Strobes working

One of the items yet to complete were the anti-collision lights.  These are strobe lights that are red in front and clear in back.  There is one on top and one on the bottom to get adequate coverage.  Wade needed to put some heat shrink on the lower light’s wires before hooking it up.  We accomplished that today.  I tried to get a picture this afternoon and took 20 shots….and none of them worked.  I decided to wait until it got dark and try again.  I tried another 6 shots…they all worked but only captured the bottom strobe.   Poor timing on my part as they are both working.  I decided one was good enough!

You can see the red forward and clear aft.
 The other light is on top and slightly aft.

Work continues

I got a FedEx package this afternoon from Airtex….the long awaited tail wheel boot.  Wade was also over this afternoon and removed the hoist strap he had made from the engine.  He also temporarily installed the oil tank and a few other items on the front side of the firewall.

Part of the cabin heat system

Wire from the starter

Oil tank temporarily installed 

Tail wheel boot

Engine attached

Well, it wasn’t without challenges, but we got the radial engine attached to the V-77 today.  The first challenge was just picking it up.  I had friends Jim and Steve here helping Wade and I.  We also had Justin with his tractor fork lift.  After lots of head scratching, Jim suggested a method to get it off the ground without scraping the exhaust pipes.  That worked well.  The next challenge was to get the engine high enough to attach to the firewall.  We tried moving the airplane outside, but reached the tractors limit before getting high enough.  We rolled it down the sloping ramp and that helped some.  Jim then put some wood under the tractor front tires and that did the trick.  Getting the bolts in was a bit of a struggle, but eventually we succeeded.  After pushing the airplane back in and loading the tractor back on the trailer, we all went to the Stearman Cafe for lunch.  It was about 2.5 hours total, but a lot of that was trying various ideas.  I am glad that is behind us and no one got hurt.

All done and back in the hangar

Engine attached

The crew.  I have my eyes closed….lol.  
Me, Jim, Wade, Steve, and Justin (L to R)

Justin at work.  It is amazing the finess he has with that machine.

Jim adding wood to elevate the tractor front tires

Trying to attach, but we can’t go any higher

Engine now vertical

Adding another hoist to allow disconnecting the center lift point

Initial rotation of the engine

With the engine lifted, we moved the pallet outside

Lifting the engine initially 

Wade also removed the oil tank and a few parts

Wade made this engine attachment to lift the engine

Progress continues

I have been gone the past week, and noted Wade accomplished a lot while I was out.  We have new wheels, tires, and tubes on now.  New brakes, too.  They look great.  We are planning to install the engine tomorrow and Wade has the firewall ready and accomplished a few last things behind it.

Cabin heat muff installed behind firewall

New brakes

Firewall with several blank holes filled and a few other items attached 

New right wheel and tire

Left wheel and tire

Wheel pants finished

I have been waiting a few weeks to make sure the black enamel on the V-77 wheel pants was really dry.  Most of my meetings were canceled today so I used some PTO to get the gold trim applied.  I masked off the trim stripe using the pattern previously made.  I then added paint paper everywhere to keep the overspray off the rest of the wheel pants.  Next up was 2 coats of gold enamel.  I waited about 30 minutes for the paint to dry to the touch and then removed all of the masking.  I am pleased with the result!

Right wheel pant

Left wheel pant

All done

Gold paint sprayed

Masking finished

Initial layout

Using the template for initial masking

Another label in place

I got another placard made to label the magneto switches today.  Wade was also over working on the firewall.

Magneto label above switches.  The red items are guards
 to keep you from accidentally moving them.

Firewall

Firewall prep

Wade was over this afternoon and separated the firewall from the boot cowl.  The plan is to get the firewall ready and installed so we can then hang the engine.  With that in place, we can then get the control cables measured and ordered, hook up fuel lines, and connect all the other required items.  Then we will make sure everything behind the firewall is finished and then mount the boot cowl.  We plan for Justin to swing by on October 25 mid-morning with his forklift to get the engine in place.

Firewall detached

Drilling out rivets

New placards

There were a couple of placards I needed for the V-77.  I ordered one online for the strobe lights…. basically to turn them off in clouds and around other airplanes on the ground.  Then I needed a new parking brake placard, big enough to cover a few un-necessary holes.  Lastly, a new placard for the cabin heat.  The last two I had made locally at Superior Rubber Stamp.

The lower placard is new

Strobe warning and parking brake placard

Before installation 

The window works!

I have been wondering how the roll down window on the pilot side of the V-77 was supposed to work.  With new window channel in hand, I got the right side (from exterior perspective) installed.  As you can see in the photo below, the bulkhead for the left side window channel appeared to not be wide enough.  I talked with Wade and he agreed I should make a wider bulkhead and see how that works….there appears to be plenty of room to the boot cowl.  After work I made that new bulkhead and now have the window channel installed.  The window I am using is one I got from Randy Phillips as a template.  It is cracked in a few places, but the correct shape.  It goes up and down, though it hangs up at the top…so I’ll need to figure out what is happening…maybe it is binding somewhere. 

Holding the window channel in about the right place,
you can see the bulkhead is not wide enough

New bulkhead and window channel in place

The bigger picture