Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I didn’t have much time for the project tonight. I did buy a large Crescent wrench at Sears and tightened the nose gear nut enough to get the break-out force to 14 in-lbs after a few iterations.

I finally finished up the drilling on the baggage floor compartments. My order from McMaster arrived with some thumb screws for the ELT access panel. They’re going to work great. I also ordered some edge grommet material to protect wires as they pass over metal edges. The paint on the floors has too much junk in it, so I’ll re-paint them when the weather clears up. If it wasn’t for that, I’d be ready to install them.

One task I needed to finish before installing the engine was setting the break-out force on the nose wheel and securing the axle nut. I put a saw horse under the tail and put a 20# bag of dog food on the rear deck. That was just enough weight to keep it stable. My handy wrench I made out of wood wasn’t able to tighten the axle nut enough. It broke. I’ll have to buy a real wrench. I used a fish scale attached at the lightening hole on the fork. Since that is 6″ from the axle, I’m shooting for 28 lbs of break-out force. That will equal 14 in-lbs.

One thing I should have done with the gear leg still on the bench was to drill the stupid axle. I was waiting to get everything mounted, so I could figure out where the holes needed to be. With a hole in every flat of the nut, the orientation of the holes is not important. The plans show the cotter pin perpendicular to the axis of flight, which is fine. Laying on the floor trying to drill the holes was not fun. I should have just removed the gear leg and drilled it.

Drilling the cotter pin holes in the axles is among my top ten least favorite parts of building so far. It’s difficult, time consuming, and not fun.

I got up early and finished off the dimpling on the baggage floors and riveted on the compartment door hinges and the stiffeners. A little later I cleaned the floor panels for painting. Unfortunately, the weather was not ideal. It warmed up and the sun was out, but it was extremely windy. I got some junk in the paint. Once it dries I’ll evalute whether I need to sand and do another coat.

Moving on to something else, I installed a bunch of tie wrap mounts along the tunnel and some stick-on mounts back in the tail.

I re-installed the engine mount (hopefully for the last time) and finally I got up the nerve to install the gear. I lifted the fuselage by the mount and Julie put a sawhorse under the front of the fuselage. Even with my extend-o saw horse, I couldn’t get the fuselage high enough so the legs could go into the mounts. I ended up lifting the fuselage a tad bit further and Julie maneuvered the legs into the mounts. The legs are pretty heavy, but she managed quite nicely.

With that done, I decided I might as well put on the nose wheel, too. With the fuselage tipped back, I was easily able to get it installed. I hadn’t drilled out the gear attach bolt, so I did that. I removed the leg, cleaned up the holes, and put it back in. Woo hoo! Look ma, no saw horse!!

I took Friday night off, but did some work today. I mainly just deburred and did the countersinking for the baggage floor compartments. The weather at high noon was just warm enough for painting, but I didn’t have the parts ready. I’m hoping I’ll have them ready for tomorrow, and the weather holds.

The family went out Christmas shopping, so I was able to spend some extra time in the shop hammering out the baggage floor compartments. I cut and drilled the hinges for the doors. I also cut and drilled the stiffeners for the floor. I test fit everything along the way. I think it’s going to work out pretty well. I now just need to do some dimpling, countersinking, and riveting.

I worked a little bit on the baggage floor compartments. Designed and building something like this from scratch really takes a long time. I try to think through everything to make sure nothing is going to interfere with each other. I cut one hinge to length and made the doors. I also thought about how to put a stiffener under the floor since the compartment adds too much flexibility to the floor.

I also placed an order with McMaster for some rubber edge grommet material. I have a few places where I need some, plus I want to install it on the glareshield edge. I also found some knurled knobs that might work out well for the ELT door.

I finally got up the nerve to cut the safety wire and remove the oil filter. I took a few pictures before doing that.

With the filter removed, I was able to safety the tachometer cover. I removed the safety wire from a nearby plug and wired both together. You can also see that I installed the oil cooler inlet (or outlet–can’t remember which right now). Using a 45 degree fitting worked, but just barely. It cleared by about 1mm. The first picture is looking forward and the second is looking down.

The next project was to install the fuel doubler. I went to some hassle to put it on the inside. All the other doublers are on the inside. In retrospect, I’m not sure it was worth the extra hassle. I used a small piece of angle to tie it into one of the firewall stiffeners to add some rigidity.

This picture is from the outside, with the starter contactor re-installed and I put some boots over the common connection between the contactors.

I’ve been using a new camera since the weekend, a Canon SD400. It works much better than the old S300, but it’s taking me some practice to get used to it.

My order from Spruce arrived. It contained the $18 tach output cover, some wheel grease, and a few oil cooler fittings. I installed the tach output cover. I found a place to safety it, but I’ll have to redo some safety wire. I’ll be getting a tach signal from one (or both) of the P-mags. The cover seemed way over-priced, but it made sense once I noticed it was made by Andair.

I’m not sure why I waited so long to order the wheel grease. It’s been holding up doing the final assembly on the wheels. I re-greased all of the wheel bearings and put all of the parts together. I left the wheel pant brackets off the nose wheel, as I’ll probably initially fly without the wheel pants. They’ll be easy to install later. The main wheel bracket installation requires removing the brake and wheel, which I don’t want to do later. I installed those brackets. Dan had trouble with them cracking after flying a bunch without the pants. I’ll have to make sure to install the pants soon after the first couple of flights.

Everything went together quite easily. There’s not much keeping me from putting the fuselage on the gear. Maybe this weekend. That will be a very cool step.

I primed the fuel line doubler parts. That’s not an easy proposition when it’s so cold outside.

I worked a bit on the ELT wiring. I clipped one end off the phone-style wire and ran it up the central tunnel to the panel. I also drilled a hole in the F-705 gusset for the antenna, cut one end of the wire, and ran that down the side of the baggage compartment. That all worked out pretty well. I just need to figure out how to secure it around the flap weldment area, so it doesn’t get in the way.

I also carved up the replacement baggage floors leaving more room for a hinge this time. Much better.

I spent a few hours in the morning helping Jim Piavis move his fuselage out of storage at the hangar to his new shop. I was surprised that he rented a pick-up, but it actually fits quite well. I didn’t have the camera with me, so I took a quick pic with the phone.

I finally got up the nerve to drill the holes in the firewall. I double (actually triple) checked all of the dimensions. I moved the fuel line inboard by about 1/2″ to give more clearance to the starter contactor. I did all of them with a Unibit. I’m not sure if I’m going to use the eyeballs that are popular with other builders or just use the Van’s snap bushing plus RTV route. We’ll see.

I also drilled the fuel line doubler I made to the firewall.

I received word that the P-mags are almost ready to ship. I took this picture of the mag mount to confirm that I need the mag drive gear for each.