Skykits Corporation presents the Savannah
Build Log: Page 8
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Total time to this point: 184 hours 57 minutes.
Painting was the next item on the
agenda. Here are some shots of the fuselage and wings sanded and
protected, ready for
spraying.
Here is the Savannah back at the
hangar
with a close-up of the wings and slats finished and waiting for
installation.
The colour is Arctic White.
Final assembly starts with
installation of the windshield. Here its is clecoed, prior to riveting.
After riveting, the wings and slats
were installed so that the roof could be added like this.
Later, the rivets will be touched up with a dab of paint. Here's the
windshield
from inside the cabin. You can see the housing for the overhead switch
panel.
Here's a side shot of the slats. You
can
see why the wing has such great lift. The strobe/nav/tail light has also
been installed .
This picture shows you a good view of
the flaperons and how they are attached.
The fuel and electrical lines had to be routed where needed. Total time to
install
the roof, wings, slats, ailerons, windshield and lines was 12 hours and 40
minutes. Here is a view of the painted
Savannah from the
back
and the front.
It's time to add brake fluid.
The nice thing about the aviation community is that everyone is interested and
wants you to succeed with
your building project. A helping hand is always available. Here you
can see the apparatus which Fritz, a kit builder here at the High River
Airport, lent us for filling the brakes. It consists of a fluid reservoir
and a small air compressor which provides the pressure for pumping
the fluid from the caliper to the master cylinder at the brake pedal.
Rags were wrapped around the master
cylinder to catch the excess brake fluid flowing out of the bleeder hole.
Fluid is pumped out until all bubbles are removed from the line.
You can see one line completed while the other is waiting for fluid.
Now both brake lines are full. The Savannah
comes with brakes for the pilot only but because this is a demonstrator, the
dual brake option has been added. Also, the black-painted
rudder pedals were chromed and the stainless steel brake pedals, which come
coated grey, were polished.
The red
tube is for cabin heat which is standard equipment on the Savannah. It
took 3 hours and 35 minutes to attach and route the brake lines and
set up the brakes. If you don't have an air compressor/reservoir you can
use an ordinary pump-type oil can.
Now the doors are installed.
The hinges are riveted to the doors but screwed to the wings so that they can be
removed. The Savannah
can be
flown with the doors removed. However, installed doors should not
be opened in flight. Here's the pilot's door showing the gas cylinder
which holds it open.
Here it is closed.
Time was spent assembling the door mount which
attaches to the wing and holds
the door hinge. Then the doors were carefully aligned and the hinges
attached to the mount with rivnuts
and cap screws. Finally the windshield pillar
covers were aligned with the doors and riveted in place. Total time to
install the various
door parts was 6 hours and 50 minutes.
The 4-point harness was installed
along with the seats. These seats are included with the kit and are adjustable
for height by means of pads
placed beneath them and Velcro strips. Each seat comes with two pads so you can use none,
one or two to adjust the height. The
access panel to the
underside of the seat is installed and then the Velcro straps like this.
Then the number of pads
you want
are attached to the
Velcro - in this case one.
Finally the seat is fitted and held in place by the Velcro strips
and three
upholstery pins which
snap into the front of the seat pan.
Time to install the access panels, seats and
harnesses was five hours and
twenty minutes.
Total time to this point: 213 hours 22 minutes.
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