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When to Mount the Engine

Sawtooth

Member
I have my RV-9 on the landing gear. The wings and tail aren’t on yet because I’m waiting for warmer weather. In the meantime, can I mount the engine and begin work on it or will it be too heavy and pull the fuselage over on its nose?

Sawtooth
 
Yes, You can mount the engine now, BUT you will need some weight on the aft end or tie it down.
 
Work on whatever you can to keep progress up. But yes, ABSOLUTELY tie down or weigh down the tail. I had my tail installed when I mounted the engine, but took it off to get a little more working room in the shop. There was one day when I leaned forward while standing in the cockpit and threw the CG off just enough for the tail to come up and take me on my first plane ride. Fortunately, a buddy was right there helping me and grabbed onto the fuselage while the tail was heading skyward. He kept the tail from slamming into the shop ceiling--or slamming back down onto the rear stand. Either would have been bad. Very bad.
 
I did that on my RV7.

Built a sturdy sawhorse contraption to slip under the tail and hold it level to make it easier to align the engine with the mount, then some straps over the tailcone to the stand and the whole thing is weighted down with about 100 lbs of free weights.

With an IO390 on the nose, it's really light on the tail.
 
I’m getting ready to do the same to my RV-9A , it’s in my garage without wings on …….When I get my engine.
 
I'm basically ready to mount my engine, but I decided it was easier working on the wiring in the firewall area without the engine in the way. At some point relatively soon I'll get to the point that I need to hook up the engine sensors and at that point I'll mount the engine.
 
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