We Will See

I contacted Aircraft Spruce today to check on the status of my order.  Their response was that the order had been pulled and will ship tomorrow.  I am a but skeptical as things NEVER go that smoothly for me; so we will see if I get a shipment notification tomorrow or not.

I gave the spring steel stock to my brother on Monday to cut down into nice 20mm strips.  He is very busy so I am not sure when I will get it back.  I checked up on my laser cut 4130 last week and they are still extremely swamped and are unsure when my parts will slip into their schedule.

On the avionics front, I dropped the electronic components off at my parents' house last night for my EE brother-in-law to pick up today.  He is better at this type of thing and when he offered to help I jumped at the opportunity.   I will have to put him on my list for plane rides when I get my ppl.

Bit Banging

I soldered up some of the components that came in today's mail.  Then I spent the rest of the evening testing out the Arduino Uno and the pressure sensor.

Number of hours:  2.3
Total hours:  174.7

Tapering the Main Gear pt. 1

I started tapering one side of the main gear tonight from 5 laminations down to 3 laminations at the tip using my block plane.  There has got to be a better way to accomplish this.  I am going to do some more pondering over the next couple of days.  Hopefully I can figure something out.

I found another sensor board called an IMU (inertial measurement unit) sensor.  It is a single board that includes a 3 axis magnemometer, a 3 axis accelerometer, and a 3 axis gyro.  I will be using this unit to replace the 2 previously ordered boards.

Number of hours:  0.9
Total hours:  172.4

Minor Detail Missed

Sometimes I feel like Michael Bolton from the movie Office Space - "I always screw up some mundane detail"

I was reviewing my parts list for my DIY avionics and it was brought to my attention that a 2 axis magnemometer will only be correct when it is level!  Ok, I know it's probably not a huge issue for a plane that will rarely see a greater bank angle than 20*, but a tool should be built to be as accurate as possible.  How does one account for the changes in magnetic fields as a vehicle departs straight and level flight?  The answer lies in some really neat trigonometry and a 3 axis accelerometer.   Are you geeking out yet?

I took some time today to machine out a form block for my front landing gear spring.

Number of hours:  0.5
Total hours:  171.5

These Don't Look Like Airplane Parts

But they are!  This week I was mulling over my options for instruments and really didn't like what I was seeing.  For conventional instruments the weight was incredibly high, not to mention the costs.  My next option was the Belite aircraft instruments.   These are really neat, but the altimeter is AGL and only goes up to 1200'; the voltage source is a 9 volt battery; they are lighter than conventional instruments but still fairly heavy; and they are expensive too.  The next consideration was something like an EIS which is a great solution but expensive and is more serious than needed for an ultralight.  So what did I come up with?  Well, I have used an Arduino in a past project and I know that I can piece together a simple system for an altimeter, VSI, thermometer, magnetic compass, and ASI.  I can add engine functions if I choose to in the future.  Now before anyone starts to worry about the safety of such a system, I will also have a handheld GPS in the plane so the systems will offer redundancy.   I am not 100% decided if I will add a second screen with engine readouts or not.  The awesome part is that this system should weigh in well below 1/2 pound and cost less than $150!

I ordered the material for my front landing gear fork from McMaster Carr today so I should see that in the next day or two.

I Lost My Shirt

Well, at least part of it.  The back is missing from the T-shirt that I was wearing this morning.  For the uninitiated, the traditional way of celebrating a student pilot's first solo flight is to cut the back off their shirt.  I looked at my logbook and it shows that I was 1 day short of 13 months from my first flight to solo.

I am happy to announce that I am the proud new owner of a used propeller too.  One of my friends had an adjustable prop for the plane that he sold recently so he made me an offer that I couldn't refuse!  Last night I received the new carburetor for my engine in the mail too.   Now I need to design a filter cup and an adapter for the carburetor to attach to the intake manifold.

No build time logged for a while, I know, but there is still forward progress being made.

Another AS&S Order

I got the new engine yesterday via FedEx and have been doing a lot of research on induction for it.  I looked a little more at the way the redrive works and must admit that I was wrong when I said it will allow more ground clearance as the reduction pulley is at the bottom of the engine.  I have also been trying to figure out how I will mount this beast.

I placed an order with Aircraft Spruce today for the remainder of my spruce and some plywood.  I still need to order another 12 sheets of 1.5mm plywood to complete the skins; I couldn't justify spending that much more money at this point in the build.  I forgot to add hinges to the order so I will send them a message to add them.  There are 2 big orders left for building components, plywood and wing foam.

The research is continuing regarding whether or not the holes in F2 for the wing spar bolts have bushings or not.