Lancair Live!

Most of you are aware of the fuel controller rollback I experienced on take on Xmas Day, 2021. I would have started the rebuild sooner but have been working hard closing up other projects, including Joe Trepicone's IVPT that is in my hangar in Iron Mountain, MI (KIMT). That was brought up the summer of 2018 for my best friend, Steve Phillips to finish the electrical and instrument panel. Upon arriving, we discovered it had a LOT MORE work needed to get to the finish line. Steve died Veterans Day of 2019, leaving me with the options of sending the plane back to Columbus OH or finishing it for him. I knew it would take a while, as I already had a ton on my plate, finishing a just newly started large hangar project for my EAA Chapter, trying to finish a log home project on a lake NW of me, major business growth at my truck dealership and the time to manage that, and finally the anticipated rebuild of MY IVPT!

Joe's plane is nearly done, has ran and the engine was recently sent out for inspection and FCU "UPGRADE" to the new GE FCU, will be returning in May and should be completed by early summer. It became painfully clear if I didn't start work NOW on MY IVPT, I would be too old to fly it by the time I completed the rebuild. So, January 11th, 2024 became the first "LOGGED" work day on the rebuild. I have enlisted several helpers who have put time in on Joe's, so their experience is enough to be seriously helpful.

Given that I spend half my winters, I am extremely happy to be over 300 hours into the rebuild already, with significant progress on some major work items. The firewall, which had a huge mole in the recess bucket for the FCU and starter generator, is repaired. The two pulled out motor mounts are completed reconstructed, and I'm confident stronger than original design. A zipper tear down the full length of the right side has been structurally repaired. The instrument panel was removed for access to replace the windshield AND access to the left side lower motor mount repair.

A major hurdle was getting the engine intake plenum rebuilt. All but a few pieces were damaged beyond repair. Luckily, having Joe's engine removed for work at Quentin's shop, I had the ability to make templates of EVERY PART and build molds, lay up and vacuum bag all the parts. At this point, the entire intake plenum is ready for final assembly when my engine arrives and is installed.

The current project is replacing the aft section of the lower fuselage. I was fortunate enough to find a bare lowe3r fuselage section in Uvalde, bought it last summer, and have the plan and preparation in place to replace that section of damage. Uvalde also had a "Fast Build" vertical tail section which I bought last April to help rebuild the tail. I found a completed horizontal sab with elevators in Florida on FB Market Place. That was purchased last summer and will come back to Michigan when I pick up Joe's engine and bring back my '63 Impala SS and Harley in May.

I will try to submit regular updates as this project speed forward to a flying prop jet again.

Tom

More pictures of progress over the 10 weeks

More pictures. Getting close to fitting the new tail!

Last picture is putting the vertical tail back together after cutting it in Texas to bring it back in my Mooney (and avoid truck freight and damage in shipping) The Styrofoam was used, like on the firewall plug, as a form to repair a small area of damage on the leading edge of the stab.

Firewall completely repaired. Vertical ready to fit.

Had a good week on the aft fuselage repair. I measured and made several templates to ensure cutting the tail off a perfectly good NEW lower fuselage shell was done correctly. I also fitted long boards to the fuselage curvature, before cutting it off, to check proper alignment when fitted to my plane. I found the lower edge of the fuselage was perfectly straight over the last 12’, so installed a piece of 10’ angle iron to carry the repair section to the proper alignment in the vertical plane.

I used the undamaged joggle on my fuselage and mating of the vertical to the new lower fuselage section for determining length (and of course the proper point of width at the joint for the two fuselage shells). Alignment in the horizontal plane was both a centered laser line from firewall to aft fuselage seam to rudder attachment point at the rear of the new fuselage section AND the previously noted alignment boards from prior to the cut.

The actual cut was an inch longer than my worst case scenario of measurements, and then a bunch of fitting and trimming until my very tail joggle was exactly in proper position AND the transition from old fuselage and new fuselage matched up perfectly.

The last added structural component added to my repair was 2 inch wide “spacers” of “keyway” made from 1/4” prepreg with 4 additional layers of carbon on each side, coming to a thickness that exactly fitted the inside core area (obviously removed an inch in on each fuselage section). The curved splice area were replicated with wood forms and the prepreg cut on the one side skin allowing it to form to the radius before adding the CF and vac bagging it. Final fit of the fuselage sections went better than expected with those pieces, which were epoxy/flox’ed in place on final assembly.

Laser checks were made while wet as well as plumb verification of the entire added fuselage section (to an obviously very well documented and secured main fuselage to level as well).

Pictures coming in several posts.

More pictures of previously described work

Picture of 6 bid inside repair. The strength of this repair is much stronger than a conventional simple tail section “cut off” which encompasses 74” of seam area. My repair has an additional 60” of splice area, nearly doubling the splice area, which in turn reduces the stress per square inch of splice area by nearly half.

We found when fitting the repair section numerous times trying to get to the final fit, it was incredibly hard to get the new section out each time to trim it. The “keyway” nature of the splice creates tremendously more strength to the repair.

We've made good progress on the rebuild since getting home a week ago Sunday. Came home to the plane on the rotisserie and the new motor mount installed on the nose gear. The rotisserie had been borrowed out and Doug gracefully offered to return it, albeit with one small item missing; the top rear attachment fitting the round aft area of the fuselage. It didn't take Mike (one of my helpers) long to fit a new one while I was in Florida, keeping momentum going in my absence. We rolled it upside down to start repairs on the belly tank, installed 6 bids of CF over the splice joint on the outside, and removed the gear doors for work. The wing fairings are on the list (at least the bottoms of them) as well.

While having the belly tank open, I installed a fitting to run baggage tank fuel into the belly tank. I had a 17 gallon baggage tank built years ago, but had not had the time to final assemble and install it. That will be completed during this rebuild. The gear doors had damage on each door, one with pieces broken out of the tire closure area, the other with the a couple of the Teflon supports ripped out. Both of those repairs are complete and we are replacing the hinges with new. I ordered 6 quarts of Hysol today (if anyone wants in on the order and reduced price due to quantity, call Brad Simmons ASAP!).

During the last trip to my Spruce Creek Florida home I ran over and checked on my new engine progress. I gave Quentin a check and we toured the facility looking at my engine, Joe Trepicone's engine (there for an inspection and new GE FCU) and a friends IVPT in for some routine engine maintenance (George R's). I will be returning to Florida next week and while down there this next trip I will be loading Joe's engine and bringing it back to finish his plane. We have already run it, so we are REALLY close to calling for the Airworthiness inspection. It should be flying by June or July!

Quentin had my impeller shaft/compressor blade assembly on the balancer and showed us the balancing process. It is pretty technical and intense!! I also got a look at other components of my engine in various states of rebuild. The assembled engine is Joe's (with the red painted components). He wanted pictures of his new FCU.

Tagging onto this thread only because it contains pictures of Turbine Power Tech personnel at Deland FL. I had the occasion to travel there earl this year, from Marathon FL, for some very minor maintenance. Flight took about 45-50 min, temps aloft were right at -10C. After arrival, Jose went to work removing the cowling when he became somewhat excited. I thought something was "Bad" wrong. Turns out he came across a stow away...
Probably not in his job description, but he extracted the lethargic lizard, which became more agitated as it warmed.
Situation resolved with out a shot being fired...

A "First" for all involved.