Project 5 build thread

[Eric Page]

Well played, sir! I had a feeling that was going to happen. Lots of unnecessary pressure with gawkers on site...

It sounds amazing; can't wait to hear it run in person. Congrats!

[Geek]

What Eric said!!! That is Kitfox porn I swear. Think you need to put an oil injector in there to get the initial smoke we expect to see from a radial start but oh you have to be smiling large right now. Great step in your long effort to get this bad boy alive. Agree too that you need to get your supply of cold beer since you faked us with the 18th date.

Nice work Alex

Geek

[bumsteer]

Alex, looks and sounds great!!

Rick

[jrevens]

Nice! Really nice!!! What a beautiful machine.

[bbs428]

That will get the blood pumping! Looks and Sounds great!

[efwd]

Im stayin away from that thing! I'll want to go buy a new engine. Oh, then a prop change required and then and then..... That is so what I wanted when I went to the factory and ordered my kit. I really envy you. Nice!

[Jez]

Cool, very nice Alex. Nearly there

[alexM]

I appreciate the comments. I had a list of items on my white board that I wanted to get out of the way before attempting the first start. My work schedule has been whacked out of alignment recently and I had a few unexpected days at home, so I worked the list.

At one point I put a few gallons of fuel in each side so I could run the pumps using a temporary line where it would normally enter the throttle servo (to purge the air and junk out of the system). What I didn't notice immediately was that I had a fuel leak at the main hose fitting on the right tank. I had to drain the system, let it dry, remove the fittings and redo the blue gooey stuff, then re install the fittings. It still had the tiniest of weeping, which was discouraging. As fuel leaks go it is hard to tell exactly where it is coming from, but I do have confidence in the tank, finger strainer and the 6AN hose fittings after my very careful removal/sealing job. That leaves the eBay banjo fitting as the most likely candidate. I ordered the banjo fittings from Kitfox and kept working the other things on my list.

The final thing to complete was the coil pack for the forward set of spark plugs, then cutting and routing the spark plug wires.

I didn't have much time left before having to go work, but I realized that I could pull of an engine start without putting gas back in the right tank. All I needed to do was put enough in the left side to fill the header tank. After two discouraging rounds of chasing the leak on the right tank I needed a win. So I pulled the plane outside and gave it a try. I didn't have anyone to observe if it was leaking gas or oil when it was running so I only ran it a few minutes, then shut it down to check for leaks. I was getting a tiny drip of fuel out of the throttle servo when the pumps were running, but the engine not running. There were no leaks when it was running. I contacted my engine importer who in turn contacted Airflow Performance, who have confirmed that is not supposed to happen. I'll follow their instructions for determining exactly where the leak is coming from and then I may need to ship it to them to fix it.

There were no oil leaks! It was between 15 and 20 degrees F when I did the engine runs. With no windshield the prop blast produced painful wind chill, so that was another reason for a few short runs.

I'm back home for just a few days. While I was waiting for flights at work I finalized my CAD model for my instrument panel. I've added some parts I'll show later on which contain my fuse blocks and also the MGL iEFIS Extender (the only component that didn't have a home yet). I sent those flat patterns (and the one for my throttle and mixture cables) off to SendCutSend to be fabricated. The pieces behind the panel will be anodized (my panel is too large for their anodizing tanks apparently).

I have been trying to find a place to do the laser engraving and not having any luck. I decided to see if anyone could screen print on metal and found a place over on the Olympic Peninsula. I sent and inquiry and picture and the guy called me immediately. He told me I would be happier if I had it laser engraved and gave me the contact information for "Laser Bob" in Port Ludlow. He's going to take care of the surface finish and engraving for me.
Final Instrument Panel Assembly.jpg
The door in the middle covers my fuse blocks and provides easy access. I'm having three of those doors made so I can experiment with mounting an iPad mini, GoPro, etc on there without worrying I'll do something I regret.

[Redline]

That panel looks nice! We had ours cut at Send Cut Send as well and it turned out great. This is a beautiful build Alex.

[PapuaPilot]

Alex, the engine run sounded super cool. I hope you can get the leaks sorted out quickly.

Your panel looks nice. Food for thought. I see the "Certified for Day VFR use only" that you plan to engrave on the panel. Are you sure you aren't ever going to equip it with approved nav and position lights to make it night compliant? For night you only need to comply with FAR 91.205 (c) requirements to make it night compliant. I initially had non-TSO nav/strobe lights and upgraded to a set of AeroLED which met the TSO standards.