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Sonex #1284 |
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Being built by Mike Kelley—Lake Oswego, OR |
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Project Log 2012 |
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I totaled about 343 building hours in 2011 over 106 days, or roughly 3.2 hours per day. This was down even more from 2010, but I was really low on the number of days I actually was able to work on the plane. I averaged only 9 days a month! The engine, motor mount & systems work went really slow. My goal is now to fly this baby in the Summer of 2012! I have the end in sight now.
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Date |
Hobbs Time |
Elapsed |
Comments |
SNX-Drawing |
Photo |
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Time |
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1/1/2012 |
973.29 |
1.6 |
Happy New Year! Cleco'd the split cowl back together. Starting to look like something. Made 1st cut on the canopy. |
P13, D01 |
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2/11/2012 |
977.31 |
4.0 |
Spent all day fitting the canopy. YUCK! |
D01 |
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2/18/2012 |
984.79 |
7.5 |
Added a fill layer of micro slurry to the top cowl. I will need to sand out. I think I'm finished fitting the canopy. The sides still bulge out ~1/4" beyond the side rails. |
P13, D01 |
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2/19/2012 |
987.92 |
3.1 |
Sanded down the cowl and added more micro. Designed and made up pieces for fuel door. Decided to trip a little more from the canopy. Set up a heater and started heat-soaking from inside the cockpit. |
P13, D01 |
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2/20/2012 |
990.82 |
2.9 |
Sanded off the micro. Reinforced with glass sides right at the shoulder that will be sanded down ~1mm/ Worked on making up the oil cover. |
D01 |
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2/21/2012 |
993.9 |
3.1 |
Made cutouts in cowl for fuel & oil covers. Just keeping them simple with surface hinges. Needed to compensate for the thickness variations so I added a few glass or metal "spacers." |
P13 |
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2/23/2012 |
996.22 |
2.3 |
Continue to heat soak. Sanded down the bumps on the side of the cowl. Added some glass on the inside. |
P13, D01 |
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2/25/2012 |
1002.82 |
6.6 |
Long day! Riveted in the oil and fuel cover. Added globs of epoxy in all the exposed cowl rivets. Spent a lot of time fine-tuning the canopy bows. Trimmed of just a little more off the bottom. Finally pilot drilled and cleco'd no cracks so-far. |
P13, D01 |
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2/26/2012 |
1007.58 |
4.8 |
Updrilled and countersunk the canopy. Realized that I don't have the 6-32 screws necessary (grrrr). Drilled out pilot holes for Skybolts. I have one spot that interferes with my fuel vent (double grrrrr). Filled in more rivet holes and added some glass to the nose gear boot fin. |
P13, D01 |
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3/1/2012 |
1011.61 |
4.0 |
More sanding on cowling. Started fabbing parts for swing-back canopy. Looked at a lot of plans and photos, but decided to go with my own design (loosely based on others). Drilled side rails and epoxied in locknut into position for swing arm. Laid up epoxy on nose gear boot fin. |
P13, D01 |
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3/2/2012 |
1015.46 |
3.9 |
Stared mounting the Skybolts to the firewall. Ran into clearance issue which gave me the opportunity to re-run the vent line. Worked more on the canopy pieces. Touched up a little more glass on the cowling. |
P13, D01 |
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3/3/2012 |
1020.75 |
5.3 |
Got both side rails functioning with the swing back canopy concept. Added stiffener plate to rear canopy bow which replaced the cross-piece. Installed rivnuts into right side rail. For mechanical design reasons, I needed to cut a small slot into the longerons for clearance. |
D01 |
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3/4/2012 |
1025.58 |
4.8 |
Finished inserting rivnuts in the other side rail and the two bows. Used a dab of JB Weld before inserting just-in-case. More sanding on the cowling and nose pant. Started taking inventory of all panel equipment. Needed to modify the fuse block mounting. |
P13, D01 |
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3/7/2012 |
1027.47 |
1.9 |
Painted canopy frame. Sanded more. Riveted in Skybolt receptacles on lower cowl. |
P13, D01 |
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3/9/2012 |
1028.53 |
1.1 |
Finished up canopy frame. Discovered that I have a couple crooked rivnuts! Attached the canopy swivel mounts with clecos. |
D01 |
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3/10/2012 |
1034.65 |
6.1 |
Designed and made up swing-back arm. Need to use solid rivets for clearance issues. Fixed crooked rivnuts. Made up and attached turtle deck stiffeners. Drilled for and installed side rail pins. |
D01 |
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3/11/2012 |
1036.03 |
1.4 |
Epoxied pins in place. Rerouted Comm and Xpnder RF cables. Installed grommets for wing lights and re-ran harness. Potential builder Eric F visited. Substituted OAT shielded wire for unshielded. |
D01 |
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3/14/2012 |
1039.42 |
3.4 |
Added baffling material to right side of engine and to oil cooler baffles. |
P20 |
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3/15/2012 |
1040.82 |
1.4 |
Solid riveted canopy swing-arm using a borrowed "squeezer" - Neat toy! Assembled the arm and pilot drilled the canopy frame attach hinge. Need to have the canopy in place to properly install rear hinge. |
D01 |
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3/17/2012 |
1047.72 |
6.9 |
Attached the canopy to the frame with screws for the first time! No cracks so far. Had to clean out several rivnut holes. Attached the swing arm to canopy. IT SWINGS (yeah!) Some binding in the sliding hook lock mechanism. |
D01 |
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3/18/2012 |
1052.02 |
4.3 |
Removed canopy & finished squeezing rivets. Cut out the back of the canopy for the arm. Riveted the rear hinge in place. Spent time trying to figure out what was binding. Still need to buy handles. Drilled and installed the Skybolts in the canopy. Had some clearance issues with installing a Camlock receptacle on the fuel filler flange. Reassembled the cowl. Trimmed the canopy swivels, designed the bushing configuration and mounted with hardware. |
P13, D01 |
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3/24/2012 |
1056.73 |
4.7 |
Wired up PTT switches in stick caps. Wasn't happy with deflection in cowl when attaching oil cover, so reinforced with more glass. Removed canopy, cowl & windshield. Painted bows. |
E01, P20 |
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3/25/2012 |
1061.38 |
4.7 |
Designed and build up an electrical support bracket that will go between the tank and the panel. Made up the plate that will attach throttle and mixture. Started reworking the fuel cutoff arm. |
E01, P20 |
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4/7/2012 |
1065.1 |
3.7 |
Installed the ACK-04 ELT. Was able to install the antenna in the tail tip. |
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4/13/2012 |
1068.49 |
3.4 |
Installed the throttle and mixture controls. Used positive locks at attach points. |
G01 |
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4/14/2012 |
1075.8 |
7.3 |
Added wire "organizers" to the top of the support bracket. Added ground and shield tabs to the bottom of the bracket. Added the wig-Wag relay. Ran all the various cables in wire looms and attached using ty-wraps. |
E01 |
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4/21/2012 |
1080.3 |
4.5 |
Set up shop in the cockpit, and went to work wiring behind the panel. Added labels to every wire! Routed grounds and shields to tab farms. |
E01 |
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4/22/2012 |
1086.15 |
5.9 |
Continued wiring the panel harness. |
E01 |
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5/12/2012 |
1093.1 |
6.9 |
Continued wiring the panel harness. |
E01 |
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5/14/2012 |
1096.72 |
3.6 |
Continues wiring panel harness. Calibrated and installed OV module |
E01 |
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5/17/2012 |
1100.6 |
3.9 |
Laid out the "Test" panel. I will build a dummy before the final version. Installed the test panel in the plane to test clearances. |
E01 |
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5/18/2012 |
1101.7 |
1.1 |
Cutout the final version panel. Installed the Comm & Xpndr in the final panel. Made up the RS-232 connector. Had some clearances issues with the Comm connector |
E01 |
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5/20/2012 |
1103.1 |
1.4 |
Test fit the final version panel. Began wiring the back of the panel. |
E01 |
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5/22/2012 |
1104.77 |
1.7 |
Continued wiring the panel. Modified the Enigma to take 6-32 instead of M3 hardware. |
E01 |
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5/24/2012 |
1106.58 |
1.8 |
Plugged in the panel & powered up! My ammeter display was defective, so I'll need to replace. Couldn't test Comm or Xpndr because no antennas are installed. Disassembled for painting. |
E01 |
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5/26/2012 |
1109.8 |
3.2 |
Swapped out defective ELT unit. Attached Comm & Xpndr connectors.. Wired ELT control and NMEA GPS cables. Installed fittings and hose for future auxiliary fuel tank. Got my panel back from powder coating! |
E01 |
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5/27/2012 |
1112.3 |
2.5 |
Finished ELT control wiring. |
E01 |
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5/28/2012 |
1115.04 |
2.7 |
Installed rear 12V outlet. Finished panel wiring harness. Installed rivnuts and treated with JB Weld to prevent rotation. Went through all the controls and checked cotter pins. Drilled up to 5/16 and attached seat belts. |
E01 |
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6/1/2012 |
1118.3 |
3.3 |
Made up patters for the seat cushions. Filled the engine with mineral oil & safety tied the drain. Drilled and installed rivnuts for 4 RAM mounts ( GoPro and phone). Sealed the FW with silicon. Trimmed the nose gear fairing to fit. |
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6/2/2012 |
1122.82 |
4.5 |
Experimented with and made up my LTR lenses with Lexan from Tap Plastics. Mounted antennas in a re-enforcing channel on the lower skin and cleco’d the skin in place. Attached the rear fuselage fairings with #4 SM Truss style screws. Cut and glued headliner material to the glareshield. Reattached windshield and bow with clecos. |
T1, F5 |
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6/4/2012 |
1128.87 |
1.4 |
Trimmed back the headliner material. Started work on additions to the gear fairings. |
L06 |
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6/8/2012 |
1130.1 |
2.6 |
Finished the pitot, static and AOA plumbing. Re-Installed the panel and powered up! Had the OAT wired backwards (weird reading), so reversed the wires in the fuselage. |
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6/9/2012 |
1132.44 |
2.3 |
Tightened up everything and checked cotter pins. Used black ty-wraps to clean up FW forward. Attached the seatbelts. Cranked the motor to check wiring. Had a little seat pan clearance issue with the seat belts and needed to trim the pan. |
E01 |
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6/10/2012 |
1134.77 |
2.3 |
Reattached all the tail tips. Measured at each rivet and sanded/added to make them flush with the skin. Added a few shims to the tail's leading edges to smooth out the curves. Dimpled the wingtips in prep for riveting. |
T01 |
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6/11/2012 |
1135.21 |
0.4 |
Did some final sanding on the wingtips. Countersunk (slightly) all the tail tips. |
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6/12/2012 |
1135.86 |
0.6 |
Riveted the wing tips and tail tips in place. |
T01 |
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6/14/2012 |
1138.94 |
3.1 |
Added the last 4 Skybolts to the cowl. Needed to add a little fiberglass. Attached the canopy to the frame with proper hardware. Needed to trim a little more off of the front gear fairing. Drilled the control piano hinge w/ .042" for the safety cotter pins. |
P13 |
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6/16/2012 |
1143.11 |
4.2 |
Attached the canopy. Needed to trim a little off of the canopy bow strap. Began installation of my homemade LTR light in the right wing. Needed to figure it out as I did it! |
D01 |
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6/17/2012 |
1143.99 |
0.9 |
Continued working on the right LTR light. |
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6/18/2012 |
1145.59 |
1.6 |
Completed the right LTR light installation. Made up an "extension cord" to test. |
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6/22/2012 |
1146.88 |
1.3 |
Began installation of my left (taxi) LTR light. Now that I know what to do, this went much faster. |
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6/23/2012 |
1147.9 |
1.0 |
Finished installing my left LTR light. |
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7/9/2012 |
1150.92 |
3.0 |
Riveted the lower skin into place. Attached labels to the panel. Prepared for moving the plane. Declared that all work is completed on the plane except for final assembly at the airport. Captured the panel & controls for the flight manual. |
F11, B01 |
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7/10/2012 |
1150.92 |
0.0 |
Moved the plane to fellow-builder Jon Crew's temporary paint booth in his shop. Decided to get a low cost insurance 90 day insurance policy that would cover the trailering, painting, and final move to the airport. |
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