Walt
Well Known Member
During an annual condition insp. I did recently on an RV7 that came out of a paint shop about a year ago. It quickly became obvious that the "assembler" didn't read any of my articles on VAF (can you imagine that!).
All the elevator bolts were loose, including the Torque Tube 'Jesus' bolt.
The center bearing had no shims and the bolt was loose (I later found the shims the builder made laying in the bottom of the tailcone).
All the rudder bolts were loose and the wrong length bolts installed (the bottom one is longer than the others).
The paint looked great, but the guy putting the controls back on lacked some basic skills.
Bottom line, most builders know what to look for, if you're not the builder and you have your RV painted have someone inspect the work the paint shop did just to be sure they did it correctly.
Other things to watch for that I have seen:
Blocked Fuel vents, fuel contamination
Blocked pitot/static ports
Trim system, not hooked up or wired incorrectly
Canopy bolts missing/loose
All the elevator bolts were loose, including the Torque Tube 'Jesus' bolt.
The center bearing had no shims and the bolt was loose (I later found the shims the builder made laying in the bottom of the tailcone).
All the rudder bolts were loose and the wrong length bolts installed (the bottom one is longer than the others).
The paint looked great, but the guy putting the controls back on lacked some basic skills.
Bottom line, most builders know what to look for, if you're not the builder and you have your RV painted have someone inspect the work the paint shop did just to be sure they did it correctly.
Other things to watch for that I have seen:
Blocked Fuel vents, fuel contamination
Blocked pitot/static ports
Trim system, not hooked up or wired incorrectly
Canopy bolts missing/loose
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