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RV-9a: Cal’s build

Thanks RD!

Tape only on a few weeks but I agree; esp the scotch masking tape. I will pull it off, but still want to protect - maybe the Saran wraps idea Vans’s mentions if I recall. Thanks again for the tip.
Cal
 
2 month hiatus

Engine got delayed from Covid et Al. But Lycoming thunderbolt did finally make it through- hurray. Now a whole new ball of wax to learn about.
 

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Slowly working on firewall and engine mount

Slow progress
 

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Engine on

How exciting- needed to do bottom mounts first for to issues with new elastomer nose gear mount and my fuel pump bumping into each other. Quite exciting- did have to grind a 5/8 wrench to tighten the upper Barry mounts!😊
 

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Super sticky preservation oil

Scary removing bottom plate on sump to attach the carburetor and see all this oil pour out. Apparently they spray the super sticky preservation oil in the cylinders prior to shipping and some gets through an open intake valve and drains into the intake pipe and carb induction side of things. Initially I thought my cast oil sump was broken inside😩 it was only a cup worth, but I should have had a bucket ready. I did the second time when letting it drain out completely (most of the cup of oil ended up on the floor)
 

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Upper canopy half

Was able to trim and hinge the upper cowl
 

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Oops cowling

I was trying to be careful but I still managed to over trim one side of the cowling. Now trying to undo the damage. Ugh. Like fitting an old fashioned victorian dress I imagine.😩

All so my inlet duct areas didn’t fully close the gap.
 

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Wish I was DanH

Man, my adventures in fiberglass are from the underworld- wish I had trimmed to a better tape line, than having to add back edge to my lower cowl. Still lots of sanding to do. My fault of course. A teaching moment- try to avoid all fiberglass 🙏
 

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I’ve found 1/4” striping tape to get my trim lines set is useful. I’ll trim 1/8” short of my goal & use 80 grit permagrit sanding bar for very clean edges to take down last 1/8”. With CF you want to make dust as little as possible. Carbon rash is real. The striping tape can be bought at auto paint supply places.

Attached pic of aluminum bent 90 as a depth gage. Put your cowl on, slide depth gage under to find edge of fuselage & mark with sharpie or tape on depth gage. That defines how & where you Lay-out the striping tape for excess cowl length. In other words after extracting depth gage, lay it on cowl & mark cut. Connect striping tape along marks. Only takes a couple of in/offs to nail it.
 

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I don't recognize that epoxy resin. Odd color. What is it?
.
 

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Hi Dan

Hi to both friends commenting on my fiberglass mishap. I realized to make the repair I should have clecoed on a thin waxed or PVA-covered aluminum strip, scarfed the edge 30:1 and done my straight fiberglass and epoxy strips to build up a nice edge (over trimmed by 1/8 to 1/4”). What I did instead was build up outer mold of west system fairing material (filler 407) which is phenolic microballons that’s is easy to sand. I then layered glass/epoxy on the inside of this to build up the edge. I ended up sanding all the outer layer/fairing epoxy off to make things flush again. Wish I had thought of the waxed aluminum plate as a smooth and flush backer board. (I dont have PVA to spray or paint). It is going to end up strong and ok for attaching the hinge. I have been reading a lot of Dans old post on fiberglass magic, but as a noobie I have to make my own mistakes. ��
 

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Slowly fixing my mistake

Making slow progress back from doomsday
 

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First cowling full hinge hanging

Hurray- after my fiberglass trimming fiasco, things are settling down and I am not going to buy anew lower cowl. Patience and learning the basics of fiberglass helps. It is far from perfect, but plenty flyable.
 

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Shark gills

Cool cowl loevers (?sp)
 

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Hi Rhodes

Dan is right, of course. I just had this on hand, but should have used the West 407. I am a total novice, and make mistakes. Sorry to suggest what I did was right. It was wrong. I follow DanH's post's and he really is a fiberglass wizard. I have read some composite texts since, and it is mind-boggling. Very amazing actually. Just wear good face masks and nitrile gloves. It can be messy.

Cal

Thanks for the comments.
 
West 407 is a very good product. In the world of composite aircraft (where I live now:) it is well thought of. You’re not “wrong” ! Have fun!!
 
Upper cowl inlet ducts

Fun installing the well-designed cowl inlet ramps
Also starting air box install- pretty awesome.
 

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Put the selection grid for West products. 407 is good for fairing & is semi structural. Sands smoother than glass beads as shown in wing root fairing aft end picture. I use 406 for bonding, kinda a cross between glass beads & flox but smoother. One more tool for the box.
 

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Thanks Rhodes

Yeah, I should have ordered many more West options for the tool kit. The wonderful world of fiberglass 😊. Got the air box almost done; still need to fabricate the fiberglass snorkel and baffle gap.
 

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Starship foam plug

Laying up the short snorkel connect the air scoop to the air box
 

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Laying up the short snorkel connect the air scoop to the air box

I've been doing a lot of forum research on cooling due to teething problem on my just flying RV4. You might consider closing off the ends of the eyebrow cooling ramps. While not applicable to my case there was considerable discussion on the benefits and/or necessity for proper cooling.
 
FAB done

Hurray. Another small step.
 

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I put a 1" tall spacer under the adele clamp holding the carb heat cable. That gives the cable more of a straight shot from the firewall to the carb heat arm. Check your plans for concurrence. Mine are '07 vintage.
 
Thanks Jerry

Two holes drilled; easy to overlook (now I need to remember to safety wire the mounting plate to carburetor before final install)- I keep a to-do list😊
 
Lycoming doesn’t fool around

This time I expected plenty of preservation oil in opening up the exhaust port covers- had the drain pan ready this time (I made a mess when taking off the carburetor sump cover).
 

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Wing fitting

Wow. This is totally awesome- bolts not in yet- just planning still. 😊 not sure why photos upside down. Sorry.
 

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Dry run on setting wing incidence

With new compression disc nose gear my longerons were not level. Even taking nosewheel off didn’t correct all the way. Had to jack up tail several inches to level the fuselage as the starting point.
 

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Wing incidence

Drilled rear spar. Went pretty good. Both wings equal.
 

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Wonderful van’s cnc

Fun putting wings together- aileron brackets carefully machined. Cool
 

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Closing the wings up

Getting closer to a real plane
 

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Aft bottom wing rivets

Ughh- back bottom wing skin rivets are might hard on the arms. Even two person is tough. Wish I had mighty chimpanzee arms. At least my tank pressure test stayed afloat overnight.
 

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Testing my paint booth

Hard to find a good place to paint, so the garage it is.😊
 

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Exhaust system

Pretty fun to hang. Now to make sure the hoses all stay 1.5” or more away.😊
 

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Cowl baffle origami

So glad Vans does all the pre work, bending, cutouts. Quite the precise fitting of parts. Some trim to fit still.
 

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Reinforcements for oil cooler

If the oil cooler is installed on the baffles think of reinforcing the corner with an angle. The area is prone to micro cracks after several hundred hours of flying.

A lot of how to tips in the archives.
 
Thanks Vlad

You are the true expert in wringing out problem areas in your plane (I.e. get lots of mileage).

I was going to install the angle but it seems that the 2008 cowl plans beefed up the baffle with an upper brace that my 2003 rv-9 doesn’t have. But I will read again the angle reinforcement threads (I know Vic Syracuse’s book show lots of cracked baffles in the oil cooler area. See you at Oshkosh I hope. Thanks for the tip.
Cal
 
New cooler mount design

To Vlad’s concern, it looks like they beefed up the design in late 2008, hurray
(See beefed up upper brace and thicker outer mount):
 

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Cman, been a long time since build for me, but I recall my RV-7 baffle with cooler has a BEEFY angle on the outside of the rear baffle flange and side baffle. I dont see that in your pic. I also dont see the angle on Sheet OP-27A.
But I got it from somewhere, and it works. No cracks in mine after 550+ hours.
 
Thanks Bruce

I agree, the beefy angle isn’t there, but I think the engineers added the upper “box” brace to reduce vibration cracking. It seems pretty hefty to me. I am going to run a lightweight composite prop, so I am
not too worried about it right now (but will keep track of it- my old design never cracked). 😊
 
Update

My current 2003 rv-9 has 1600 hours and has been great. So not everyone cracks their oil cooler baffle with the old design.
 
Front baffles are a trimming pain

Still trying to fit lower cowl to front baffles and ramps. Instructions are a little ambiguous.
 

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