Category: Design Changes

Firewall Part 3 plus a Flame Test

This kit uses a sheet of galvanized steel as the firewall and is further covered by a heat barrier to insulate the cabin from the engine heat (and noise). The galvanized steel is good as a fire protectant (per FAR 23.1191), however, I have seen several other builders dismiss...

Right Wingtip Work

For mounting the wingtip lights, my original concept for a upswept winglet wasn’t going to work – there is no place to run the wires out at the end of the factory wingtip. Therefore, I went back to the drawing board, and came up with a fairing that goes...

Winglet Mod

Yep, yet another mod, but this one’s pretty minor. My wingtips are the older design that lacked a good place to mount the wingtip light cluster. Therefore, I designed a small winglet to attach to the wingtip, mimicking the design of the newer wingtip seen on the TSi kits....

Aileron Trim and Wing Electronics Module

This past weekend I finished up most of the aileron trim servo installation. My remaining tasks were to glue down the doubler, and to install the connectors for the wire harness. Before gluing down the doubler, I decided to increase the number of screws holding the plate from 8...

Aileron Trim Servo

It’s been a little bit since my last logbook entry, but have some great news to share. I recently made an exciting career change — I accepted an offer to work for a startup company called Merlin Labs and I’m helping create an autonomous flight system for retrofitting into...

Custom Overhead Console

I’ve created yet another custom piece of cabin tech, this time it’s an overhead light console. The panel has a dome light, swivel adjustable map lights, and red ambient light projectors. I used RGBW LEDs to allow the lights to be set to any color and brightness, adjusted using...

Rotax 915iS vs 914UL: Cost and Technical Differences

By request, here’s a breakdown of the technical and cost differences to equip my Sling 4 with a Rotax 915iS engine instead of the Rotax 914UL engine. As a quick reminder of why I’m doing this: +26HP at takeoff power (5800 RPM), +35HP at max continuous power (5500 RPM),...

Flaps Controller

I prefer controls that provide visual cues of their current setting. I have a minor in Human Factors from my undergraduate days, and one of my professors was quite passionate about aircraft. As a result, I really don’t like using up/down toggles that are so commonly used on experimental...

Heating System Demo

I posted a video on YouTube recently with an early demonstration of the my heating system. Everything is functioning the way I expect so far, and I’m continuing to work on the software. I’m quite impressed with how much air it can move. Here’s a link to the video,...

Heater System Prototype Progress

It’s pretty exciting dreaming up a concept, turning it into a design, and then having a working prototype in your hands, all in the course of a few weeks. I recently watched a video about the new Diamond DA50 RG, a 4-to-5 place retractable gear single engine airplane that’s...