38 - Canopy & Window (finished); 42- Misc (attached foot steps); 47 - Cowl Baffle (closeout; oil door); 51 - FWF Misc. (various); Other (moved fuselage to hangar!)

First and foremost, I moved the fuselage to the hangar - specifically Parkers Towing and Transport moved the fuselage, and spent a good deal of time designing ramps for the main wheels for transport.  The Parkers are great people, and were very interested in all aspects of my RV-14A - most importantly, they took great care to secure and transport my bird.  I highly recommend them if you live in central Florida; they drove 50 miles each way for the transport, and now that they have transported two Van's aircraft (my buddy, Ken B's RV-14A and now mine), they are pros. 

The rest of the past 2 weeks involved a bunch of odds-and-ends, in an attempt to finish as much stuff in the workshop prior to moving the fuselage.  Specifically, I did the following: 

- finished attaching Koger sunshade; cleaned canopy and removed some of the inside protective plastic (for sunshade); painted baggage covers for steps

- tightened alternator pulley/belt and torqued and safety-wired bolt; attached boot to p-lead of magneto

- lower cowl closeout completed w/distal part of sniffle line attached to it; attached step attach covers in baggage area (used thin nylon #8 washers so paint doesn’t chip when screws tightened)

- greased nosegear Zerk fitting with blue marine grease (had to push out the Aeroshell 5, which is more hygroscopic); added 2000deg fireshield barrier to “red cube” fuel flow transducer, since so close to exhaust pipe; prepared oil cooler scat tubing

- painted baggage floor closeout and access panel from baggage area to tailcone; finished oil door; vacuumed tailcone, tied up loose wires in tailcone

- cleaned baggage area and tailcone with damp cloth; closed out baggage area and passthrough to tailcone; started installing aft window (siliconed screws in roll bar; loose attach of 22 of 29 screws in aft section of window)

- finished installing and prosealing the aft window

- cleaned garage, moved plane outside to attach canopy (with wife and daughter helping); realized aft edge of canopy was touching parts of the aft window, so sanded and scraped aft part of canopy to ensure adequate gap (4 iterations - pain in the ass, but it’s done)

- prepped plane and workshop for fuselage move (final prep)

- moved the fuselage to airport hangar using Parker’s Towing; cleaned hangar; cleaned workshop some more

Here's a pic of the first step of the move:

47 - Cowl Baffle (finished); 50 - Control Cables (prop cable); 51 - FWF Misc. (route mag harnesses); Avionics (FWF wire terminations)

A lot of miscellaneous tasks were accomplished during the past couple of weeks, the most noticeable of which was wiring the various FWF sensors to the avionics, as well as finishing the damned cowl baffle. They both are looking good though.  Oh, and I had a visit from my buddy, Ken B., who gave me an initial Pope's blessing for the FWF - before we do the first engine run-ups, he'll go over everything with a fine-toothed comb.  For now, most everything was good, and a couple things were fixed.  Specifics for the past week are listed below:

- attached magneto/emag cooling tubes; sealed baffles with lots of red RTV

- formed and attached clamping strips to bottom cowl air inlets; epoxy-floxed between cowl and strips

- sanded bottom cowl outboard and inboard air inlets to curve to match the baffle’s width; added epoxy/flox to top cowl to eventually sand down to match bottom cowl (outboard edges of air inlets)

- sanded top and bottom cowl outboard inlets to match each other; attached inlet seals (except one screw - need a longer screw); attached foam block to top cowl with red RTV; mostly done with the cowl baffle section!

- installed prop bracket & cable; partially attached sniffle valve and tubes/hoses; ; finished installing alt. air cable

- Route, adel-clamp, and attach spark plug harnesses (from Slick magneto and P-mag)

- Ken B. visited to check out my FWF and avionics install to date - great to catch up, and I appreciated the advice!

- installed CHT and EGT probes; messed with routing wiring for EGT and CHT (K-type wires); inventoried misc. hardware and supplies that I bought from Ken. B.

- worked on wiring under panel; routed and wired CHT and EGT probes

- wired a couple FWF sensors (fuel pressure, oil pressure)

- wired master solenoid, starter solenoid, oil pressure switch, oil temp, main amp shunt (primary alternator), aux amp shunt (backup alternator), started tidying all wire bundles FWF

Using binder clips to pre-bend the stuff rubber seals:

47 - Cowl Baffle (baffle rods; snorkel & air filter; ramp cones; baffle seals)

Another two weeks have passed, and I still haven't finished the cowl baffle section! Lots of little steps, many of which require fitting and refitting (e.g. snorkel).  I received the interior this week (yeah!), and look forward to installing it in the plane in a few weeks, once I finalize the avionics wiring and a few other tidbits.  Details of what was accomplished are as follows: 

- messed with the snorkel for far too long - doesn’t fit perfectly, so I will have to build up the flange using flox (edit: I just sanded a bit, since there was plenty of material); tried cutting baffle tension rods and using a die to thread the ends, but I had a crappy die and work-hardened the ends by using a dremel tool.  Contacted Ken B., who suggested a die grinder and better 6-32 die

- threaded rod ends using a better, high-speed steel 6-32 die (McMaster-Carr), and attached and tensioned the rods to the baffles

- fit, trimmed, sanded, drilled, floxed and epoxied snorkel

- cut alt air hole, drilled and floxed alt air inlet; unpacked and inventoried interior for plane!

- formed and attached ramp cones; final-installed snorkel and air filter (safety-wired snorkel to fuel servo); everything fits fairly well!

- attached baffle seals; routed top ignition wires (had to enlarge holes for the 5/16” p-mag wires); brushed on additional layer of epoxy on top cowl where baffle seals will touch

Here are two of the baffle tension rods, attached and torqued - those were a pain to install. Note that I used two metal locknuts (one as a "jam nut"), since the -06 sized nuts are really not very tight:

47 - Cowl Baffle (attached 4 main baffles); Other (ANL fuses; shunts)

Not as much progress during the last two weeks as I had hoped, but much of this time was spent thinking and reading about the next steps with the firewall-forward wiring - mostly how and where to attach and wire the ANL fuses and shunts. There are many different ways of tackling this with 2 alternators and 1 main battery. Some folks use 1 shunt after fuses and tie in both alternators, and sometimes the battery, to measure current for all 3.  While this would work, in conjunction with a voltmeter (built into the G3X), I had SteinAir specifically wire two sets of shunt wires so I could monitor both alternators separately. Also, I had a little issue with the oil filler tube - it came cross-threaded, and thus couldn't be installed straight. No worries - a couple emails to Lycoming and I received a new oil filler tube with no problems (and this one installed relatively easily).  Specifically, these items were accomplished:

- attached ANL fuse holders and shunts to firewall (w/wife helping); attached all 8AWG cables/ring terminals from alternator to ANL fuses to shunts to unswitched side of starter contactor.  Shunts will measure current flowing from primary and secondary alternators

- deburred, drilled, and riveted cylinder baffles and left aft baffle

- deburred, drilled and riveted right aft baffle and cylinder #3 bridge; attached aft and forward center brackets to engine; applied RTV sealant to left and right aft baffles

- installed both aft baffles to engine (mostly - some nuts/screws need to be final-tightened later)

- assembled left and right forward baffles and air ramps, qqand added strips of red RTV where they touch the engine (will need to cure for 1-2 days before installing on engine)

- installed oil filler tube (w/safety wire); installed front left and right baffles and tightened all screws/nuts

A little out of order, but here is the final wiring for the ANL fuses and shunts (pic below).  One fuse per alternator, and one shunt per alternator, so I can read the current for either on the G3X EFIS.  No need to read battery current - if I'm at the stage whereby I need to know how much current I'm drawing from the battery, then both my primary and secondary alternators have failed (unlikely), and I will be landing ASAP.  Moreover, the EFIS screens have an IBBS (integrated backup battery system), and the G5 backup system has it's own 1 hr internal battery, so the chances of running out of juice are essentially nil. If all else fails, the engine will still run without any external power, and I can communicate via a handheld radio that I carry.  I am a belt, suspenders, another belt, and a few more suspenders kind of guy: