Too Busy to Blog!
That just means more to talk about when I do get a chance to write.
The problem is I hafta drive this trip. A lot. And I don’t get much else done when driving 8+ hours/day. Hard to type and drive…. Worse than texting. Some lady almost hit me while she was texting. I nearly dropped my cheeseburger and spilt my coffee!
First leg was 8 hours Tampa to our Mobile build center. Drove that on the 4th so I could start work early on the 5th. If there were any fireworks nearby, I sleep through them. Just don’t snore in my RV.
Waiting for me in Mobile was a finished Merlin with a Vtwin. I flew it right away. Nice high cruise at 122 mph true airspeed.
I made a short video while flying. The audio sucks. I will keep experimenting.
We reworked the top cowl to increase the space for the injectors and coolant hose. Best not to have any interference there.
Between test flights I unpacked boxes of firewall forward components ordered from my last visit. The inventory is stacking up.
This week Paul and I started another Merlin Vtwin build. This time I was documenting every step with parts required, photos, and notes. We worked through the entire FF build, and it totals 34 steps. Most are quick and easy. The complete engine installation can be done in 2-3 days. We did most of it in 1-1/2 days. I should be writing up that manual and I would if I wasn’t busy blogging. But then I need to blog once in a while so everyone knows how much we are getting done. I look forward to finishing and posting the FF BOM and installation photos. BTW, the redrive upgrade is finished and components are arriving as I type. We even anodized the new backplate.
We made a short summary video which I will post on Youtube soon.
Builder Don created this condensed engine wiring harness diagram. We sent it off to China for fabrication. It just arrive to Dayton. So did I after another 8 hours wasted driving.
This is the plug & play harness. Takes just a few minutes to install. I just installed it today, but it needed a little fine-tuning on the lengths. Now yet another Merlin has a VTwin running in it! I will document the changes then have 50 harnesses made up.
Meanwhile, the panel harnesses have another upgrade. This one is pretty cool. Don added a few more circuit boards to plug directly into the remote components on the instrument tray. This simplifies the wiring and the installation!
We need to redesign the instrument tray for the smaller footprint now. Rivnuts will be inserted in the perfect locations which makes this installation really nice. While I am in Dayton I will follow up on the panels that are being custom fabricated for each customer. Waterjet cut, then anodized, then laser engraved.
I will bring the entire panel assembly to Oshkosh for your viewing pleasure.
Next stop looks like back to Florida this week. 15 more hours behind the wheel. Sigh. This time to pull a trailer I need down south to use to bring the Merlin Lite to Oshkosh coming up. Another 20+ hours’ driving. More if I detour to Mobile first. Double sigh.
At least I get to fly Merlins more often now!!!! BTW, the green Melrin factory demo with the HKS engine is still available. I would be happy to fly it to Oshkosh if I didn’t have to drive the Merlin Lite up.
In case you missed it Dan Johnson posted a nice article and video on our DEPOD innovation:
Back to work.
CHIP
