Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

We decided to hold a little project open house/fairwell for the plane. The original plan was to haul it down to the airport over the weekend, but I got behind schedule with the power outage and holidays. Still it was good timing for a get together. The weather was great with the sun peeking out, so I removed the rudder/VS and rolled it into the driveway. Several neighbors stopped by and I sent out a general invite to the Eastside EAA and some friends. It was great to catch up with everybody and show off the project a bit. Thanks to everyone that showed up!

We decided to have a little open house tomorrow, so I wanted to install the seats. I already made the standard Vans seat backs, but the seats from Classic Aero Designs has a built-in frame. The frame didn’t have the hinge installed, so I had to do that in such a way that the seat would be correctly positioned when matched up with the hinge already installed on the seat pans. A lot of measuring and double checking. It turned out perfectly. I also had to trim a few hinge eyes off the support bracket on the back of the seat. CAD sent some brackets with the seats, but I wanted to use the ones that I already made. The seats really look great in the plane. Of course I had to sit in the pilot seat for a while and called Julie out to join me.

I was pretty tired of fiberglass work, but decided to push on since I already had a layer of fine white dust everywhere (except the cockpit which I covered with a drop cloth). Might as well get the bulk of the trimming done. The bottom tip on the rudder took a lot of iterations to get a good fit. I trimmed to the scribed lines, except around the rudder horn. I measured and marked that myself. I used the sandpaper-on-a-long-board trick from the cowl to get a nice, straight line. The contour of the tip doesn’t line up well with the rudder spar. I think that’s a common problem, and most people just trim off that area.

Last but not least on the trimming list was the empennage fairing. I used a Sharpie to go over the scribed line, which meandered in a few places. Using a combination of band saw, cut-off wheel, and belt sander, I got the initial trimming taken care of. I also made cut outs for the elevator horns. The fairing doesn’t look quite symmetrical, so I have some more trimming to do still. The overall fit is quite good. Just a minor bit of gapping in a few places.

Working on the left elevator tip went much quicker after my experience from the right side. Plus the counterweight doesn’t need much trimming because of the trim motor.

With the elevator tips drilled and clecoed, it was time to move onto the horizontal stabilizer tips. They required quite a bit of trimming, but I did it conservatively in stages. I tried to get 1/4″ - 5/16″ gap all around between the elevator and HS tips. Turned out pretty good.

Spent more time fitting the right elevator tip. The fiberglass is a bit too thick over the lead weight, so I used a drum sander on my Dremel to thin it down a bit. It will still take some filling around the lead weight, but it’s getting pretty close.

I pulled out the left elevator to start working on it, and realized I hadn’t fully hooked up the trim tab yet. It was one of those things that I left until later. I cut the threaded rod to length and had to enlarge the cut out a bit more to allow full travel.

Today was a landmark day. I went over 2000 hours on the project. Insane. When I started, I was really hoping to finish in 1800 hours. I’m close at this point and will finish before 2100 flips over. A lot of that time was making mistakes and figuring things out. I could build another plane much quicker. Another large chunk of time went into customizations like the throttle quadrant that I’m not sure were worth the extra time, at least at this point. Maybe after I’m flying I’ll value them more.

Today, I just with both feet into the process of fitting the empennage tips. I trimmed the rudder tip with the band saw and belt sander. My dad held it in position, and I drilled and clecoed it in place.

After installing the rudder on the VS, I was able to trim the VS and then drill it as well. I still need to close off the end.

We then started in on the right elevator tip. It was fairly easy to trim it to fit, but then I remembered that the counterbalance needed trimming. I started using a hack saw, but quickly moved over to the band saw to trim it. We installed the elevator on the HS, and I then filed away on the counterbalance until it was almost balanced. I left a little extra to account for paint.

The plane is looking really cool with the empennage installed.

Getting back into the groove–even working on the plane on Christmas. Got some good loot from Santa, including an awesome Bosch power driver.

Continuing finishing up the cockpit, I installed some adle clamps for the cabin heat Bowden cable and attached it to the flapper valve. Works great. I also fashioned the steel strips supplied (I think) in the firewall forward kit into clamps for the SCAT hose.

Didn’t feel much like working on the project today, but managed to do a simple task. I dimpled the wing and tail access panels and attached nut plates to the tail. My dad is in town and came out to the garage to check on me. After he was standing around for a while, I put him to work with the dimpling.

Our power is finally back on, but I’ve been busy with Christmas stuff the last few days. We were nearly 6 days without power (except the generator). Not fun.

Today I managed to pull the plane out of the garage, turn it around, and start messing with the empennage again. Our garage ceiling is really low, so I had to run the nosewheel onto a makeshift 1-1/2″ ramp. However, that wasn’t enough clearance to get the VS fairing in place. I’ll have to jack up the nosewheel some more. The empennage fairing is looking pretty good. There are some trim marks on it, so I guess the next step is to trim up to those.

The power is still out at our house, going on the 6th day now. It’s been very frustrating not being able to work on the plane, but it’s just too difficult without adequate lighting and heat out in the garage. The power will hopefully return soon.

Apparently it didn’t make the national news, but Seattle was hit by a huge windstorm Thursday night. I worked on the plane a little bit that night as the lights flickered on and off. We finally lost power altogether around 11pm and still don’t have it restored. With a generator, we’re able to keep our fridge, natural gas furnace, satellite receiver/TV, and a few lights working. Each day, I’ve managed to string some extension cords into the garage for lights and get a few things done on the plane. It’s so darn close that I can’t let a little thing like lack of power get in my way.

A shipment from Spruce arrived Thursday, so I was able to finish up several items including putting some thinned RTV on the ends of the firesleeve, clamping the cabin heat hoses, securing the sniffle valve tube, and installing a heat shield for the throttle cable. Friday I messed around with the alternate air cable, attaching it to the little screw on the door and adle clamping it to the oil return tube on cylinder #2.

Saturday I messed around with the forward center floor cover. I tried using the soundproofing foam to protect the brake and fuel lines and wires in that area. I split each wire bundle into two so they weren’t so thick. Even with that, the 1/2″ foam is just too thick in that area. I’ll order some 1/4″ foam, which should work quite well.

Sunday I did a bunch of adle clamping on the right side of the engine, securing the starter and alternator wires and other stuff. I just need to secure the cabin heat SCAT hose, and that should be wrapped up.

I didn’t get nearly as much done as I wanted, but did make forward progress despite the lack of power.