Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I received an order from Cleaveland. I went back and forth several times on whether to use real static ports or the cheesy pop rivets that Van’s supplies. I ended up just spending the $20 and buying the ports. They look very nice and should be easy to install.

The flap actuator calls for safety wiring in one spot, so I bought pliers and two different sizes of safety wire. I played around with the pliers a bit. They’re very easy to use and make a nice looking twist.

Decided to make some room in the garage for the convertible. Now that we have the hard top off, it’s better to keep it inside. With the finish kit arriving in a month, I’m not sure how long there will be enough room in the garage. For now, we moved the wings into the spare bedroom. We had to temporarily place the wings on the lawn while moving the cradle, which made for an odd picture.

I had an opportunity to tour the Seattle Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities today. There were controllers from many of the local facilites, Seattle Tower, Boeing Tower, Renton Tower, Seattle Center, and Whidbey Approach. They all spoke for a few minutes about their facility and took questions. We then got to tour the Seattle TRACON. They have a fairly new system called STARS. It’s a very cool radar system. It was definitely worthwhile to spend a few hours to see who and what is on the other side of the radio.

I wish I had pictures to show, but there was no picture taking allowed (at least not without special permission from the facility manager).

This is what the massively-simplified, VFR-only panel would look like:

I’m still not sure which way I’ll go, but this is an option. It’s down to a Dynon D-10A, SL-40 radio (no VOR), simple PMA-3000 intercom (since there’s only one radio), Garmin portable 296 GPS, Garmin GTX-327 transponder, ACS 2002 engine monitor (or whatever they’re calling it now), a Trio autopilot, AOA Sport indicator and a couple of back-up instruments.

When upgrading later, I’d get the latest whiz-bang EFIS, but keep the Dynon as a back-up. Sell the SL-40 and get the SL-30 to add VOR. Sell the intercom, buy a full-blown audio panel. Sell the 296 and get a panel-mounted IFR GPS. And possibly upgrade the GTX-327 to a GTX-330, if that looks like the best option for traffic. Maybe get an altitude hold.

I’ve been thinking more seriously about the major purchases coming up. I’m still leaning toward a Mattituck engine, probably a TMX-360, 180hp, fuel injection, horizontal sump, and FADEC. Mahlon has been very helpful with information and answering my questions. I’ll probably order it this summer.

The second major purchase is the prop. I’m definitely going constant speed. I like the Whirlwind prop. It’s light and looks cool. The only drawback is that it’s relatively new, and has a shorter time between overhauls. The tried-and-true alternative is the Hartzell.

The last major set of purchases is the avionics. I’ve been all over the map on this one. For a while now, I’ve been looking seriously at the Chelton. It’s a very nice unit, rock solid. Lately I’ve been wondering if it’s overkill for my mostly VFR flying profile. I want to get an IFR ticket eventually, but that may be a few years down the road. Budget-wise it might be better to install a good VFR panel now and then upgrade in a few years to IFR, if I even still want to pursue that. That will give me a few years to save up for the nice, expensive toys.

Made a short sawhorse to go under the F-704 once I flip the canoe over. I pretty much followed Dan’s design and dimensions using a 2×4 and wood left over from the crates. It was fun to work with wood for a change and actually start and finish a “component” in one hour. I intentially put the “FX” and “$$” on the outside just for kicks.

Earlier in the day I went to the Washington Aviation Assocation show down in Puyallup. I talked with Dynon. They are expecting to have their engine monitor done in the next month or two. Their next project will be a larger 7″ screen that can display either the flight info or engine monitor.

I talked to rep from Superior. He went over the differences between their engine and the other ECI-based Lyco-likes. There’s lots of little things that probably extend the life of the engine. Is it worth the extra money to get 6500 hours out of a crank instead of 6300? And according to him, ECI buys some of the parts for their kit from Superior. There is a lot of inter-breeding between the companies making Lyco-like engines.

I talked with Tony from Aerocraft. They’re working on a center console for the RV-10 and are planning on adapting it to the RV-7. From pictures, it looks like it’s coming along pretty nicely. They also had a Chelton system on display that I was able to play with a bit. It’s a very responsive EFIS.

I talked with Approach Systems for a while about their PDA and Table PC based EFIS. I also looked at their wiring hub. It’s a nice concept, especially if you think you’ll be making avionics changes in the future.

The Garmin booth was swarmed, as usual. I don’t know why they don’t bring more displays and people. I guess when you’re the only show in town, you don’t have to do much work to sell your product.

I also chatted a while with a guy that is building condo hangars at Auburn and other airports. I have my eye on Auburn as the place to complete my kit and keep my plane at least for the short term. They have enclosed rental hangars available now, and more condo units will be available next summer. I’m not worried about hangar availability when I need it.

The last building-related company I talked to was Lindean Aircraft Interiors. They do custom interiors for all sorts of vehicles. It’s nice they’re located close by at Boeing Field, but I think they might be more expensive than the other companies that have pre-made RV seats and interior panels (Classic Aero Designs, Flightline).

Finally, I talked with Will, a fellow RV-builder and flight instructor. He’s been doing some instructing in an RV-6, and said he’d be very willing to do some instructing in my plane for an instrument ticket some day. He also has access to a Citabria and is working on being able to do aerobatic training. That would be very cool.

It was definitely worth-while to stop by the show. I just wish more vendors (Grand Rapids, Blue Mountain, Aerosance, Trutrak, Advanced Flight Systems) would show up there or at Arlington. I don’t really want to schlep to Florida or Wisconsin to see this stuff in person.

The Lancair pilot was sick, so I didn’t get a Chelton demo flight yet. Josh is still working on it.

I talked with two companies today. First I called Mattituck to confirm that the engine mount I needed was a Dynafocal I. The salesperson was very help. He said the lead time on the TMX-360 engines is about 12 weeks. He also mentioned that Sun ‘n Fun might be a good time to order.

I next called Direct2Avionics, the distributor for the Chelton EFIS systems. I got all of my questions answered. The single screen system is not able to do a split-screen display. It’s either the primary flight display, the map, or the engine parameters. When using a FADEC-equipped engine, the Chelton still needs to interface to an engine monitor such as the Grand Rapids EIS-4000. The GPS is not WAAS certified for GPS approaches. Apparently, there are only 40 some GPS approaches right now. He suggested getting an SL-30, which can interface to the Chelton and provide VOR-based approach info. So far, D2A has been providing software updates for free. Navigation data updates need to be purchased from Jepp. One thing I didn’t know is that the Garmin GTX-330 can’t interface directly to the Chelton for traffic info. A $2k unit is needed to convert the ARINC info to RS-232. Ouch. He is also trying to set up a demo flight for me this weekend in a Lancair. That will be cool.

While I was down visiting my parents for Thanksgiving, I took a tour of Van’s factory. Ken showed us around, claiming that there really wasn’t much to see. In actuality, there was lots of cool stuff to see. I’d say the highlight was the automated punch machine, but seeing the factory planes all lined up in the company hangar was also very cool. It was worth the half hour drive down from Portland to see where these cool kits are made.

I forgot the digital camera, so we had to buy a disposable camera. The picture quality is not so great, especially in the darker shots.

Here’s the factory demo RV-7A.

This is their super fast punch press that does the cutting and hole punching on the parts. They have 2 other smaller punch presses as well.

And here is the packing area followed by one of the many rows upon rows of shelves filled with parts.

Time for some tool maintenance. I bought a new belt for the belt sander and a new blade for the band saw. I went back to a 3/8″, 18 tpi band saw. I was using a 1/8″, 14 tpi for a while thinking the narrower blade would make it easier to cut tight corners. Instead it was more prone to bending. The thicker blade is much better for control and the extra 4 teeth per inch really make cutting easier.