Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I did a bit more stuff to get the plane ready to move. I put the cowl and spinner on and secured the front hatches. Mostly just a bunch of tinkering around.

I also drilled the wing tips for nut plates. I officially decided to ditch the backing strips. I think those are only needed if you pop-rivet the tips on.

I spent about an hour on the phone convincing the tow company (the only one I could find with a working 8′ flat bed that was willing to deal with an airplane) that the “vehicle” is not oversize. I think we’ll get it moved tomorrow.

Applied heat shielding to the inside of the bottom cowl. The material is a foil backed fiberglass mat with adhesive. It applies really easily and looks great.

I next drained the preservative oil from the engine. Removing the drain plugs was amazingly difficult. Since they’re square, I couldn’t get my long handled socket wrench on them. I had to resort to my little box wrench and I couldn’t get enough torque to even budge them. I finally tried heating them up with a heat gun. That did the trick.

I drained the oil, reinstalled one of the plugs and put a quick drain on the other side. I then filled the engine with mineral oil, marking the oil stick at 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 quarts. It ended up being quite a mess, but I shouldn’t have to mark the stick again.

I tried to time the P-mags again. I think I messed it up slightly last time. You’re supposed to set the prop at TDC#1 by approaching it in the normal rotation direction. That takes care of any potential play in the gears. I remember messing around with it, back and forth. I set the prop at TDC#1 the correct way this time, but couldn’t get the P-mags to taking the timing again. I’m not sure how to reset the timing on them. I sent an email to Emag.

I did a bunch of other little stuff like setting the clock on the EFIS/EMS, removing the HS to make the fuselage easier to transport, vacuumed out the fuselage, etc. The to-do list is getting really short. I’m hoping to get the plane moved down to the hangar in the next day or two. There’s nothing left to do on it while it’s in the garage.

One task I haven’t been looking forward to is mounting the remote magnetometer. It’s basically an electronic compass that needs to be away from anything magnetic/electrical in order to get a good reading. I would have liked to mount it weeks ago while the fuselage was still open, but the EFIS delays prevented that.

I layed out every tool I could think of that I’d need, secured Julie’s help, and crawled into the back of the fuselage.

I pop riveted the mount in place and then used a few shims to level the magnetometer left/right to match the EFIS unit. I then adjusted the fore/aft tilt to match the EFIS, drilled the support angle to match, and pop riveted that in place. Last thing to do was wire it up. I had Julie test on the EFIS that it was reading the magnetometer, and it was. With everything secured in the back, I cleaned up and crawled back out. I’m glad that’s done.

I messed around with a few other things during the day as well. I tried to hook up the static and pitot connectors behind the instruments. The AFS and Trutrak units have their ports too close together to use Tee fittings. I’ll have to use male adapters on both with inline Tee unions. Another order to Spruce.

I also moved the left antenna wire from the far left spar passthru to one in the middle. That will give me room to run the pitot and AOA tubes on the left side. That little task involved removing the fuel pump, cutting and redoing many tie wraps, and putting a new BNC terminal on the coax. Time consuming, but worth it.

Almost forgot that I also riveted the oil door in place. I had to use a couple of #4 washers under the Hartwell latches, otherwise they wouldn’t close completely. I’m glad I tested that before I did the rivets. The door is working great. I also made a little clip to hold the hinge pin in place.

I spent some time in the evening messing with the EFIS/EMS set up some more. I discovered that the aileron trim sensor is actually working. I’m not sure what I did before. Maybe I was trying to calibrate it on the EFIS instead of the EMS, or maybe it doesn’t work from the internal batteries. In any case, it’s working and calibrated now. Cool.

I made my own diagram for the weight/balance screen. It turned out pretty slick, but I might use a different one I made with the tail cut off. That will provide a more zoomed view of the CG diagram. Here are a few more pictures of the screens for those that haven’t seem them.

I’m running out of stuff to work on at home. Time to get the plane moved!!!

I finished installing the harnesses with the bolts that arrived from Aircraft Spruce. One minor issue is that the Hooker harness tangs interfere with the seat back in the far aft position. I guess I’m limited to the middle position. Hope that won’t be a problem with my long legs. I hoped in the pilot seat and tried out the harnesses. Snug and comfy.

I messed around with the EFIS a little bit. The altitude wasn’t showing up on the transponder. I went into the transponder settings and found that I didn’t have the serial ports set up. After that the pressure altitude showed up perfectly. Cool.

I checked out a few things on the EFIS/EMS, including listening to the voice alerts. They sound pretty cool.

I called around to several tow truck companies to try to find somebody that could haul the airplane this weekend. One company flat out wouldn’t touch an airplane. Most of them have beds that are too narrow (6′ or 7′). I found two companies that have an 8′ wide hauler. One was out of commission until Monday and the other doesn’t work on weekends (at least with the hauler). Guess it’ll have to wait until Monday or Tuesday.

The label for the cabin heat knob has been bothering me for a while. I could try to touch it up, but it was pretty bad. I decided to just re-do it. Hopefully that’s it for the labels.

While on the subject of labels, I pulled out the “EXPERIMENTAL” vinyl lettering and stuck that to the cabin frame/roll bar. I also stuck the N-numbers to the tail. Looks pretty official.

The epoxy skim coat on the cowl didn’t really set up overnight. Guess it was too cold in the garage. I stuck the cowl inside over a heater vent to really set up. I also prepped the oil door for installation, countersinking the holes that will get the soft rivets. Still waiting for the order from Spruce that has those rivets and some other stuff. I’m never using “Priority” mail with Spruce again. UPS Ground is much faster.

I scanned in an RV-7A image and tried uploading it to the EMS for the weight and balance screen. It looks very cool. But the image has a sliding canopy and the scoop on the bottom of the cowl. I’ll fix those and upload a new one. I also need to modify the locations of the CG limits and stations. Should be very cool when it’s all done.

I was going to check out some other stuff on the EFIS/EMS, but I did a stupid thing yesterday. I left the master solenoid on. The solenoid was warm, but not hot. I’ve heard others say it gets pretty hot. Maybe with the engine running it would. The battery was only down to 11.5 volts, so I hopefully didn’t toast it. I put the charger on it and left it overnight.

Shooting for moving the plane this weekend finally. It’s time to get those wings mounted and the engine fired up.