Right Tank Prep HOBBS 304.5 hrs

There's been a lot going on lately, unfortunately not much of it was progress on the project. This weekend was the annual Rocky Mountain Airshow out at KBJC. I spent all day out there saturday, culminating with a BBQ at Shawn and Bob's (Colorado Pilot's Association) hangar before the night airshow and fireworks. Saw the Oshkosh award winning RV8 from Evergreen and met the owner (cant remember his name however?). Very nice looking plane. Also met Sean Blair from Meadowlake (Colorado Springs) who is building a RV7A...or RV7...or...he is still debating. We exchanged business cards since we are both at almost identical stages of our build.

As for the project. Working on getting the right tank ready for the pro-seal dance. Anti-hang up brackets for the flop tube. Fuel cap, fuel sump/drain, etc, etc.

I ordered another flop tube from Van's...yup, I decided to go with a two flop tube system. I can go into inverted flight on either tank. I also ordered four extra 6' piano hinges...stay tuned for what those are for. Some 426 -4 rivets for the flop tube area where I was having the interference problem. Oh, and another small tube of pro-seal. I was told by someone who has done multiple sets of tanks that it is really a nice way to apply pro-seal to the tanks and I knew I probably needed more anyway. Not much for $105, thats for sure.

I did a better job of layout on the right tank. Here is the nut sitting in place so I can see what kind of clearance I need for those rivets. But, even with all this, I left out one of the (6) rivets they show in the plans.

Whoops, I cut my angle attach bracket wrong...I fit it to the wrong rib so it was in the 'left' orientation. At first I said, 'crap!' gotta order another angle piece. But luckily Van's sends enough to make three brackets...so I just fabricated another. Hey Bryan...got an extra one for the left tank if you want it!! :)

Fuel tank access cover cleco-ed in place. This will be attached with cap screws...that for some reason dont come with the kit from what I can tell?? I have to look into this more to be sure.

Here is a shot of the (5) holes instead of (6)...

Had to fabricate this anti-hang up bracket...this will ensure that the flop tube doesn't catch on the nut plates (not shown) or scar up the tube as it slides over the top. Actually the one in this picture was discarded. It was a little too tall for my taste as it looked like it could still catch the tube so I made another one a little shorter...sorry didnt snap a pic.

Use a cardboard file folder for layout...cut and fit, then transfer the bend lines over to the sheet metal.