Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

Finally back at work on the plane. The GNS-430W com/nav/gps arrived on Friday. I plugged that into the panel and fired it up. I don’t have the GPS antenna hooked up yet, so that part isn’t working. The radio is working, though. There’s a tiny gap above the GPS, but I can shim down the PMA-8000B a bit with some UHMW tape.

I’m getting fairly sick of the empennage tips, but they’re almost done. The fiberglass I laid up to close off the VS/HS tips worked out great. I trimmed it a tiny bit, and I’ll fill it later.

I drilled the backing strips for the tips, countersunk everything (except the rudder bottom), and deburred the skins. I also removed some more weight from the right elevator counterweight. I drilled a hole in the front of the weight, which I’ll fill with epoxy filler. I can drill that out later and fill with lead shot and epoxy if needed. I also added a nut plate to the left elevator. I can also add weight there later if needed. For now, both elevators are well balanced.

Drove down to Portland and spent 3 days with Mike Seager. I’m glad I scheduled 3 days, as the weather wasn’t very good the first day. Thursday and Friday were cold but clear skies and no wind. Couldn’t ask for much better during winter in the NW. We did slow flight, stalls, and landings. We got in the 5 hours dual required by my insurance company plus an extra hour. Since I only have 150 total hours all in Cessna 172s, it took a while to get used to the constant speed, high performance, stick steering RV. By the final day I was making acceptable landings regularly with a couple of greasers here and there. I did my training in N666RV, an RV-6A with constant speed prop. (That isn’t me flying in the pictures.)

Drove back home and found snow on the ground everywhere. It’s been a wacky winter.

The horizontal and vertical stabilizer tips have open ends on them facing aft. I think they can just be left open, but once I rivet the tips in place it will be much harder to close them off. I decided to close them off now while they’re still easy to work with. I’ve put off this step for about 3 years now, and I’m not sure why. It’s not difficult, but it does make a mess.

I used a different method to close off the tips than most. I stole it from someone’s site, but I can’t remember who right now. Most people epoxy some foam inside the tip, fiberglass the outside of the foam, remove the foam with a solvent, and then fill the remaining void.

I used some cardboard covered in Glad Press-n-Seal as a form on the outside of the open end. When the cardboard is pushed between the HS and elevator or VS and rudder, it curves a bit. Hopefully that will make the end have a nice curve to it as well. It was a little tricky getting the fiberglass inside the tip, but not a big deal. We’ll see how it turns out.

I had a few more labels still to do in the cockpit, one for the co-pilot push-to-talk, one messed up label on the panel, and I waited to label the Bowden cables until I knew which way would be up on the round knob. They turned out pretty good, but I might have to re-do the cabin heat label. I remembered that I need to label the fuel fillers as well, so I have at least one more round to go.

I also secured the Trutrak connectors with some small screws and actually using and DB-9 housing on the servo. I might order a DB-25 shell for the head unit. I installed batteries in the ELT and installed that, without arming it yet. And lastly I made some strips from some scrap to back-up the rivets for the emp tips.

My order from Spruce arrived with some 1/4″ soundproofing material. I’m not really that concerned with soundproofing under the fuel pump, but this material works really well for the job. I cut it to fit and installed the fuel pump for hopefully the last time. I torqued all the fluid connections and marked them with torque seal. I also checked all the fuel connections to the engine. All are good to go.

I also finally received the brake fluid from ACI Lubes. I wanted to use MIL-83282 brake fluid, which has a higher flash point. A gallon is way more than I needed, but was the smallest quantity they offered. I used maybe 1/8 of a quart. I put the extra into quart cans–will trade a quart for a 6-pack of beer.

Filling the brakes is definitely messy, especially using a make-shift oil can and plastic tubing. I’m glad I put down plastic sheeting. The clear tubing definitely helps, as I could tell when all the bubbles were out. I thought it was all filled great, and then I noticed another bubble later in the right line between the pilot and co-pilot. Shoot.

Did a little flying today as well. The morning was really nice, but things quickly turned south by afternoon when I had the plane reserved. Winds were gusty, visibility was poor, and it was busy. I went over to RNT to do some T&Gs at my new home airport. I was #2 out of 4 for landing, and 3 planes were on the ground waiting to take off, with another 2-3 in the pattern. BFI wasn’t much better. I basically did 3 acceptable landings (considering the winds) and called it a day.

Steve was over again to finish up his project. He discovered that 90% of the project is prep: drilling, deburring, countersinking, etc. The actual riveting goes really quickly. Welcome to my world, buddy. His panel turned out really nice.

I was knocking items off the task list again, installing endless cotter pins on the canopy latch mechanism, throttle quadrant levers, and engine control levers. The canopy latch alone has 7 cotter pins, a couple of which that are difficult to get at. Fun times. I also torqued the oil filter (25 ft-lb) and safety wired it.

The current plan is to work through the task list over the next 2 weeks, move the plane to the airport, install the wings, and start the engine. I’m hoping first flight will be first half of February. We’ll see how the progress goes over the next few weeks. Hopefully we have no more snow/wind storms and power outages.

My friend Steve was over for some help riveting up an aluminum panel for his boat. I worked on a couple of things in the background. I took care of a pesky rivet in the canopy rail that I couldn’t figure out how to buck before. I messed with the capacitive fuel sender connectors, but the instructions say to test them before putting them altogether.

Steve helped me install the data plate with a couple of flush rivets. Taking DanC’s advice, I used a data plate that only has the minimum required fields on it. That way I don’t have to wait until the plane is weighed. It makes the plane look very official. The engraving is pretty light, but trust me it has lettering on it.

I finally replaced the elevator trim tab pin with a longer one that I could bend and safety wire to the spar. Simple and easy.

I installed the temporary left jack panel and secured a bunch of wires on the left side of the plane.

Today was mostly spent cleaning and organizing the house. A good task for the first of the year. I eventually got out to the garage, but wasn’t very motivated. Not many fun tasks left.

I started by sealing off the firewall wiring fittings. The fittings are from EPM.AV, and they come with some sealant to keep fumes and liquids out. It was easy to apply with gloves, and I tightened up the hose clamps.

Next task was to make some temporary panels for the headset jacks. Once I get the Classic Aero Design side panels installed, I’ll install the jacks into those. But I don’t want to install the nice panels yet. I’d rather leave things open for flight testing. I used some spare .032 sheet to make these panels that are attached in a couple spots.

While I was in the area, I did some more securing of wires. Access is really poor in some areas with push tubes etc. in the way. It was difficult to get the tie wraps in place and tighten them. Just a bit more of this to do, and I’ll call the wiring done.

Dave Burton brought over a torque wrench at the party yesterday. (Thanks Dave!) I have a wrench, but it doesn’t go high enough to torque the prop bolts. I needed something in the 30 ft-lb range. I used the economy extension (3/4″ bolt and nut and 3/4″ double ended wrench) and Julie hung onto the prop. Very easy process.

The not-so-easy process was safety wiring the nuts. Access is really poor because of the spinner back plate. I safetied them in pairs, and it took me two tries for each. One might not be tight enough, but the other two look good. I’ll check with somebody who knows more than me, and maybe redo the last one again.