J230 @ YSWG

[Captain]

Kit arrived today.

 

All unpacked and am very happy with Jabiru's work and standard of all components.

 

Attached are a couple of pics.

 

Will post weekly updates.

 

Regards Geoff

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest micgrace]

Plenty of work ahead of you. Fibreglass work looks excellent. Good luck and safe flying.

 

Micgrace :)

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Nice. You've done a bit of work on it thus far from what I can see.

 

About an hour or two ticking off what came in the kit and taking the

 

components out of the box and laying them on the floor.

 

You now have 597.5 building hours to go to completion and fly-away... no time for work conferences in Sydney, hop to it.

 

 

[Admin]

WOW, fantastic and congratulations - I can see this is going to be a long thread as hopefully you will let us all help you through the build

 

process by keeping us informed on how you are going, each step of the way - keep the pictures coming ;)

 

 

[Captain]

Spent Week 1 getting "organized".

 

Read initial Instructions numerous times, getting better stands, buying heaters (FNQ viewers please ignore), fitting blister packs to the wall, buying tools to suit imperial (again), assembling wheels, planning panel, inverted the fuselage, undertaking initial glassing, read all manuals etc etc.

 

Have found that it is good fun emptying blister packs and throwing them out .. (I am a simple soul).

 

Still a happy builder.

 

Regards Geoff

 

 

 

 

 

[Student Pilot]

So your turning it into a low wing jobby then? ;)

 

 

[Captain]

You are supposed to make your decision very early in the buying process about whether you want a high-wing or low-wing design. I am not revisiting that this time.

 

However my wife has requested an undertaking that I will not put the fuselage back in that position again ..... particularly while she is in

 

it.

 

 

[Geoff]

I remember the start :confused: was a lot of fun, would do it again if she who must be obeyed would be in it :black_eye: enjoy Cheers Goeff

 

 

 

[Ed Herring]

Hi Geoff

 

I wonder if she who must be obeyed would like to build one for herself? You could offer to help of course...and she does have her own car i suppose! Same difference...!

 

Regards and well done!

 

Ed

 

 

[Captain]

Thanks for your post Geoff.

 

I agree with you, and while I'd rather be flying it, I am having a ball with the building - see attached pics and the dog is having a good time too, as I am spending more time in the shed with her than with my wife.

 

This week sees the Brakes, Trim, Controls and flap drive installed and substantially complete pending disassembly for painting.

 

Main undercarriage is done and lots of blister packs have been emptied so that must be good.

 

Engine mounts and flap cross drive now off being painted.

 

Panel design is complete.

 

Have spent considerable time just reading the futuresections of the manual to gain an appreciation of what is to come and the interface + interdependancy of various items.

 

Now just past 72 hours in my builder's log.

 

Regards The/an other Geoff

 

Captain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Captain]

Have been a bit slack with photos over the last 3 weeks (it's a bugger when business interferes with your fun ), so here are a couple more, althoughhave been getting on with the building OK ;) .

 

Has been a bit cool here lately, so as Ross mentioned in one of his recent posts, I have hooked up 2 large electric fan heaters and a gas patio heater so can maintain the fuselage at 20 C while glassing etc, however the electricity meter is going like a Helicopter rotor :confused: and the gas bottle is getting a workout.

 

Having a ball :devil:

 

PS .. the dog sleeps on the blanket & pillow under the fuselage. Not me (yet).

 

. Captain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Captain]

Since the last post have been working mainly down the blunt end.

 

Pics show horiz. stab end caps on, elevatoron, elevator end caps on, rudder fitted and playing around with panel location to suit long legs.

 

Apologies that shed is such a mess. Will do better next time.

 

Heaters working well. Gas Co share price is going thru the roof

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Captain]

G'day All

 

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted any pics and I have really been clocking the hours .... although in retrospect it is a little hard to see in the photos below.

 

Have just gone through 175 mhrs in my building log, and a lot of hrs have been spent in the past 2 weeks on surface preparation of the fuselage. I assume/hope that the hours spent sanding andsmoothing will show dividends in the final appearance. I'm just learning all aboutthis& reckon that this is not a Jabiru specific issue as all kits will need good preparation to get the paint & appearance right ...so I hope it pays off when we paint it in a month or 2.

 

Given all my aching muscles, yards & yards of used sandpaper and the fact that every square inch of my shed & its contents are now covered in white "bog" dust, please don't criticise the finishat next year's Natfly. If you don't like the way it looks, just stay schtumm or I'll get depressed.

 

Reasonable progress up the sharp end as you can see. The nose leg is off to the powder-coaters tomorrow.

 

Initial instruments have arrived and I hope to be able to post some pics of the panel soon.

 

Regards to all - now back to the shed.

 

Captain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest micgrace]

Hi geoff,

 

Looks great

 

Bet you could have done with some fancy body work equipment for the sanding.

 

Micgrace :)

 

 

[Captain]

Lots more elbow grease in preparing the finish of the fuselage, filling and sanding and filling some more to get everything nice and smooth. :black_eye: There is a lot of work in that but I am probably being too fussy.However a baby would be please to have a bum so smooth.

 

Roger from Naranderah (from this forum) and 2 of his partners called over a week or so ago for a chat and a look. They have a J230 being built in the factory, so this gave them a chance to see one part built. It looks like it is now a race to see who will be flying first.

 

I've been told today that the delivery on factory built aircraft is now out to April 2007, so well done to Jabiru. What a great success story :star: for a Skippy company. It looks like buyers are voting with their wallets and are also prepared to wait.

 

Progress has been made around the firewall, see pic below, as has the trial assemply/mock-up of the panel .... also see pic below. The panel is yet to be tricked up and painted, so that is nowhere near the finished product.

 

Am still enjoying the building and I have to say that the staff at Jabiru have been terrific in answering my questions and requirements, so 3 thumbs to them ;) ;) ;) .

 

Now back to the shed.

 

Captain

 

 

 

 

[Captain]

Doors are half done. Hope to have pics of that milestone after the weekend, but the FA18's at Temora will soak up a day of this weekend.

 

If you are going to Temora, I'm the bloke with white dust in almost every orifice.

 

Lots more of this as per the pics. Who is that masked man? Don't know what made the insect eyes. Must be the dust onmy glasses.

 

Those pics were taken at 10 pm tonight after putting in a 13 hour day, mainly on the doors. I am told by my mate Nosmo that the doors need 3 solid days to get them done.

 

Have just clicked through 325 manhours so far.

 

Still having a ball ..... and the Dynon arrives in the next couple of days.

 

Hopefully better pics next week.

 

Regards to all

 

Captain

 

 

 

 

[Guest Roger]

Hi Geoff,

 

A quick note to thankyou for letting us invade your shed the other week! You are doing one hell of a job on the machine - the finished item will be a top class unit.

 

We took away alot of info from our couple of hours including moving to the bigger EFIS Dynon. With the firmware upgrade a small EMS on the passenger side will let us flip between EFIS and EMS on the main screen. I suppose there is ia bit extra security in having the second unit and it gives the passenger something to look at.

 

Well the race is on to see if we can both have our 230's at "Wings over Wagga" It will be touch and go to see if the YNAR unit will be off the Jabiru production line - either way I will get over there!

 

Cheers

 

Roger

 

Roger

 

 

[Captain]

Thanks Roger. Glad that you and your mates found it useful.

 

Keep us advised of the progress of yours ... however I think you'll win the race.

 

Well, with regard to overall progress, I've finally been able to fill those 3 big holes in the side of the fuselage ... see attached pics which show theinitial trimming of the doors ready to start to connect them to the hinges.

 

Am also working today on the fairing of the elevator as shown.

 

Plus the Dynon FlightDEK 180 arrived today. Looks swish ...and the 6 cylinderwiring loom is also pretty flash. It looks like there are sensors for the sensors.

 

Regards to all

 

Geoff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest AusDarren]

Hi; I have to say I am most impressed with your efforts, and a big thanks for sharing your progress with us all. I have watched the Teckair DVD of building a J160, I am seriously considering undertaking building a J430 myself, So I am really interested.

 

A couple of questions, what have you needed to buy that wasn't supplied with the kit? (I'm trying to get a handle on how much to allow up my sleeve.)

 

Have you built before?

 

Any hurdles you havent felt comfortable in tackling?

 

How much extra did the Dynon add to the cost? did you source it yourself or order it through Jabiru?

 

Many thanks for your Posts, I am really enjoying watching your Progress

 

Regards,

 

Darren Latta

 

AusDarren

 

 

[Captain]

G'day Darren. I see that this was your 1st post so welcome to the forum and thanks for your interest in my little bit of it.

 

I'm glad that you find it useful as I was a bit toey about putting my build up like I have, however Ian was encouraging so I did it for 2 main reasons. The 1st was that it might be of interest to someone, and the other was that once I started it would enforce some discipline on me to keep the project cooking along, rather than taking protracted breaks.

 

The following attempts to answer all of your questions, but please come back if you want to know anything else.

 

No, this is my first aircraft building effort.

 

I'm reasonably comfortable tackling it all, however I'm probably slow while getting comfortable. The approach I'm taking is to read the Instructions a few times and try to fully think thru each step. I find that if I read them 3 or 4 times it all becomes clear. There have been a number of areas where I have contacted several blokes on this forum who are building or who have completed aircraft and they have been very helpful. Pictures of other aircraft are invaluable for checking/double checking some key points. Like the old expression says ... measure twice and cut once. Well, in my case I read 4 times, think about it inexorably, look at pics 5 times, measure 6 times, think again, remeasure and then cut.

 

One of the things about fibreglass is that once you have the glassing technique down pat, it is pretty easy to work with, a breeze to cut and is pretty forgiving.

 

I also go back to Jabiru on key issues and have found them very helpful.

 

As I chose to go with Dynon's new FlightDEK 180 which is their combined EFIS & EMS and which has only recently been released, I contacted Dynon with my usual questions and they nominated Horsham Aviation Services as their Aussie Agent, so I bought from them so as to be sure to preserve the Supplier/Warranty stream, just in case there are any issues with the new model. All up it was a tad over $6000 Aussie and Horsham quoted exactly what is on Dynon's website in $US. I also bought the Dynon Jabiru 3300 6 cylinder sensor kit and loom etc + a few of the other options (internal battery, outside Air temp etc). That is all on Dynon's website, asare their 180 Installation Guide and Operating Instructions. Horsham's service has been terrific & friendly. They checked for stock of the new modeland had the unitto mein just a couple of weeks.

 

Have also ordered from Horsham an AirGizmo mount for the Avmap and that should be here soon.

 

With regard to overall costs, you need to allow about $2000 - $3000 for tools, consumables, painting and final weighing etc.

 

Avionicscan cost a bomb if you want to go all flash with the latest. Bearing in mind that the basic aircraft works fine, it is easy to forget what an EFIS, EMS,latest moving map, Transponder, UHF, etc can add but it's easy to add $10,000 to $15,000 to the basic kit if that type of gear turns you on.

 

I have been thinking about getting the J230 kit ever since they first released the larger 3rd door model. If you are interested like I was and get all of the right tools for the job, then I would definitely recommend it to you. There is nothing that your basic handyman can't handle and if anything worries you there is heaps of help out there. I reckon that I could now put you in touch with 5 or 10 guys who have completed J's and all of whom would go out of their way to help you on any issues. Just yesterday I asked Nosmo for some pics of his door jam area where I thought I needed somehelp ... and he has emailed me shots taken from his aircraft today. Jabiru have done the same thing on a couple of issues wherethey went out into the factory and took some pics for me.You would get the same help .... so go for it.

 

One of the things that is key is that I have structured things so that I can basically dedicate most of my time to the project, although I've been buggerising around with cattle for most of the day today. I'm averaging about 130 hours per month on the aircraft so far. It would be harder if I was trying to do that every night after work ... Ross might comment.

 

Ross is building a J160 95 klicks west of here. Perhaps he might care to give his opionion on that. What's your views on the above Ross .... or Nos ... or any of you other blokes who are doing it or have done it before.

 

With regard to reporting progress .... I have now finished the final rubdown of the Fuselage with fine paper and have all of the pinholes and starcracks looking good and just about ready for undercoat - see pics below.

 

Also started on the lower cowl by aseembling and adding the engine naca air intake - also shown below.

 

Still having a good time.

 

Regards Geoff

 

Captain

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest AusDarren]

Thanks for your comprehensive answers.. I do feel very encouraged..

 

I look forward to seeing your progress all the way to C of A

 

Regards,

 

Darren Latta

 

 

[Ross]

Hi Geoff & Darren

 

I generally agree with what Geoff has said.

 

I am building a J160 in our double carport which has a ceiling that is about 50 mm above the top of the tail of my J160 when the front wheel is on the ground. This makes rollingthe aircraft very difficult once any part of the tail assembly is attached. So the first point is to ensure that you have at least (I was going to say "a couple of feet") 600 mm space above the tail and preferably a lot more.

 

For mixing epoxy and hardener in a ratio of 3 to 1 by weight I use an old pair of Post Office scales. I use about 50 only 5/16" nuts as the weights to balance the scales. So I start with a pot on each side to balance the scales then justmake abatch with various starting points like 3 nuts weight of epoxy and 1 nut of hardener, or 6 nuts of epoxy and two nuts of hardener etc.

 

Apparently the relative humidity is important for the curing of epoxy. I think it needs to be below about 70% but check it out and temperature needs to be above 16 degrees Centigrade preferably above 25 degrees. Apparently curing if stopped by low temperature will continue once the temperature rises again but the job needs to be kept in alignment or contact untill the full curing has occurred.

 

Lifting or supporting the fuselage in a sling could be an option. I got a slingmade by our local tarpaulin manufacturer from the material that seat belts are made from, about $50. SoI can lift one endor the whole aircraft using an "engine crane"and gradually rotate the fusein its sling before lowering it onto a trestle or its wheels.

 

The most usefull hand tool I have bought is a carbide tipped paint scraper with a replaceable blade anda nice plastic handle. It is great for dressing up epoxy,epoxy-flock and epoxy-microballs. It has saved me heaps of sanding. I have yet to replace the blade.

 

I also found a very good scissor type tool at a local hardware shop for about $22 that will readily cut fibreglass cloth. It has on blade finely serrated which stops the fibreglass cloth slipping out when being cut. An ordinary pair of scissors is hopeless for that job.

 

Anotheruseful tool isa simple board with a handle like a concrete trowel for holding sandpaper especially 400 grit paper.

 

A good orbital sander is a must but make sure that it takes standard width rectanular shaped paper so that you only have to cut for length not width as well. Cutting up good quality sandpaper with your wife's scissors won't do them much good or you.

 

The orbital sander needs holes through the paper and base so that sanded material can be continuously removed by its own dust extraction system. Despite that alwayswear a dust mask when sanding even when using the hand powered version.

 

When using the hand powered sander I periodically tap contact the full face of it onto something like a towel and that will remove most of the cut material from the sandpaper. If you let that material build up it can start marking the job as well as producing an uneven sanding.

 

I buy my sandpaper in rolls of either 50 metres or 100 metres. You canprobably geta 50% discount compared to buying a couple of metres at a time.

 

I have spent around +$2,000 on paint and accesseries so far. I discovered that high fill undercoat paint needs a different nozzle size to the final coat after I bought the spray gun. Probably a gravity gun with the resevoir on top is a better buy than the standard type gun.

 

Because the paint is expensive (and carcinogenic), especially thetwo part stuff, I also bought a small touch up gun so that I can do small parts or touch up an area and have better control of it.

 

Two part paint is difficult to mix because it has to be mixed in fairly accurate amounts. I use a couple of different size poly measuring containers and cylinders all the way down to 50 ml. The trouble is that they have to be cleaned as soon as you use them so that you can read the scale next time it is used. The alternative is to purchase the proper mixing gear or to get a paint shop to do that for you. The trouble is that two part paint has a limited pot life so that youneed touse all the paint you have mixed or chuck it out before it turns your spray gun into a piece of furniture.

 

Buy acetone in a 20 litre drum to get a reasonable price around $100. It is handy for cleaning anything to do with paint. It is also used to clean gelcoat before paintingand fibreglass before applying epoxy or epoxy-flock. It can be used to as a solvent to clean any epoxy mixing pots or tools. Ventilate the area well when using acetone.

 

As I wear glasses, I had trouble getting a facemask to cope with glasses and not interfere with them. So I eventually bought a full face mask type that has a battery powered filter to feed clean air across your face and eyes - very expensive. It will run a full 8 hours on a single battery charge and has audible warnings for clogged filter or low battery etc.

 

The supplier sells replaceable plastic material to go on the outside but somebody told me to justa roll of ordinary kitchen type "Cling Wrap" to protect the working side of the face mask from paint and dust.

 

By the way don't foreget ears when sanding - use earplugs to keep out carcinagenusmaterial or just plain fibreglass dust.

 

Other tools hard to buy here are countersinks to suit csk rivets in fibrelass. I think the rivet head angle angle is 110 degrees included angle. Normal countersinks are 90 degree included angle to suit timber screws. You need it for the poprivets holding the retained nuts and the rivets forrudder, elevator and ailerons.

 

I did a stint of working for St Vincent de Paul society and got a great supply of rags sheets and a few blankets, all veryy handy when handling composites.

 

I think I had better shut up at this stage. If you find this useful let me know and I will try to think of more items. Would a few photos be any use of some tools if there is a question about them?

 

By the way, I can see that Geoff's shed at Wagga is much more builder friendly than my carport with a tempory door/wall is in Leeton.

 

Regards

 

Ross

 

 

[Guest AusDarren]

Thanks Ross, I went and checked the height of my shed after your comment, I have about 2600 clear which is not a lot of margin though is enough to let it sit on its wheels.. My Shed is 6x9 The doors with a center removeable pillar on the narrow end. I couldn't have it in my shed with the wings attached. so once ready for rigging I would need to move it to a hanger to do the final assembly and rigging. I was fortunate enough this weekend to meet a chap at Penfield, who had just flown a new J160C back from Bundy.It was only a week old.. I was very impressed with the repositioned Joystick, and being a bigger Lad, I found the little extra room over the LSA55 to be very much appreciated. I like the throttle being up on the console rather thanunder the seat.It really made it more comfortable to sit in. I am Flying At Point Cook with Oasis, Both of the Jabirus there are LSA 55J's

 

They sure have come a long way since the KFM engine..

 

Regards,

 

Darren Latta

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

You can't knock the KFM until you've tried it and it has failed! :confused: That can, will, does and has happened a few times.

 

 

[Guest micgrace]

Hi Ross & Clem

 

Hope you have somewhere nice and level for rigging I sure don't. I need to think up a solution for that one. At least the shed is long enough, if not wide enough as the wife insists on "her" half.

 

My main "complaint" is trying to keep to cutting aluminium with power tools to daylight. Sure makes a lot of noise. It's a wonder I haven't had a complaint from the neighbours being in Brisbane.

 

The arms get real stiff after driving 3/16 rivets even with a pneumatic riviter and commercial size compressor. Time to install bolts at critical joints.

 

Micgrace :)