Sunday, February 23, 2014 - canopy: rollover bar and braces

Now that the kit is inventoried and put away and some other cleanup stuff is done, I was finally able to start working again.

Saturday was the FKN pancake breakfast and we had a great turnout.  66 or 68 people.  Felt like a small fly-in.  It was a beautiful day to fly and a lot of folks probably just wanted to get out.

Couple of the a/c that we had (I think we had 25 or so fly in, including a Robinson R-44 helo).

Nice little Ercoupe

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Couple of old school (no electrical system at all) cubs.

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From Finish Kit

Semi-local RV-8.   Needless to say, since I'm working on the finish kit I was taking closeups of the cowl, intersection fairings, canopy and fittings, etc).  He came walking up as I was taking pictures - I think he thought I was some kind of paparazzi nut).  Talked to him quite a bit about flying it, stuff he'd done (and wouldn't do over again) and just general RV thoughts.

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Close of up the canopy and rivets.

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Cowling/spinner details.

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Saturday afternoon I was able to start on the rollover bar.  Got the holes laid out and drilled on the canopy decks, then match back drilled the rollover bar to the deck.  Those get enlarged to #12 forward and 1/4" aft.  Then the shims have to be trimmed to size.

The way it laid out, I realized I was not going to have enough edge distance on the forward hole if I proceeded with their exact measurements.

Looked at it and decided I could get er done if I just moved it forward another 1/8" or so.  Gave Gus at Van's a call just to make sure that was reasonable and it wouldn't bite me later.

As I expected, he said it wasn't that critical, so I went ahead and moved it forward.

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Match drilling the bar to the deck.

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Working on the shims - there are 4 total.  2 left & right, and the forward one is different than the aft one so you have to keep track and make sure you make one each left and right handed forward and aft.

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Enlarging the holes to final size.

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Finished drilling.

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I could *not* get the nut on the bolt from below, so I made an access cutout to get to it.

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Next was to trim the brace to length, then match drill it to the rollover bar and rib.

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Finished with the rollover bar end.

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Match drilled, trimmed, deburred and bolted in to the rib.

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Next thing is to do the canopy rails.

February 16th, 2014 - build a shelf to hold (and stash) the canopy and start inventorying the kit

Finally got the finish kit more or less unpacked and inventoried today.  There are some big parts that I won't need for some time.  The cowling won't be needed until I have an engine, and the canopy plexi will have to wait for some much warmer weather.

The cowling I can stash just about anywhere - not exactly fragile.  The plexi on the other hand has an evil reputation for cracking, especially if you try to do anything with it cold.  It needs to be stored somewhere safe until it warms up enough to work on.

I originally thought about storing it on some kind of suspended frame under the fuselage, but rejected that idea as being impractical - it would get in the way of trying to work on the fuse and be prone to kicking and/or other things generally detrimental to its good health.  It would also have been an extremely tight fit.

I finally decided to suspend the bottom of the shipping crate from the ceiling on the garage door end.  I figured I could attach some cleats to the wood outboard of the doors, span that with a 2x4, and use then use that 2x4 as a support for one side of the shelf.  I could then attach some hangers to the ceiling and support the other side.

The shipping crate was 96" x 48", so that worked out well.  The bottom is about 3/8" ply with some 1x2 reinforcement.  Should make a good shelf as long as nothing terribly heavy is stored on it.  The canopy is very light, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Spent most of Saturday afternoon trying to decide what to do then actually doing it.

Overall, the idea came out pretty well, and the huge shelf will be a good place to stash other unwieldy stuff like wheel pants, leg fairings and anything that is fairly light and won't be needed for a while.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few.

Scrap 2x4 cleats are screwed to the wood frame outboard of the door so I have somewhere to attach the board that will span the door.  I figured 24" from the ceiling (which is 8 foot) would give me plenty of room.

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Then I screwed a scrap 8 foot 2x4 to the cleats.  The idea is that the back half of the crate bottom will rest on this.

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Forgot to take pictures of the cleats and hangers before installing the shelf, but it's pretty obvious what I did.  I used an electronic stud finder to find the joists, then screwed scrap 2x4's to them - long enough to span between 2 joists for strength.  I then screwed the hangers to the cleats so all the support parts were ready.

Greg helped me lift the crate (with canopy on it) up onto the back support, then held it while I back screwed (from the inside in other words) the outside of the crate bottom to the hangers   The back side also got a couple of screws into the 8' 2x4 so there is no way to pull it away from the wall.  Very solid. All I have to do now is trim the hangers and pad them a bit so no one (me in other words...) whacks it with their head.

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It's about 6' off the floor.  All the parts and table will fit under it easily, and I can stand under it if I stoop slightly.  Since everyone else in the family is under 6', they are in no danger.

You can see the rollover bar and canopy frame sitting on the fuse in this picture - they aren't installed, just sitting there.  The stuff on the panel is pictures of instruments - been trying to figure out what I'm going to get and where I'm going to put it.

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Finished trimming up the hangers and padded the sides and corner.  The canopy should be safe until I can start working on it, and the best thing is it's totally out of the way.

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Once the shelf was done I could start on the inventory.  Inventorying the parts is always a good idea.  2 of my 3 previous kits were perfect, but my wing kit had some missing parts that Van's shipped out right away once I notified them.  If you don't check it and find out after 30 days you're missing something, it's on you, so better check and be sure.

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I was a bit surprised to see these.   These are braided brake lines. Van's used to use poly brake lines ( I know the prototype does because I've seen them).  Most people complained and used Bonaco instead.  These look just like the Bonaco units.  Much nicer than the poly and easier to work with.

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Matco brakes and wheels.  These are some really nice machined and anodized units.

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Detail of the brake caliper.

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And the wheels.  The wheels are split rim (standard on aircraft) and use tires with tubes in them  The brake rotors bolt to the inside.  These take 6" tires.

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Nose wheel with bearings.  Smaller tire.

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Yoke for the nose wheel.  The end with the bushing fits on the nose gear and casters around it.

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Most of the rest of the parts - canopy rail and sheet metal, the canopy handle, empennage and wing seals, etc.

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Don't think I've ever shown a hardware kit - this is it.  Usually comes on one huge bag, with all the bolts, rivets, platenuts and other hardware.  Each bag has a number corresponding to the callout on the inventory sheet.  Count everything but the rivets, then put it in the storage bins.  I'll try to remember to show a picture of that - got the idea from Jeff Moreau, and it's been a godsend.  It would be a nightmare to keep track of without being stored properly.

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Next up - start working on the canopy frame!

February 12th, 2014 - finish kit finally arrives!

Just got back from unloading my finish kit.  It was supposed to be here a couple of weeks ago, but I suspect all the weather between the coasts held things up a bit.  I'll be posting some pics once I get started unpacking and inventorying.

Here are the pics from opening the crate.

The crate arrived via CEVA logistics (COD as always).  It was supposed to be here 2 weeks ago, but I suspect all the weather held things up.  The driver, Thomas, was great.  He put it on a dolly before he left the depot, and brought a regular truck with a lift gate instead of the usual tractor/trailer.  Much easier.

They say it weighs 300 pounds.  Seems a bit on the high side to me, but definitely too big to horse around all by myself.  I empty my EAA table and roll it out to the street, then just roll the whole thing in.  Works great.  Just need a little help getting over the lip of the garage and the lip of the driveway at the street.

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As always, Van's did a great job of packing.  The crate was in perfect shape.

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There is a separate cardboard compartment for parts just under the camera, a bunch of stuff under the canopy in the center, and the cowling tucked over the canopy on the far end.  Wheel fairings were tucked into the gaps on the far end.  As always, miles of packing paper.

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Wow is that cowling pink! :)  The snout is the air induction inlet.  The top half of the cowl is nestled inside this part.

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Separate compartment with wheels, various parts, nose wheel fairing and the plans/documentation kit.

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Cowling out of the way.  I decided to remove all the sides of the crate since I didn't have a lot of help and I wanted to be super careful with the canopy.

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The engine mount (using a Dynafocal 1)  is under the canopy and bolted to the bottom of the crate with some large carriage bolts.  All kinds of parts were tie wrapped to the engine mount, then paper covered the whole thing.  Very sturdy, and no way for anything to move around at all.

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Finished removing everything from under the canopy except the hinges for the cowling and fairings and hinge pins and some miscellaneous sheet metal for the canopy frame.

I took out the rollover bar and canopy frame and put them on the fuse.  You can see them in the background.

Next question:  where am I going to put this dude until it is warm enough to work on it???

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Early January, 2014

Haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I'd throw something up just to let people know I haven't stopped working (if anything I'm more motivated than ever).

I waited a bit too long to order my finish kit, so I've been in a bit of a holding pattern.  Finish kit should be here sometime around Jan 27th.

That gave me time to do a lot of thinking, which is good, cause I've got some major decisions coming up.  Engine - what, where, when, who, how, and panel.

What: carbureted O-320 fixed pitch

Who/Where:  Aero Sport Power, Aero Engines (Winchester, VA), ECI Titan from a kit with local help, used that I haven't found yet, new Lycoming from Van's, ECI Titan from the factory, JB aircraft engines.  Used & rebuild also possible, but I don't want to buy someone's else's problems.

Panel - more questions that I can imagine.  Probably Dynon Skyview or a Garmin 3x.  Making inquiries w/Stein, Doug Reeves @ VAF and tons of other folks for opinions/ideas.  Feel free to chime in with your own take.  Planning to start day/night VFR but want to end up w/full IFR without having to gut the panel.

More to follow.

Dale

December 1st, 2013 forward fuselage, panel, static port and lines, misc

Finally starting to get a head of steam again, although I realized yesterday when  I was reading over the instructions that I am literally on the last paragraph of the fuselage section and have not yet ordered the finish kit.  I knew I was close but didn't think I was that close.

After letting the paint cure for 3 or 4 days I reassembled it loosely to make sure I hadn't missed anything major.  There are still a couple of things I need to paint (seat backs and braces and the forward brake/fuel line covers) but that will have to wait until we get some warmer weather.

Once I got the panels back in place I did mock up the forward fuse quickly just to sit in it and make airplane noises.

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I got some seat height measurements when I was watching a webinar DJ Lauritzen did on seating (she makes really nice RV seats, Vans demonstrators among them).  She and her husband run Cleaveland Tools.

 Based on her guidance the height will be fine and the rudder pedal location I chose will work as well.

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Once I was done with that I started on the forward fuselage.  Forgot to take any pics of the angles that support the panel.  Pretty straightforward, they just need to be fluted to match the upper curvature on the outboard edges.

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The F7109 plate reinforces the center rib.  There is a roll bar support that bolts between this rib and the forward roll bar for the sliding canopy.

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Reinforcing plate cut to shape but not drilled yet.  This gets match drilled using the center rib as a drilling template.

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Decided to take a break from the forward section to work on the rudder cable exits at the rear.

The adel clamps were a bear to get started.  Finally ended up using a pair of needle nose (note to self - use the forceps next time) and that did the trick.  Hopefully I won't have to mess with these again.

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 I thought about ordering some of the fairings to cover/dress up the exit holes, but ASC wants $16, and there is nothing to them.  I was googling around and found some Sam Buchanan did and shamelessly copied his idea.

This is a lousy picture, but all I have at the moment.  I'll try to get a better one and fix it.

Basically you take some light (I used .020) sheet about 4" long and 2 1/2 to 3" wide, cut it to an arrow shape,  then bent it in the middle.

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November 17th, 2013 - finish up the empennage, mount avionics tray, paint the interior

Way behind on the updates, and I haven't been able to work on the project much.  Also had a bunch of stuff to do around the house.

I was at a conference in Bethesda a few weeks ago.  It ended up around noon, which gave me a chance to run out to Winchester.  There is an engine shop I'd heard good things about that I wanted to visit.  Got a chance to meet Tom Schweitz at Aero Engines (who seems like a great guy), and he gave me some options re: engines.  I've basically got my pick - he carries both ECI and Superior, and can either build one for me per my specs or I can come up and build it with one of his guys.  Also mid-time are not a problem.  He'd just received a shipment of 19 O-320s from an outfit that was upgrading their Super Cubs to O-360s.  They obviously do a ton of engine work, and seem completely able to do the job, as well as having a good reputation among both the certified and experimental community.

Basically in the last few weeks I've finished up as much as I can on the empennage, mounted the Van's avionics tray in the fuse and painted the interior.

Last thing to do on the empennage was to mount the aft tie down.  It's riveted to the forward side of the aftmost bulkhead.  I made up a drilling guide/jig from some scrap aluminum so I could get everything lined up.  There is no way (that I have anyway) to drill from the tie down bar into the bulkhead.  It's too tight.  There is also no good way to clamp the tie down bar in that position.

Basically what I did was lay out the tie down bar, drilled it on the drill press, then match drilled the drilling jig, the laid that out on the aft bulkhead, then drilled the bulkhead.  Once I had both drilled, I clecoed the tie down bar in place and cleaned the holes up.  I drilled everything undersize (#40) so the alignment would be no problem.

Here's the drilling jig getting aligned with the bulkhead.

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I match drilled the bulkhead using the jig, then clecoed the tie down bar (which was already drilled) into place.

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Inside view of the tie down bar clecoed in place.  Tight fit.

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Once I was done with that, I had to match drill the lower vertical stab spar to the aft bulkhead.  This will be bolted in place later.  These holes go through the bulkhead and the tie down bar as well.

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Starting to work on the avionics tray.  Van's sells a AHARS (or ADAHARS) tray that fits right behind the aft baggage wall.  This gets it clear of magnetic interference as much as possible.  I'm using manual trim, so the trim cable is a bit in the way - I'm going to install a nutplate in the elevator horn rib and clamp the trim cable with an adel clamp.

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Since there is no way to dimple, I used my tight fit dimple kit I got from Cleaveland.  It works pretty well if you pull it a couple of times.  They give you copper finishing nails, but I found that some stainless vinyl trim nails work much better.  I can do 2 holes before they are stretched too much and break.

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Holes in aft bottom skin all dimpled.

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Everything riveted together as mush a possible and test fit.  The tray is leveled so that the AHARS has a good attitude reference.

I won't permanently rivet it til I get the actual unit.  This one is drilled for both Garmin and one other manufacturer.  I'm planning on using Dynon, so I'll install the nut plates when I have the actual AHARS and can accurately lay it out.

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Time to paint the interior since it's wide open, and this is the easiest time.  I haven't decided if I will fabric the interior or not.  I tried several paints, shopped around, looked at a lot of ideas (textured, Zolatone, Stewart systems, etc.)   I finally settled on some Rustoleum I found.  It's pretty durable, and the color is a nice contrast with the Van's powder coat (it's Becca approved!).

I played with it and was able to get a slightly textured finish (which is what I was looking for - didn't want it to have too much glare).

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I spent days sanding, hitting it with scotch brite pads, , cleaning and masking.

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More masking.  I will only paint forward up to just above the upper stiffener.  The panel will cover everything else, and I don't want to add more weight than I need.

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Aft cockpit all masked.

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In the middle of painting.

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More or less finished with the panels lightly screwed into place.  Pretty happy with how it came out.

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Aft side.  It won't win a Lindy, but it will be more than adequate for me.  Just hope it holds up well.  If not, a fabric kit from Flightline or  DJ @ Cleavelend is always an option.

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