It’s a BIG day! My airplane now has its Airworthiness Certificate! Which means, I can go fly! (As soon as I get some training in the same type of aircraft first, baby steps!) I can’t believe that it’s finally done.. a 2 year effort overall, with some significant stops in between waiting on paint as well as taking care of my newborn daughter. Looking forward to Phase 1 flight testing and ensuring everything is safe for the family’s first flight. 🥳🍾🥂 Today was quite the milestone! I spent a good amount of time priming the system with Oil, Coolant and Fuel in the morning. Once the engine was burped and all the indicators looked good, I went for engine start! The first time cranking it up, I had the throttle set a bit too low, but once I gave it a bit more it started purring. Once I did the initial run for a few minutes, I took off the cowling and inspected for leaks - none! What did I do wrong? Hehe I decided to go for a short taxi around the hangars with my Mother. The engine stats looked good and the warning light eventually went away at higher RPMs. It was mainly flashing because of the fuel pressure, but it worked itself out. Just a bit more to go on the interior. - Connect Joysticks - Connect and configure fuel tank sensors - Connect the pitot and AOA tubes - Tighten up a few bolts here and there - Clean up the wires under the dash - Finish gluing the upholstery - Install the wing light covers Not too much, but going on hiatus for a bit as I’m expecting my 2nd child any day now. 🐣😉 Today I tightened up everything firewall forward and put the cowling on (for show) and then put the propeller blades on. Pulled it outside to get a good look and I’m so happy with how it’s turning out! Now I just need to focus on the cabin area, putting in the final bolts and start working on upholstery. From there, engine start and inspection! Today was a fun day! Now that the windshield is bonded, I was able to install the avionics panel and get everything connected to the harness. What an easy process thanks to Midwest Panel Builders. I think it only took us about a half hour to fit the panel and get everything connected with the plug and play harness with labeled connectors. Next up - Wings, Prop, Upholstery and then just sprinkle in some fuel and oil and we're ready for blast off! Thinking video updates are better to do than writing updates with pictures. Plus, seems it’s a bit easier to provide context. On a cold and snowy morning, my friend and I unloaded the Sling TSi into hangar at KCFO, bringing this build into the next chapter! The paint looks phenomenal! If anyone is interested in the colors, it’s Sherwin Williams metallic colors. - Phantom Gray - Nobel Red - Las Vegas Gold - Black Radiance I’m a member of the Denver EAA Chapter 301 and it worked out perfectly that the current build in the chapter hangar was finishing up. I started my search months ago for a hangar and it’s almost impossible to find in this area. Centennial has over a year wait list and unfortunately you’re not allowed to do ‘maintenance’ on the aircraft at a tie down / covered location. A huge thank you to the local chapter for allowing me to use the space! The day finally arrived! I was able to get all the exterior components ready for paint - except the windshield. The Sika primer never arrived on time, so the paint shop will just have to seal that up really good. My son, Ethan, had a blast sitting in the 'big truck' and honking the horn. Glad he did, because he got the neighbor's attention. It was just me out there and I was going to try to figure out how to get the plane in with a winch and pulley system of some sort... Not exactly a one man job. Luckily, I have curious and helpful neighbors that came out and offered assistance! My winch actually ended up breaking at the handle, so another neighbor went and got his. By the end of the event, I ended up with 5-6 people out there. ;-) Finally was able to get the fuselage in and secure it with straps using the side wall slats. The next morning I loaded the wings using the wooden stands I built and secured them against the wall. It's nice to have an empty garage - just in time for snow season. Don't have to clear off the car anymore! When I arrived at Hayes Aviation in Akron, CO, a few hours outside of Denver, he had a full team of people ready to unload the truck. It was bittersweet leaving the plane there, but I'm looking forward to the final result! It’s been a whirlwind of a month moving into the new house, unpacking boxes, hanging pictures, buying furniture online...
Well, now that it has settled down a bit, I turned my focus to getting the garage workshop set up again and organized. It’s getting there, but still have to figure out where I was again in the build process. I was hoping to start putting the firewall forward kit and engine on by this month, but Covid-19 has really slowed down international shipments. Not sure where my stuff is and it seems that the factory doesn’t either.. so it’s a waiting game. However, the guys at MidWest Panel Builders we’re still cranking along with my panel and I was ecstatic to receive a shipping notification of my panel & avionics! Everything came in 2 we’ll insulated boxes. The panel turned out beautiful! I pulled out the wiring harnesses and that really made me confident in my decision to go with these guys.. I couldn’t see myself wiring up all that! I figure I can switch gears and start running the wires, fuel and brake lines so I can start closing up the center console area. It will certainly keep me busy while I wait for the final components! Moving day has arrived! I signed up for 2 uPack trailers, one for the household items and one for the plane. There definitely was a concern about insurance since it only really covered catastrophic damage - i.e. the trailer is totaled. So I focused on securing the plane as best as I could. I loaded the wings first on each side and secured them with their own stand, attaching them to the floor and wall of the trailer. I made sure to add plenty of padding around them since it is guaranteed that there will be bumps on the 18+ hour trip to Colorado. The fuselage was loaded tail first and it fit quite nicely. I secured the wheels with wooden blocks that were drilled into the trailer floor, with straps going underneath the blocks and around the wheels. I also secured the tail with a wooden strut to make sure there is no pitch movement. I did the 'jiggle' test and nothing budged! From there I secured the empennage parts by hanging them above the wings against the wall with plenty of padding and straps. Unfortunately, I'm sad to report there will be some repairs needed to the vertical and horizontal stabilizer.. somehow they were banged around enough to loosen the knots and had some damage to the skins. Oh well, I knew the risks.. just a few hours of de-riveting the skins and slapping on new ones. Overall, I'm just happy that the plane is safely at home in the new place with a bigger garage! Exciting things coming up, I'm expecting my avionics to arrive in May! I still have the firewall forward kit, Rotax 915is engine and upholstery on order (since January).. but Covid-19 has certainly slowed things down. I hope to have an update from them on the new ETA now that the factory has opened back up. It's been a while since I've posted, so I figure I should give an update.
Lots has been going on, but not with the plane. We bought a house in Colorado and had to get our current house ready to be sold, which took up all of my time. We're expecting to move and figuring out the logistics has been a fun challenge. Moving a partially complete plane across the country is going to be interesting. I did receive my propeller so far, but still waiting for the Upholstery, Firewall Forward Kit, Engine and Avionics. It's looking like most of that will be delivered in April or May, which is fine since that'll be the time I can really start to pick things up again. Stay tuned for updates! I put in an order for everything else I need at the end of December.
Items on their way: 1. Firewall Forward Kit- this has all the items to support the engine. Oil, brake fluid and coolant reservoirs, etc. 2. Rotax 915is Engine - 141hp of pure FADEC controlled fun! 3. Airmaster Constant Speed Propeller - designed specifically for the Sling TSi. 4. Upholstery - The leather interior and seat cushions. I went with the design below, Medium Grey / Charcoal with red piping. It’s looking like I won’t be getting most items until March and the engine in May. I might be getting my avionics somewhere in between. I still have to order the parachute, but that will be in a bit.. Now to start thinking about the exterior paint design and colors! Woo Hoo! It's finally here! It was feeling like Christmas morning for me when I received the call to schedule delivery of the shipping container. After waiting a whole 7 months since I put down my deposit, there was quite a bit of anticipation built up! My neighbors were kind enough to help me unload the plane into the garage and help me fit things in there. Once I saw the size of the plane, I was quite nervous how it would all fit. Luckily, I had about 2 inches of clearance from the garage door. ;-D I spent the remainder of the day trying to organize things and set up a small workspace for me to start assembling items. I also had to get another storage rack to fit all of these additional parts once I get them out of the boxes! Looking forward to getting started up again! I received word that my QuickBuild Kit has shipped from South Africa and is on it's way! Woo!
While working on the Empennage has been satisfying, I am really excited to finally be able to actually sit in the fuselage and make airplane noises. ;-) I'm sure I'll be able to finish up the Empennage soon, so there will be a bit of down time during the 40+ day journey to the United States. I asked Barry for an update on the Quick Build progress and estimated ship date.
I put down my deposit in mid-March and was expecting shipment to be sometime in July. Unfortunately, I received word from production that the wing delays from earlier this year has still had a lasting effect on all of the builds after that. They mentioned that they could push delivery forward by about a week or two, so it's looking to be closer to the first week of August for an estimated ship date. Then it'll take a few weeks to travel by boat from South Africa to a US port. I'll be anxiously awaiting another update and hopefully I'll get some photos of progress in the mean time. I took my 7 month old Co-Pilot and Wife to the Livermore AOPA Fly-In today.
It sure was hot out there, but otherwise, great flying weather. Was happy to see N135WT again and met up with Wayne (the plane’s owner) and Jean. Really cool to see other planes out there you only see in magazines. Draco, Velocity aircraft, Barracuda, RV-10 and of course the Sling TSi. ;-) |
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