil Cooler Mount

Spacer brackets fabricated to extend the cooler's length

Modified VA-186 mount to accept Airflow 2008X Oil Cooler

EDIT 11/1/2015: I think I may have messed up. Now that the finish kit is here, I think the engine mount will actually be in the way of the larger oil cooler. I may have to redesign this thing from scratch, we'll see. Keep looking for updates on this.

In theory, it's not a very difficult modification. However, it ended up taking about 4 hours to get it just right. Basically, I separated the top plate of the mount from the rest of the assembly and fabricated a few spacer extensions to lengthen the open area for the cooler.. By changing the angles that the cooler originally sat at by a small degree, it retains the same footprint on the firewall and now accepts the larger oil cooler. Cool!

Speaking of cool, we've arrived at kind of a "cool" pivotal spot in the build. Most of the metalwork is done, at least as far as the primary structure of the airframe is concerned. Of course we have by no means set our last rivet, but everything from here on out is really pretty minor as far as aluminum work goes. From here onward, the majority of tasks are going to be centered around plumbing, wiring, control systems, and of course FIBERGLASS. As with many builders before us who have gotten to this stage, we've sorta procrastinated on some of the smaller glass tasks that have presented themselves along the way, and now have a stack of small bits to make as well as a couple large ones. I've heard from many builders that the canopy top and doors are some of the most time-consuming and painstaking parts of the build, and make up for a substantial portion of the total build time.

Also, it's time to start buying "stuff." Everything from wiring, stick grips, fuel lines, brake lines, the rudder pedal system, custom tidbits/upgrades, antennas, lighting, upholstery, and even the beginnings of some avionics. This is both exciting and depressing, as it is going to require careful management of monthly expenses and planning out the logistics of what needs to be bought and when. The UPS guy, if he doesn't already, is going to start to remember this house over the next few months! Who am I kidding, he's gotta already know us :-)

Over the next few days, I'll be assembling a list of things left to do before the finish kit arrives (don't worry, there is still PLENTY to do, I just need to make a list and organize/prioritize). Among the next things to do: (1) measure custom lengths for brake/fuel lines and decide if we're using flex or solid lines, probably a combo of both; (2) paint the interior; (3) continue with the baggage door after my latch arrives; and (4) begin fiberglass work.

Until the list is complete though, marathon-nights of extreme building may be replaced by marathon-nights of extreme reflection on what to do next and how to do it. The metamorphosis from builder to philosopher begins....