I chose to go with the external alternator for my Sling TSI. Both for the CG advantage and for having a tertiary backup alternator…. And for being able to run pitot heat and landing lights without worrying about running the battery dead.

I couldn’t find many pictures of the installation online so here are pictures of mine. The installation of the external alternator is very straightforward. You will want to connect it with a separate switch so you don’t necessarily have to always run it.

Update: my alternator is bumping the cowling. I do have the cowling with the bump out but it still bumps. It was rubbing the cowling. Can’t have that. To fix the problem I got a 25.5 inch vbelt. Shorter than the default one. It allows the alternator to sit in closer. That said it is still crazy close.

I also did research into how much horsepower the external alternator would be stealing because our little engines only make 135 to 141 horsepower every single horsepower counts. After doing the math of (UPDATED🙂 my 1hp equals 768watt per 20amps, and not all alternators are created equal, we use denso… So basically we are losing 4hp with the ext alt. …. I came to the realization that we’re losing four horsepower. Of course I took into account that the alternator is not perfectly efficient and there will be some drag loss from the belt but even then you’re talking one to one and a half horsepower which I think is worth having the extra backup. Update, four horsepower, maybe it isn’t worth it….

That’s right the engine has been mounted. I was sure this would be a quick and easy task. But as my life so often goes, I was completely and totally utterly wrong. Mounting the engine took me two solid days. Even now as I say it, I can’t understand why it took that long. I’m not sure. Just trying to get the engine lifted and then get all four bolts aligned and torqued and I used loctite, proved to be quite the challenge.

This deserves a separate paragraph. Having the weight of the engine on the front of the plane really brought to light that the nose wheel is too hard to turn. So I lifted the front of the plane up took the nose wheel off. I sanded down the bearings and I sand down very slightly the nose wheel itself then put it back on…. No difference…. So I took it off again sanded everything a little bit more. Then put everything back together and now it’s a lot better. And that was another day gone .

Now I sit here looking at how much the front wheel turns. It makes me a little nervous about how sharp the whole plane will actually turn. My current plane is a cirrus, it has a caster nose wheel. It will point directly 90° to either side and it will spin the whole plane on a dime. In the past, it has proved itself to be very useful.

As Patrick Shine mentioned in his blog the bottom right bolt is a pain. But I also found the bottom left bolt to be a pain. For the bottom right bolt I eventually figured out that using a pair of channel locks I could squeeze the bolt from the outside of the exhaust mount and squeeze it hard enough using a clamp on the.l channel lock handle that it would hold the nut still. Pictured.

For the bottom left bolt I did as Patrick did a used a open end crescent wrench. It was still to wide to fit in the opening so I had to grind some metal off the outside of the wrench and the. It worked fine. All torqued up and ready to go.

I love the stickers rotax sent with the engine.

I drilled up the holes and the rivnuts for my main landing gear spats. This was easy and fairly straightforward. The nose wheel however was a challenge. I found getting the holes where the rivnuts and the tow bar connects difficult to get aligned correctly. So I used the hole finders. However, I was not able to actually find the holes with the hole finders. So before putting the fairings on, I taped the whole finders in place and then slid the fairings through the hole finders.

So it was only a couple months ago that I completed my ailerons. I have since moved on and have been working on other things. Then the service bulletin about the rod ends came out. I was concerned I would have to tear apart my newly constructed ailerons. As it turns out, you do not have to tear them apart but it could be challenging. There is an access hole on the side of the aileron where you can look in and see the bolt that you need to remove. But being able to remove that bolt and push it back in precisely could be a challenge. So I added some magnets onto the end of a socket extension rod. That proved to be just strong enough to hold the bolt to push it in. But more importantly it proved to be strong enough that if I repeatedly attach the magnet and pulled it back, attach the magnet pulled it back over and over and over again it would pull the bolt out, which is the trickiest part. Findung a way to pull the bolt out is a challenge otherwise. I know they have magnetic sockets but they weren’t strong enough to pull the bolt out. So as you can see in the picture I attached a bunch of my own magnets and that seemed to work.

I can’t officially recommend a replacement rod end. But you can look online and find the one that comes with the aircraft and you can find replacement rod ends that are three times stronger. The cost about 40 bucks a piece but I think the additional strength will be worth it.

Inside the cabin I’m using aluminum fuel lines. I’m also using limited aluminum fuel lines on the outside of the firewall. After the fuel filter is where I will switch to use teflon fuel lines that run to the engine.

I’m also wrapping the fuel lines insulation in heat resistant aluminum tape. The picture below shows an aluminum line half wrapped in insulation and half wrapped in foil tape, for the purpose of illustration only. I’m kind of paranoid about vapor lock so I’m trying to do everything I can to resist heat in the fuel lines. I also went out of the way to keep the lines as low as possible as long as possible.

I know this is far from standard, so please feel free to comment and tell me all the ways I’m doing it wrong.

Yesterday I made my throttle cable and ran it through the firewall. Nothing particularly interesting to report here. Very straightforward. Just one item of note, the instructions never actually say to run the wire through the sheathing. I guess that would seem obvious. But if the wire and sheathing are in separate bags not near each other it might confuse someone. So I am mentioning it.

I installed the under carriage skin. I was worried that the leading edge of the skin is the lowest point on the plane bottom so it might catch some wind and before I attached the skin I could see light up through the bottom. I was worried about air getting in there. And creating noise. So I added some firewall insulation above the skin to stop drafts.

I bought my parachute through uflyit, Magnum back in March. At the time they told me it would take 2 months. When I called them after 2 months they told me to take another month. Today when I called them to check on the status they told me that they cannot predict ETA they’re so far backlogged they have no clue how long it will take…. Obviously this is a major concern if anyone knows of a good solution let me know.

These fuel lines took me about 3 weeks. Not even done with the few lines that mount to the firewall. I should have listened to Patrick Shine and gotten all of those fittings that he recommended but instead I purchased them one or two at a time as I needed them. That was a big mistake. And trying to bend aluminum fuel lines perfectly the first time has proven to be very stressful. I can’t say that I am pleased with the way my fuel lines turned out visually… But I’m absolutely totally confident that they are sound and well connected. And I know that because I did a water pressure test and there were no leaks. Which is totally unbelievable I was absolutely positive that there would be.

For overhead lights for the back passengers I got some $300 multi-intensity lights from Aircraft spruce. For the pilots, I got teeny tiny mini eyeball lights that are red and cost about 40 bucks also from Aircraft spruce. It seems counterintuitive but that’s the size of the default holes and I didn’t feel like messing with them.

Yeah that’s right, you heard me I took time out for my build to attend Kosh. I did really debate that and go back and forth but I came to the conclusion that meeting some people in person and being able to ask questions in person might be valuable. And I’m glad I came to the right conclusion cuz it was a great time.

As you can see below, I was one of the first people there when the three Sling high wings from South Africa arrived. So I made sure to get plenty of pictures of that.

I also had to include a picture of our Smokehouse Pilots Club Meetup. It’s just a fun environment for aviation enthusiast to chat in person, doing fly outs and educational speakers, and online.

Undercarriage is now attached. I mounted the axles on the undercarriage before I attached it to the plane. I also mounted the axles on the undercarriage while it was upside down and backwards which presented quite a challenge to my ability to visualize things 3D. I do not recommend this approach. Had some problems figuring out how to get the tubes correctly mounted luckily a great fellow build blogger stepped in to help me a Mr Aaron Stampa. The tubes have to go in the hole and then back through the middle. That will make sense when you see the wheels. Also I found it easier to install the gasket that goes in between the two wheel house after I had the tube inside the tires and the tires mounted on the wheels. I then compressed the tire and simply slid the gasket on.