Vent lines

Today I made the vent lines for the fuel tanks. I installed the vent elbows in the sides of the fuselage and then began measuring the length for the tubes. 

Here you can see the AN818 fitting. Mirrored on the right side. This will attach to the fuel tank in the wings. 

Here is the inside of the fuse. The vent line snakes up and around then attaches to the floor vent. 

Here’s the left side. The tube bends around the stringer and the rudder cable, then bends around the perimeter. A lot of the bends had to be made by hand, and it’s quite tough. 

Here’s the complex bend around the cable. 

The pair of the vent lines will be installed and then I can begin installing the other cabin systems. 

Vent lines

Center console

Today I spent the day working on the center console and fuel pump and covers. I started by installing the heater baffle to the center floor cover. 

You can see the baffle installed here in the center of the image. It will guide hot air into the cabin and out the vents on the right. 

I then installed the fuel selector valve and the fuel pump cover to figure out where it will align. 

Here’s the fuel pump cover in the left side attached to the fuel selector cover. I riveted these together and will make the pair removable as opposed to making them separate. 

I then began experimenting with the fuel pump and the selector fuel line. I’m going with the Andair pump and filter, which is longer than the one from Vans. I tried to bend a fuel line from the selector to the fuel filter but it was not far enough back to fit under the cover. I ended up going with a side-by-side setup below. 

Fuel will come from the wings to the selector and then down through the filter and back to the pump. This will allow me plent of space to fit the pump under the cover which is marked by the black line on the left. The output of the fuel pump will route down under the cover and then forward to the firewall. 

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Center console

Front deck

This weekend I spent nearly 20 hours working on the project. It was extremely satisfying to get quality time on it. 

I spent the time working on the panel, subpanel and forward ribs and forward top skin. Here’s the center sub panel with the forward channel. 


Here’s the subpanel installed with the top skin fitted. I spent some time with the alignment to ensure he structure was straight. 

I then drilled the top skin to the firewall flange. You can see it clecoed here across the top. 

I then made the seal support flanges for the subpanel and prepped and riveted the subpanel components together. The center subpanel is separate from the two outboard panels in order to install it in the fuselage. 

Front deck

Installed landing gear

Today I spent a few hours installing the landing gear and wheels. It was an extremely tight fit, but by design. 

Here’s the right landing gear bolted in place and torqued. This will be painted over. Same as the left. 

It looks so cool. 

The plane is much taller now that it’s on its gear. Still a few things to do before mounting the engine. But it’s getting close. 

Installed landing gear