J160 Kit#14 various with Photos

BigPete · December 8, 2007

G'Day Ross,

must be starting to get a bit exciting your end - not long to go now! ;)

My J160c weighed in at 123kg RHS and 120 LHS (no fuel), sorry I don't have weights with full fuel, but one would assume that it would be only a 3kg difference.

This weigh in included engine oil and the POH states the difference must not exceed 0.2% or 10kg which ever is greater. (I think that should say 2%, could be a misprint)

hope this is helpfull

regards

Ross · December 9, 2007

Hi Peter

Yes I can see a distant light that I hope is the end of the tunnel!

I am doing odd bits at the moment. Jamie at Jabiru just rang to verify a scat hose order I made by e-mail on Saturday night - I thought it measured 2 3/16". He said they have 21/4". I said OK.

Thanks for the weight info. What did the front UC wheel go empty?

By the way this J160 only has dual controls as no commitment has been made to actually get in the right hand seat. I hope to convert to duel eventually. But I think my other half is a bit like John Herrmann's wife who is so interested in flying that she is known to read a book while flying with him in their RV8-360. See pic below.

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Caught them at Narrandera flying back from Corryong 20071202 12:48.

Regards

BigPete · December 10, 2007

G'Day Ross - Front UC wheel was 48 kg's - I sometimes wonder why I have a two seat aircraft - my wife prefers to quilt instead of fly so I quite often fly alone (except when my grandson visits on school holidays (soon to be 10), loves to fly, we're going to Narromine next year).

regards

Ross · December 10, 2007

10-12-2007

Peter I might even get to Narromine myself in 2008. The last time was 2004. It will probably depend on if Easter is Early or late in 2008. Just checked Good Friday is 21st March. Might be pushing it if anything goes wrong and there are delays. Plus I already have a niece's wedding to attend in Melbourne. Waiting on inlet manifold hose clamp and scat hose from Bundaberg.

Attached the cowls with most of the bottom screws inserted but not all.

The position of the oil filler and dipstick was marked on the top cowl.

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The factory marked out position for the cover would be better moved over a bit.

Ross · December 14, 2007

11-12-13-14-12-2007

Installed a 3.5mm socket on the instrument panel for "mono music" input to the PM501 intercom. I might also put in a 2.5 mm socket as well.

It works and goes into background mode for the passenger and pilot for any inbound radio calls. If the Intercom is put on "isolate" the pilot does not hear the music at all.

Jabiru parcel arrived on 14th with "induction" hose clamp, 2.25" scat hose, black fuel hose to replace the kit supplied blue plastic line.

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No hose clamps were supplied with the new black fuel hose. It needs about 25 clamps. The original clamps supplied with the original blue plastic (fuel hose?) made me very nervous as they were never tight on the fittings and are too small for the newly supplied black fuel hose. Paul at Jabiru said just buy ordinary hose clamps! My guess is about $50 for 25 clamps.

So filled some more temporary screw holes with epoxied micro-ball filler.

Put the NACA duct together using fibreglass cloth wrapped around the assembly and clamped in place with screws and pieces of scrap fibreglass .

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Prefitted NACA air inlet on bottom cowl & then flock it to the cowl.

Cut the new scat hose ($77.50/metre) from air cleaner mixer to NACA duct mounted on the bottom cowl.

Cut out the access hole in the top cowl for the oil dipstick & filler cap. The new lid for the inspection hole has a magnet to secure it in the closed position against a steel washer super glued to the hinged aluminium lid.

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Flocked the seat for the lid to the cowl after roughing up with an emery block, cleaning with acetone, priming with epoxy.

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The sun in this shot this evening at 20:02 hrs eastern Australia summer time was blood red - Panasonic DMC-FZ5 digital camera does not do it justice.

Cannot fly at Narrandera this weekend as the airfield is closed for resurfacing for two days.

Ross · December 16, 2007

15-16-12-2007

Used Loctite Quick Adhesive (a "10 minute epoxy") to tack the LH Ram air cooling duct opening hole size. The epoxy is a horrible grey colour and sets very quickly and is very hard to get out of the tube - old stock? - although it seems to work very well. It is the same price as 5 minute Araldite in Leeton.

It is easy to mix as the hardener is pure white and the resin is black so when mixed is a uniform grey colour.

Improved mounting hole alignment of cooling ducts to the tappet covers for both LH & RH ducts sides and reinforced the hole positions with an extra layer of fibreglass attached with loctite adhesive.

Every Jabiru I have seen with the top cowl off shows wear in these duct mounting holes.

Pre fitted LH cooling duct & trimmed it to give about a 12 mm or 1/2" gap between the duct and the edge of the cowl air entry hole. This will allow the insertion rubber to be pushed out over the lip once it is fitted.

Fitted insertion rubber supplied to LH cooling duct.

Roughed up the insertion rubber and the matching part of the duct with emery cloth. Cleaned both surfaces with acetone.

Applied quick setting Loctite adhesive to both surfaces and clamped rubber using multiple spring clamps.

Adjusted opening of RH cooling duct to more closely match the cowl openings. Set the opening using epoxy adhesive again.

AS above adjusted the gap between cowl lip and duct to about 12 mm.

Checked the air gap inside the ducts between the duct and the first cylinders on each side. The gaps on both sides would let a lot of air escape without cooling the cylinders.

So made up pieces to tack inside the ducts using the quick set epoxy - they will be flocked in later more securely. These pieces should force most of the air to go over the top of the cylinders and come down between them and over the end ones.

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BigPete · December 16, 2007

Ahhhh - the luxury of the home build - where you can take the time to get it just right. Whereas the factory have to get them out the door to make some money.

You're right about the cowls, mine have elongated holes already (260 hrs). I will follow your lead and make the changes before too long.

Looks great.

regards

Ross · December 17, 2007

Hi Peter

This morning I was speaking to Neville White (see RAAust mag story) who lives at Merungle Hill (Leeton) about the duct attachment holes.

He suggests a nicer solution would be to epoxy some semicircular stainless steel bits to the ducts instead of my fibreglass scraps. The sharp cornered pieces could induce stress concentrations to start off the failure process again.

I am inclined to believe that the fibreglass is getting too hot going by the straw brownish colour that seems to predominate in all the badly worn ones that I have seen. Maybe another solution might be an insulated washer under the duct to keep some of the heat off the fibreglass. Mechanical fuel pumps can have that problem in cars causing vapour locks requiring a heat conducting resistant gasket between it and the engine.

He also suggest using some stand-offs for the wiring cable ties off which I will take some pics for the next post.

I have wired up my instrument lights and note that they draw about 1.5 amps when my mains automatically regulated battery charger is operating. I was wondering if any one knows if LED lights are available for that style of light.

Regards.

Ross · December 17, 2007

17-12-2007

Epoxy, flock & fill both LH & RH side ducts.

Attach insertion rubber to RH air duct using Loctite quick adhesive

Reattach some cable ties using Nev Whites stand-offs.

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Geoff · December 17, 2007

Why did you wire up your instrument lights Ross are you going night flying? we left ours out.

Ross · December 17, 2007

Hi Geoff

I have this theory that the instrument faces should be white and the indicator hands should be black.

So when you switch from looking outside generally at bright light with your eyes with small pupils to inside at the panel your pupils won't have to dilate so much and your eyes have a greater refocus need the more the pupils dilate because of dark instruments.

So if the instrument faces are lit the eyes should not have to adjust so much when switching back & forwards from outside to inside and therefore quicker.

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But they would probably be better if the faces were white like my watch face but it needs better coloured hands or black.

When I was learning to fly the Jab at Griffith it always seemed to take too long to focus on the engine instruments and absorb the message and the radio was even worse being mounted at the bottom of the panel.

If I were doing the panel again I would arrange it in groups so that one glance would cover a whole set of instruments.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm definitely not flying at night.

It was also something that I could get working as the engine has these tags all over it saying something like

"Do not ground run this engine etc...."

Regards

Ross · December 18, 2007

18-12-2007

Pre-fitted & Tacked & then epoxy filled around the aluminium Coil air cooling tubes into LH & RH engine air ducts. They were set up to blow ducted air onto the two coils.

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Rang Jabiru to get the Gap for the Tacho magnetic pick up. For the magnetic pick up, according to Jamie it should be 0.45 mm or 0.018"

As I had already mounted & wired the sensor I had to remove the cable ties, disconnect the wiring and remove the magnetic pick up and the two hexagon lock nuts on it so that the sensor could get near the tab on the back of the starter motor ring gear. I could not get a lock nut on the tab side of the mounting point because of lack of space .

So I set the gap to about 0.42 mm using a bent brass feeler gauge to get into the gap adjusting the knurled nut head of the pick up by hand. Once the gap was set it was locked in place with super glue on the thread.

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The wiring was reconnected & cable ties applied.

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Added brass washers to the throttle & choke controls at the carburettor end of the cables & installed new split pins.

Ross · December 19, 2007

19-12-2007

Added hooks to retaining clips for springs to steady the engine cooling air ducts.

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Blocked an unwanted hole in firewall.

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Started replacing hose and clamps from carburettor back to the wing tanks.

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Removed the elbow from the "electronic" fuel pump so that hose to firewall with inline filter will be curved rather than straight.

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No pic of the assembly connected to firewall yet.

It will be easier to change the in line fuel filter with a gently curved hose.

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Only got as far as the header tank under the pax seat. Middle hose position is fuel from tanks, top position is breather hose position, bottom (black) hose position is fuel from header tank to firewall. The two loose wires are from float switch in the header tank for low fuel level in header tank warning light.

A bit of foregoten wiring to do inserting another warning light in the panel for the low fuel level. I knew that extra red LED would come in handy for something.

Got some more supplies for the Christmas Day billy cart project, paint, timber, and screws.

Ross · December 20, 2007

20-2-2007

Drilled another hole in the panel below the other two warning lights. Inserted the red LED and connected a couple of spades to the wires.

Pulled out the header tank. Extended the wires from the float warning switch. Drilled a hole into the centre console from the recess for the header tank under the seat. Ran the header tank foat switch wires into the centre console to the firewall end of the console.

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Connected one lead from the float switch to the +instrument bus & the other to the +red wire on the red LED.

Connected the black - earth lead on the LED to the earth bus.

Turned on the main switch all warning lights went on. OK.

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Turned the header tank upside down - the low fuel in "header tank warning light" went out. OK.

Ross · December 21, 2007

21-12-2007

Slight digression today. Cleaned out some gutters as a big storm was predicted.

There are some sheep about 150 metres from the camera in pics two and three.

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We ended up with 45 mm of rain here (although Yanco got quite a bit less) probably the biggest single fall of rain we have had for a couple of years but fairly useless for most people at this time of year for this area except perhaps some orchardists. It did top up our water tanks and watered all my wife's pot plants with the overflowing gutters.

The storm is just crossing the Snowy Mountains catchment now. The storm won't make much impression on the dams unless there are many more of them.

Did some work on the small billycart for the grandsons for Christmas day. Basically completed it except for adding a basic rope steering system and the finish coats of paint - only undercoated so far.

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Made the length to the front wheels adjustable and provision for a tow bar and a hand hold at the rear end. Suspension is a bit basic - there is none.

Ross · December 22, 2007

22-12-2007

Finished off the billycart.

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Continued to work on replacing the plastic fuel lines.

The header tank under the pax seat has a problem with the alignment of the hoses. See pics. I shall have to move the hole for the breather line, the top one, up so that there is no reverse slope on the line back to the wing tanks.

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The bottom two lines are probably OK.

But the breather line, the top one for getting rid of air in the header tank needs to be on a continuous rise back to the wing tanks, otherwise it could suffer a failure to get rid of all the air in the header tank due to fuel in the breather line if there is not a continuous rise to the breather in the wing tanks.

The pic indicates that the rod for the brakes is conflicting with the position the line needs to go back into the centre console. I shall have to cut an extra hole above the brake actuating rod and keep the breather line level or on a continuous rise back to the wing tanks.

That will not affect the reliability of the low fuel signal light from the header tank but it could will just occur sooner than normal because the header tank might always have some air in it or it could possibly even occur before there is a low fuel state in the wing tanks especially if the air in the header tank will not or cannot be returned to the wing tanks because of the reverse slopes of the line.

Admin · December 22, 2007

Forget flying Ross, just get stuck into making those Billy carts - they look great! :big_grin:

Ross · December 22, 2007

Thanks Ian

But the proof of the pudding will be the test flight on Tuesday morning by the grandsons (5 yr old & 2 yr old)! It would be safe enough here but their mother would want brakes and an electric motor on it for Sydney suburbs. How much is a set of Jabby disk brakes and a golf cart motor, & charger.

They probably should leave it here but then would probably need an upgrade each year, wider, longer, more powerful, longer range, faster, more load carrying capacity, more instruments (some instruments), more comfortable suspension, more streamlined (less drag) and cheaper to run!

Regards

Admin · December 22, 2007

aaahhhh yes but it is red so it goes faster - I really liked the idea of the turn stops ;)

Ross · December 31, 2007

31-12-2007

Well the billy cart was a success so that our daughter was getting plenty of exercise dragging Tom & then Charlie up and down the driveway before they returned to Sydney. I moved the front wheels out another hole.

A bit of work done on the Jabiru today. The max temp here was about 38 degrees C and about one degree less in the carport garage with the J160.

Cut an extra hole for the top hose - air out - from the header tank so that it was not too sharp a bend and it rose as it exited the header tank.

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Had to buy extra hose locally and discovered that at $7.18/m incl GST it was $1.15 dearer per metre than that supplied by Jabiru but no extra freight.

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Hooked up the flying instruments ASI, VSI and Altimeter the static air hose and the hose for the air speed.

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Had to take a pic with the lid on!

Gotta go and have a red or two!

Ross · January 5, 2008

05-01-2008

Well I think I bought enough black fuel hose to replace all the plastic fuel hose. I have cut most of the pieces to length and hopefully they may only need a bit more cut off as they are hooked up to the wing tanks.

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Still a bit of tidying and securing required. In the meantime all open fuel line ends are blocked with AN4 bolts to prevent our mud wasps etc from finding new homes.

The scat hose was too tight a fit on the cowl fitting so I removed the scat hose and cut about a 1/4" strip out of the fibreglass fitting along its length starting from the open end near the air cleaner. Then it was heated up with a hot air gun and clamped together using the scat hose clamps.

After cooling it was checked for size against the scat tube. It was then roughed up with some emery cloth cleaned with acetone then tacked together with quick setting araldite and a small piece of fibreglass cloth placed across the new join.

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After setting the scat hose was refitted to the fitting.

A better fit with room to finish it off with another layer of glass.

Ross · January 24, 2008

24-01-2008

Well I can't avoid it any more. Did a little bit today secured the fuel lines and the breather line behind the seats with cable ties so that the junction from the two wing tanks can be seen without using a mirror. The wires for the radio jacks are also secured behind the seats with smaller cable ties.

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Made up a bracket to hold the pilot side wing fuel tap - make another one to-morrow.

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Warren Kirkup is proceeding with precision on his Sonex. Look at all those clecoes and rivets.

Ross · January 26, 2008

27-01-2008

Had to watch the tennis and some cricket but I did do some work on the J160.

Made another bracket to hold the passenger side fuel cock and fitted both brackets with fuel cocks. Attached the fuel hoses & clamps to the aircraft pillars. Modified the brackets slightly to allow easier access to the hose clamps.

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I have used my old Magellan 320 GPS on the passenger seat of an LSA 55 Jab and had a good signal when flying cross country from Griffith.

So I decided to modify the Garmin 296 caddy fitted in my J160 so that the built in antenna could be deployed when the 296 is sitting in the caddy negating the need to deploy the external (amplified?) antenna. The way the caddy is set up the built in antenna cannot normally be deployed when the 296 is sitting in the caddy.

There is some possibility that interference from mobile phones may be less if the external amplified antenna is not used.

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The slip & skid ball is not attached & is upside down at this stage.

I may have to move the caddy down the panel a few mm or make a bump in the fibreglass panel support for the built in antenna or a bit of both. If the aluminium panel were replaced with the fibreglass panel as used in the later Jabs it would be even better for the signal.

The flight reported up the red centre where a Garmin 296 external antenna died probably from heat exhaustion stimulated this action.

bushpilot · January 28, 2008

Hi Ross,

Is your Garmin296 mount one of the swivel types? :- http://www.airgizmos.com/prod/pd7/index.asp

Are you going to have an Artificial Horizon?

It's all looking good!

Cheers,

Chris

Ross · January 28, 2008

28-01-2008

Hi Chris at this stage no artificial horizon - would really like to start again with a new fibreglass panel (with a few sheets of spare panel material). Although I do like the idea of those Tru Trak combinations at around $US1000 plus at least an automatic wing leveller (plus a transponder so I could legally fly above 4,500 feet AMSL or 3,500 feet flying east as our thermals would mostly end up above that height even on "blue" days when they are not marked by cumulus clouds).

Today I vacuumed out the luggage area of the J160 plus the tops of the seats and the waste from fitting the new fuel hoses and the wing tank fuel cocks.

Modified the aileron limit bolts by attaching the umbrella bolts with pop rivets under the angular plate. "Loctited" a locknut to one end of each limit bolt and fitted it upside down on the bolt.

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Fitted the bolts so that they could have two lock nuts on each one - one against the angular plate and one against the locktited nut that will act as the limit position. It will be easy to adjust the bolt-nut height by hand and then lock in position with a single spanner

Lowered the Garmin 296 caddy about 4 mm so that the built in antenna can be deployed vertically while the 296 is mounted in the caddy. The antenna can seem to work over a 90 degree range if unencumbered when not in the caddy.

Temporarily mounted the instrument panel and no circuit breakers went off and no wires were too short. The radio and other live items continued to work.

The aircraft was inside the garage with a single brick wall around three sides and a large closed wooden door behind it and it was close to a normal house wooden door facing outside and the GPS 296 was able to pick up a single satellite. So it will probably be fine with a horizon unencumbered by brick walls, trees and a tile roof.

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Chris's solution would have been better and far easier to fit the angular caddy which he says can be surface mounted on the panel and improve the angle view if it is not mounted in front of the pilot. I have modified my caddy a bit to give a slight angle towards the pilot. I also have a tinted windscreen so that should help the readability of any lit glass instruments - hence the instrument lights in case it makes it too dark.

But there are no lights on the flying instruments!

PS See the fencing wire - it had many applications around the construct.