Elevators in Sync HOBBS 1328.5 hrs

This post is all about fixing mistakes...its painful to bare my soul to my readers sometimes. :) But as I always say, I cant be the only one making these kinds of silly mistakes...so this will let you know, you're not alone.

First though, as I get ramped up for FWF work, I wanted to do a good cleaning of the shop and reposition Wablosa for better access and lighting on the engine. The dust from doing composite work has been making me crazy! So...for the first time in her life, Wablosa seen the light of day. I wheeled her out into the driveway so I could hose down the garage. Very cool to see her "out" and "mobile"...I gotta say, another one of those times I was happy to have a taildragger. It was a piece of cake moving her around by myself and I was amazed how light she was. Anyway, these are some cool pics.

I spun her around 180 degrees and put her back in nose first. I have much better lighting on that end of the shop. Eventually I will take the emp back off so I can have some extra room...the shop is getting cozy though.

I'm trying to wrap up the bulk of work that I have left on the empennage, while its on, so I can disassemble it and store it until I move to the hangar.

One of my outstanding items was to fix my elevators. When I match drilled my elevator horns...EXACTLY as Van's instructs you on my workbench...somehow, I got them mis-matched. Once I mounted them on the plane, in a neutral position, one side is sticking up about 3/16". I did some research on VAF and Van's will tell you not to worry about it. Its not going to affect the flying characteristics of the plane to any large degree and no one will ever see it unless your elevators are in their neutral position. Since, messing with controls is not a trivial thing...I have been debating this for quite a while...do I fix it or leave it?

Ultimately I decided, I couldn't live with it as is. First, it will affect the flying characteristics of the plane...even if its minor, I'm not in favor of that. Second, I would always know...and although my plane is not going to be perfect by any means, this issue would bug me to no end....crooked airplanes don't fly with me! (pun intended) ;)

So ok...how to fix it? Again...research the forums, see what others have done. No sense reinventing the wheel. Weld it closed and re-drill is probably the best option....less weight, cleaner solution. I don't have a welder and I don't plan to send my delicate elevator to a welder so that wasn't an option for me. The other way to do it is to rivet a piece of steel inside the horn and, again, re-drill. I bought a piece of 0.063" 4130 steel...which matches the elevator horn material, sometimes called "Chromoly". Don't just buy garden variety mild steel (probably 1020) or heaven forbid, aluminum, from Home Depot for this. 4130 steel is considerably stronger and harder than 1020, which is important for your control surface attach points.

First step, oversize the offending hole. Don't try to turn it into an oval or figure eight...not worth the headache even it you could pull it off, this hole means nothing anymore...its now a clearance hole. Your scabbed-on piece will have the important hole now. Just open it up just enough to give you the room to get the elevators lined up. I upsized just a little at a time until I got it just right.

Here is my 0.063" thick 4130 steel sheet that I ordered...

Again, carefully cut it to size to fit inside the elevator horn. We want to leverage the return flanges on the horns to help minimize shear forces in our attachment rivets. Although, this is overkill as the structural cherry max rivets will be able to withstand the shear forces...I like to double down on stuff like this...."belt and suspenders."

Once I got it trimmed up nicely...including radius-ing the edges to fit inside the horn...I match drilled my rivet holes. I then put it back on the airplane and attempted to drill it and get it right this time. I used the same procedure as before that Van's recommends...the only difference is this time its on the plane, not a work bench.

Bam! Came out just like it was supposed to this time. I don't have a pic...but just trust me, they are lined up nicely now. I ordered some structural cherry max rivets...threw a coat of primer on the steel...and when I receive my rivets I'll rivet this puppy together and declare victory. I was happy I did this. My advice to you...obviously try to avoid this pitfall. I would match drill it in place, on the airplane, not a bench. Just my take...

Onto one of my other &*#%-ups. Fixing the cracked plexi. As you know from my previous post, I got a nice spider crack in my rear plexi right above the roll bar. I stop drilled the cracks and now its time to fill those holes. I bought some Weld-on #16 (I think JB Weld #3 would also work)...put some tape on the back side and dabbed some in the holes to seal them up. I will then sand it down...add filler as needed to get it smooth and then paint over the top. You'll never know its there. As long as I got 'em all and don't get more cracks later, I should be ok.

I decided to do some custom inspection/access panels for my aft fuse. These will go around the elevator horns and match up with my empennage fairing. More on this later...but here is a pic of my pattern.

Last Skins... HOBBS 1157.0 hrs

Still working on the prep work for getting the plexiglass canopy ready for gluing. I may have gotten a little ahead of myself when I made the 'big cut' so quickly, as you can see there was still plenty I needed to do before I can break out the sikaflex and attach my canopy. Oh well, no harm...other than having the canopy taking up room in the shop. I think I'll survive, I'm getting close.

One of the things I wanted to do before I start transitioning into FWF stuff was to better organize my hardware...namely, my AN hardware, this was long overdue. I should have done this sooner but really its been mostly rivets up to this point so it hasn't been too bad. I always have this internal argument with myself, I figure time spent organizing and cleaning is time NOT spent building an airplane. But, I do try to balance it out...some organization is certainly needed. Nothing is more frustrating than spending a half hour trying to find hardware that you have stuffed in a bag somewhere rather than in a nice, labeled parts bin. Since doing this for all of my AN hardware, it has already been so nice to know exactly where to go for the right bolt. Don't be like me, do this sooner rather than later....its worth it.

Builders, over the years, have infamously come to call ProSeal "black death" for obvious reasons and the blue protective plastic on the sheet metal "blue death". Here I am peeling the last of the "blue death" for my project....'THE' very last piece of this devil material! :) It reminded me how far I have come...how many trash cans I have filled with this stuff. I remember doing the wing skins using a water pipe and my forearms were throbbing as I rolled/peeled that stuff off. I'm not going to miss it. This is the second to last top fuse skin...what I thought was my LAST skin on the project, but I realized later that I have one more. The small one in front of the canopy.

Before riveting the skin in place, I wanted to revisit the aft fuse skin to get the three rivets on each side that I couldn't access solo during my first go. I had to remove the seat belt attach brackets to get to the rivets..the bolts were getting in the way of my bucking bar. I then quickly riveted them and re-installed the seat belt attach brackets along with the seat belt cables...and then finalized them to be done with that task. Let me tell you, this was my first odyssey of climbing back into the fuse...holy crap, that sucks! Just getting back there was a challenge. I am not a huge guy...5'9" 185 lbs and I had a hard time...once again, felt like I was doing my 'RV yoga'. I'm hoping there wont be many more reasons to climb in there going forward.

Of course, I had to sign the fuse skin before riveting, like I have done for several of the main skins. Notice I scuffed the surfaces with scotchbrite where I will again add ProSeal to the overlapping joints just like I have for all of my top fuse skins. Water tight, air tight, stronger and vibration resistant...

Last minute fitting and trimming of the rear plexi...I wanted to do as much (or all) of this as I can before riveting the skin. Just a little easier that way.

For the clearance in the corner between the plexi and the attach bracket, I cut a chamfer instead of notching it to fit. I didn't want an inside corner, even radiused, for a possible stress concentration. The skin will cover this so you'll never see it.

Last minute fit check before applying ProSeal and riveting this skin in place. Looking real nice, that canopy is sexy I'm tellin' ya!

Scott Taylor Visit HOBBS 1146.5 hrs

Well, it was a busy week for me. First off, I previously mentioned a prospective RV8 builder, Scott Taylor, who joined us at the "Red Tails" movie. Scott is a pilot for Frontier Airlines. He called me up a couple weeks ago and said he had visited the factory, got a demo flight, along with his "first" RV grin. He then promptly took the plunge and ordered his empennage kit! Funny how that works isnt it? Congrats to Scott...welcome to the insanity that is RV building! So, I invited him over to show him my project, the shop and talk tools...of course, 3 hrs later I finally let him leave after talking his ear off. I always seem to do that when it comes to RV's... ;)

Secondly, I took Saturday off from building...first Saturday for quite some time. Of course, it wasn't completely devoid of RV activity however. I went out to FTG and joined Scott Mills for a breakfast flight in his RV9A to Pueblo's Spitfire Grill. It was a nice break from the usual Greeley breakfast run....the rest of the gang went to Centennial. Beautiful day for flying too, it was cold (15 deg F)and the air was as smooth as a babies bottom! Although there was some low lying clouds and haze scattered about...strange for Denver. Believe it or not, it was my first time flying over the clouds as we were at about 1500 AGL coming back from PUB and looking down at the clouds below while basking in bright sun, very bizarre...but gorgeous! I was mad I didn't bring my camera to capture the moment.

Scott let me fly most of the way down to Pueblo, it was nice to get some RV stick time...always good fuel for the fire. After returning, we loitered around the airport for a while...met a new RV7A builder in Chuck's hangar, then we (Gary Zilik, Scott and I) drove over to visit my project and drink a couple beers. It was a great day, a great break from building and great inspiration to forge ahead! Nothing gets me more fired up than a day like that. I suggest you also do this from time to time to recharge.

Finally finished up my rudder pedals as I tidy things up before riveting the forward, upper fuse structure in place in preparation for canopy fitting and glueing. These were overdue on the task list, but with anodizing and painting the powder coated steel tube added some time to the ordeal. I will tell you, and you can tell by the all the pictures, I am very happy with how these came out.

If they had a contest for nicest looking rudder pedals, not sure if I would win because I have seen some nice ones, but I would be in the running that's for sure! :) Too bad you'll hardly ever see them and they will get scuffed up by my feet! Oh well, they look nice now and I'm proud of 'em. The last picture shows my JDAir rudder pedal extensions installed.

Before painting my sub panels with JetFlex satin black, I added a bead of white paintable silicone as part of my "stop the canopy leaks" campaign! Ok, maybe just "minimize" the canopy leaks campaign. ;)

More tying up loose ends in the cockpit...finally getting back to the electric flap install. Here are my after market threaded flap rods that I bought from Avery...and of course, red anodized with the batch of parts I brought in.

Flap motor installed, finalized and don't forget to safety wire it as the Van's AD states....that was kind of a pain. Hooked it up to my portable battery and cycled it up and down a few times to see how she behaved...cooler'n snot!

These support ribs gotta go...they are a bad design, leftover from a time when all panels were 6 pack steam gauges. Nowadays, with flat panel EFIS being the norm, they just get in the way. There are plenty of clever ways to get around this by trimming them or making fancy new ones. As for me, I am just going to cut them off, use the cutoff pieces and strategically relocate them...more on this later.

Finally deciding what to do with my emergency canopy jettison assembly that comes in the kit. I don't plan to have this accessible for an in-flight ejection as I think that is very impractical in reality, but I do want it handy if I ever want to easily remove the canopy on the ground for maintenance.

This is what I came up with...and its been done before, instead of coming through the panel (per the plans) with the T-handle...I just went straight down with it. A 90 degree rotation and off comes the canopy...nice. I need to come up with a way to safety secure this however...don't want it vibrating loose in flight, that would be very bad day!

Support ribs trimmed back as mentioned above...

Don't forget these two -426 rivets...as I almost did...

Jettison assembly and canopy hinge brackets finalized....

Canopy held open for fitting with bailing wire attached to the plywood above...

I made these strut attachment brackets a couple months ago and just realized I screwed them up!! dangit! Read the plans wrong...must've been a late night?? The center holes need to be tapped for the strut ball stud...not through holes as I did. Oh well, add to the scrap pile...how big is yours??! I had enough material left over to redo one...but now I need to purchase some alum bar for the other one.

There is a known problem when installing the tip-up struts. The force of the struts in the closed position exerts enough pressure on the canopy to push is forward slightly and cause alignment problems. I wasnt even aware of this until Sean Blair sent me an email a couple weeks ago...glad he did. So many things to stay on top of, sometimes they slip by.

Clever builders that have gone before me (I seen these on Chad Jensen's site) put "snubbers" in place to combat this. Chad used carriage bolts because the round head is less likely to mar the paint, which I liked. I took it one step further and added vinyl caps that I found at McGuckins hardware store. Of course I had to tweak them slightly to fit and then glued them in place.

The design makes them fully adjustable to fine tune it...but gosh, this would be near impossible to access to adjust once this top skin is riveted in place so get 'em right and hope they dont move. I plan to loctite them.

From the rear side...this is where the vinyl cap will contact the canopy frame.

And a parting shot of the sub-panel finish painted, riveted in place, canopy installed and the rudder pedals partially installed. Wowza, looking good!

Interior Baggage Compartment Lighting HOBBS 1061.5 hrs

Spent a little bit of time installing LED lights--baggage compartment 'dome' light and a map light that I got from Stein in my last order. Although I am a big fan of LED lights (low cost, low power draw and they last forever) I wasn't overly impressed with the light output of these two guys. It'll be fine for what they need to do.

I'm still fiddling with this and how it will look, but you can see I fabricated a cover for the structural member. This cover isn't included in the kit.

I bought this AC DC switching power supply about a month ago just for stuff like this. This was another great tip from fellow RV7 builder Sean Blair. I hooked this puppy up to my lights and fired 'em up for a test run. Worked great!

Shielded, 3 conductor wire I ordered from Stein for my tail/wing strobes. Does this look like $65 worth of wire?? :) Expensive stuff, but worth it so you don't get EMI in your system.

Aft Fuse Skin HOBBS 1061.5 hrs

This weekend, I tackled getting the aft fuselage skin riveted in place. I made sure I had everything attended to in that area (static ports and routing, wire routing for the tail strobe, etc) of the fuse and figured it wouldn't hinder me to rivet it now. I also wanted to get this riveted so I could do finishing work on my empennage fairing as the cleco's were in the way. So, here are some pics...

Before I get to the aft fuse skin...here are a few shots of my work on the forward canopy structure. After bending the flanges that I showed in a previous post, it was now time to add flanges to the lightening holes....a little more tricky. After considering more creative (ie, complicated) ways to do this, I ended up doing it exactly how Van's suggested....very simple, but effective, as you can see. Just cut a 1/4" notch in a piece of scrap wood and bend them carefully by hand. In this pic, you can see a before and after shot. I liked how this came out. I just took it slow and easy and was very deliberate. Don't try and bend it in one pass...I typically did two to three gradual passes to get the full bend angle I wanted.

When I was doing this task, it dawned on me how much I enjoy stuff like this. Things in the build that you have to do by hand...it takes a steady touch, concentration and some genuine workmanship to get good results. All of which are right up my alley. I also noticed, muck like my Dad, that I had my tongue hanging out while I deep in concentration!! haha! I had to laugh when I noticed this...but hey, Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player who ever lived, did it too! Anyhow, when I thought about it...whenever my tongue is hanging out, I am very much enjoying myself...lost in the moment. From here on out, it'll be known as the "tongue factor"! ;)

Now that the flanges were done and I got them match drilled and cleco-ed, I shifted to fabricating the little attachment pieces.

Here they are cleco-ed in place...looking good. Some dimpling, edge/hole prep and sanding and these should be done...ready to send to the anodize shop before I rivet them in place.

Ok, now, finally the aft fuse skin. As with most (but not all) of my fuse skins, I am using ProSeal on the overlapping joints. Just for added water and air sealing and also contributing to a better structural joint and less vibration...not really needed, but just a nice touch for my airplane. Mind you, I didn't ProSeal the seams on the bottom of the fuse...I actually want those to leak water if possible. I have recently read about guys putting drain holes in the bottom of the fuse...It certainly makes sense but I need to research this further (I dont think Van's recommends it?) before I commit to drilling holes in my fuse. Drain holes or not...I would rather keep water from entering my fuse if possible, so that's why I did the ProSeal here.

And, after some laborious solo riveting...stretching, grunting, sweating...I got 'em all but these three rivets on each side. The seat belt attachment bracket resides right there and the bolts were getting in the way. I think I will just remove the bolts...rivet it and then rebolt it back in...I'll do that later, this will work for now.

Now that the skin is riveted in place I shifted my attention back to my empennage fairing. I mixed up a batch of 'flox', added some to the inside of the fairing in areas where I needed to close up some of the bigger gaps. This will give me nice a precise fit tailored exactly to the shape of my aircraft...I will do this again with some West systems fairing mixture (micro will also work) for the finishing touches. By the way, I do have clear box tape protecting the skins....hopefully it will peel right off when I remove the fairing for sanding.