It was a challenge routing everything on the floor of the cockpit under the seats, especially on the pilot side where you have many electrical wires along with the pitot & static lines and also the aileron servo motor. I was careful to make sure nothing will rub on the various pushrods and torque tubes.
I purchased my landing & taxi light assembly from flyleds located in Australia. Super people to work with. I used their combo leading edge landing/taxi light for both my wings. Total of 4800 lumens in each wing!! One light has a diffuser for the taxi light and the other 3 lights are landing lights. Multiple by 2 for both wings 🙂 I had to enlarge the hole in the wing slightly, but pretty easy.
Attaching the steps went pretty easy. Make sure to use stainless steel rivets. I’m not convinced that the steps are strong enough. They seem to give quite a bit when you step on them. I will have to watch.
Here are some pictures of how I arranged the engine compartment. I used a lot of cable ties to keep everything in place. First engine start was 8/6
Instead of using Zeus fasteners (which are a real pain to use) I went with camloc fasteners. Henry at Midwest build center made up a wider aluminum strip to give more material for the cowling to attach to.
There is the debate on whether to paint the airplane before you do the initial flight or after. I have a good friend that has a paint shop 1/2 mile from my business. Since I was ready to move the plane from my business to the airport logistically it made sense to paint it during the move. So here are a few pictures of the painted plane inside my hangar at the airport (KMDZ)
For the throttle cable I have stops at the end of the cable as a backup in case the cable bolt clamps ever let loose.
Using Sikaflex to attach windshield. Make sure to use lots of clamps.
Its been a long time since my last post, but like most builders I would much rather build than write & post about it. I’m getting close to my maiden flight so will force myself to get somewhat caught up.
One reason that I picked the Sling 2 over the RV12 was that I could install a parachute. It is pretty pricey, took quite a bit of time to install, and adds significant weight to the plane. But if I ever become incapacitated I want an option for any non-pilot passenger that might be flying with me. Hopefully I will never need to use it.
The factory wants you to use cable ties to hold the parachute pack in place when it is deployed. I’m not sure how they expect you to put the parachute in place and reach down the sides and attach cable ties to the bottom. I elected to add 2 aluminum strips to the side where the parachute pack loops can slide over. The black heavy tape is to protect the parachute from screw heads.
Here you can see how the opening for the parachute pack is to the left in this picture, and how the 2 aluminum strips will keep the pack in place.
I’m not very impressed with the plastic brake lines that come standard with the Sling. Following the vans forums I came across Tom at https://www.tsflightlines.com/ who makes custom brake lines. It took a lot of measuring and samples but in the end Tom came up with a great kit that hopefully he will be offering to other Sling 2 builders.
I ran into another Sling gotcha last week, and this one is a serious safety problem if you build it wrong (like mine was).
Recently they redesigned the elevator pushrod guide block assembly for the Sling 2 (and I think also for the Sling 4 and Sling TSI). This is on page F7 of the Sling 2 manual and as usual the manuals have not been updated with this change. I purchased my fuselage as a quick build so didn’t install this guide block, but last week when installing the elevator pushrod I knew that something was major wrong. The pushrod would catch and release and had way too much friction. I don’t think that an airplane in this condition would be flyable.
The new bracket has a taper so that the pushrod and the bushing are aligned, but in my case they installed the bracket upside down so that the pushrod was at an angle to the bushing. You can see that in the 1st 2 pictures that I uploaded.
I was able to get a CAD drawing from the factory that shows how it should be installed. Also is a image of mine after I turned it around and have it almost fixed.
What a pain to fix it with the fuselage already put together. You have only the access hole in the bottom to work through. I used a small camera hooked to my laptop so I could position my drill to drill out the top 3 rivets, punch them out and re-rivet it.
What a drastic change once the bracket was installed correctly, night & day difference.
Totally unacceptable that the factory is making design changes without having documentation released at the same time.
Here are images showing both the wrong and the correct orientations.
Bill's Sling 2 Build Log 