I've been long overdue on updating progress on my Patriot, mainly because I've been long overdue on getting back to it. I got a job offshore and I only made it to the flying field twice the later half of this year to give you an idea of the free time I've had lately.
Anywho, there are some shots of my bird on these threads:
http://tinyurl.com/3zzag
http://tinyurl.com/55tj7
I've had two problems finishing it up. The wire I used for the mechanical landing gear would eventually bend and lose it's shape after a couple of cycles. Gear would either not lock up or down after a few tries. I didn't want to cut the covering open and screw it up, but one of my cats gave me a good excuse to after jumping up on my workbench (nothing serious, just holes where the claws punched through). So thats what I'm working on now. Decided to use bellcranks. The covering needs some tightening but here's some recent pics:
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Anyway, I had to offset the nose wheel, and bend the output of the pipe to go around it. If you are going to enclose the pipe, you must either make allowances for length changes or work it out ahead of time. I ran my setup before I installed it to get what I wanted. I have a shaved APC 10*7 turning around 16000 k on the ground, and it would be REAL hard to change the pipe length more than half an inch either way right now. That's a stock prop in the picture, BTW.
The other serious problem I had was getting the fuel system worked out. As you can see from the picture, I am using crankcase pressure. I use a Robart fueler and a check valve on the case pressure with a "T" to vent it to keep the case from flooding. The fuel filter is tied to the exhaust while I am working on it. It has a route in the removable lower cowl for operating. This is an old Pylon engine that's had a few tweaks to get it to run with a carb and act civilized. Idle is finally steady after some work and I am certain enough in the setup now that I feel safe to fly it. Hopefully soon. Bellcranks are done and I just have to recover the wing tomorrow and I should be able to finish it up with a few more hours work.