Thursday, February 11, 2021

Installing the Static ports and taking care of the to-do list - 2.5 hours

 Since I need to uncleco and remove the top skins to get at all the small outstanding items, now is a good time to install the static ports. I dug out the SafeAir1 kit that I've had for some time. I am choosing to bond the static ports with pro-seal rather than rivet. Seems like a lot of builders do this over riveting them.

Next, I located the 1/4" holes for the static ports somewhat close to the dimensions shown on the drawings (Detail #E/Drawing 28). I maintained the 2" dimension from the longeron, but I adjusted the dimension forward of the bulkhead rivet line from 11/16" to 1 1/8" as the Safeair1 ports are a much larger diameter than the standard Van's ports.

I de-vinyled the areas, scuffed the aluminum, cleaned with MEK. I mixed up some proseal and installed a thin layer on the static port. After installing the port and giving it a 1/4 turn twist, I clamped the ports to the assembly and wiped any excess that tried to ooze out. 




With the static ports taken care of, the next item that I need to get done was to install the lower baggage bulkhead nutplates and drill and install the one rivet on the top of the F-728C angle.