Forward Progress!!!

Well after almost 6 months of very little progress to report, I'm happy to say we had a very productive holiday weekend in the shop. Oh yeah, happy July 4!!!

Team Sarah Maggie and Mikey J back at it in the shop!

First order of business, however, was to fix our propane grill in preparation for Oshkosh later on this month... the hinge had some kind of cheap and terrible rivets holding the cover together, and it had come apart sometime last year. So, it seemed like a perfect project to fire up the rivet gun for the first time in quite a while:

A couple AN470AD4-4 and we're back in business... first rivets set in quite a while!!

Alright, now on to the fiberglass stuff. I've been wanting to get my center console and throttle quadrant up and going, so the first thing I wanted to do was put the throttle friction lock recess back into place. I did this by marking the center point of the friction lock stud, and drilling a 2.5" hole using a hole saw. Then, I took a scrap piece of 1/2" styrofoam and cut a hole out of it as well (using the hole saw with the drill in reverse):

Throttle friction lock recess

I took a second piece of styrofoam and glued it to the back of the first piece, and taped it into place behind the hole I cut in the console. After a quick layup session and some sanding, drilling, and cutting, I had this piece:

Throttle friction lock, with quadrant mounted into place

Nice!! Nothing like taking some time off from building and getting back into the swing of things with a successful first project. Next, it was time to tackle the cabin cover. We've got a couple things going on simultaneously with the cabin cover: (1) The A-pillars are nearly done after months of "5-minutes-at-a-time" work sanding and filling; (2) The B-pillars will be closed in much like the A-pillars, but that effort is just getting started. Sarah has volunteered to take charge of this task (in fact, that's what she's doing in the top photo in this post) and I fully expect them to come out better than the A-pillars that I did; and (3) The overly-complicated overhead console. While I'm happy we're taking this route, I cannot overstate the amount of extra work that "rolling your own" requires versus buying, say, the Aerosport overhead console out of the box. I think by the end of this build I'm going to be Aerosport's #1 sales rep, even though I've bought only a small handful of their products compared to what they have available :-)

So now that the ducts are pretty close to done, it's time to build up the rest of the overhead, which will contain lights, switches, and a 4" speaker. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the best design would be for this, taking into consideration function, headroom, and aesthetics. I came up with this hourglass-shaped design which I'm super happy with how it turned out:

The hourglass-shaped cutout for the overhead console

The front two vent pads are visible at the bottom of the photo above. Working backwards from there, the idea is to have the vents "flow" visually into the area immediately behind, where there will be two eyeball spot lights. The center area will be raised slightly, approximately 5" wide and have an access cover containing a few switches and hiding some wiring. Moving further back, there is a mold to put a flush-mounted 4" PA speaker in the ceiling. I'm planning on using a Visaton R10S speaker with a black wire mesh grille. It *should* look pretty slick when it's done.

Moving further back from the speaker is the set of rear vent pads, which I've noticed I placed quite a bit farther forward than where they are in the Aerosport overhead console. From my mockups and measurements, these will be directly over the knees of the rear seat occupants, which is where I envisioned to be the best place for them. Maybe they are better further back? Oh well, too late to change that now. Lastly, there will be another area for two more eyeball spot lights for the rear seat occupants.

After mocking everything up with pink foam, I had an idea to try something different to fill in all the gaps and round off all the transitions: Great Stuff spray foam. We've dabbled with it plenty in the past, but this is the first time I'm using it for mold-making. I laid down a sheet of plastic film and got to work:

Using spray foam to fill in the gaps, and bucking bars to hold everything in place

Side view of the current state of affairs

Now to let the foam cure and get to sanding it all back down again!

Overhead Console - Panel

Quick update today... got some decent work in over the weekend but really doesn't feel like much has changed. I guess a lot has been accomplished, but nothing can really be checked off yet, and it feels like everything is in a half-completed state (I'm finding this seems to happen periodically). Also, I'm really finding out what a specialized skill fiberglassing is. People who are good at it make it look so darn easy, and there are plenty of beautiful examples that can be found online of parts people made for their airplanes from fiberglass... I wouldn't say mine fall into that category yet. The good news, though, is I feel like I'm learning a lot, and eventually I'll be able to make the parts I need for this project.

I was able to re-make the ducting system for the overhead console, using a slightly modified design and an improved method of actually laying the glass. It came out much better this time, but it certainly still has its flaws. The good news is, of course, these parts aren't structural in any way, so as long as they don't fall off the ceiling in flight or something, I think we're ok from a safety standpoint.

Version 2.0 of the overhead ducting system

It's pretty similar in theory to the first one-- the duct on the left side brings air to the front two vents, and the duct on the right side brings air to the rear two vents. There will be a pair of servos in the tailcone controlling flow to each of these two ducts, and in this way we can control the amount of fresh air going to the front and back.

Now, the idea is to cover these ducts with the actual console itself. Since these ducts will be mostly hidden beneath the console, I'm not too terribly worried about how perfect they look, as long as they are airtight and have a good bond to the cabin cover. If all works out like what's in my mind, the final product will be a seamless-looking console that has four vents, four spotlights, some access panels, and some recessed accent lights to serve as dome and cargo lighting. Oh yeah, and the switch pod. Still at square one for that... also need to build a center console for the armrest and throttle quadrant. Sheesh! Lots more fiberglass to do.

In between epoxy curing sessions, I also started work on the panel. I had previously purchased a 24" x 48" sheet of 0.070" aluminum from Aircraft Spruce and intended to cut out my own (slightly larger) version of the instrument panel Van's gives you. I began by tracing out the original instrument panel and marking all the attach holes that go along the upper edge. Then, I drew a straight line across the bottom that is about a half inch below where the standard switch bar ends, thus making the panel about a half inch taller than stock, and all in one sheet. Lastly, I drew in lines for the center console and side vents and began cutting everything out. I used a combination of a jigsaw, dremel, belt sander, and an array of files:

New instrument panel after initial cut

Looks good! I sat down in the left seat and discovered there was still plenty of room for my knees too. The extra half inch of height really isn't noticeable at all from a comfort side of things, but it totally gives the appearance of having WAY more panel space...cool!

So now comes the fun part: laying out where all the instruments are going to go. I've agonized over this for months now... so many options, each with their advantage and disadvantage. It's time to make my mind up and just go for it. If I end up hating the layout, I guess I can always try again. Hopefully that won't happen.

The basic idea for the panel layout is to have the 10" G3X touch screens centered for each pilot/copilot, and the Mini-X backup EFIS in the center. The GTN750 and GMA350c audio panel will be mounted into the console (a bit low compared to many other configurations, more on this later), and the GMC307 flight control panel will be mounted high and center. This layout seemed to work the best so that the aircraft can be piloted just as easily form the left seat as the right seat-- one of our main requirements. So, I did some more measuring, tracing, and cutting, and ended up with this for a panel:

Instrument panel after cutouts for avionics

Good stuff! I found it wasn't nearly as hard to cut it out as I was thinking it might be. The hardest part was drawing all the lines to be perfectly straight and square. If you look super close there are a few cut lines that aren't perfect, but the mounting of all the instruments covers it all up nicely. So far so good... now it's on to switches!

I'm struggling a bit with the layout of the switches, but I think I have a general idea of where things are going to go. I'll post a diagram at some point when I finalize the layout, but right now I'm at the point of figuring out exactly what model I need for every single switch, indicator, and potentiometer. Kind of a fun task, but very tedious too. Also, turns out quality switches aren't the cheapest thing in the world. I'll be placing a pretty hefty order with Digikey in the coming days that should cover most of our immediate needs for switches and the like, then we will go from there.

That's it for now! Next up, more work on the overhead and panel...

Overhead Console 2

Continued working on the overhead console yesterday and today. Formed the mold for the rear seat vent duct, part of which lays over the front air duct made previously. It's coming out "okay"... definitely learning a lot about fiberglass!

Front and rear vent ducts laid in place after being removed from their molds

View from the rear looking forward

The idea would be now that the ducts are laid, to form up the shape of the overhead itself over the top of everything and have these ducts hidden behind it. I'm happy with the design, in fact I think it will work out to be very slick, but I may very well attempt to make these ducts a second time. Tonight we actually went over to our friends Chad and Kim's place, who are building a Cozy Mark IV together in their garage. A while back Chad had offered for me to stop over and learn a bit about fiberglassing technique. His timing was perfect by getting ahold of me today and saying now was a good time to stop over! Funny coincidence for sure... or, maybe he saw pictures on this blog of how terrible the fiberglass is looking over here and thought geez I better help this guy... haha.

We most certainly learned a few things tonight that I think we can apply to these ducts (and especially the overhead itself). First of all, Chad recommended to always cut the fabric on the bias (at a 45-degree angle) so that it would lay better over corners and complex shapes. I knew this already but I didn't realize you can "always" cut it that way, I thought it was more for special layups. He also demonstrated a technique where you wet out two layers of fiberglass together at a flat work table, on a piece of clear plastic. Then, once the glass is wetted out, you can lay the whole works on top of your form, making it much easier to have consistently wetted glass and speeding up the whole process significantly. Also, he recommended a peel ply fabric that works better than dacron and is available at the local fabric shop, called "underskirting" fabric material (EDIT: After going to the local Hancock Fabric Suppy, it's called "Poly Elite Lining", P/N 3516226, $2.39/yd). It's a white, sort of satin type fabric that is much finer and thinner than dacron, and apparently it works just the same but better (as a side note, I should have also used peel ply to make life easier but did not on these first two sessions). There were a number of other little tips and tricks I gathered from just looking around his shop and watching the master at his craft. I'm by no means an expert now, but I feel like I at least more than doubled my knowledge with one night in the shop with these guys... thanks Chad and Kim!!!! (And your Cozy IV is looking awesome!)

So, I think the next step will be to set these ducts aside and try again. For round two, I think I want to spend a bit more time on the molds, employ the new techniques I've learned, and try circular vent pads instead of square. If it all goes sideways, well, it's another learning experience then! Stay tuned for [lots] more fiberglass!

Overhead Console

So we're going to build our own overhead console for the cabin cover, and this requires a significant amount of design, planning, and fiberglass work. I've spent hours online looking at the many excellent RV-10 build sites, getting ideas and inspirations on what we can do. While in the end this overhead is going to be our own design with a few unique things we haven't seen elsewhere, there will be a number of ideas and themes "stolen" from other builders. Basically, I'm envisioning the baseline of this console as being a kind of mix between those built by Justin Twilbeck (link here) and with a front switch panel similar to the one built by Ed Kranz (link here).

Some differences in the design I'd like to include are using automotive-style overhead vents, and some homemade DIY red/white eyeball light fixtures for each passenger. I'm also going to be separating the front and rear vents with ducting so that they can be independently controlled (much like the heat selectors). There will be a number of stages involving fiberglass work, and hopefully if everything goes well, we'll have one hell of an overhead console that will be just "perfect" for what we want. That's the hope, anyway. Time to nut up and become a fiberglass expert.

First thing to do was mount the visors. I wanted to see the areas that they would cover, and tailor the design of the overhead around them so it looks like it's all part of the same design. I chose the Blue Sky visors based on a few reviews, the fact that they are half the price of the Rosen units, and finally bit the bullet after reading Brian and Brandi's post here about them.

Mounting them was pretty straightforward, although I did run into one snag. The plans included with the visors say to install the mounting blocks 14.5" from the centerline, however, this isn't far enough away. The front channel hasn't yet "met up" with the door channel at that location, and so drilling through there would require a 1.5" - 2" long screw as opposed to the 3/4" screw included in the kit. I pondered whether to use the specified location and just get a longer screw, or go another inch and a half over and use the included screw. I went with the latter, and I think things will work great in this location. Again, at least for our setup, our mounting blocks are installed at approximately 16" (maybe 16-1/8") from centerline.

I'd like to "close out" these A-pillars as well, which means that these mounting blocks for the visors will be permanently installed. I'm also going to run some conduit up each side, and then cover it all up with fiberglass. So, I mixed up some flox and glued the mounting block and conduit into place:

Blue Sky visor mount and 3/4" conduit running down L side A-pillar (the mount is attached via a screw coming through from the door channel, but it is also now floxed into place)

R side A-pillar with visor mount and conduit

Next, it was time to start on the overhead itself. The first step will be to create the ducting for the front and rear vent systems. The idea here is to have two vent outlets coming from the tailcone. The left vent will provide air to both front passengers, and the right vent will provide air to both rear passengers. A pair of servos will control airflow independently for each system, and flow to some standard automotive-style air vents located in the overhead. Time to get started with fiberglass layups!

Foam cutouts wrapped in packing tape, forming the mold for the front air ducts

A similar duct will be created to take air from the right side of the airplane to the rear vent locations, and will "layer" on top of the vent you see here. That's "phase two" though... for now, we have to lay up some glass here!

First fiberglass layup of the build! Not too bad, all things considered...

It's pretty ugly up close, and I learned a few things about cutting and placing the layups that hopefully will make the next layup go better. But... I think it will work!

Now to let it cure while keeping our fingers crossed! Hey, worst case, we rip it apart and try again. I guess that is the one nice thing about fiberglass...