One solution is installing Cowl Louvers and I ordered them with the kit, just in case (this case!). I drilled big holes at both ends of the slits.

I use the Dremel to open up the slits by cutting between the holes. I don’t wear a respirator that much and I’m not a Covid-nut, but trimming Carbon is probably a great time to wear one.

Maybe I also should wear one during filing Carbon, but I really don’t think they are very comfortable, so … there’s that.
Anyway, filing the slits as close as straight as possible.

The final step is using sandpaper an a stick of wood to finish of the edges of the slits. As you can see I already picked up some Carbon dust on my cheeks.

The Cowl Louvers are riveted to the carbon cowl with flush rivets. So besides drilling the rivet holes, they also need to be counter sunk.

Apart from the Cowl Louvers, I was also measuring the optional mufflers. However, the sound of the engine is great and the mufflers too big, so I dropped that option.

My face starts to look like a miner, but instead of soot it is carbon dust (probably just as bad). Finishing of the oil cooler air duct, the trick is too keep some distance between the air duct and the oil cooler. The last half inch is filled with a silicone strip that is also used for the baffles. This provides a flexible fitting.

I’m checking the distance between the air cooler and the air duct, to see if the clearance is big enough.

Time to continue with the Cowl Louvers. We attach them to the cowl with Cleco’s to prepare them for the riveting.

Because of the ‘flaps’ on the inside you can only use the cleco’s on the outside.

Since the edge distance is too big, we can’t use the squeezer. So we use the rivet gun and bucking bar. Careful around the bend ‘flaps’. Maybe it was better to bend them after riveting.

Yip it looks great.

I installed the silicone strips with small Aluminum strips that hold plate nuts. You can’t directly rivet silicone, it will tear easily. Also you don’t want to use nuts here close to the propeller. So plate nuts is the best solution. It also provides some maintainability advantages.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-05-19)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-05-22)

Video

This modification can be installed on a finished RV, however if you install it while building it is less work. Also, since the track spine needs to be extended (there is an extension track in the Flyboys kit), I decided to ask Van’s for a longer track spine. Turns out they have one, which is actually for the RV-8.

The alignment between the original Van’s canopy track and the Supertrack must be precise to enable a fluent transition between both tracks. In the end you need some shims to even the ‘gaps’ (the shims are also provided in the Supertracks kit).

The rollers of the original canopy are modified with a second roller, which slide through the Supertrack. Again, because I install the Supertrack while building, I only have to build the final roller.

Just like the original rollers, the modified rollers are attached to the Canopy with a bolt through the front frame bar.

The Supertrack itself is attached to the fuselage just aft of the standard rail. Since there is no room besides the Supertrack, the attachment bolts are flush inside the track itself. That means you have to drill bigger holes through the track to be able to reach in with a screwdriver. You can see the ‘big hole’ here on the right side.

The aft side of the Supertrack is fastened to the baggage auxiliary bulkhead, with a small strip.

I’m hesitating to cut a piece of the top skin to enable the canopy to slide even further aft. The proposed trimmed area is mark red on the painters tape. In a later session I did trim this part, but it turns out the bolt that connects the Supertrack with the strip prevents the canopy sliding further than 1 extra inch.

So you can see here the canopy slid all the way back on the Supertrack, without trimming the top skin. Trimming did enable it to go back further, but don’t cut is aft the attachment bolt.

After installing the Supertrack, I continued on the canopy anchor blocks. These secure the aft side of the canopy when it is closed by the latch.

The hardest part is to drill the arresting hole in the block. I decided to incrementally drill it and then test the result by sliding it.

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets: 16/0  (2020-08-04)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-08-05)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-08-06)

Video

With every step it starts to look more like an airplane, however there are still many pieces missing.

We start by positioning the Horizontal Stabilizers in the center of the Fuselage as close as we can by just looking.

We clamp the Horizontal Stabilizers both on the main spar and rear spar to the aft deck.

To position the Horizontal Stabilizers perpendicular to the Fuselage, we measure the distance from the corner of the Firewall to the Horizontal Stabilizer tip.

We did this several times and also measured it with a traditional measuring tape.

Now we can drill the main spar of the Horizontal Stabilizers to the aft deck. First a small drill and after double checking increasing it to the final size.

With the main spar attached, we need to insert shims under the aft spar to set the correct angle between the Horizontal Stabilizers and the Fuselage. With the shims temporarily installed, we can drill the aft spar to the Fuselage.

ALL SET!
Now continue with the Vertical Stabilizer.

Raising the tail-wheel, so the Fuselage is level. This way we can make the Vertical Stabilizer perpendicular to the Fuselage.

The Vertical Stabilizer is attached with a plate to the main spar and to the most aft bulkhead.

Once correctly measured, we can saw the forward attach spar of the Vertical Stabilizer to the correct size.

Before drilling the Hole, we need to be sure the Vertical Stabilizer is not only perpendicular to the Fuselage, but also to the Horizontal Stabilizers. We measured it with the laser and the old fashioned way.

Woo-Hoo, It looks great with the Rudder. Only the missing Rudder Horn looks a little sad.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-16)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-17)

Time: 2 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-18)

Video

Riveting plastic parts is a problem, because it easily cracks. But ‘normal’ rivets and even blind rivets can crack the material. The trick is to place a dimpled aluminum square at the plastic side with the dimple outward. Thus provides enough flexibility to rivet the part.

Because I use flush rivets I dimple the Fuselage skin and countersink the plastic Air Vent.

After dimpling the Fuselage skin, we can apply the sealant kit to the Air Vent and also a few drops on the back to keep the small aluminum squares in place.

Initially I installed the Air Vents with cleco’s to keep it in place and let the sealant cure.

After a few hours we riveted the Air Vents. If you don’t use the small aluminum squares the pressure of the rivet by the bucking bar will break the plastic.

From the inside you can see these small aluminum squares on the Air Vent flange. I’m installing the hose which transports the air to the internal Vents in the cockpit.

The ‘standard’ plastic internal Vents from Van’s are said to be no good. I’ve never checked it, but believe the rumors and ordered nice aluminum Vents from the get go.

Some modifications are required, as the Van’s panel does not provide a four hole bracket. There are only three holes and you have to carefully trim one corner away.

While the glue sealing the Air Vents is curing, we start on the battery casing. The plans from Van’s show how to build the battery casing/bracket. However the online store where I bought the battery is targeted to race cars, which mean they sell a light weight aluminum bracket that I can use.

I modified it very slightly, so the battery won’t pop out at heavy negative G’s and I grue some rubber strips in the bracket to prevent vibrations.

A nice view on the inside of the forward fuselage. You can see the finished Brake Lines (including the connections to the Brake Fluid Cylinder. Also the final construction of the Air Vents including the hose looks good. According to the Van’s manual, we should use the Royco 782 brake fluid. Since that is hard to get here, I hesitated to use race bike fluids, but I couldn’t get details on the flash point. So I decided to order a few quarts in Germany.

This is the other side of the firewall, where we placed the battery casing at the same place that Van’s advocates in its plans. Since I’m going to place the Firewall recess on this side, I made a small shim at the bottom of the Battery bracket to fill the gap. Actually I don’t need the firewall recess as my ULPower engine is so light I have to place it 8 inches forward. But since the heating fits connected to the recess I just install it.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets:  27/0 (2020-05-13)

Video

Because the left and right pedal are on different axis, they can’t be parallel. I decided to align the in the middle of the axis (not sure if that’s a smart idea.
Also as you can see I installed a dual Brake system, so you can also control the Rudder and apply Brakes from the right seat.

I figured out that I could align the pedals much better, by clamping an angle against them, instead of trusting the (untrained) eye.

With the Pedals aligned, I used the Brake Cylinders as a guide to mark the place where to drill. So now I can drill the holes where the Brake Cylinder is bolted to the pedal.

There is quite a distance between the pedal and the Rudder pedal frame. According to the drawings, this space is filled with washers. But the distance is too wide to my taste for washers. So I decided to create a nice spacer from Aluminum tubing.

Takes a little more time instead of just washers, but the result is much better.

Now I can screw the bulkheads into the Brake Cylinders to attach the Brake lines.

There are two types of Brake Lines. The Pilot Brake Lines to the Firewall have a metal casing. The others are just plastic.

Now I can insert the whole contraption into the forward Fuselage. Good thing I didn’t rivet the top skin yet. Would be really hard if not impossible to get it in there.

The last part is the Brake Line to the Brake Fluid reservoir. The reservoir itself is not installed yet, but it should be on the engine side of the Firewall.

This is how it looks from the inside. The lines are not yet clamped to the axis with tie-wraps. I decided to cut a grommet and use that to route the Brake Lines and put a Grommet part over it for the tie-wrap. This way the wrap doesn’t cut into the Brake Line.

Good thing I didn’t insert the Firewall Recess yet. Now it is easy to attach the Brake Lines to the bulkheads in the Firewall.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-09)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-10)

Time: 2 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-11)

Video

While my dad is grinding the air intake bulkhead, I’m enlarging the pilot holes in the bottom for these bulkheads. I decided to NOT take a normal bulkhead and grind it to 45 degrees, but take a 45 degree bulkhead and make it a little smaller. This allows to insert a nice filter.

We are inserting the Rudder pedals to check that the Vent Lines are not preventing the Pedals in their movement.

I used some old Fuel Lines from my first attempt and crudely bend them as if they were the Vent Lines. This gives us a nice template for the real Vent Lines.

Here you can see the creazy routing the Vent Lines take and the hard part is to NOT forget to insert the bulkhead fitting before tapering the end. Also the last bend is hard, because it is so close to the end of the Vent Line.

With the right side finished, the left is easier.

We now know all the pitfalls and tricks to create a nice Vent Line.

Whooohooo, really excited and pleased with the result. Especially with the frustration of doing the Fuel Lines all over again. The Vent Lines went way better.

WOOHOO!

You can see the curve around the Rudder cables and toward the bulkhead to the wings. The red color on the bottom is NOT my blood, but ink of the type numbers on the Aluminum. Somehow these get more pronounced after priming.

Last part is finishing of the intake of the Vent Lines.

I use normal water tap filters, modify them and insert them in the bulkhead. This prevents the Vent Lines of sucking up dirt and contaminating my Fuel Tanks.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-05)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-07)

Video

There is no way you can insert the lines clean through the brackets. So I decided to make part of the bracket removable. Now I can insert the Fuel Lines easy in the brackets.

After yet another day of messing with Fuel Lines, the result looked great.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 36/4 (2020-04-27)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-04-28)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-04-29)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-04-30)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-02)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-02)

I did some initial bending of sample lines, but somehow couldn’t find out how the ‘hand tubeing bender’ works. After this experience I actually did RTFM!
And I watched several YouTube video’s that explained it. It always seems so simple when experts do it.

The bigger the frustration when you try it and you mangle a piece of Aluminum until it’s FUBAR.
First step is measuring the tube and cutting of the part you need for a specific Fuel line.

We need two feed lines (left and right) and a single return line. The ULPower 520 iSA is an electronic injected engine and requires a return line.
I decided to make a single return line to the left wing. The Sport Cruiser has a similar approach.

While my Dad uses a electric wire to bend a template, I’m widening the holes, so the Fuel lines and the grommet fit the hole.

The Fuel line cover plate needs to fit exactly in the corner of the ‘bend’.

We discuss how the routing of the left feed line relates to the return line. I figured that we should use different routing, but it is now too late. Good thing I had to redo everything

Next day, I concentrated on the Elevator tips.

The lead counter balance weight at the forward side of the elevator tab is trimmed aft as per the drawing. However in hind-side I think it would be better to trim it at the front.

At least then there is enough room for some glass fiber covering. Now I did create the glass fiber cover, only to grind it all away in the finishing.

In order to ‘connect’ he tip to the glass fiber front, I also put some resin on the tip itself.

The fit is good and no I can let it cure (dry) for some time.

After clecoing the tips to the Elevator, I can start riveting them together.

Because I don’t need ‘entry’ to the Elevator and Rudder tips, I use blind rivets to attach them. There is no way you can use ‘normal’ rivets. You could install screws, but that is overkill.

While the tips dry, I use the remaining epoxy resin (you always make too much), to fill the gap between the Elevator and the trim tab. The gap widens at the end and I want a consistent gap. Nothing a little resin can’t solve.

And while we’re at it, we also apply it to the blind rivets and the Glass Fiber – Aluminum connection.

Of course as a noob with resin, I apply too much and I regret it the next day when I have to grind all the excess resin away.
Oh well, learned yet some more.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 11/3 (2020-04-11)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-04-18)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 19/0 (2020-04-19)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-04-22)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-04-23)

Time: 2 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-04-25)

Time: 2 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-04-26)

Video

This is my fist idea with a center console going up to the panel. It provides a nice place to install the radio and transponder and it looks professional.

The main problem is that it reduces leg room when flying alone. Checking the flaps en center drawings looking at the possibilities.

I’ve integrated the throttle quadrant and it looks great. For my engine (ULPower 520iSA) I don’t need a mixture control, as it uses an ECU for that. Also the pitch control for the Airmaster prop is fully automatic.

A big advantage of the center console going up to the panel is the routing of the throttle cable. You can simply use the original routing of Van’s.

I also made an alternative center console without the part going up to the panel.

This preserves the leg room and the original locathion of the fuel selector. However it will require changes to my panel layout and I have to solve the throttle cable routing. Currently this is my nr.1 choice.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 42/2 (2020-03-14)

Time: 2 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-03-18)

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-03-22)

Video

Tricky part is to insert the different control push rods and fasten them to the Control Column. Mainly removing the spaces between hinges and eyebolts by filling the space with washers. This isn’t easy, because there is not much room to operate.

Here is the control column pushrod that connects both the control sticks to each other.

Finished and it looks great to see both control sticks work with no tolerance.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-03-11)

Video