Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

First evening session down at the hangar worked out really well. It’s a bit chilly and dark, but not bad at all. I did some organizing of stuff, and started attaching the empennage. I thought I could hammer that out in a few hours, since I’ve attached the tail parts numerous times by now. However, it takes a bit longer when you’re actually attaching the parts for real. Have to find the right bolts, put in the right number of washers, torque the bolts, etc. I managed to get the HS and VS installed and started on the elevators. The center bearing on the HS is a real pain to reach and needs multiple washers. It doesn’t seem as dim in there as the picture indicates, but it’s definitely not bright. Need to buy a few work lights. And definitely need to build some work benches.

I met my first hangar neighbor as well. Turns out it’s a guy I met a few years back at an EAA meeting. Will is building an RV-8 (slowly), teaches aerobatics in his Decathlon, and is just finishing up his CFII. And best of all doesn’t mind training in other people’s RV’s. Very cool neighbor to have.

Progress will be in bursts from now on. When I get to the hangar, stuff will get done. Tonight I did not get to the hangar.

I cut up some lumber that I’m going to build into a sawhorse to put under the fuselage. I’ll use that to keep the fuselage level and steady while I adjust the wing incidence. I might also fit the wheel pants at that time, since the weight needs to be off the wheels to correctly align them. We’ll see.

I worked a bit more on the wing tips lenses, getting one side sanded straight on each one. Unfortunately, I need the Dremel to cut quite a bit more off the other edge. The Dremel is at the hangar.

I put another coat of paint on the back of the LED nav lights. I think the paint is going to work out quite well.

I rented a small moving truck and got all the tools and miscellaneous parts down to the hangar. I wasn’t feeling too good today, so that’s about all that got done. I messed around a little bit back in the garage with painting the nav lights. The instructions say to paint them in order to seal off the electronics. I’m using a white paint which I’m also hoping will make the lights a little more stealthy than the red/green of the circuit boards. We’ll see.

Back after a short business trip. Man it’s frustrating being away from the project when it’s so close to the end.

I spent most of the day packing up all the parts and tools around the garage. It took a lot longer than I expected, sorting, cleaning, organizing, etc. So that I didn’t go completely crazy, I worked on the wing tips a little bit between packing. I made a cut out in both tips for the nav light/strobe unit that I got a long time back from CreativAir. I used a fiber cut-off disc in the Dremel plus drum sander attachment. Very quick and easy. I positioned the lights right where I wanted them and drilled through them and into the wing tips. Last step was installing the nut plates.

I’m trying to get the wing tips finished up before I move all of the tools and parts down to the hangar. I countersunk the rest of the holes and installed all of the nut plates and the wing tip ribs. Just need to put in the antennas (VOR and MB) and install the nav lights.

I mainly cleaned up and re-arranged the garage, but did some countersinking on the wing tips.

Finally. The plane is in the hangar. Julie wanted to mark the occasion with a picture for some reason.

Skyway Towing sent out 2 guys and a tilting flat bed, 8′ wide, car hauler. They did a really good job of taking care of the plane and getting it secured on the truck. Winching the plane up onto the truck was easy. They secured the wheels with straps tied down front and back and ran a strap to the tail tiedown with only minimal tension. They also wanted to throw a couple straps over the top for good measure, but I didn’t let them tighten those down very much at all.

It definitely got some stares driving down the freeway. I wish I had some pictures of that, but I was out front leading them to the hangar.

The only difficult part of the whole process was getting it off the truck. The free-castering nose wheel kept wanting to turn in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, I forgot the tow bar at home. Every few feet we had to stop. I pushed down on the tail while one of the guys straightened out the nose wheel.

I’m very glad it’s safely in the hangar. This has been the single most stressful part of the project so far, hopefully second only to the first flight.

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!!!