Sunday, November 28, 2010

Fins up!!!

Ok, just one fin. But it's a pretty good one.








This will be the last work on the Searey for a while, I hope to return to work next week and time will be limited. Gotta pay for the avionics somehow.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Checks and Balances (aka "The beauty of friends")

Another gent up here is building a SeaRey, and while I started my build with the wings he started his with the fuselage. It's working out well because I'll be able to advise him about wings and he's been able to advise me about the fuselage.

This morning we traded a couple emails about the fuel tank and he asked if I had received the correct size barbs for the feed and vent lines? I frantically jumped off the couch and checked my tank, all 3 barbs were 3/8" when 2 of them should have been 1/4", I plain missed it in the instructions.



Luckily my local hardware store had the correct size barbs and with a few minutes work (and a lot of cussing myself out for getting careless) I had the correct ones in place. If you're building a SeaRey the 3/8" opening is in the Feed Line, the 1/4" attach to the sump and vent openings.




But if you thought it was cold outside...




It was almost as cold inside.




But I still managed to get the upper front fuel tank angle attached. Gotta wait for the tank sealant to dry now so I called it a day.


Friday, November 19, 2010

Fueling around

"Oh the weather outside is frightful..."



Which means it must be a good day for building. My knee is feeling pretty good so I'm starting to wrap things up before I go back. I'd like to get the tank installed and the fin built before I go back to the life of jetlag.

I turned on the heater, got out the parts for the tank and got to work.



First up: applying gasket sealer to the feed, sump and vent attachments and screwing them in. As I found out, a little goes a long way and too much goes even further.



After that come trimming the fuel float wire and transducer support arm, and attaching the float to the transducer.



Tap the tank for the screws, apply gasket sealant and screw it in position. Voila!!!



While I was inside I missed some freezing rain and I could feel the snow coming. Maybe I'm being overcautious but I decided to take the tank home with me and let the sealant set up in a warm living room.




And about an hour after I got home....

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Searching for (and finding) solutions (Revised from the viewpoint of experience)

December, 2012 addendum

It's said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and the mark of a wise man is the ability to admit he was wrong. When I made this post the SeaRey was using a "tubed" bulkhead, and that was revised in the spring of 2011 to a more rigid "webbed" or "gusseted" bulkhead that provides a more secure mount for the landing gear. After some argument with Progressive Aerodyne about a clause in my contract that entitled me to free upgrades/changes to my kit until it was LSA certified, I installed the new bulkhead in March 2011.

In 2012 I began getting build advice from long time SeaRey builder Jim Ratte of Recreational Mobility, who patiently showed me the flaws in the logic of the process in this post, and that by going with this much overcenter I was transferring the load into the gear motor, which would eventually cause damage and failure of the gear system. He also had a long talk with me about the internal vs external limit switches, and while a difficult decision I've decided to go back to the external limit switches, and the original gear mount location.

I thought about deleting this post, but decided to leave it for build history, and for those who may think of doing the same thing.
Steve



The landing gear is extended and retracted via electric motors. The travel limits of the motors are set by microswitches mounted on the bulkhead, which are contacted by a nylon disc on the retraction angle.

I know many have set their systems up with the external limit switches and have had no problems, but it struck me as having too many points for misassembly and/or problems down the road. Reading the builder's private forum I found an option for internal limit switches and decided to go that route on my build.

To become familiar with the gear mechanics I built my bulkhead stock up to the wiring of the system. I was very conscious of a post by a highly experienced and regarded builder, his comments regarding the need for positive overcenter of the retraction angles, and a ferocious debate about collapsed gear and the amount of overcenter needed for safe operations because the bulkhead is not rigid, it flexes and stretches during ground operations such as touchdown, or running over bumps in an unpaved runway.

I had the following amount of overcenter in my stock build:
9 mm on right
7 mm on left





I’m not an engineer and I know the perils of an uneducated person making assumptions. But to my uncalibrated Mk I eyeball the left gear overcenter was borderline and the right gear was not far enough. While I do not plan to do extensive rough field operations I do operate off a single runway airport with a good amount of airline traffic, so having a gear failure would be a major inconvenience to airport and airline operations.

The other problem I had with the supplied actuators was the 4.00” stroke. On the retraction cycle/extension of the ram this far exceeds the amount of travel available, and a failure of the voltage cutoff would result in the ram forcing the gear system into the lower bulkhead. There is a clutch in the system which would let the motor continue to run while disengaging it from the jackscrew, but I'm not sure how long the motor is certified to continuously run in these conditions. 

Again, being a new builder and not an engineer I don’t know if this has ever happened and what the consequences might be. However, being a firm believer in Murphy’s Law I want to try to minimize any potential failures. (In 21 years of flying I’ve never had an engine failure, but I still study and practice my engine failure procedures.)

On advice of others I ordered Warner linear actuator K2P1-2G20-12V- BR-03.75 from my local dealer. On receipt of the new units I attempted to match them to the stock LSX gear setup. I found the gear extension overcenter amounts to be the same as with the stock units, but the new units still extended too far by approximately 0.5”. Had I ordered a 3.25” stroke the amount of overcenter would still have been questionable.

Removing the actuator mount plate gave easy access to try to determine a new position to mount the actuator. Using Paul Hewitt's idea I made 2 pieces of wood matching the extension and retraction lengths of the actuators. While I made them out of scrap wood in retrospect I should have made them of 1” dowel to match the actuator. I drilled 0.5" holes in each end and attached a clevis to the end of each, trying various positions of the clevis location in relation to the bulkhead gusset.   




Using the stock position of the clevis I was unable to find a suitable location. However examination showed that the attachment point of the clevis was not centered on the retraction bar and was offset by 0.25” from the center.





Reversing the orientation of the retraction bar resulted in the clevis being located in a position that gave full extension of the actuator for the gear retraction and what may be adequate overcenter. A bit of material must be removed from the actuator mount plate.



The new position of the actuator allows full extension of the actuator for the retraction cycle without damage to the lower bulkhead cross tube in the event of failure of the internal limit switches, and an increase in the amount of overcenter of the retraction angles.








The new amount of overcenter is:
15 mm on right
16 mm on left

I'm more comfortable with this than the stock LSX setup, but I'd like to ask for any and all comments from the more experienced builders here.










Lest we forget....


Thanks Dad.


Ralph Kessinger
Y/1C USN (RET)
1946-1966

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Framing it up

Time to start building the fuselage.


The first of the engine pylon frames.



As always, advice from others told me to stuff a hunk of foam into the tail boom tube to stop drafts.




After adding a nutplate I hung the boom from the rafters



and attached the front to the bulkhead assembly. Surprisingly small (AN4-7) bolts.



Before I started the rest of the frame I had ordered 4' of 1" nylon rod. A friend turned it down to 0.89" and I got to learn how to use a lathe and further turned various pieces down to .86", .74" and .64".



These pieces are cut down further, drilled for a bolt and inserted into the ends of the frame tubing.When I take the stab and elevator apart for the LSA reinforcement parts I'll add them in too.





This keeps the tubing from being inadvertently crushed when bolts are tightened too much. Here the boom support tubes have been fitted to the cluster bracket.




This was a good, relaxing day. A couple friends stopped by occasionally to help and talk, it was one of the last sunny days so I had the doors open, and after pushing my knee too hard in a PT exercise last week it was feeling pretty good again.The wood floor was a great idea.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

(Almost) good as new

Little by little...




lots of sanding....



the hull is patched.



The best piece of advice I've gotten was don't be afraid to go back and do something over. I had waterproofed the root rib with spar varnish but was advised that the covering material would not stick to varnish. So I had to demount the rib, sand the varnish off and apply a coat of epoxy.





I also took the opportunity to cut some lightening holes in, and removed 1.75# of weight.





I knew the sanding was going to be a messy job and I wanted to get it done while I could still open the doors.
Now I can push the hull out of the way, move the bulkhead into the center of the hangar and get going on the assembly of the frame.