Europa #435 G-RODO Build Journal - 2017 02

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day	notes	hours
2	Take photos of filler mouldings at door corners and of door hinges to show gap between hinges and fuselage mounting pads.	2759.3
3	Mark out 18 off BID 35mm x 35mm squares for reinforcement of fuselage-mounted shoot-bolt guides.	2759.4
4	Check again fit of AN525-10R screw head in door hinge - the free hinge leaf does not go quite parallel with the other leaf when the screw is in place so maybe the idea of a piece of 1/8" packing under the hinge to bring it parallel will need to be modified. Remove aft bolt and pushrod from starboard door. Draw a line with felt-tip pen from the bottom of the curve inside the door, parallel to the bottom edge, all the way to the aft end of the door. Extend the line around the aft face of the door and mark across it 10mm out from inner face of door. Drill on that spot 2.1mm, 4mm and then to 14mm with step drill until it breaks into the original hole. File the hole to size with a round Perma-Grit file, checking frequently with the DL07 guide for size. Re-insert aft pushrod, bolt and guide and connect to DL03 with temporary screw. Operation seems OK and aft bolt is less inclined to tilt (possibly DL07 guide is fitted better). Place door in position on fuselage and check that there is clearance for guides. Fit OK but sighting from inside of door shows that the guide rims are almost in contact with the door frame rebate, so the guides in the door will need to be recessed slightly to leave room for the fixed guides in the frame. Apply red paint marker to tip of forward bolt and , with door held firmly in place against bottom edge of frame, operate handle a few times so bolt strikes frame leaving a red dot. Remove door and extend dot into a cross for better visibility. Repeat marking for aft bolt. Check guide positions against markings - location seems fine. Will need to re-do these marks after the door is hinged, but for now they will be close enough to guide the placing of the BID reinforcement. Repeat marking and drilling procedure for new aft bolt hole on port door. Assemble handles to port door. Slide in forward bolt and pushrod. As for the starboard one, it needs relief on the angled slot. File and check until it fits with a little clearance in the closed position. Insert temporary securing screw. Bend aft (long) pushrod to match door shape. Slide it in and do a trial assembly - seems quite easy to get into place if handle kept in open position. Needs more relief for DL02 bush. Take it out and round off end with a file. Re-insert aft pushrod, bolt & guide and secure to DL03 with temporary screw. It all looks and operates OK now.	2761.1
10	Remove cover panel from wing leveller servo area. Check where a hole could be made to bring wiring out forward beside tunnel. Make up a test bundle of 5 off 24AWG and 2 off 20AWG wires and hold them together with small tie-wraps. OD of bunch is less than 5mm. Make a pilot hole in the planned spot with Tight Fit drill kit, using the mirror on a stick to sight the alignment. Open up to 3/16". Offer up wire bunch and it goes in OK. Hole should have been nearer tunnel to line up with conduit; start to pull across with a file but that is very slow so drill another hole and join them up. Measure distance from seat face to firewall (425mm) and from floor to base of instrument module (405mm). The remaining piece of small conduit won't stretch to make both of those, so I will definitely need another length of that. Check the fit of the cover plate against the wiring hole and relieve it a bit at the bottom inboard corner. Check clearance from F33 for fitting a knob on DL03 inner door handle. Port is just under 10mm and starboard is about 11mm. To minimise the need to put a crank in the handle, I will fit the knobs with CSK screws. To match the profile of the handles the knobs should be 19mm OD. The depth will be decided later after re-checking clearances once the doors are hinged to the fuselage. Check with scraps of BID if it is possible to insert a BID patch in behind the unwanted (lower) holes in the doors for the aft shoot bolts. It is just feasible with my little finger inserted in the upper hole and curling round. Cut off 4 pieces of BID about 35mm square and lay them in 2 layers on pieces of polyethylene sheet. Mix a peg-1 (30g) batch of standard epoxy and wet out the BID patches. Trim the polyethylene sheet to the edge of the BID. Roll each into a cylinder & insert into upper hole in door then press round against lower hole with little finger. Not practical to remove the polyethylene sheet after getting the BID into place so just leave it. Tape folder paper towel over the layup and turn the door over so the layup is at the bottom and thus any surplus epoxy will run back into the layup rather than along the door. Repeat for 2nd door. Take both doors and epoxy sample cup in to boiler cupboard to cure overnight.	2764.4
11	Take doors out from boiler cupboard to garage. Peel off paper drip protection from both. Remove paper stuck around layup on port door with file and razor blade.	2764.6
13	Get plenum chamber, hoses and filter out of trailer ready for Jonathan to collect on Wednesday. Clear the usual accumulation of stuff including the door latches etc from under the fuselage and roll it out onto the drive. Check position of cowl (firmly up against propshaft) and duct. Adjust duct until it is looking square to the rest of the structure and as low as possible to clear silencer. Mark lines along duct sides using the big felt-tip pen taped to a block slid along inside of cowl as before. Remove cowl and duct. Think hard about how much to trim off duct sides. The marked line is about 25mm above the cowl floor; decide to trim about 10mm below that, taking off only about 15mm. Draw a fresh line in a different colour of felt-tip at that level - it actually comes quite close to the original line marked before the first trim. Start to cut along it with the hand nibbler but it is quite slow and tedious - my hands are not strong enough and are quickly getting tired, and the kerf has to be cleared frequently. Switch to the power nibbler attachment for the power drill and that is much faster, although somewhat fiddly to hold, and needs the workpiece to be clamped. Operate with the workpiece over the bin to catch the small and very sharp half-moon pieces of swarf. Repeat the marking and cutting process on the other side of the duct. Vacuum the work area to pick up the few pieces of swarf that escaped the bin. Smooth off the edges with a file. Suspend the duct under the engine and re-fit the cowl. The fit of the duct against the cowl now looks much better, although it could do with just a little more relief at the forward end of the trim line. The clearance from the silencer is fine - more than the 5mm minimum called out in the manual. Tighten the ropes to keep the duct supported in the desired position, without lifting it away from contact with the cowl. Mark on the duct sides with a felt-tip pen sliding against the face of the footwell, and on inner faces of footwell with pen against duct, to help check for duct movement. Remove cowl and check duct position. It has shifted slightly as cowl was dropped, but the guide lines allow it to be re-positioned quite well, although it's hard to keep it in place at both sides. Mark on inside of duct, well aft to give best support, where bolts through inner faces of footwells should be placed. It should be easier to drill the holes in the duct first, with it out on the bench, then with everything re-assembled, drill through the footwells using those holes as guides. Centre-pop & drill the marked spots 2.1mm and open to 4.8mm. Only now do I notice that the hole positions will be below the level of the heel support in the footwells and thus be inaccessible from inside! Will have to make the footwell holes first. Mark better locations on inner faces of footwells, using the lines marked earlier as guidance. Also project the approximate line of the heel rest onto the front faces of the footwells to help in positioning the bolts for CD4 & CD5. It's not clear why the bolts through the sides of the duct use reversed anchor nuts while the ones through CD4 & CD5 use ordinary stiffnuts (and so need 2 people to fit). I guess the CD4 & CD5 fastenings are in tension so need big washers on the glass-fibre side, whereas the others are mainly in shear, with little pull-through stress. It's also not obvious why the anchor nuts need to be reversed as they are not in an area where a protrusion seems to be a problem. The photo in the manual also shows 3 bolts on the CD5 flange, with the bottom one below the level of the heel rest. I can't see how that was done except by fitting an anchor nut inside before the heel rest was installed. The diagram only shows 2 bolts, rather better placed. On each duct side, relieve the area where the roughly straight trim line joins the original curved profile with a mill file and smooth off with a flat file. Drill through the footwells where marked 2.1mm. Re-hang duct and re-fit lower cowl. Getting too dark to see what I'm doing outside, so stop there and roll fuselage back into garage. Clean off port door bolt hole layup. Replace the usual 5 off M10 nuts on the epoxy balance with much lighter 1/4" UNF and mix a peg-1 batch of epoxy using them. Add Q-cell (micro) until it is just non-slumping. Spread it into the unwanted bolt holes. Take doors in to boiler cupboard to cure overnight.	2769.4
14	Micro on doors well cured. Take them back to the garage.
15	Jonathan calls to pick up the PC02 plenum chamber, 33-2564 air filter, & PC03 hoses. Also takes 1 off MS21047-3 anchor nut, 1 off AN3-3A bolt & 2 off TLPD424BS rivets. Take inline fuel filters out of box 19 and give it to him for the loose parts. I'll need to order another AN3-3A bolt but I think I have enough spares of the other hardware.
18	Clean up micro filling on door bolt holes with Perma-Grit files. Re-open correct holes with step drill and go in slightly further to counterbore for the rim of the guide. Not quite large enough, so start on port door to increase the size of the rebate with a diamond burr in the Dremel tool. That improves the seating better, although the guide is now a looser fit in the hole than originally.	2769.9
24	Roll fuselage out onto drive. Remove lower cowl and cooling duct. Temporarily fit oil cooler to duct to check fit now the duct sides have been trimmed. The mountings need to be shortened by about 24mm, say 1", to bring it within the confines of the duct again. With the pillars shortened by an inch that would require AN4-25A bolts instead of AN4-35A. However, I think I will wait until I see what the duct with the rubber seals looks like in the cowl before altering the pillars or ordering new bolts. Offer up the water radiator to check that moving the oil cooler will not cause any interference - seems to be no problem. Remove oil cooler. I feel confident enough now in the fit of the duct within the cowl to re-attach the rubber seals to the bottom of the duct. Cleco the starboard rubber strip to the remaining holes at the forward end of the duct side. Centre-pop through the aft-most hole in the rubber, drill 3.3mm and fit cleco. Work along the remaining holes, drilling through the holes in the rubber into the duct and fitting clecos as I go. Where the duct edge changes direction abruptly, add an extra hole to help keep the rubber better in contact. Remove clecos, deburr holes and brush swarf off rubber. Repeat process on port side of duct. The edges of the rubber strips are now quite close to the lower mounting holes for the water radiator. Insert an AN4 bolt in each hole and trace around head on duct with felt-tip pen to show clearance needed. Mark rubber strips and trim off a curve with Tuff-Kut scissors. Attach port rubber strip with clecos at each end and middle to hold approximately in place. Insert and set TAPD46BS rivets with EURO11 on rubber side, dipping each rivet in Duralac before fitting. Remove clecos and fit remaining rivets. Repeat process for starboard side rubber strip. Wipe off excess Duralac with white spirit on paper towel. Fit the fine nozzle to the high-temperature silicon sealer tube and squeeze it in between the rubber and the duct on both sides. Wipe off excess and clamp in a couple of places to minimise gapping. Getting dark and sky clear so dew likely to form soon. Re-thread the ropes through the duct, remove the clamps (sealer nearly set anyway) and suspend duct below engine with plastic sheet spacers under silencer. Re-fit lower cowl, loosen ropes and adjust duct position for better alignment with cowl. Forward end of CD1 is very close to the gearbox, but will leave further adjustments until I can see better what I'm doing. Roll fuselage back into garage - no dew on it yet! Will need to order more TAPD46BS rivets. Post a query about the reverse fitting of the anchor nuts to hold the sides of the duct against the inboard sides of the footwells. Answered quite soon indicating that I haven't understood the manual. The anchor nut is to be fitted on the inboard (tunnel) face of the footwell (not on the cockpit face), because it is to go below the level of the heel support where there is no access to the cockpit face - exactly where I'd originally, planned, in fact! The anchor nuts only resist tension by virtue of the rivets - their main job is to act in shear. Thinking about drawing up the adaptors needed for the water filter in the manifold pressure sensor line, order some aluminium hex bars in 3/8", 1/2", 9/16" & 5/8" AF sizes from Forward Metals.	2773.6
25	Fit remaining 3 (longer) screws to the lower positions on each side of lower cowl, which pulls the underside of the cowl up a bit. The plastic spacers under the silencer are still movable so duct does not seem to have moved appreciably. Push duct down at rear until more square with structure. Push forward end down a little while pulling inwards on the rubber seals to ease it. With some effort get the forward end clear of the gearbox, although it tends to spring up again rather readily. Check position of duct against lines previously drawn on footwells and duct sides and they look quite close. The original holes I made in the duct sides for the aft fixing bolts both seem to be in satisfactory alignment with the footwell sides so it seems OK to drill through them. They are close to the top of the duct so use the Tight-Fit drill kit for that and insert a temporary 10-32 screw in each hole once drilled to maintain alignment. Re-check position of duct at forward end then offer up CD5 & CD4 in turn and mark through their holes onto duct and footwells with felt-tip pen. Remove cowl. Remember that Alan Twigg's cowl picture showed a hole for the exhaust outlet. Look for the silencer outlet pipe and thinking I might have taken the bag the pipes came in back out to the trailer, take the glazing panels for the doors back out when I go looking. The outlet pipe etc then turns up in the garage after all. Slide outlet pipe onto silencer and offer up lower cowl to see how it might be angled. Certainly won't go through the existing hole so a new one must be cut. It looks as though the cowl will intersect the pipe in the the bent section - not sure how to find the correct position for the hole. Check the marked hole positions for fixing CD4 & CD5, making sure duct is still in same alignment at forward end. Re-position holes for CD5 as it is too high. Clarify CD4 holes which are a bit sketchy. Drill the marked holes on the footwell faces. Need to use the Tight Fit drill kit for the upper ones to which access is obstructed by the silencer. Light rain starting so roll fuselage back into garage, leaving cowl off, and get tools etc under cover. Send e-mail to Neville asking for any hints on making the hole for the silencer. Order some ferrite toroids from CPC, which I hope will be suitable for RFI suppression on the USB outlet leads. The male 1/4" NPT on the water trap inlet springs from a hex section of about 0.54" AF. The boss containing the female outlet is about 0.825" OD with flats about 0.75" AF. Dress all DL07 guide bush holes in doors using step drill to start and diamond burr in Dremel to finish rebate for rim, deep enough for the rim to be only just proud of the door surface at the highest point. Assemble DL01P & DL03P to door and check the fit of the port forward bolt and pushrod with the guide bush in place. Find a syringe for squirting liquid Redux, and drill a 4mm hole for the syringe nozzle adjacent to the port forward guide hole. Roughen the body of one DL07 guide bush with a coarse file and degrease it. Grease well the port forward DL06 bolt and pushrod. Mix 10g + 4g Araldite 420 (Redux) and pour off a small quantity into a second mixing cup. Add a little flox to that to stiffen it, and spread it around the inside of the guide bush hole in the door with a small mixing stick. Spread it onto the body of DL07, taking care not to get any inside. Insert DL07 into the hole and slide in the pushrod and bolt, securing it to inner handle DL03 with a temporary 10-32 x 0.5" screw. Carefully tidy up the Redux/flox fillet around DL07 guide, keeping it clear of DL06 bolt. Position the door with the bolt at the bottom corner. Suck up a couple of syringe fills of neat Redux and squirt them into the 4mm hole. Take the door in to the boiler cupboard to cure, maintaining its orientation so the liquid Redux does not spread away from around the guide. Set it on a cardboard box to keep the angle right, and put a couple of tissues under it in case of drips. Butter a little Redux/flox from the sample cup into the 4mm hole and leave to cure overnight.	2777.2
27	Take port door out from boiler cupboard to garage. Check fit of aft DL07 guide bush and dress the rebate a little more with the diamond burr in Dremel. Drill a 4mm hole adjacent to the port aft guide hole. Roughen the body of one DL07 guide bush with a coarse file and degrease it. Grease well the port aft DL06 bolt and pushrod. Mix 12.5g + 5g Araldite 420 (Redux) and pour off a small quantity into a second mixing cup. Add a little flox to that to stiffen it, and spread it around the inside of the guide bush hole in the door with a small mixing stick. Spread it onto the body of DL07, taking care not to get any inside. Insert DL07 into the hole and tidy up the fillet of Redux/flox around it. Slide in the aft pushrod and bolt, securing it to inner handle DL03 with a temporary 10-32 x 0.5" screw. Re-check the Redux/flox fillet around DL07 guide, making sure none gets onto the DL06 bolt. Position the door with the bolt at the bottom corner. Suck up almost all the remaining neat Redux with the syringe and squirt it into the 4mm hole. Apply a little Redux/flox to the 4mm hole to fill it. Take the door in to the boiler cupboard to cure, maintaining its orientation so the liquid Redux does not spread away from around the guide. Set it on a cardboard box to keep the angle right, put a couple of tissues under it in case of drips and leave to cure overnight. Check the door hinge angle needed to provide clearance for the AN525 screw heads. At the open end of the hinge, the gap between the inner faces needs to be about 4mm. 15mm further towards the hinge pin, the gap is about 2.1mm. The hinges are about 25mm x 45mm overall when closed. Draw up the angles in CADintosh. If the spacer is tapered to zero depth at the open edge of the hinge, it will have to be 3.1mm deep at the hinge-pin edge. So, it looks as though the original idea of moulding a flox pad in-situ is probably better than trying to machine a taper on aluminium plates.	2779.3
28	Hex aluminium bars delivered from Forward Metals. Take port door out from boiler cupboard to garage. Fit and bond forward starboard DL07 guide to door as for port & leave in boiler cupboard to cure. Hacksaw off about 30mm of the 1/2" hex aluminium bar. Chuck in lathe, face off, centre drill and drill through 2mm. Turn down the outer 10mm to 4.5mm, then turn down the section between 2mm and 10mm in to 4mm, to form a nipple on the end. Round off end of nipple with a file. Remove from chuck and deburr edges of cut with file and ScotchBrite wheel. Reverse in chuck. Skim off hex corners, yielding cylindrical OD of 12.4mm, about 11mm long, leaving 10mm section of hex. Ready to start diecutting 1/4" NPT thread on this boss but apparently I don't have a 1.5" diestock in stock, despite holding dies in that size for some considerable time. Stop there until I can get one. Redux sample cured to firmness so bring starboard door out from boiler cupboard to garage. Fit starboard aft DL07 guide to door as for port. However, DL07 does not seem willing to stay in place as well as the previous ones - maybe not quite enough flox in the mix? After taking door in to boiler cupboard, seek means of holding DL07 in place while that corner of the door is downwards to keep the liquid Redux in the right place. Find on trials with port door bolt that 15mm copper pipe fits loosely over the DL06 bolt and will bear against the rim of DL07. Check length required and cut off. Grease the end well and prop it underneath the aft DL07 with bottom end against floor. Twiddle it about a bit until satisfied that the guide is as square to the door frame as possible then leave to cure overnight.	2783.7

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