Ron's RV7 Aircraft Factory


Welcome to my personal blog. This site was created as an informal description of my build progress in the construction of a Van's RV7 aircraft. A place where family/friends/builders/curiosity seekers can follow along. It is not intended to be a detailed description of every step in the building process as that would be much too time consuming. There are plenty of sites that do a great job in that arena, that is not my intention with this site. My intention is for this to be a philisophical/motivational/inspirational account of the emotional ups and downs of the life changing journey...and it will change your life. I hope this will give you an idea, through my eyes, of what its like to make this transformation. A note to other builders, I am not an expert so do not put your safety at risk by attempting anything you see on this site until you have done your own research, or send me an email so we can discuss it. Any deviations from the plans are not approved, nor endorsed by Van's Aircraft or myself. Thanks for visiting.



Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Rocky Mountain Airshow HOBBS 2185.0 hrs

 
Here are a few pics from the airshow for your enjoyment, including our very own Rocky Mountain Renegades RV formation team. This years version was a little lackluster compared to last year. Crowds were smaller, there was no military flight demos and not as many big airshow names as last year. But hey, I still had a good time...three days of hangar parties, airplanes and hangar flying is never a bad thing!



















Monday, August 26, 2013

Nerve Center HOBBS 2170.5 hrs

The center console is turning into quite a labor intensive project, but I'm making progress and nearing the end. Some of the reason for that is it is essentially a 'nerve center' of cables, plumbing and levers.
 
 
A detail shot of the plastic latch and an alignment pin to get everything lined up.

 
My end cap riveted in place. This transition cap will be covered with some kind of 'wrap'...still TBD.

 
A piece of 1/8" thick UHWM plastic for the plastic latch and alignment pin.


 
A couple shots of the arm rest in place.

 
I added this wraparound flange to keep this 'wing' from being a catch point for my foot. This is the 'wing' that goes around the smoke pump.
 
 
So I started finalizing the control cables...throttle and mixture. I bought the powder coated steel bracket for the IO-360 from Van's. I knew it wouldn't work without modification, but figured it would be a good foundation to work from. I've seen lots of pics of what others have done and if you have a non-standard setup, they all seem to be a little different. Mine is no different. This is not a trivial exercise. #1, its vitally important for flight...it is a definitely a "safety of flight" issue so treat it accordingly. #2, it's time consuming to get everything just right...including cable lengths.
 
In this pic (above), you can see my first attempts at creating add-on brackets. I had a piece of steel sheet left over from when I fixed my elevator horns that came in handy. If you use alum, make it beefy angle. Also, notice in this picture I have a 4" threaded extension that I bought from ACS.

 
Cleco-ed in place for lots and lots of fit checking...moving the mixture lever back and forth, back and forth...making sure it was hitting the hard stops as needed before I committed to a permanent location and drilled it.
 
 
Cutting it down to size...making it look good.

 
Now over to the throttle side...this is how it started, before any modification. Notice this control cable is a little different, it doesn't have the threaded nut attachment design. Just a slot...more on this later.


 
I created a 'comb' style bracket to hold the cables in the center console...again, this will capture the slot in the cable and then I will safety wire it to keep it from moving.


 
 
Creating a template to cut out a support bracket for my throttle cable.
 
 
Match drilling it, getting it ready to rivet. Also notice the trim lines on the existing bracket. I will cut the bracket down later, it will look much different by the time I am done.
 
 
I bought this bracket from ACS for my control cables. Its pricy, $20, but works well. I added the hole for the safety wire. This is just a detente snap to keep it in place. In a vibration heavy environment like the FWF, that's enough for me.
 

 
Working on the plumbing details that will reside in my center console. The Andair fuel pump, filter (by the way, the filter is installed backwards) and fuel tank selector all need to be connected.
 
 
And lastly, onto some fun stuff. Adding a cell phone and glasses pouch to the side of the console. Again, just bought these at the local automotive store for cheap.
 

 
This does get in the way of my knee a little bit, but since its a soft pouch it will fold down when not in use. If I don't like it, I can easily remove it later. For now, I like the convenience and want to see how it feels.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Acro Video HOBBS 2170.5 hrs

 
 
Just a quick update before the weekend starts. In the shop, I am finishing up my throttle and mixture control cables--prop control up next. It took some doing to make this work with my setup, but I like the way it came out. 
 
This is our airshow weekend at KBJC, three day/night airshows starting with the night airshow tonight. I will be bouncing around to several hangar parties socializing throughout the weekend. It should be a hoot! Although, obviously no airplane work this weekend. I expect to be having several "show and tell" sessions during the event as quite a few people have enquired about stopping by to see the project. I may have to dress her up a little. ;)
 
Lastly, I saw this video by Jon Thocker and his daughter Haley on VAF this morning. Its cool to get a feel for what you can do with one of these planes with some basic aerobatics. This is a great video to start your day. Its entertaining on several levels for me. Enjoy. Have a great weekend.
 

Thursday, August 8, 2013

12V Chargers HOBBS 2137.0 hrs


I added two 12V charging outlets. One is the standard "cigarette lighter" type and the other is a special USB dock for Apple and Samsung products. For whatever reason, they are different somehow? Although I think the USB dock looks nice, you could save some money by just getting an adapter that fits directly into the cigarette lighter dock and skip it. I have one extra cigarette lighter version on my workbench...but am thinking this should be plenty sufficient for onboard charging so I'll probably not install it.

Cup Holders! HOBBS 2137.0 hrs

I recently had a young visitor, Jeffrey, a 13 yr old, who saw my project and thought it was very cool! He was quite impressed, which was music to my ears as I love to see interest from the potential next generation of pilots.
 
He then asked, where are the cup holders? I laughed and said "I like the way you think son" as I had already been contemplating where to add some cup holders if I could. Again, as mentioned many times, there is not much room to work with. Compounding the fact that I have the CAD side panels, which I really didn't want to be cutting into if I didn't have to.  
 
 
Several months ago I spotted these collapsible cup holders at the local "Bass Pro Shop." I remember thinking...hmm, these might be handy for the plane. Fast forward to now. I went back to the store, took a look again, and bought them...$8 each, cheapest thing I've bought for the plane. Now, where to put 'em?


 
I came up with mounting them right between my legs forward of the spar carry through. They are easy to reach, but out of the way of the stick and really everything else except maybe your feet if you pulled them back. But, since they collapse...you can easily fold them up when not in use and you don't even know they are there.

 
So...time to cut my carpet. I know, I know...sucks to cut my nice new carpet, but its going to be ok. Worst case scenario I buy a new piece of carpet. After some careful measuring...checking, double checking...I made the cut.

 
I then used my heat gun to apply some heat to the cut edges to clean them up...looks professional.
 
 
This is how the cup holder fits into the carpet...again, looks nice.

 
Drilling and attaching to the cover panel.

 
In place...collapsed...hard to even notice they are there.



 
A bottle of water fits nicely in place. I don't have any pics of me sitting in the cockpit...but I will admit to doing a test run with a bottle of beer and it worked perfectly. I didn't take a picture of that since I could just see the FAA getting a hold of a picture like that!! Beer in the cockpit!?? And no, I obviously don't condone that.
 
I really like this idea...and man, I'm hoping I finally came up with an original one!? Its tough in the world of RV's...lots of great ideas already out there. I haven't seen anyone do this one yet though.
 
The only issues are...the cup holders are kind of cheap and might break if accidentally kicked (I think I will buy an extra as a spare), they don't have a good detent to keep them closed so might want to pop open during aerobatics or a hard landing (we'll see). I already thought, that will be my measure of a good landing..."did the cup holder pop open?"...no?...then it was a good one. :)