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RV-3B Dave's in Colorado

David,

In my RV-3 any toggle switch along the bottom of the panel was primed for being inadvertently bumped while moving my hands around the cockpit. I had similar panel control placement such as yours where items in the center and right side, such as your com radio, iPad and clock, needed to be grasped, flipped or touched. While reaching around I was always unintentionally knocking toggle switches up or down. It was even more prevalent if I swapped hands on the stick to free up my right hand to twizzle or touch something on the panel, such as your iPad location. The hand coming off the stick is already low and near the bottom edge of the panel so after releasing the stick the upward movement of the hand was right at the bottom toggle location, as was the action of the other hand reaching to grab the stick. Remember the RV-3B is a personal rocket with the flight control location low and forward compared to the Cessna. It also does not have the panel setback or vertical spacing of Cessnas or even other RV models. You might want to mock up the stick in place and move it around while changing hands on the controls and then reaching towards the panel with the free hand. You might also be surprised how short the RV-3 control stick is and how close it crosses under the panel with little clearance. Mine only had about 1/8" clearance below the stock panel. You might have to cut down the stick even further for the switch panel.

Point being there is nothing fundamentally wrong with your current layout but focus on hand movement ergonomics and selector switch locations. You might want to run a towel-bar type switch bump guard below and maybe even above the switches. Think twin-engine mag switch guards. There are also individual switch bump guards that can be installed from the likes of Perehelion Designs.

I can't tell you how many times I bumped a switch while moving my hands around the RV3 cockpit. The master was the worst one to bump off. Thankfully I had a keyed ignition switch so never unintentionally switched off the mags. I would prefer ignition/mag switches be set off in a non-operating area since they are used during start and run-up and then mentally tucked away. Why not physically tuck them away too? Maybe locate them to a less valuable non-activity real estate area in lieu of, or in addition to a bump guard.

I would like to see some responses from other RV3 pilots with decent operational experience with their panel ergonomics and switches. All this could very well be "just me". I haven't had this type of issue in other model RV's. I only have an hour in an RV-4 which might have just as tight cockpit as the 3.

In your layout switches 2 thru 4 (from L to R) are fairly critical and #'s 3 & 4 right by the centered flight control stick are ripe for bumping. Especially with the comm radio controls in the same area. Have you considered moving the comm radio control head to above the Dynon EFIS (I am assuming something like a TY-91 or Dynon remote VHF com). Puts it where easily accessible by the left hand and in good view of the pilot. The EFIS and comm radio will probably get the most action in flight, followed by the right-hand accessed iPad.

I love keeping up with your project here. It's going to be an amazing bird.
 
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Thanks for these comments.

I have sat in the cockpit a number of times with the switch panel (and the avionics shelf, which is part of the same fiberglass part) installed. I need to pay attention to my legs getting in to miss the switch panel but not much all in all; it's not a big deal. Getting out, there is no issue.

Once in the cockpit there's plenty of room for me. The switches are inset about 3/4" from the panel, forward (that is, airplane-forward, and away from me) of the panel and there's plenty of clearance, about 1.5", between it and the stick. That's shown a couple of posts earlier. While accidentally moving something might be an issue, I don't think it will be - especially with the current switch panel layout, which moved the push-button switch closer to the center. I'm also changing switches for better feel, but that's a separate issue.

I am about 5' 7" and have relatively short arms. When I buy long-sleeved shirts they are always too long in the arms and often either just right or a bit short in overall length. For me, it's enough of a reach to the switches that I'm not worried about accidentally bumping one.

The RV-3 as designed has an indented seat, allowing more height for a tall person like Van. I filled that in and still need a cushion.

Please keep the cockpit comments coming. Cockpit layout is a new science to me and I want your comments and insight. It's curious.... I can tell good design from bad but have little idea how to get there except by trying out concepts.

Dave
 
One of the things in the cockpit on the left side that affects other things is the trim handle. I need to know where it goes. Since the trim cable is made, the handle is at the forward end and the trim tab is at the aft end. But to get to the aft end, there’s this little problem - how to carry the cable around the horizontal stabilizer?

I asked VAF readers to let me know how they did it. Since many RV-3s seem to have electric trim, the information is a bit sparse. I got three replies and drew them on a section of Drawing 26 from the plans.

The red path was used by two builders. It fits under the empennage fairing, but requires somewhat of a deep dive into the stabilizer. On my plane, the cable will interfere with the ADAHRS and its mount which is in the tailcone just ahead of that bulkhead. It’s too bad because this is simple and fairly straight-forward.

The blue path was used by one builder. It’s a nice clean direct path except that it requires a hole in the forward spar. I’m reluctant to do that.

I chose the green path, even though I needed to figure out how to get the cable through the aft deck (the red and blue paths bypass it).


tTEgwqc.jpg



With a hole through the aft deck and a hole through the horizontal stabilizer root rib, the trim cable is in place. The lengthwise positioning of the cable is not correct, it’s about 7” too far, but that’s been adjusted subsequent. The holes are too small and there are a few more minor tweaks to do. But this is the general path.


O6G01Mi.jpg



It was sufficient to let me find out where the forward end of the cable will be in the cockpit, and that was the purpose of the exercise.

The bulkhead fittings for the brake lines arrived and I drilled holes for them in the firewall. This is the first equipment mounting on the firewall, and it’s now so that I can figure out the brake flex hoses from the cylinder (there’s one cylinder on the left) and mount those and the rudder/brake pedals. The circles show where they are.


AMVVw6p.jpg



This is my busy season so work tends lag a bit.

Dave
 
Since I’m making my own throttle lever, and I’m putting the PTT switch on the throttle, I got to get intimate with the switch today.

The PTT uses soldered wires. Both the Otto switch and Stein’s inexpensive switch need this.

I’m using Dsub pins to terminate the bitter ends of those wires so that I can remove the throttle if need be.

I don’t have any shrink tube the right size or color yet, but plan to hold the wires to the throttle lever arm with that - I’ll shrink over the whole thing, until I get close to the pivot.

In place, the Otto PTT switch that I’d thought was too stiff, is just about right. No concerns at all.

C9l25H6.jpg


The plug in the back can get pushed in farther but is then difficult to remove. It’ll be held in with everyone’s favorite adhesive, Pro-Seal.

Here are a couple shots of the brake hoses trial-mounted. Thanks to Tom at TS Flightlines for the hoses and parts.

WEyRU3b.jpg


and

CnEVJgg.jpg


For some now-lost reason, I’d routed the manual trim cable below the rudder cable in the baggage and cockpit areas. Turns out that’s quite wrong. After adding a couple more holes in the bulkheads, I relocated it above. Here, you can see the old exit hole in the seat bulkhead below the rudder cable as well as the cable housing fitting. The stack-up of parts at the fitting means there’s only a tiny bit of cable housing adjustment available.

6mwGJE3.jpg


The exact positioning of the trim cable is still a bit TBD.

Remember that the short flap quadrant is only there to secure the internal assembly. That’s not the flight part.

Dave
 
If you're still looking for photos of trim lever placement, here's mine. I didn't build this, but it's the best manual trim I've ever used.

 
Hi, Ed, thanks for the photo. The location of the trim lever seems to be very close to what I'll have, and that's a helpful bit of reassurance.

That latch is interesting. I suppose it's the canopy latch?

Dave
 
Hi, Ed, thanks for the photo. The location of the trim lever seems to be very close to what I'll have, and that's a helpful bit of reassurance.

That latch is interesting. I suppose it's the canopy latch?

Dave

Happy to share! Yes, it's the canopy latch - another piece of simple clever design from the builder - very easy and solid to use. There's a matching exterior handle on the other side.
 
If you're still looking for photos of trim lever placement, here's mine. I didn't build this, but it's the best manual trim I've ever used.



How can anyone have a trim lever where a nice throttle and mixture quadrant should go?! :)

Doug

RV-3A sold
RV-9A Mazda 13B / FWF
 
That's about where it works out if you make it per the plans and use the supplied manual trim cable. Mine will be just slightly lower and more forward, but pretty much there too.

A lot of RV-3B builders install electric trim.

Dave
 
I’ve been trying to determine the positioning of the throttle, trim and mixture and prop controls. The main thing seems to be to put them where they don’t interfere with each other, have a clean run for the cables, and are more or less ergonomic. The most likely positions so far are shown here. Please disregard the sketch lines on the inside of the skin. They are handy to keep track of the various mounting points and will later go away.

PV0yNTe.jpg


So far none of these have mounting holes drilled for them. I’m using magnets. I won’t drill the holes until I’ve figured out what sort of side panel arrangement to have there.

xj9JqE1.jpg


Along with this, I developed the avionics shelf mounting. Besides the right location, it had to be removable. It is now, with four #8 screws holding it in place. Here’s the top of it showing the mounting points. It's also pretty near straight and level in pitch, roll and yaw.

rX0uuMC.jpg


The fuel valve is set up although it’s not installed yet. It screws to the spar bulkhead in the center, angled slightly to the left; the RV-3B has a center stick so it'll be my left hand on the valve. And yes, this small amount of offset is helpful.

This view shows it along with the throttle and trim controls. The wooden posts are mock-ups for the mixture and prop control. You can also see the switch panel portion of the avionics shelf below the panel and above my knees. There's more clearance there than it appears - that was a factor in its design.

gs7sJyG.jpg


Dave
 
Time for the side panels. Looking through the various RV-3 cockpit photos I have, it looks like there are many ways to do this.

This is what the plans suggest. Here, the cover is not in place.

qazrbgf.jpg


This has no storage and no armrest. There’s plenty of room for the controls including the flap handle.

I added an armrest. The orange dots are magnets. They’ve been invaluable with this, letting me move things around without drilling cleco holes.

8C5MVYk.jpg


Didn’t seem to be any reason to have both horizontal parts in there so after a bit of trimming….

0Ss4soj.jpg


Then I trimmed the cover and added it, too.

Kl7ou31.jpg


There’s room for a shallow, narrow recess in the armrest. Haven’t decided what it would be good for, though.

After drilling, I have a cleco farm.

rdS6itS.jpg


I’m in the middle of dimpling, priming, adding the cover’s end angles, etc.

A neighbor has an RV-3. He dropped by to show his friend my project. She's trying out the Confor foam I got because I was tired of sitting on hard pink construction foam. There's still no lumbar support; the back cushion is still pink construction foam.

B1N0PE1.jpg


Dave
 
I was working on the right armrest and decided that it would be a good time to install the right pedal assembly, too. When I removed the pedal assembly I found some poorly-set rivets at the lower right firewall fitting, a rather important area. Turns out that the left side pretty much matches these.

A friend came over and helped me re-rivet these. We riveted the lefthand armrest assembly and the throttle and trim parts that go there, and I crawled back into the tailcone and we did a little touch-up work on some of those rivets too.

I drilled all the mounting holes in the avionics shelf and integral switch panel, and painted the switch panel face.

The right armrest has been interesting. It needs to hold the Mile High oxygen metering device and the headset jacks. And since I have an autopilot, it needs to actually be an armrest. Deciding where to put the headphone jacks is a good example of what needs to go where. A couple of pilots whose I respect advised me to put the jacks in the “fall line” of the cable from the headset. That would be at or near the aft end of the armrest, and that would preclude use of it when the AP is engaged. The headset I plan to use, a Lightspeed Zulu, has an external battery box (and no, I’m not going to use a Lemo jack to preserve compatibility with my other airplane). With some kluging, I was able to accommodate the cable and battery assembly. Then I realized that I have an inch or so between me and the right hand armrest. The upper cable and its battery box fits nicely there, and it’s a decent run to the very front of the armrest where the jacks will go. Problem solved.

The armrest will have a hinged lid. Haven’t gotten that far yet.

One frustrating thing with this armrest has been using the magnets to hold it all together while I fit things. If I don’t tape the magnets in place, they often jumped away somewhere. If I did tape them, they’d still jump away, after getting tangled in the tape. Some adult language has been said.

zDlHg1l.jpg


Back in 2016, after reading about military surplus single-person oxygen systems for sale in a VAF thread now lost to me, I was able to buy a PHODS on eBay. This is a Portable Helicopter Oxygen Delivery System. It’s complete with a tiny oxygen cylinder, cannula and a Mile High metering device. The device is a version of Mile High’s O2D1 device. Since the cylinder was way too small for my use and the cannula too military, I needed everything except the metering device itself.

Mile High sent me a new cannula, tubing, a few fittings, and an XCR-1P regulator, which will fit the CGA-540 valve on the cylinder. After a bit of consideration, I assembled it. This is a complete one-person oxygen system except for not having a cylinder. The cylinder I chose, their KF-011, has a fifteen year service life, so even though I’m not planning on keeping the plane, I thought I’d hold off on that for now. There’s a touch of denial in that decision since my own life probably won’t be much longer than that and certainly I won’t be flying then, regardless of keeping the RV-3B.

fRSOpcj.jpg


The metering device will go about a third of the way from the front. I need to build a cradle for it since the armrest cavity is too deep.

The rep at Mile High said that I’d be able to attach this to my present cylinder in my C180 and verify that it works.

Happy Fourth!

Dave
 
Been working on the right hand armrest. Lately most of the time has been spent making it gray. I remembered that my mentor used 3M’s VHB double-stick tape for some things and bought some.

The bottom shelf of the cavity needed to be attached. The options were glue, rivets, VHB or just leave the magnets on. I decided upon VHB. Here, the tape is on the shelf's outboard flange. The bottle of alcohol is just a handy weight.

B8ZcW15.jpg


I clecoed the cover to the shelf so that I could use the four tabs that were riveted to the bulkheads for alignment. The shelf is the narrow gray part on the unpainted cover above (since painted). Once the tape is on, it ain’t coming off. This photo shows the installation with the VHB’s cover removed.

8XQc38s.jpg


Here’s the shelf mounted. No holes, no rivets, no mess.

Wz0u2xW.jpg


The snap bushings hold that cable that's coiled up and feed it into the spar bulkhead to the right. There are still some additional wires to be added as I install things.

The main point with the VHB tape is that it’s like real estate. Location, location, location. Get it right. It holds quite well. Don't know that I'd use it for real structure, but it's fine for this sort of thing, and speeds the installation. I should have used it on the left side.

There are a number of VHB tape types and sizes available. I use 1/2” wide RP16.

The armrest is still just a cavity. Some more work is needed.

Dave
 
Kind of bouncing around the fuselage now. This is the avionics shelf and this afternoon’s job was to glue on the Click-Bond nutplates. Why this now? That bundle of cable in the previous post terminates on the avionics shelf.

The nutplates come with a silicone stem that’s used both for alignment and to tension the nutplate to the mounting surface. In this photo the colors are:

Yellow ones are 3/16
Pink for #8
Blue for #6
And Green for 1/4, not shown.

Pretty aren’t they?

LAmp10C.jpg


Click-Bond sells several types of adhesive. Some versions come in inexpensive individual packets and some come in dispensers. Most builders, I think, use the packets - Spruce sells nutplate kits including them. I had some 2216 B/A and knew that would work, so I used some here. The main advantage of the Click-Bond nutplates, or course, is no riveting.

You may notice a couple of screws where there ought to be a silicone stem. In two instances, I pulled the stem too hard and it popped loose. The screw serves to locate the nutplate while the glue sets up.

I suspect that ordinary nutplates can use the stem for location and am saving them for that purpose.Don’t know how many times they may turn out to be reusable but I suppose I’ll find out.

The next photo shows the bottom of the avionics shelf with most of the 1/4” nutplates in. Green stems, as I mentioned.

LUnCgRa.jpg


Next, I installed the throttle and ran the push to talk wires through the belly. While I was at it, I pulled that coiled bundle through the snap bushings and up the side bulkhead.

Z27qHsM.jpg


I haven’t yet finalized the push to talk wire path on the left side of the cockpit, so that’s pending. The wire that runs past the cable bundle by itself is the rudder cable. The push to talk wiring includes one piece that goes to the microphone jack and another that goes to ground. Since the mic jack is above the shelf, or will be when I install it, the white wire aims at that. The black ground wire is in the inside of the spar bulkhead along with the rest of ‘em.

Dave
 
Climate change - until this year or last, the hottest that the shop ever got was 80 F. Now I’m seeing 82 or 83 every day.

Here’s the final version of the avionics shelf layout. What I have is on it. I’m still missing the EFIS back-up battery, the EFIS itself and the com radio, everything is currently attached to the avionics shelf. Okay, the cabin heat cable is still missing. Lots of remaining opportunity to help keep the economy perking along. I’m not using the large costly heavy Dynon ADS-B In. Instead I’m using a PingBuddy that’s about the size of a postage stamp.

vBsc5Kq.jpg


I’ve started wiring it up. I’m using Velcro ties to hold the bundles together as I build them, and carbon kite spars as a guide for positioning the bundles. Those add clutter to the photos but a substantial amount of organization to the project.

The space around the switches is limited. There’s plenty of room for terminals and wires but no room to get tools in. I’m building in service loops as I go, and it’s a bit more organized than is apparent. This picture shows a number of the Click Bond adhesive bonded nutplates - I like those.

jFS39sH.jpg


At this time, much of the wire and fasteners are here. And I’ve making a list of more needed. I’m in the period where there have been multiple small orders per day. Knew I should have bought shipping company stock back when I started this project.

Here are the schematics that I have so far, just for reference. They change from time to time. For example, I’ve added notes whether the switch keyway should be up to down (up for DPDT and down for SPST switches) that hasn’t gotten to these images. Also, the wingtip light vendor is not final and could change. But the wire colors are - they are already in the wings.

Schematic-Power, Starter Rev D.jpg Schematic-Lights.jpg Schematic - P-Mags.jpg

Schematic - VHF Com (Trig TY91), Stall Warner.jpg Schematic - Miscellaneous Equipment.jpg



Dave
 
Looks good Dave, you are making steady progress. Couple of questions:
- what software are you using to draw the electrical schematics?
- how are you planning to "audio mix" the stall warner and the EFIS warning and the comm audio?
Cheers
Paul.
 
I'm using a program called Graphic for Mac. I get to make all my own symbols. I keep a separate "schematic" page just as a symbol repository.

The stall warning output goes into the Trig TY91 com radio which can apparently handle low-fidelity sound inputs, according to the manual. So far I have no plans for EFIS audible warnings, although I do have a page of information about combining those inputs if I want to. Let me restate the "no plans" comment I just made. It's not a lack of plans for it, it's an active desire to avoid the implementation of it. I don't want audible EFIS warnings. I want them visual on the display or, if really really important, to turn on a warning light.

Dave
 
I’ve done a number of little things. Among them,

Wired the avionics shelf, except for the remote devices like autopilot servos and lights.

Hooked up the trim handle.

Installed the fuel pump, although still without the plumbing.

Installed the fuel valve.

Sort of off topic but it caused a week’s delay, put my Cessna 180 through its annual inspection.

Removed the primer and deburred and dimpled for the com antenna doubler.

Connected the push to talk switch wiring to the overall harness.

The PTT wiring from the throttle has a loop for flexibility, partly hidden below. If you look closely you can see the Dsub pins under some clear shrink tube that’s a service disconnect.

oiZEu3D.jpg


The fuel pump wiring, 18 ga, has a similar disconnect under the red shrink tube. In this case the pins are Molex.

hYmieXC.jpg


The fuel pump’s wires are laced to clips that I glued under the spar bulkhead top flange. I need to add some chafe protection there.

For the fuel valve, I used fuel lube on the o-rings, applied sparingly with a toothpick. Instead of staking the screws, I used Permatex Threadlocker Blue.

Dave
 
Revised Schematics

When I was wiring up the avionics shelf, I found a number of fairly minor errors in the schematics, so I updated them. Here are the updates. I'm adding a schematic for the fuel system.

Schematic-Power, Starter Rev E.jpg Schematic - P-Mags.jpg Schematic - VHF Com (Trig TY91), Stall Warner Rev 1.jpg Schematic-Lights.jpg
View attachment 14881

I guess you'll need to click on the link, it didn't open directly. Sorry!

Dave
 
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Schematics

Hi Dave,

I think there could be a minor error/typo on the lighting schematic, which shows both 18 ga and 20 ga on the line connecting to the left Orion Red acl. Maybe you are testing us.

Couple of questions:
Is there an intention to insulate the 1 inch copper bars that carry power to the starter solenoid and from the alternator?
Do you have the stall warner in addition to, or in lieu of the Dynon AOA, and what's the rationale?

Thanks for posting the updates, it's interesting to see the progress.

Paul.
 
Thanks for the comments and questions, especially the error checking and the gentle nudge.

The correct gauge for the lights is 20 ga. I’m correcting that on the drawing but it probably won’t get posted for a while. Note that although I baselined the Whelen Orion wingtip lights, I am not committed to them and that will probably change. I haven’t bought them yet.

There are two short copper bars. I’ll at least put the terminal caps on the wires. There’s not a lot of exposed copper bar remaining but I’d insulate it if I come up with a good method. The one between the ANLs will be easy to insulate with a short piece of shrink tube. Thinking of epoxy primer or a cover for the one between the contactors but there’s probably a better way and I'm open to suggestions. Here’s a photo that shows the avionics shelf as it is now, and as you can see, there’s clearly much remaining. Most of that will await the wires feeding in from the wings.

ZxoPyn5.jpg


The stall warner is in lieu of an AOA system. It’s a single-point AOA, adjusted to warn of a stall. This is the same as my C180, in which I have lots of time and am used to. My general philosophy is to maintain some similarity to the C180 in spite of the difference in performance. Also, the pitot tube I built, which I don’t think I’ve documented here, does not contain an AOA port - this was an early decision for me.

Here’s the pitot tube. The body of it is a section of aluminum jury strut as used on some light homebuilts such as a Pietenpol or Legal Eagle. As you can see, there’s no pitot heat. I fly day VFR and have never needed the pitot heat system on the C180, so decided that this would be a good place to save a few ounces.

0KDc33t.jpg


Thanks again.

Dave
 
The ADAHRS is installed and hooked up to its cable. I probably couldn’t have found a more awkward location for it. Still, it is accessible, if marginally - I did this work in situ and placed installation notes in the Maintenance Manual that I’m keeping. It’s located immediately forward of the F-309 bulkhead, with the pitot-static lines entering from the front and the cables from the rear. The ADAHRS location is shown in red. The OAT sensor is on the F-309 bulkhead.

3iakrlC.jpg


The transponder is installed and hooked up to its cable, except for the antenna cable, so far unmade. It’s on the right side of the fuselage just aft of the baggage bulkhead, and is relatively convenient.

Both forward cockpit bay sides, where the rudder pedals are, are now painted with the white Ekopoxy primer. It’s rugged and a lot lighter than bare aluminum. It makes work down there easier to see.

Speaking of the rudder pedals, both are now installed.

The aft most two work platforms have been removed. They can go in if necessary but there’s probably no reason to do that. A certain amount of shavings and other debris had collected in the belly, now vacuumed out. Have to admit that the tailcone is not my most favorite place to work.

With the seat and baggage area work platforms still in, I installed the autopilot’s pitch servo and the bellcrank. Once the bellcrank was in, I hooked up the smaller of the elevator pushrods. The forward end is already connected to the control stick mixer.

I glued on two glue-on studs, roughly akin to Clip-Bond’s, that a friend made for me. These will be used later. They are attached to the right spar bulkhead on the forward face.

Remember that the fuel valve and fuel pump are installed? The fuel line between them is now installed, too. I fabricated it, and it only took me five tries to get it right.

I put the avionics shelf in for now and connected the pitch servo cable to its Dsub connector and plugged it in. Next, I did the same for the ADAHRS cable. I trimmed the transponder cable and put the Dsub pins on it and then remembered - the transponder doesn’t get connected to the network hub as I was about to attempt to do, it gets connected to the EFIS D37 connector, which I don't have yet. I’ll need to splice some of the original wire back on. Oopsie! RTFM, dummy. Which made me realize that just as the Trig TY91 com radio has its schematic, I really ought to make one for the transponder. That’s costing me a few hours.

And now that the topic of hours is on the table, let’s talk about that. I’d been working close to 600 hours a year, roughly. You can figure out how many hours a week that is - it ain’t much. I kicked that up a couple notches, set a daily and weekly goal for hours worked, and am now making a bit of progress. Instead of looking at this as a fun hobby project, with little concern about flying it (I really don’t need an RV-3B or even particularly want one, when we come down to it), I decided to complete the plane and get it in the air. A different goal, you see. Why the difference? Well, I’m getting older and my needs and priorities are shifting since I started this thing nine years ago.

Dave
 
Here’s a photo of that fuel line I mentioned.

rYqC1nk.jpg


The longer hours mean that the afternoon nap I’d been enjoying isn’t possible. And it also means that I can’t do some of the occasional activities I’d been doing. The result of the changes is that the RV-3B is less enjoyable as a project, and more like a job. And I’ve been making a bit of progress.

Dave
 
One of the things that had been nagging at me for a while is that I never did install the braces between the seat bulkhead and the longerons aft of them. This is an RV-4 mod because as designed, the seat back presses against the seat bulkhead, flexing it. I wasn’t too worried because on my plane the seat back only presses against it at the top, with less leverage. Still, I wanted to add the braces.

It got a bit complicated because the aft canopy latch’s bearing block is in that location and the roll bar is right there too.

Ultimately I made a small two-piece assembly for the right side and a different one for the left. The left one is a piece of aluminum angle attached to the roll bar’s forward bolt and ending at an aluminum sheet bracket on the bulkhead, at a place that’s clear of the interfering parts. The pieces are riveted together and to the bulkhead.

The right one is simpler and has a cleaner load path, made of two aluminum sheet fittings. Like the left side, it’s riveted together and to the bulkhead, and picks up the forward roll bar bolt.

Sorry, no photos of them.

I figured out how to make the phone jack panel and the oxygen regulator mount. The pieces fit okay and are now installed. The photo shows them and the 12 V outlet, plus the bottom oxygen meter mount. Without the side panel cover in place, they appear a bit lost…. But they are home.

X3fIezG.jpg


I installed the flap weldment and then made the discovery - with that in place, the seat pan’s aft-most screws, which are also the baggage floor’s most forward screws, are not accessible at all. Dang…. The options were to leave it this way and remove flap weldment as part of the floor removal process, or make a doubler that permanently attaches to the seat bulkhead (which is where this all is), with a slightly shorter seat pan and baggage floor. Such a doubler would need to have nutplates that pick up the seat pan and baggage floor, which then would attach to that.

I chose the doubler to make future maintenance simpler. The photo, though, only shows the access difficulty.

XY5h5rA.jpg


One little issue I’d had was where to hang Dynon’s GPS antenna. I know that a number of people put it on the firewall, but the RV-3B FWF area is small, so I didn’t want to do that. It would have been possible to mount it directly on the fiberglass canopy frame and that was tempting. But the antenna wires would have needed to flex when the canopy opened and closed, and I was reluctant to do it that way. If I’d mounted it on the coaming in front of the canopy, externally, I’d have needed to disconnect the wires every time I removed that panel, another idea that was easy to reject. Besides, I’m reluctant to hang antennas externally if I don’t need to, and the com and transponder antennas already will be attached to the belly, and that’s enough.

I made a bracket to go on the top skin aft of the roll bar at a location that clears the canopy. The wires will be routed inside the fuselage.

EwO4Ark.jpg


Now for that which I know you have been eagerly waiting, just how I was going to secure the seat back hinge pins. My first approach, shown here with one of the pins in place, worked fine. There are two holes adjacent to the slot where the two wire ends go, for safety wire.

NnRFix2.jpg


But it kept nagging me that although it worked fine, it was regrettably somewhat inelegant. My current version is definitely simpler, merely safety wiring the two pins together.

sZnQlme.jpg


This does not keep the pins from working left or right, though. It merely constrains them to creep together. We’ll see if I need to change that.

Did I mention that I’d finalized the panel layout? The actual panel will have three warning lights above the EFIS, for the canopy latch, the starter stuck on, and the carburetor ice detector.

bD1gPKX.jpg


Dave
 
Seat Back Pin

Dave

On my RV 3 seat back the two wires have a 90 Deg bend, there is a 1 lug hinge cut off with a hole. This lug is held down with a screw into an anchor nut underneath. This works extremely well, doesn't catch on anything in the baggage compartment and is firmly held
I'm away on business for the next couple of weeks so will not be able to send a photo of my seat back. If you can wait that long let me know and I will send a picture to you.

I see you are using a Trig radio, I fitted the same in my RV 3 and it is the best radio for clarity I have had in any aircraft I've flown you will not be disappointed.

Rob
G-BVDC
 
I see you are using a Trig radio, I fitted the same in my RV 3 and it is the best radio for clarity I have had in any aircraft I've flown you will not be disappointed.

Rob
G-BVDC

I totally agree with this review of the Trig TY-91. Best comm I have come across yet. Have installed them in Aviat Husky, RV-3B, Birddog and PA-12. In the Birddog I installed a second control head for the back seater. The TY-91 has standby frequency monitoring and a GPS can send frequencies to standby via RS-232 to the control head (I do this with an aera 660 and aera 760). Works great and is dead nuts simple to use. Any pilot can just turn on the avionics master and start using the comm without any prior experience. They just work and work well without any fiddling.
 
Thank you, both of you, for these postings. As it turned out, the TY91 was delivered today.

I figured out how to grab the hinge pins - no safety wire needed. I'm going to stick a 1/2" x 1/16" magnet to the seat pan under the ends of the pins. I used the Teslameter in my phone to evaluate the stray magnetic field, and found that the magnetism is very localized. By 9" away from the magnet, everything has completely returned to ambient. This will have no effect on the ADAHRS heading signal, I think. Caveat, I don't know how sensitive the phone's magnetometer is compared to the Earth's magnetism. The app reports a background magnetic strength of around 40 uT in the shop, and I remember that I've seen less while out for a walk.
 
I cut out the panel all by myself. I used a die grinder and a cutting disc, a nibbler, a hole saw and some other hand tools. Old school and it wasn’t all that hard.

r0SuzK0.jpg


The Trig TY91 com radio came in and I soon found that I have a physical interference on the avionics panel. After a moment of panic, I figured out how to relocate it, but needed a few more Click Bond nutplates. Those things are easy to use and so handy.

The TY91 is in the panel so that I could begin wiring it up.

The panel is white epoxy primer merely to make it possible to use pencil to mark the cuts. My pencils have a finer line than the extra-sharp Sharpies.

A friend came over and we riveted the com antenna doubler. I’m gradually running not of things that need riveting. That hinged thing? Keep reading.

epuTwtM.jpg


The GPS mount is now installed, too. There’s a plastic bushing through the hole in the fuselage top and the interior areas of the mount and that portion if the skin are primed, since access later will be if not impossible, unlikely.

tKDDhEN.jpg


I had a piece of a very large honkin’ aerospace MS20001 piano hinge that someone gave me back when I had my trimaran sailboat. The thing is nearly 1/8” thick and well over 3” wide and 2024. Hadn’t found a use for it until now. And now a piece of it is the crotch strap anchor. The hinge feature is good because I have no idea what will be the natural angle for the crotch strap.

It's so wide because I needed to clear the riveted bulkhead/rib joint that this passes and then get enough rivets in to carry a load.

Here it is folded forward.

yq0KoKA.jpg


And folded aft.

hGvZpTL.jpg


Thanks to Russell for photos of his rather different installation. Eventually, after a few years rumination, this evolved.

Dave
 
I cut out the panel all by myself. I used a die grinder and a cutting disc, a nibbler, a hole saw and some other hand tools. Old school and it wasn’t all that hard.

r0SuzK0.jpg


The Trig TY91 com radio came in and I soon found that I have a physical interference on the avionics panel. After a moment of panic, I figured out how to relocate it, but needed a few more Click Bond nutplates. Those things are easy to use and so handy.

The TY91 is in the panel so that I could begin wiring it up.

The panel is white epoxy primer merely to make it possible to use pencil to mark the cuts. My pencils have a finer line than the extra-sharp Sharpies.

A friend came over and we riveted the com antenna doubler. I’m gradually running not of things that need riveting. That hinged thing? Keep reading.

epuTwtM.jpg


The GPS mount is now installed, too. There’s a plastic bushing through the hole in the fuselage top and the interior areas of the mount and that portion if the skin are primed, since access later will be if not impossible, unlikely.

tKDDhEN.jpg


I had a piece of a very large honkin’ aerospace MS20001 piano hinge that someone gave me back when I had my trimaran sailboat. The thing is nearly 1/8” thick and well over 3” wide and 2024. Hadn’t found a use for it until now. And now a piece of it is the crotch strap anchor. The hinge feature is good because I have no idea what will be the natural angle for the crotch strap.

It's so wide because I needed to clear the riveted bulkhead/rib joint that this passes and then get enough rivets in to carry a load. It was fun drilling the holes for the cotter pins at the ends.

Here it is folded forward.

yq0KoKA.jpg


And folded aft.

hGvZpTL.jpg


Thanks to Russell for photos of his rather different installation. Eventually, after a few years rumination, this evolved.

Dave
 
Since I haven’t decided between a vinyl wrap or paint, I selected some colors of the wrap that I liked and placed small samples on the top of my pickup’s shell to see how they handle the bright Colorado sun. Wish I’d thought of doing this back when I got them at the beginning of the year.

JinvGnw.jpg


Hanging the horizontal stabilizer took last weekend. Most of the time was spent aligning it. Now it’s clecoed on and I’ll final-drill it one of these days. It’s secure enough for now. Before you get too excited, remember that it’ll come off again and go into storage; it’s in a small shop space and would get in the way.

YvQwFyY.jpg


Thinking ahead to the vertical stabilizer, the bottom-most hole needed to be drilled. The mating hole is already in the aft-most bulkhead and tail spring mount. The bolt in this hole will constrain the vertical stabilizer vertically and laterally. It’s in a curved section of the stabilizer. The axial position had been marked but not the lateral. How to line it up?

I measured in from both sides and that gave me one location. To confirm it, I placed a small angle on the mark and sighted down through the two hinge fitting holes. It was pretty easy to spot the angle and tweak it’s position.

epY6z2P.jpg


I really like this 2"machinist's square.
Here's a link.


Decided to get the elevators fit first, though.

Dave
 
The lightweight oxygen cylinder arrived. I had previously gotten a dead D size cylinder for fitting but decided that it was simply too heavy. The aluminum cylinder weighs 6.33 pounds.

The Kevlar KF-11 cylinder weighs something like under 2.6 pounds.

4zQCT18.jpg


I wanted to drill the elevator pushrod hole in the elevator horns. Normally, the elevators would be installed, leveled and then the hole drilled. I’d already assembled it and drilled the horn’s pivot hole. What I did was bolt the elevator horns together at the pivot hole, and then shim the elevators to have the same pitch angle. They weren’t actually level here. I zeroed the digital level to the near elevator and shimmed the far one to match. Then I drilled the pushrod hole.

bwWoxwE.jpg


With the horizontal stabilizer on the fuselage, I positioned the vertical stabilizer in place and took this photo showing the gap between the two stabilizer’s forward spars. It was a rather bright day. The gap is about 3/8” and that will need to be shimmed. Paul Dye documented this back in 2011 and my kit, from 2012, was the same. It would have been nice if Van’s had addressed the situation and perhaps fabricated an interface part or even included material for a shim, but no. Just another RV-3 construction issue. I did put a piece of 3/8” bar stock on order for a shim.

0eir7D3.jpg


After some more work, I built the bigger elevator pushrod and mounted it. Although the stick is not installed, I grabbed the mixer and moved the elevators. Worked fine. The up stop is not installed in this photo, but it’s mostly made. I still need to thread its mounting holes, but I have clamped it in position and verified the up and down limits.

x22Icdz.jpg


and

rlKtxTR.jpg


Started to hang the vertical stabilizer and as expected, it needed a shim between the aft bulkhead, F-312, and the stabilizer spar. I made one but it needs more work before I can proceed.

Dave
 
Here’s the front of the elevator’s up stop. This is the working side.

nboMb1v.jpg


And here it is in use, with the elevator horns in contact. We’re looking down and aft at it, so it’s a bit odd of a viewpoint.

The center HSTAB elevator hinge lower bolts makes a good down stop. Both horns are in contact and the elevators are at their low travel limit. Just worked out that way.

hmZVIqM.jpg


The up stop is attached to the aft bulkhead with a couple of NAS514P632-6P screws. These are 6-32 that are 3/8” long, threaded into the stop and locked with Loctite.

The fuselage grew a vertical tail, and about time, too. It had been stored in the shop rafters for several years. Turns out that the aft most bulkhead, that the main spar of the tail attaches to, wasn’t aligned properly. The spar needed some shims. Those are in now.

9Oe0cC2.jpg


Only the vertical stabilizer’s aft spar is connected to the fuselage. The rest is just hanging there.

With the rudder on, the next step was to trim the aft edge of the fuselage sides. I’d left these long so that I could trim them. The bottom of the rudder is slightly wider than the back of the fuselage, which made the trimming more interesting. The rudder cables fit and the rudder can freely travel up to 35 degrees each direction. The photo shows the trimmed edge and the left rudder cable.

ADA3N4p.jpg


Without rotating the fuselage on its side, an option, I couldn’t use the level to set the rudder travel. I came up with this simple tool. It sets on top of the vertical stabilizer which as yet, does not have its fiberglass tip. I used a weight to keep it in place. The cut-out is 30 degrees, the minimum travel, and the line marks 35 degrees, the maximum travel.

upekO3m.jpg


So far, the rudder stops aren’t in yet.

Dave
 
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Continuing with the rudder deflection and the rudder stops, I played around with the notion of bolting a stop to the bottom of the rudder horn and having it contact the small area below the bottom hinge bracket. I decided that it could probably be made to work but that I didn’t want to design it, and set about making something akin to what other RV-3s have. Here’s the rudder horn deflected while I was kicking this about.

w01sFXq.jpg


Since it looked decidedly difficult to rivet the stops in place, I screwed them in. I used AN525 screws, 8-32. That was overkill. 6-32 would have been plenty. I’m sure glad that I made generously oversized access ports here.

Here is a the left one finished.

TUvjmkf.jpg


I removed the existing rivet where the aft screw is and drilled a new hole for the forward one. I never did notice a rudder stop in the plans, although the manual says it's shown on drawing 26. Well, if so, I sure didn't notice it there.

Dave
 
Put the whole tail on, at least the parts I have now. The horizontal and vertical surfaces lack finished tips, for example, and the empennage fairing must be made for a different airplane. But it’s an RV-3B part number. I filed a few more photos of it for when I get to those parts. It’s really a bit premature to be doing that now, but with everything assembled I couldn’t resist checking them. This photo doesn’t show the tips.

B528UVa.jpg


There’s a 3/8” gap between the stabilizer front spars and I’m working on a 3/8” shim for it now. This is a not-unusual RV-3B requirement.

The tips are mostly trimmed now, but not yet drilled. Note that the aft one doesn’t extend to the trailing edge.

JaveY4v.jpg


I put the tail spring in. It had been drilled a long time ago and was just awaiting its day. I couldn’t completely assemble the pneumatic tailwheel assembly on because I was missing the horn. I have a good idea what happened to it and if I’m correct, it’s like gone, baby, gone, gone, gone. A replacement is on order. I’m using some washers to hold it together for now.

I measured the length and that tailwheel assembly adds nearly two feet to the length, so it’ll come out for the engine installation. Small shop. But while it’s on, I checked, and my small Ikea cart supports it nicely and raises it a bit, if I want. Also, I checked, and the tailwheel sticks out past the rudder. A bumper!

SihFyUG.jpg


The tailwheel is one of flyboyaccessories.com’s 8” Condor pneumatic tailwheels. I learned about larger tailwheel tires on my C180, which admittedly has a much higher tailwheel load. The recommended pressure for this one is 50 psi.

In an effort to start attaching the control stick grip, which you’ll remember is a tennis ball, I put a gob of epoxy and microballoons in the ball and pressed in a piece of dowel the right size to act as a mold. The dowel was waxed with mold release wax, five coats, followed by three coats of PVA mold release. You know, epoxy really, really works! That dowel is permanently attached to the tennis ball, which has changed identify from being the control stick grip to being the attachment test article #1. Fortunately, tennis balls are not all that expensive, compared to airplane parts. What did I do wrong? I didn’t seal the dowel. I used bare wood. We learn. I did confirm that the inside of a tennis ball adheres to epoxy, once it’s cleaned, and that will probably be useful.

Dave
 
Here’s a poor photo showing the front spar joints on the horizontal stabilizer. They are currently completely bolted.

pH62L2N.jpg


I started to do a trial fit of the rudder bottom cap and rapidly realized that it didn’t fit. It wasn’t even close. I had to split it to get it on.

8BvPkX6.jpg


I send a picture to my mentor who promptly sent back a photo of his, split just the same. I concluded that while Van’s has come a long, long way since the RV-3B concept, as you can see if you’re familiar with their double-digit kits, it’s a shame that this progress hasn’t flowed down to the RV-3B. Still…. If you want a project, if you enjoy the challenges and thinking and craftsmanship involved in building airplanes, the RV-3B has that. It has massive amounts of that. I currently have something more than 5,500 hours in this plane. Admittedly I was thinking more of it as a project than an airplane, until recently. Plus I’m slow.

Back to the rudder cap, I decided to get it to fit but avoid much more until I dive back into the fiberglass later on, and here’s the way it is now.

EQUk66F.jpg


There is about 5/16” gap to the tailspring, which is adequate. You can see that I’ve marked a section at the top front of the cap; I later trimmed that off. The opening is needed to get the nut on the pivot bolt.

After this, I took a holiday break. Sure could get used to a longer holiday break as you might be able to detect from my digression…. But now it’s time to get back to work.

Dave
 
Some questions about the details

Hi Dave,
It looks like you are making steady solid progress these days.
A couple of questions about some tailcone details:

- How is the access cover for the elevator bellcrank attached to the longeron? And are you planning to fit a fairing to the underside of the horizontal stabilizer? (the plans for the -6 show this fairing as a strip of aluminum countoured to the HS and fixed with screws tapped 6-32 into the longeron between the rivets.)

- It appears that the angle that attaches the HS to the fuselage has been specially shaped around the bolt heads, is that a weight saving measure?

Thanks
Paul.
 
- How is the access cover for the elevator bellcrank attached to the longeron?

Good question. I seem to have forgotten that little detail. Looking at it a moment ago, I think I’ll need to install a couple plate nuts for screws on either side. Thanks for pointing this out!

And are you planning to fit a fairing to the underside of the horizontal stabilizer?

Yes. A couple of fiberglass ones came with the kit. I’ll either use those or make new ones.

- It appears that the angle that attaches the HS to the fuselage has been specially shaped around the bolt heads, is that a weight saving measure?

The plans call for making that of 3/4x3/4 angle. I made it of 1x1 angle for more edge distance and more hole location option. After the holes were drilled, I carved it back to 3/4 where I could for weight.

Excellent questions - thank you!

Dave
 
Well, I remembered why I left those longeron fasteners out.... I figured that it would be best to do that when I add the bottom stabilizer fairing.

Dave
 
Looking good Dave. Really excited to see this thing come together. Let me know if you need any help. My RV-3 deals all fell through so I'm back on the hunt for a 4 now.
 
Next up was the Tail Lynx. Nicely-made little devices but I’m not very familiar with the Rocket links and have never flown either. There is some construction and assembly required. I got the parts ready to install, after a bit of shop clean-up prompted by losing one of the key fittings. These are small parts less than half an inch in their longest dimension and, being stainless steel, close in color to my concrete floor. But you know how that works - if I had a painted shop floor the part would be painted to match and blend in just as well. Eventually I found it, got the parts ready for installation, and discovered that somewhere along the way, I lost one of the little spacers. These are even smaller than the key fittings and I’m not bothering to look for it. I have new material on order.

Here are the assembled Tail Lynx.

owhh4Sw.jpg


I brought home the main landing gear and engine mount to get that all set up. I might be getting a bit ahead of things with that, though, if I remember anything more to do on the interior. I ordered Michelin 380x150x5 tires and Michelin Airstop tubes for the wheels from Desser. Back in ’12 when I bought the finish kit, I’d asked that the tires and tubes not be included. My thought was to avoid aging the tires unnecessarily, but now it’s time, nine years later. The other brands of tires in this size are out of stock at Desser, by the way, and I think that a price increase is coming on these, too.

I made a trial installation of the Tail Lynx to verify fit and function. I’ll check with the designer but may shorten their length to reduce the amount of slack before they take effectiveness. This is about the 3/8” extra length that the instructions specify, but of course the RV-3B is a bit smaller than the other models in the line.

FLC06r2.jpg


They need to come off in any event, because when I install the engine, the shop isn’t long enough for the rudder or tailwheel and tail spring.

The hold-open bracket was delayed a while. You’ve seen it back in post #521, I think. I haven’t installed the bracket before so that I could do other work, but that’s all complete. I riveted on the bracket and then the cover. The left side has a similar cover.

3U26Hdi.jpg


I removed the rest of the tail and the tailspring and tailwheel assembly, along with the Tail Lynx. That's all back in storage.

A couple of friends came by and helped me rotate the fuselage so that the front would be in the light of the generous south-facing windows. Taos, age 11, had never used a non-smartphone camera before, and after a very short briefing, kindly took the photo. That’s Rob on the right and me on the left. This quick, low-key event is the first time the fuselage has been outside.

bSK3Aes.jpg
 
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I weighed the Michelin 380x150x5 tires and they weigh 3,362 grams and 3,303 grams. That’s 7 pounds 7 ounces and 7 pounds 5 ounces. The Michelin Airstop tubes, 500-5, weigh 459 grams and 452 grams. They both weigh 1 pound each.

The total rubber weight is 7,576 grams or 16 lbs 11 oz.

With the tires, wheels and brakes mounted on the landing gear legs, and those in the engine mount, the entire assembly was heavy enough that I didn’t want to try to lift it to install it as a unit on the fuselage. There was no good reason too anyway, since after a photo I’d merely have to remove it all again. While it does go on before hanging the engine, there’s a fair bit of work to do before I get to do that. Here’s the main landing gear assembly with all that stuff attached.

nY8QSuQ.jpg


What you see weighs 68.5 pounds. One of the wheel, tire, tube and brake assemblies weighs 14.8 pounds.

The wheels have AntiSplatAero’s sealed bearings installed. With these, the axle nut isn’t torqued agains the bearing. Instead, they go on till they contact the wheels and then backed off a slight amount, one flat. At the advice my mentor, I am using a thin shim between the nut and the wheel, but maintaining the same specified slight clearance. The shim varies, side to side. I don’t recollect which is where, but one is .010 and the other is .030.

I was tempted to put all three landing gear legs on the fuselage and wheel it outside for a photo op, but decided not to waste the time. Instead, to the fuselage’s disappointment, I removed the landing gear stuff and took all that back to the hangar. It was the first time the tires were in a real airplane hangar. They didn’t say anything but I hope they felt the appropriate appreciation for the honor.

After reading a thread on VAF about Dynon Skyview products being back ordered, I gave Dynon a call. All I want is one 7” HDX Skyview and the cable. I’ll also need the 2020 GPS and the backup battery, but not as soon. I don’t really need the EFIS right this minute but the Dynon rep explained that they can’t get any screens right now and it’ll be a while before they do. I don’t recollect when he thought they’d be coming in, because I’d decided to see if I could find an EFIS at one of the various vendors. Sarasota Avionics, Aircraft Spruce, Pacific Coast Avionics and Gulf Coast Avionics were mentioned. Chief Aircraft and SteinAir seem to be other possible vendors. Of the bunch, Aircraft Spruce had the best price. They said that they’d have one by December 24th, but there were no other people so far on the waiting list. I ordered it. Like at least one of the other vendors, they offered free shipping.

I’d made a hardware order recently from them and the hardware is dribbling in, one item ordered per shipment. It’s pretty annoying. For example, I ordered six of the small nutplates for the EFIS and they are coming in over three separate shipments. At least they’re coming in. I also ordered a bunch of engine installation things from Van’s after bringing home what I had and sorting through it all to assess what I still needed.

Right now I’m going through a bunch of the stuff that accumulates on the workbenches to get the shop cleaned up for the engine. I’ll need to do a bit of rearranging, too. Among other things, the table saw is leaving the shop; there’s just not room for the fuselage, the engine and the table saw. I had several packages of LED shop lights stacked up and got those all hung. Right now there’s about 115-120 lumens per square foot. This appears better than adequate - it’s a bright shop.

Dave
 
With the Dynon Skyview HDX EFIS and its cable in, it all of a sudden became obvious that this was the best time to install it. Since the RV-3B is a small plane, with a small panel, that meant that the other gadgets needed to be installed on the panel first. And also that the panel needed to have its final paint sprayed on. The paint is Rustoleum’s Chalk Charcoal gray. After it dried to the touch, I baked it for two hours at 150F using the oven’s convection feature. I often do this when I want the paint to fully cure rapidly. So far, I haven’t had any problem with that paint, Stewart’s EkoPoxy primer or SEM.

The first thing to put on the panel was the canopy latch’s microswitch.

c1nFDcW.jpg


The microswitch uses #2 screws and the local hardware store didn’t have a broad enough selection, so I went to McMaster. Done.

Then the Trig Ty91 com radio went in, the clock and the airspeed indicator. The slip indicator gave me problem. The only black screws I had that fit were #2, but I didn’t have an Allen wrench that fit them. I didn’t even know that Allen wrenches were made that small. I did have some #3 screws fit and that I had an Allen wrench to, but no nuts. Since I’d been exposed to either a cold or Omicron, I was reluctant to make a hardware store run. What to do…. What I did, was shorten a couple of the longer #2 screws that I’d gotten for the microswitch, prep them with a quick acid bath and cleaning, and spray them and bake them. This worked nicely. Next up, I leveled the fuselage in roll and adjusted the slip indicator. All set.

The only thing remaining was the EFIS. This is the 7” model. It came with some socket head cap screws to mount it. Turns out that the package of Dynon mounting screws that I’d already gotten for this job, have heads that are just slightly too big for the screw recesses in the EFIS anyway. Dynon doesn’t tell us what’s in the box and I hadn’t found an unboxing video on the web, and I hadn’t known. The box does have some sort of a 9-pin connector cable, 10’ long, with zero hint of what to do with it. I guess this is sort of a paragraph of gripes…. Here’s another: several of their Dynon Channel videos on YouTube are based on the pre-HDX Skyviews, with slightly different menu and control designs. Others, intended specifically for the HDX, are primarily oriented for people transitioning from those systems to the newer HDX system. On the plus side, the EFIS did come with a sweet little 3 gig USB thumb drive that contained several HDX training videos. I still need to watch those. But I’m happy for that effort by Dynon.

Back to the EFIS installation now. The EFIS fit the cut-out nicely and the nutplates lined up. I used beeswax to lube the screws as this seems to work just a hair better than the liquid lubricant I’ve used in the past. Here is the panel in the evening of Tuesday, 12-28-21, with the three warning lights above the EFIS and room on the right for either a second 7” Skyview HDX or the iPad mini that I plan to install. If you look way out on the right-hand edge, literally on the edge, you’ll see a small divot. That’s a space for the iPad mini’s charging cable to snake through. Since the front top comes off, there’s easy access to change it or adjust it, if needed, and the hole has half a bushing glued in to ease the cable over the edge. This also permits me to rotate the iPad mini vertically if I should want to.

QuQktka.jpg


Incidentally, in person, the panel and the switch panel below it are several shades darker than what my screen shows. Another thing is that when I'm seated in the cockpit, my eyes are well above the panel. The camera was about chest-high for the photo.

When I went to screw the EFIS in, I had a small panic because I couldn’t find the screws. Made all that fuss and now the screws were lost. Losing things is my only special talent and I’d done it right this time. But I got lucky and found them. They’d gotten into the parts bin marked “Dynon mounting hardware,” a very shady move.

I mentioned that I had either a cold or Omicron. I feel just fine now. The symptoms seem to have a lot of overlap. I would have gone for testing, but the local testing facilities were reported as having a two-hour waiting period, just standing in line, and by the time I felt well enough to consider doing that, it didn’t seem worth the effort. So perhaps I got Omicron, if it’s that prevalent, and local reports indicate that it might be. If you’re thinking of visiting Boulder, please consider that.

So far, no longer-term effects and I have no idea which I got, but I sort of think it was probably a cold. I’m vaccinated and boosted and wear masks when I’m out and live alone, and can’t imagine when I might have gotten infected, either way. But there it was.

I hope everyone has a great 2022!

Dave
 
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The paint is Rustoleum’s Chalk Charcoal gray. After it dried to the touch, I baked it for two hours at 150F using the oven’s convection feature.

---------------

and live alone,

Thought so when I read about using the oven for drying paint:D

OK, serious now, the panel is looking great.
 
Wow those are big tires to put on an RV-3! I have them on my RV-8 and I love them. But at your substantially lower weight, I would think 500x5 would be more than adequate.



I weighed the Michelin 380x150x5 tires and they weigh 3,362 grams and 3,303 grams. That’s 7 pounds 7 ounces and 7 pounds 5 ounces. The Michelin Airstop tubes, 500-5, weigh 459 grams and 452 grams. They both weigh 1 pound each.

The total rubber weight is 7,576 grams or 16 lbs 11 oz.

Dave
 
I talked with an RV-3B owner who has this combination of the larger main tires and the pneumatic tailwheel tires and loves them. He sometimes uses a turf strip. Since my other plane is a C180 and I've gotten to prefer turf if I can find it (it is scarce around here) I wanted the option. We'll see how it all does.

I did a basic kitchen redo this year, with a new dishwasher, sink, faucet and stove. The stove is a real treat for me, being a serious move upscale. Among other features, it has a relatively large oven, and the panel fits inside. A bit of irony for any irony-lovers reading this.... I ordered the stove in May. In August, I started a serious diet. The stove arrived in October (airplane parts aren't the only things being delayed, folks) and ended the diet on December. I'm still eating a lot less than before - and that means less cooking.

At this moment, the two best tools I own are the Rikon band saw out in the shop, and this stove.

Dave
 
I really enjoy checking in on your project David. I can't imagine performing all the work that is involved in this project! Incredible!

5500 hours, just WOW! Awesome!
 
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