With apologies to Meredith Wilson (author of the Music Man), we’ve altered the lyrics to “Pick a Little, Talk a Little”….by a little bit.

Our twenty (plus) year old quick-build F1 Rocket kit came covered in a variety of twenty (plus) year old vinyl and plastic—white stuff, clear stuff, blue stuff, green stuff—and getting it off is a long-term project in itself. Anyone who has left the plastic on their aluminum parts for years knows—the longer it stays on, the harder it is to get off!

We live in the desert, so we aren’t really concerned with corrosion during the build process but we don’t want this old plastic and glue to become anymore cemented than it already is. So we’re devoting a fairly large amount of the early build time peeling (stripping, chipping, dissolving…) the stuff off. It makes for a peaceful respite when you’re trying to envision an upcoming set of holes to measure and drill, or thinking through a problem or way of doing something better.

So….we build a little, then pick a little, then build a little—and pick a little. For some things (the thicker white plastic) heat is your friend, but not too much! For other things (the cracked, baked-on white vinyl) it was a combination of GooGone gel, heat, paint stripper, and scrapers. And when you get frustrated with the pickin’ you can always go back to building!

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He writes: “My thoughts behind it were that I’d have all my avionics and wiring tools on one side of the plane so to avoid constantly tripping over the nose wheel and getting up and down off a step stool I’ll build a comfortable working height platform with places to put tools and wiring. Mine is 18”. I’m on the shorter side so this seemed a good height. Obviously adjust and build around your plane as desired. I figure I’ll probably be at the wiring for a good amount of time so about 4-5 hours of time building this would probably pay for itself.

Only likely addition is an easel of sorts on the aft side of the shelves to put my wiring diagrams.”

See John’s project in the EAA Builder Log.

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Everyone knows that “Boxing Day” is December 26th (an old-world holiday that few celebrate on our side of the pond). This year, we celebrated “Unboxing Day” in our shop when a large container of goodies showed up from Steinair on the 3rd of January! This stack of little Garmin boxes represent the avionics suite for our new F1 Rocket project.

Yes, we just started building, and yes, I am happy buying avionics early—mostly because I want to add wiring for everything early in in the build so it is accommodated without having to drag wires through completed structures later on. I have never believed in the “don’t buy your avionics until you’re ready to put gas in it, because something better might come along” philosophy. I set my requirements, buy to those requirements, and am happy that what I bought meets those requirements. I will say that I have lot of experience in setting my requirements, so I rarely go back and say “oh, I could have had X.”  I personally don’t worry much about warranties expiring and if the nextgen avionics come with a neural net interface making a display obsolete, I can live with it.

For this airplane, we’re basically going VFR with a bit of IFR capability, just in case. That means a single (large) screen G3X Touch with a single AHRS- but also a G5 backup display that can also serve to back up the G3X AHRS. There are two Comms – one panel mounted, one remote – both can be controlled by the EFIS, but if the EFIS goes dark, I can still tune the panel-mounted unit and fly by the G5. I like the Garmin autopilot panel (we have two G3X Touch airplanes already, one with the panel, one without, and the panel makes life easier), and it visually balances the GNX 375—a combo transponder/ADS-B in & Out/IFR GPS. Since I am going to have the transponder/ADS-B capability anyway, adding the ability to shoot IFR approaches for a couple thousand dollars was a no-brainer.

That “new avionics smell” that comes with a “Big Box ‘O Garmin” is hard to beat…now on to planning the wiring harness!

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What follows is the collection of tools that always seem to be on my bench or roll-around project cart when wiring is involved. My tools carry some custom marking. For example, I put a small red Sharpie mark on the slot for 22-gauge wire in my Ideal stripper. There’s also a silver mark on the correct die for the first Molex crimp. This trick can help cut the time it takes for repetitive tasks and improve your accuracy.

End or Flush Cutters

Nothing more frustrating than to pull your arm back through some small access point in the instrument panel to see you’ve been cut raw by the tang ends of zip ties. A good set of end cutters is useful for not only trimming the tails off flush with the clamp but for removing old ones. I’ve used these Hakko miniature side-cutters for some time with great luck. Buy a three pack because you’ll be tempted at least once to use them for something bigger than they can handle and a dented or bent side cutter is next to worthless.

Molex Crimp Tool

Like many builders, I have a love/hate relationship with Molex’s lightweight plastic connector series. Truth is, I find the lightweight versions really useful. When I installed my new Garmin GTR 200 com radio, I didn’t have everything to connect to it, but I stubbed out four audio sources (two in, plus music in and recorded audio out) and the RS-232 data. The smaller Molex connectors (with the 0.062-inch pins) are perfect for this, especially since you can order the pins and sockets for exactly the wire gauge you’re using. The trick to happiness here is the right crimper tool, which I bought from B&C Specialty Products many years ago. The BCT-2 ($39) works wonderfully on these smaller Molex pins and sockets. I’d tried several “off the shelf” crimpers but this is the only one that performs consistently well, making the double-inverted-U crimps accurately, even on the thinner insulator found with Tefzel wire.

Incidentally, the official Molex extraction tool is good but fairly expensive. These have worked well for me.

Ideal Stripmaster

A wire stripper is arguably one of the most important of the wiring tools. I’ve tried a bunch, from a pull-style stripper, common plier-type stripper and others. The best by far is the Ideal Stripmaster. Understand that there are several versions of the Stripmater but the one you want is the 45-097, which I also purchased from B&C for $69. It has the correct dies for the most common Tefzel wires you’ll be stripping. (In fact, in my recent project, I’d say 90% of the wires are 22 gauge.) Once you get the hang of using the Stripmaster, it’s easy to correctly strip the right length of insulation for D-Sub pins, Molex pins and sockets, butt and ring terminals plus much more. A wire stop tool is an add-on but with some practice you’ll get good estimating the proper amount of strip for the terminal at hand.

D-sub Tool

Face it, working with D-sub connectors can be frustrating. I’ve lost track of how many of those red/white (or green/white, for high density) tools I’ve bent or otherwise obliterated while trying to extract seated pins or sockets. Yes, it could be my caveman-like approach but these tools have always vexed me. Not this one. I happened upon this while perusing Amazon and it’s likely to be available under various brands, but mine is the JReady and has worked beautifully for some time. The trick is, as you may know, to use the tool to insert directly into the back of the connector and twist to release the pin or socket. Any angle can bend even this tool and only frustrate you. And while I really like this tool, I can’t seem to find its equivalent for the high-density pins used on some Garmin equipment.

Ratcheting Crimper

Here’s another one of those slight extravagances that pays back with time saved and better-quality work. There are a bunch of these on the market, but I found this Klein version at my local big-box store and it’s performed well for years. Once set up, you’ll get consistent crimps in insulated terminals every time. (Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pull-test them, but anything to improve your consistency is a good thing.)

Coax Stripping Tool

I’ve had this Knipex tool in my kit for many years. It’s designed to strip coaxial cable in one motion. Using three blades, it strips the outer sheath, the braid and the insulation around the center conductor. While each blade can be adjusted for the depth of cut, I’ve left mine set so the center conductor is slightly shallow, which gives me the chance to finish the cut manually and inspect the center conductor carefully. If you cut into the center conductor, the pin for the BNC or TNC connector might not seat properly. I’ve used this tool for years and it still cuts well. By the way, use the RG-58 setting to cut the preferred RG-400 coax.

Coax Crimping Tool

This is another tool I bought from B&C and it works splendidly well with the common BNC and TNC connectors you’ll find in aircraft. Plus, B&C has a simple tutorial on its website on how to use the tool.

Wire Spoon

Another one of those tools you don’t know you need until, well, you need it. We’ve all finished up a harness, tidy and neat, only to discover there’s one more wire to add. The Wire Spoon allows you to sneak a wire into an existing harness without too much drama. Be careful, though; the tip is sharp enough to pierce skin. Ask me how I know…

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Okay, then. The countdown.

10. JK-2 Nano Ultralight Gyroplane Introduces Hirth Engine

News from AirVenture this year included this piece by Steve Ashby, highlighting the JK-2’s adaptation of the Hirth two-stroke engine as an alternative to the Polini.

9. Robert Hagg’s Rotax-powered RV-4

Ken Scott’s feature on adaptation of the Rotax 915 iS to the RV-4 airframe garnered plenty of views in 2023. “Builders like Robert Haag have given us a look at what’s possible with a modern internal combustion engine, engineering skill and good craftsmanship,” Scott summed up.

8. TL Sport Sparker Introduction

Steve Ashby’s coverage from AirVenture included the introduction of the Sparker LSA. “The list price for a Sparker, with a Rotax 912 ULS and full panel is $320,500. A 915 turbo Rotax will end up closer to $370,000, but the fluctuating Euro may well lower the final price tag,” Ashby noted. He also said there were no Sparkers in the U.S., but we know one has arrived. We’ll fly it as soon as we can.

7. DeltaHawk Intro at AirVenture

The long-gestating, Jet A-fueled DeltaHawk engine received FAA certification in 2023 and was the subject of several stories throughout the year.

6. Van’s Announces Recovery Plan

One of our many stories covering Van’s Aircraft’s Chapter 11 filing late last year included this one, which predated the bankruptcy filing.

5. “Thump Air” Engine

Another of Steve Ashby’s gems from AirVenture this year covered the introduction of the Thump Air single-cylinder ultralight engine.

4. VW Engine Case Changes

This was part of Kerry Fores’ feature on Volkswagen-based engines to appear in 2023, and discussed how VW had finished supporting the Beetle’s engine parts in 2022, and what the alternatives looked like.

3. Viking Turbo Triple

Tom Wilson caught up with Viking Engines at AirVenture 2023 and was told all about the new 140-hp turbo engine being developed (based on a GM three-cylinder engine) to compete with Rotax’s 915 iS and 916 iS engines.

2. Yusimiti Engine

In truth, we almost missed this one, but Tom Wilson cast his gaze upon this conventional looking engine from Taiwan. The 110-hp engine hews to Lycoming architecture but has some significant differences.

1. 17 Kits for Under $25K

Proof that low cost alternatives are always popular, this feature, which was written in early 2020 and published that Spring, was our #1 web story in 2023. Just like it was in 2021. Some of the information is out of date, so we’ll start working on an updated version as soon as the New Year’s champagne wears off.

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Homebuilt aircraft are almost always just fine when built according to the construction plans, but we homebuilders enjoy improving things. We like our stuff to look better than stock.

Such is the case with the fuel caps on my GlaStar. There is nothing wrong with the “tractor” gas caps that are supplied with the kit, but they stick out like a sore thumb on the sleek shape of my airplane. It would be hard to find any measurable difference in drag between the stock and flush caps, but the flush ones just look better.

When I finished polishing the wings, I installed the “tractor” filler necks and caps, and immediately realized that style of gas cap didn’t belong. It didn’t make sense to me that an airplane equipped with leather seats, a shiny Thunderbolt engine, and modern glass avionics would also be sporting parts better suited to aircraft from a different era.

As far as improvements go, this one was easy. All it took was an order from Aircraft Spruce and a couple of hours of work, but the result is pleasing to me and that’s all that matters. I tried one thing, didn’t like it, and I improved it. So, go ahead, improve the things you think are worth improving on your homebuilt. Just keep it safe and consider that any change will add time to your build, although, if you were in a rush, you wouldn’t have started a homebuilt, right?

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About ten days before Christmas, we fell into an incredible deal on an F1 Rocket kit (and a motor!) that was located in central Indiana. The financials worked out, and it was clear there was nothing to slow us down getting the kit to our home in Nevada except 2,000 miles of winter driving. I looked at U-Haul… I could rent a truck for about $2900, add gas to the tune of about $1200 more – add airline tickets at the last minute, rental cars, hotels – it was going to cost five or six grand and take at least three or four days – of winter driving.

But wait! There is a company set up specifically to transport precious cargo liek aircraft, aircraft kits, and kit cars—Stewart Transport, based in Phoenix, Arizona. Stewart had long established connections with kit-car maker Factory Five Racing, and already knew the custom transport business when Tony Partain, a longtime custom transporter of aircraft kits decided it was time to retire. Stewart absorbed Partain’s business—and the care he put into each and every delivery—and became a serious option for those needing a kit delivered to their door without damage. Traditional motor transport carriers seem to get a little careless with their forklifts at times.

I dropped a note to Stewart about a trip from Indiana to Carson City, expecting that it would have to be set up for January, but lo and behold they had a driver in the Carolinas looking to get home to Phoenix for the holidays, and they’d rather have a paying load than an empty truck for the trip. Stewart priced the load at $5500, and said they could make the pickup in two days and the delivery three days later. What wasn’t to like? We shook hands over the internet, and I turned my attention to preparing a place for all the parts of the kit. The driver made the pickup on time, with the seller (Vince Frazier of Team Rocket Aircraft) helping load the otherwise empty trailer. I was kept informed via texts and calls of the progress, and Mark, the driver arrived fifteen minutes ahead of his predicted time. The airpark neighborhood turned out to help with the unload, and everyone was impressed with the care with which the kit was packed, loaded, and transported. The onboard crane made unloading the IO-540 simple and  Mark was on his way an hour after arriving, heading out to pick up a load bound for Arizona.

While I greatly enjoy travel and driving long distances, Stewart was a no-brainer when it came to bringing this cargo across the country safely, swiftly, and with care. With costs about the same as if I did it myself, it was easy to let the pros handle the entire process!

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My most recent project was some jacking points for our big metal bush plane. For some reason, the design incorporated no good way to get the plane off the ground for wheel and tire maintenance- that reason probably being that it was original designed as a floatplane. Over the years, I have maintained it using straps wrapped around the gear legs and lifted it with an engine hoist. I wanted to use a simple hydraulic jack, but there was no place to “grab” down by the axle – hence the need for some jack points extending inboard from the axle attachment nuts.

The project was certainly educational, and those of you with lots of experience welding will chuckle at my expense when I say that the first set taught me that I had to tack weld the shaft to the base plate before welding around it—yup, it ended up crooked. the second attempt I did the tack welding, but didn’t have it clamped tight enough, so it still moved a little, and once again, it was crooked. On my third set, I figured out a way to truly clamp the shaft and baseplate to the welding table so they couldn’t move when I tack welded… and yes, when I chucked up the welded part in the lathe to clean up the base, the final pair were nice and true! Of course, the parts for each assembly (the shaft and the baseplate) had to be shaped on the lathe each time before welding, so I got to practice my machining skills numerous times as well.

In the end, I didn’t just end up with the jack points (which worked out really well in lifting the airplane) – I also ended up spending educational (and entertaining) hours in the shop perfecting my machining and welding skills which is what this endeavor is all about

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My first thought was that there could be a data mismatch, though the on-again/off-again nature more suggested a partially broken wire or a pin coming out of a connector somewhere. I asked the owner for the wiring diagram. To my surprise, he didn’t have one. He asked the avionics shop that did the installs—he’s not the builder of this airplane and elected to let the pros do the work—but after some delay they responded with a dismissive, “We didn’t do a diagram because it’s a simple system in an Experimental,” or words to that effect.

OK, so I’m starting from square one. Like many of Garmin’s handheld GPSes, the aera 660 has two serial channels available when installed with the aviation mount and bare-wire harness. Fortunately, the G5 has a feature showing whether connected data lines are working by showing either a green check or a red X; green means it’s communicating properly, red not so much. Because I had no documentation, I had to guess at the physical configuration. How is the aero connected to the G5 and the autopilot? Which ports are in use? How are they supposed to be configured? All questions without a ready answer because of a lack of documentation.

By working through all the possible combinations of data type and baud rate (on both serial lines from the aera) and watching the G5, we were able to determine that the G5 wasn’t seeing the RS-232 data. We restarted all units and tried again. Nothing. Not only that, but the xCruze confirmed that it wasn’t seeing the GPS data, either. (Cleverly, the track display changes colors to indicate what kind of GPS/position data it’s seeing.)

So now it was a matter of tracing the wires, not an altogether easy task on this small homebuilt. I was lucky enough that the power and data wires from the G5 were visible and not bundled with something else. From that, I could tell the aera was connected directly to the G5’s single RS-232 input without any interconnections. How, then, did the autopilot get its needed GPS reference? To learn the answer, I had to pull the AP head and take apart the connector back shell, only to discover the wire connecting to the TruTrak’s RS-232 input disappeared into a large and tightly bundled wire set. Without documentation, I had no idea where the other end was connected. To the Garmin GAD 29 ARINC 429 converter? Nope, no serial outputs there. To the second serial output from the aera GPS? Nope, it was bare.

How the heck was this thing wired? One clue came from the owner who said that the autopilot was never able to follow a flight plan on the GPS. I know from experience that even a simple GPS like the aera 660 will output a flight-plan sequence that the TruTrak can fly, if properly configured and connected. From that I deduced that the TruTrak was never connected to the GPS in a meaningful way. Another hour running a replacement RS-232 connection from the aera’s second serial output to the autopilot did the trick, though I was careful to tie off (and not clip) the existing serial wire in case I’d broken some other functionality. Again, this was more a hope than a certainty given that no one had written down what was connected to what in the particular airplane.

The avionics shop that did the work might just say to follow the examples in the manuals. All well and good but that doesn’t help when your specific example isn’t in the books at all. In fact, the TruTrak manual gives examples of how to directly connect to a GPS source, either panel mount or portable. This airplane wasn’t set up in any way resembling these suggestions.

In the end, connecting the TruTrak to the aera 660 directly gave it a more reliable signal and the ability to follow course guidance, proven by test flights. The original problem? Caused by a bad splice between the aera’s harness and the wire leading to the G5. A simple mechanical problem. One that would have been much more easily understood with a wiring diagram to weed out other possibilities.

The point is this: Even basic documentation can help make troubleshooting simpler and faster, either for you (whose time is very cheap) or the avionics shop (whose time isn’t.) It doesn’t have to be elaborate and can be greatly assisted by cogent marking of wires and bundles in the airplane. Think about the next person working on the airplane you build.

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Here’s the play in the stick before we started—definitely something to fix! Unnoticeable in flight, it was annoying on the ground.

The motion is between the stick sleeve (a piece of steel tubing welded into the stick) and the bushing – the bushing doesn’t rotate on the bolt. It took about ten minutes to remove the seat and the stick close-outs, then take the pivot bolt out and remove the stick (after removing the bolts that attach the aileron pushrods). The design is simple: The stick pivots side-to-side on a bushing/bolt where the bushing is held tight onto the mixer assembly (which allows pivoting fore and aft).

After removing the existing bushing, which was originally sized on a drill press with a file (primitive, I know), it was apparent that there was noticeable play. In order to make it right, we started with some brass rod from McMaster-Carr (the flat-rate shipping costs more than the material, so always order extra). The first step was to use a reamer to clean up the sleeve in the stick – this was a few thousandths oversized from stock, but since I was customizing the bushing, the drawing sizes weren’t as important as the final fit. With the sleeve reamed, we then chucked the raw stick into the lathe and began to turn it down, stopping when it was almost – but not quite – small enough to fit in the sleeve. I then stopped using the cutting tool and switched to a file (checking fit at each step), then emery cloth, and finally 1,000 grit sandpaper. Brass is soft—it’s easy to take too much away, and then you have to start over… hence, the need for more stock than you need!

I tried the new bushing in the stick sleeve quite a few times in the process, finally achieving a smooth fit with no apparent play – the stick was in the vice, and I had to remove the work piece from the lathe chuck each time but getting a good fit was worth the effort.

With the outside diameter finished, I then began to bore out the center, which needed to fit the AN4 (1/4”) bolt. I started drilling it out with an “A” sized drill, then proceeded in steps (B, C, D) until I had a perfect fit with the bolt I was using—that turned out to be a “D” drill, and the bolt just fit through with a light tapping. Again, the brass is really soft, and it doesn’t take much in the way of chips or dust to change the fit, so blow it out as you go. Oh yes, the first one I did with a 1/4” reamer—the fit was sloppy, not because the reamer was out of dimension, but because the bolt was a thousandth or so too small. This was a custom job, done by sneaking up on the final size.

The stick was clamped upside-down in the bench vise the whole time, so I was able to check the fit as I went – fitting both the bushing and the bolt to the stick ensured a perfect fit with no play. I used a touch of oil to make it perfectly smooth until satisfied.

Finally, I re-installed the stick, and getting those aileron pushrods re-attached took considerably longer than the ten minutes it too to take them ff – there is darn little room to work in the RV-3, and getting the spacer washers in place is fiddly. But the results were remarkably better!

It’s hard to get a perfect fit without precision machining capability, but once you have flown with no play in the controls, there is no going back!

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