Third owner, first time owner

[mrpilotron]

Just don't nose her over!

Tri gear should help with that.

[mrpilotron]

I feel like an update to my project is in order. Some of you may remember seeing some of the information I'm about to share on facebook, but this feels like a better place to do a full build update than our facebook page.

I got the plane home about 6 months ago and started really digging into it. The first thing that became obvious was that my pre-buy inspection didn't catch all the stuff wrong and there were indeed several structural problems that went beyond asthetics. I removed the engine and landing gear first and discovered several "Redneck engineered" solutions that have no place being on an aircraft. I started noticing several places where the wrong rivets were installed and several places where the hole under the rivet was wallowed out with a drill to make misaligned holes work. The bolts that hold the tail on were similarly oblong shaped but the damage was hidden by the bolt head so you wouldn't know it unless you remove the tail. By the time I had the tail completely removed, I knew the project was growing much bigger than anticipated. I found it odd that some parts were exactly perfectly built and other parts were nowhere close. It was uncommon to find a part that was just barely bad. They were either really good or really bad. This leads me to believe that the plane was built by 2 people and the buddy that was helping took a lot more pride in his work than the guy who signed the airworthiness certificate. Identifying the parts that need remade became a bit of a treasure hunt. At this point, I estimate that we drilled out somewhere between 400 and 500 rivets to either get access for inspections or to replace known bad parts. I removed and rebuilt anything that was questionable.

The tail was an absolute disaster. As I started dismantling it and comparing some of the dimensions to the plans, I realized why the mounting bolt holes looked like figure-8 patterns. The guy building it apparently doesn't know what a center punch is and assumed that somewhere within a quarter inch is close enough when pre-drilling the mount holes and setting the distance between front and rear spars. I decided to drop the whole thing into the recycle bin and bought another tail assembly from a nearby builder who had a spare already built. It was built from a factory kit rather than scratch-built so it was nearly perfect except for a few workmanship issues where rivets weren't pulled in tight prior to setting. I just need to drill out and replace a few rivets before mounting it. I will need to use a doubler patch to fix the rear spar mount holes in the longeron, but that is an easy fix with just a few new bolts required.

The real PITA was rebuilding the main wing spar mounts. Kerry at Sonex approved up-drilling the spar pin size to fix the wallowed holes, but with the warning that if it didn't work it would ruin the spars. I decided to play it safe and remove all 4 fuselage extrusions that make the mount and rebuild the spar mount blocks so the entire mounting gets fresh material with new holes. Since the aft half of the spar box needed to come out anyway to replace the screwed up angle bracing, this decision was easy. We just finished the spar mount drilling today. I found that my 3/8 drill bit must be a tiny bit undersized because a test piece wouldn't allow a new -6 bolt to pass through the hole. Once I ran the 3/8 reemer through it, the bolt slips through with a couple of light taps of a rubber mallet so I'm calling that a win.

Next up: fixing the wing ribs.

[Bryan Cotton]

Wow, that sucks. Glad you are making it right though.

[mrpilotron]

We're still making progress on this rebuild project. The engine went to a professional VW performance shop for a teardown inspection. They found inconsistent compression ratios of 6.7 - 7.3 and some of the valve geometry wasn't right. It ended up with new valves, new pushrods, several new seals, and all 4 cylinders are the same 6.82:1 compression. They also installed the new 2-part oil pump that's needed with the turbo upgrade, replaced the starter ring gear, and did a real nice cleaning of the heads before they bolted it all back together. I am sure I could have done the engine work cheaper myself, but I am also sure I couldn't have done it better so I'm happy to write the check and relax.

We did run into a little snag with the Sonex factory built turbo exhaust manifold hitting against the engine mount long before it got to where it would bolt onto the heads. I'm baffled at how this turbo setup was introduced almost 10 years ago and I seemed to be the first tri-gear plane to get a turbo that doesn't fit. We're talking about almost a full inch of interference, not a little .020 nudge that could have been just some variance in how my engine was hung. There is zero chance that I could have made it fit without cutting and welding so anyone who bought this kit before me must have just fixed it, shut up, and moved on. I'm a little more of an S.O.B. about expecting factory parts to fit so I made a fuss and Mark got his guys to redesign it and make me a new one that does fit. It was a 6-week delay for me, but now the next guy who needs a turbo should have an easier time.

The wings got leading edge LED landing lights installed and LED tip lights. We pulled out the 3/8 fuel line tubing that was used for anti-chafe wire loom and replaced it with proper sleeving and LED-sized wiring. (AKA: Small and light weight). We found a few places where rivets had been set into the fluting crimps of wing ribs so that needed attention along with remaking a damaged area disguised as an inspection port. We discovered a few pivot point bushings that had been installed wrong and damaged so those got replaced with all new parts. Somewhat surprising was that all the aileron hinges and flaps were located properly and adequately straight so there is no repair work needed on the control surfaces.

One of the rudder cables was routed through a strange location about 5 inches away from where it's supposed to come through the right side of the fuselage. I'm completely confused about why that was done because the correct hole was cut where it's supposed to be, but then they abandoned that spot and moved it to the wrong spot where it rubbed and chafed. They also used the wrong spec rudder cable and crimped the clevises with a chisel rather than a proper swaging tool. As you might guess: I ordered new cable and clevises.

Last thing for tonights update: I decided the Stratomaster Enigma wasn't up to par so we pulled the entire dash out and it's getting a modern EFIS, new ADS-B transponder, autopilot, and all new switches and breakers. I have a friend who is a professional avionics technician who specializes in retrofitting modern stuff into old certified airplanes so he's helping me with the panel. The CNC system will really come in handy for that work!