Leak fixes, Cowl, Door frames, Control sticks

 After last engine runup, we had found we had 2 leaks, one from the brakes and one from fuel.  The brake leak was at the bottom of the Grove landing gear at a right angle fitting. The brakes were drained, and the wheel was removed to get access to the fitting.  The right angle fitting was then removed and cleaned.  Locktite thread sealer was applied, and the fitting was installed with an extra turn to ensure it fit snugly. 

Brake fitting tightened

The fuel leak was coming from a fitting that went from a T-fitting near the fuel filter to our fuel-pressure-sender.  This one was a bit complex because of all the interconnected fittings and hoses.  But this gave us a good opportunity to change our fuel-bypass orifice as we learned ours was slightly oversized ( The ideal orifice size was 0.35 mm, and ours was about 0.88 mm).  Our orifice fitting came from JEGS, and is essentially a hole drilled in a set screw, which is then screwed into a special AN fitting.  Using a small mill with a tiny drill bit, a 0.35mm hole was drilled in the center of a new stainless set screw.  This took several attempts as the tiny drill bits were easy to break, but we got it done.  The new orifice was installed, and the leaks were addressed.  After the fixes, we ran the fuel pumps (which boosts the system to 50 PSI) and checked for leaks again.  None were detected. 

Fuel leak fixed at this T-fitting

The new 0.35mm fuel-bypass orifice is in the top of this T-fitting

The cowl pieces, which had been previously primed, were sanded down with 320 grit sandpaper so that they will be ready for painting, although we won't get to that until the paint booth is back in working order.

Next we turned our attention to the doors.  We previously made a couple of center aluminum strips that cover the seam where twoLexan panels meet.  We wanted to close up the ends of these, so we filled them in with a little bit of epoxy (JB-Weld) which was sanded flat once dry.  This is mainly cosmetic, but does make it look a little nicer when installed. These strips were also sanded lightly to get them ready for priming.

Epoxy added at the ends of center door frame strips

We also wanted to decide on the color to paint the door frames.  We were originally thinking of using gray as that matched most of the interior and existing powder coat, but also considered black as that helps create more of an unobstructed view out of the airplane.  We wrapped the frame in some spare black vinyl we had to get an idea of how it would look.  We liked the result, so we will likely paint the door frames black now. 

Experimenting with black door frames

Lastly, we drilled a couple of small holes in our control sticks for the wires that will go to the push-to-talk switches.  We are going to making the control sticks removable, so plan to add a small connector that will make the wires easy to disconnect.   Hours: 27

Hole drilled in control stick