More Details

Several tasks, some simple, some a pain-in-the %&*$#, got done over the past few weeks:

• Gearbox - the gearbox was properly topped off with fresh gear oil for the first time since we switched it to the low side.

• Starter Rope - somehow the starter rope got sucked up by the starter when we moved the engine from the trike to the gyro. Don opened the starter housing, fished out the rope and attached the handle. The cover was also reoriented to provide for a clean pull from the side. The engine turns over smoothly with lots of compression, all of which is good!

• Seat - the custom seat cover has been delayed. We put in the Star Bee seat/back cushion for the time being. If we end up using these cushions,  we will secure them to the seat with Velcro.

• Prop - the three-blade ground-adjustable IVO Prop from the trike was remounted to the engine. The pitch settings from the trike were retained (awesome power) and we will do a pull-test when we start the engine the first time. You cannot properly install the prop without a torque wrench. The proper setting is 200 inch-pounds.

• Nosewheel Pivot Bolt. Originally I dropped the bolt from the top of the nose block, meaning that the washer and castle nut were at the bottom of assembly, just above the nosewheel tire. To give us more flexibility, I removed the tire, inserted the bolt from below, replaced the tire, and then mounted the nosewheel fork so the castle nut was on top of the nosewheel block. Not quite as pretty but very practical!

• Seat Belt Mounting Plates. The original mounting plates for the lap belt were getting in the way of the rear yoke of the Brock stick, painfully limiting lateral stick travel. Now that the belt was mounted differently, the plates were removed and the bolt for the bracket for the forward drag strut attachment was resized. If you don't resize the bolt, two additional AN970 washers on each side will be required to compensate for the removal of a pair of 1/8-inch thick plates!

• Main Gear Shock Struts. All this time the upper strut fittings have been sitting at the top of the shock plate slots, since the bungees had yet to be installed. This would be their position at the absolute limit for the action of the bungee shock absorbers and, in this position, the gyro sits flat with all four wheels (nose, mains, and tail) on the ground. Checking the rock-back angle would require that we install the bungees to drop the main gear and thus raise the center of the machine. Trouble is, the strut fittings would not slide down the slots! At first I suspected that we might have some simple binding, but close examination revealed a more fundamental problem. The lower edge of the slot in the upper strut fittings was solidly locked against the edge of the shock plate! This had never been an issue with the original design, but it is obvious that a clearance problem can exist at the upper limit of the range of travel, given the machining of the slots in the shock plate and the machining of the upper strut fittings in the kit. The solution was to remove the shock plate and replace it with the temporary plate so the gyro wouldn't topple over. The real plate was then taken to a local machine shop where I had it trimmed as shown below. When everything was reassembled, the struts slid up and down in the shock plate slots just as they were supposed to.

• Dummy Head Cheek Plates. I mounted a set of hang-test cheek plates left over from a Honey Bee project. These plates fit the head and one set of vertical mast holes - which should be enough if the rear of the plate pair is clamped to the mast. Even though it is a crude setup, it's nice to see the head on top of the mast. At this point it is clear that if the head has to be shifted to the rear of the mast, we cannot use straight control rod runs because the engine is in the way! We will pray for a slightly forward position, but plan for a scissors transition if needed.

What's Next?

The side mount muffler and its mounting hardware arrived from California Power Systems, so that will be next. Once that is done and the Digipod instrument pod is mounted we will be ready to do the hang-test. After that, a short session of tank plumbing should have us ready for engine start. Once past that, some control rigging is all that should remain prior to the first taxi tests.