Propeller Installation

It was finally time to install the propeller on the engine, this has been a long time coming.

 

 

 

The blades are unpacked one a time and inspected for damage and the wrapping removed from the end that threads into the hub.

There is a lot of grease on these parts and it gets everywhere.

The slip ring, hub extension and backer plate/propeller hub are connected with three wires, ground, 12 volts and signal for the pitch motor.

 

 

 

 

Hub bolts, Nord-lock washers and drive lugs are inserted through the back of the gearbox hub on the engine.

These bolts take a bit of effort to insert due to their length and clearance with the gearbox housing.

Hardware is hand tightened to seat the drive lugs and prepped for torquing.

Bolts were torqued to 24Nm and and marked with torque seal.

Each blade needs a small re-application of grease on the mating surfaces inside the hub.

 

 

 

It doesn't need a lot and if you over grease them the blade will not fully seat down in the hub and the locking plates wont' sit flush.

Locking plate installed and secured with safety wire

All three blades installed and spinner attached

Braking System

The standard brake system for the Sling TSi is a single piston Matco caliper.  Although I don't plan on a lot of short filed landings, I do plan use the maximum useful load of the aircraft. With this in mind, I upgraded to the dual piston calipers from Matco.  I reached out to Matco tech support and they provided me with a quote for all of the replacement hardware for just over $1K USD.  Once the calipers and disks were returned, I received a credit of $400 USD making the final upgrade price around $600 USD.

The original disk is on top and new dual piston disk on the bottom. The increased thickness of the disk is quite evident.

It seemed odd to me that Matco uses 4 pads instead of 2 larger pads. These are the same pads as the single piston setup and are also the same pads used on many Vans aircraft that use Matco brakes.

Brake lines were installed in the gear legs, this took quite a bit of effort on the left side and I needed to clear out the tube molded into the gear leg using a piece of a tube as a drill and a lot of silicon spray to lubricate the hole.

I deviated from the plans for the brake lines inside the fuselage because I wanted braided PTFE lines throughout the rest of the airplane.

 

 

 

I found a custom brake line shop to fabricate the hoses that have a 90 degree on the outside of the fuselage and a straight -4AN fitting on the inside.

 

 

 

 

I used a -4AN T-fitting to join the left and right brakes in the center channel of the fuselage.

These brake lines are coated in PVC to reduce chafing on wire bundles and gives them a more finished appearance.

I drilled a hole in the side of the airframe to pass the 90 degree fittings out to connect to the brake lines from the main gear.

If I had to do this again I would actually get a 90 degree bulkhead fitting instead, this would have giving me a little more length on the brake lines inside the fuselage.

All of the brake lines have AN fittings so I needed to swap out the hardware on the parking brake valve and the brake master cylinder from NPT to -4AN.

I ran a 44" Stainless Braided line from the brake master cylinder to the firewall and fitted a 90 degree bulkhead fitting to terminate the brake lines forward and aft of the firewall.

 

 

Forward of the firewall (Engine Side) I used a 7" stainless PTFE brake line from the bulkhead to the brake fluid reservoir.

Parachute

My Sling TSi was a delivered as a quick build that included the option for the parachute.

Selecting this option means that the cables are embedded in the canopy and the parachute box was per-installed in the baggage area.

I plan on adding the parachute later, assuming that my family are willing to travel with me in the airplane.

The blowout panel for the parachute needs to be match drilled over the box for the parachute.

The panel also needs the edges rolled so that there is some compression around the edges when the panel is secured in place.

 

 

 

 

I used an edge roller to create a small bend as shown.

 

 

I drilled a few holes to align the panel and secured the remaining edges with tape until I had completed match drilling all the holes.

I used Clecos for each hole as I went to maintain a tight fit of the panel to the fuselage.

Panel fully match drilled and I am pleased with the fitment.

 

 

  

Because I am not installing the blowout panel right away, I need a way to remove the panel later without damaging the paint.

I was also planning ahead that after the parachute is installed it will need to be serviced (repacked) every 5 years by Magnum. This gets expensive having to have the paint fixed every time I need to remove the chute.

The solution is to use rivnuts instead of rivets to secure the panel in place.  The holes were upsized and rivnuts were added.

The fuselage and the blowout panel were painted separately and the installation hardware was also painted to match and maintain a clean look.

The blowout panel will be secured in place with Sikaflex and foam rubber to maintain a water tight seal around the edges to keep the water out of the parachute area.

Until the parachute is installed, I plan to secure the cables in the cable tray and add some foam sound isolation to the tray to reduce chaffing and the cables rattling around during flight.

 

Cables secured in place and foam padding added for noise and rubbing on the cable tray.

In the picture you can also see the rivnuts and the hardware painted and ready to install the blowout panel.

Vertical Stabilizer and Rudder Installation

The vertical stabilizer was ready to install after cleaning up the wire harness tape and holes for the hinges. I also opted for the VOR antenna as part of my build so I made sure the antenna wire was accessible and ready for connection.

I purchases a quick build kit and the VOR antenna wire was pre-run at the factory and needed to be terminated prior to the installation of the vertical stabilizer.

With this prep work completed, the vertical stabilizer was carefully installed. This is a two person job keeping the part stable while inserting it into the aft slot on the fuselage.

Midwest recommended that I switch to a different bolt for the upper part of the main spar.  This location is very difficult to get a socket wrench over the factory supplied bolts without damaging the paint. These bolts have a smaller head and have a Phillips insert.

The replacement bolts are actually stronger than the factory bolts so I had no objection.

It is really amazing that within just a few minutes how much the fuselage starts to look like an airplane.

The rudder is up next, which required the same prep to remove paint from the hinge bolt holes and tape from the wire harness.

This is also a great time to install the beacon, unfortunately in my rush to put everything together I neglected to do this until after it was already installed.

The bolt on the lower hinge point can easily fall into the rudder assembly and it is quiet difficult to remove, so I hear... so be careful so you don't drop it!

I didn't install the beacon prior to installing the rudder so I needed to connect the wires while standing on a tall ladder. My beacon is from Aveo Engineering, and is the Supernova DV DayLite beacon model.

This setup has a 12v positive, ground, and sync wire for the strobes.

I per-tested the light on the workbench so I wasn't taking the light on and off and risking dropping tools on the horizontal stabilizer.

 

I really like this light format, it fits the existing shape of the fiberglass, and did not require and modifications to the rudder faring.

With the control surfaces installed, the wire harness and trim tab actuator need to connected and secured.

Stabilizer and Elevator Installation

 

 

With the plane coming out of paint and the parts fully cured, it was time to start the final assembly of the tail starting with the horizontal stabilizer.

 

 

The paint changes the clearance on the mounting locations and the bolts do not fit cleanly without removing the excess paint.

I also needed to remove all of the tape from the trim tab wire harness

The stabilizer mounts easily, bolts are torqued and marked with paint.

Forward mount point (per-torque)

Top view of vertical stabilizer installed and wire hardness and vor antenna cables in view

Hardware marked after proper torque being applied

The elevator has to go on next because the center hing is will not be accessible after the vertical stabilizer is installed.

Installation of the elevator is quite time consuming to install and with the limited amount of space to insert all of the required washers between the hinge points.

You need at least one washer wrench, two are helpful to access the center hinge point due to limited space.

You will also need a magnetic extension to retrieve the numerous washers, lock nuts, and bolts dropped inside the elevator.

Installing the bolt for the center hinge point first is highly recommended before install the outer four bolts.

The bolt holes are not perfectly aligned and you have more room to work with the outer bolts than you do with the middle one.

Start in the middle and work your way out trust me.

Once the elevator is installed you need to attach the eye bolt and elevator push rod tube.  This could be done later but it is way easier to do it not and torque the bolts before the vertical stabilizer is installed.

Instrument Panel Installation

The instrument panel from sling requires some cutting in order to fit the panel from MidWest Panel Builders.  Part of the panel kit includes a cutout template that is mounted to the face of the panel and is a guide for cutting away the excess material.

The template was installed by match drilling a few holes in the panel around the to keep the template firmly in place.

I used a Dremel with a sanding drum and another cutting bit for the corners

For the longer pieces I used my multi-tool with a fine tooth cutting blade to cut the larger sections, this has the added benefit of not generating a lot of dust while cutting.

I test fit the instrument panel a few time to mark additional areas where the template does not take into account the bulk of switches and instruments like the prop controller or the G5.

More cutting a fitting of the panel to allow a flush fit.

I also needed to remove additional material for the G5 and the prop controller to accommodate the flush mount modules.

Dashboard finally installed in the plane and screwed into place.

Control Stick Installation

 

 

 

In a previous post I had mounted the control sticks in the plane but they needed to be removed and shortened so that they could accommodate the taller control grips I purchased. 

I used a pipe cutter to cut off about 3" from each so that the grip would not interfere with the instrument panel.

Next the grip and wire harness needed to be pinned and inserted into the cannon plugs I purchased from MidWest Panel Builders.

The hole was up-sized to accommodate the plug and secured with with hardware on the left and right controls.

Control sticks installed and should have full range without hitting the panel. These grips were custom made by Tosten.

My control sticks have a unique feature that includes a starter button for the engine. This way I could have one hand on the stick, the other on the throttle.

The VPX has a feature that disables this switch if the engine is above a pre definged RPM range which locks out the switch during flight but allows for inflight restarts if the engine is under 300 RPM.