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RV-9A, SoCal

Thanks, Jim, and Merry Christmas to you too! Today's task was filling the tanks and calibrating the senders, two measly gallons at a time. It'll be nice to fill them at a regular pump instead of through gas cans and funnels. I think I got a little more in the tanks than I spilled. :)

Our mutual friend Tom Wilson paid me a visit today in his Starduster bipe. And geez, he stood it on its tail leaving Cable. Amazing rate of climb!! It's crazy, too, that five miles away, the winds were gusting to 40 knots or so at Ontario (two flights diverted because of wind) yet it was eerily calm at Cable...less that 10 knots and straight down the runway when Tom Landed, though it turned into a stiffer 90-degree crosswind when he left.
 
So close! I'm within about two workdays of having the RV-9A ready for the airworthiness inspection, which should take place on Jan. 15 or thereabouts.

Finished up the aileron trim mechanism, safety-wired the tank attach brackets, hooked up the strobes/landing light for a post-Christmas green/red light show, and generally neatened up the wiring around the control sticks. All control surfaces rigged, and jam nuts tightened, Loctited and marked with TorqueSeal.

So really, all that remains is routing the fuel sender wires (waiting on a 1/4" bit for my angle drill, as I forgot to drill these holes before final-mounting the wings), mounting the wingtip landing light, and addressing a very slight rub of the left aileron's chromoly pushrod at full down deflection. Also, some thin tappet wrenches are on order so I can easily final-torque the aileron control horn nuts.

I checked all the exhaust flange nuts and intake flange bolts after my engine test runs, and they were fine. I also put a wrench on all fluid line fittings, just for peace of mind. No leaks whatsoever.

There's 15 gallons of 100LL in each tank for the first flight, which I hope will be around the middle of February. I can't wait!!!







 
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Couldn't sleep, so I was on the road at 5:30 a.m. to the hangar and made it back by lunch. I was able to finish off a lot of little details before The Inspection.

First up, DuckWorks landing light. They supply the fiberglass tube, and the toughest part here is aiming it. Luckily my hangar faces an open dirt lot, so I elevated the nose wheel by a few inches (to simulate flare) and set a cardboard box about 75 feet in front of the plane. The I hogged out the wingtip hole bit but bit until I could angle the beam down and inward enough to illuminate the "runway." Then it was just a matter of flox, sand with mini pneumatic die grinder, a little dry micro, and we're off to the races.





 
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Next, a super-easy GoPro mount for the top of the vertical stab. Cut a short piece of 1/8" bar stock, Dremel a slot in the top of the fiberglass fairing, flox & dry micro; sand to taste.

It's super sturdy, and if I ever want to remove it, I'll just cut it off and grind it flush. The nice thing is that the 1/8" stock fits perfectly in the slot of the GoPro case, and the hole is perfectly sized for an AN3 bolt.





 
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Last, I made this little pull ring out of .063 stock. When I refitted the canopy, the right side was hanging up a little on the fiberglass fairing when closing. If I pulled in only about 1/16", it closed nicely, but there was no real easy place to grab it from the inside, hence the ring. After it was installed, I beveled the edge of the plexi a little more, which seemed to solve the problem, but it's nice to have the pull ring if the problem ever surfaces again due to heat expansion, etc.



 
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Doug, brilliant idea with the camera mount.

Methinks it is likely to be "stolen" by more than one builder in the future.
 
Thanks Mike! Another nice thing is that the top of the aluminum is shaped so that the case can only rock back a couple of degrees, so if the bolt loosens or the blast from the air proves too much, you still have usable video.

I'm having some fun with iMovie; I'm used to PC software so there's a bit of a learning curve, but there are more similarities than differences.
 
Next, a super-easy GoPro mount for the top of the vertical stab. Cut a short piece of 1/8" bar stock, Dremel a slot in the top of the fiberglass fairing, flox & dry micro; sand to taste.

It's super sturdy, and if I ever want to remove it, I'll just cut it off and grind it flush. The nice thing is that the 1/8" stock fits perfectly in the slot of the GoPro case, and the hole is perfectly sized for an AN3 bolt.






Nice idea.

Just one comment - I've been doing similar things with Hero 2 housings on my Pitts for a few years. So far I've found 3 cracked housings (and lost one camera). What can happen is that a small crack appears in the 2 flanges on the bottom of the case. I'm beginning to suspect that this is because either the AN3 bolt is too tight or because the single central metal flange is either too thin or lacks the surface area to provide enough friction to resist 200 mph winds. Now I'm aware of the problem I've managed to spot the cracks before the camera departed - the cases are relatively cheap and easily changed. I'm sure your bracket will work fine - just suggest you don't over tighten and check for cracks in preflight
 
Doug, brilliant idea with the camera mount.

Methinks it is likely to be "stolen" by more than one builder in the future.
I guess I'm one of the thief's! If you don't mind, I'd like to steal your idea. I also read following post about the cracking of the housing. Perhaps a thin piece of phenolic might work?
Dave
 
Y'all may already know this, but the vertical stab is subjected to a lot of vibration on start up and shutdown.
 
Good advice on checking for cracks, etc. The V-stab is indeed a long lever arm. I may wrap a bunch of duct tape around the base to help damp a bit of vibration; might help the video quality too.
 
N427DK...Airworthy at last!

Yippee!! I received this very special piece of paper yesterday from DAR Adam Valdez. Adam was very thorough and a pleasure to work with. He spent a lot of time going over the nuances of the operating limitations, and tirelessly answered all of my questions. The aircraft has a clean bill of health, with only a couple of recommendations for improvement: install rubber boots over the positive battery terminal and left magneto P-lead, and securely bolt down the seat back attachment plates to the crossbeam (I had bolts in there simply functioning as locating pins).

The day before, I installed a Matco axle for the nose wheel, which allows you to preset the load on the tapered roller bearings rather than having the axle through bolt perform the same function. The wheel does seem to roll a little easier when properly set up, and the leftover Van's bearing spacers make great paperweights! :):)

Next, some transition training down in San Diego with Reuven Silberman, and I'll be able to give 'er a go. I'm fired up that my practice area encompasses a lot of square miles, over the high desert east of Victorville/Apple Valley to just north of Barstow, bordered to the north and east by lots of restricted airspace.










 
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Thanks, guys! I'll post a pic of the seat bolts soon. Tomorrow is a hangar work day, so I should have all the interior reinstalled; I did all the fairings, wingtips and inspection plates last night. The Van's approach on the seat backs seemed a little fussy, so I simplified it a little....just aluminum angle riveted to the cross beam, and the seat attach plate slides in between. There's no provision for adjustment, but that's fine by me.

Next task: pitot/static and transponder check. I think there's a shop on the field to perform this.
 
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Congrats again, Doug. Serendipity that I just happened to show up at your hangar at the final signing of the AW cert. Have a safe Phase 1, and let me know when you are down around here for your training. I would be glad to have you go flying again.
 
Congrats again, Doug. Serendipity that I just happened to show up at your hangar at the final signing of the AW cert. Have a safe Phase 1, and let me know when you are down around here for your training. I would be glad to have you go flying again.

Yeah, that was great you were there to share the experience...a nice surprise. One of my first trips after Phase 1 will be to Ramona to check out your hangar digs. :)
 
Hey Dave,

Here's an old pic of the seat back attachment. The -3A holes (two per seat) were drilled through the horizontal surface of the aluminum angle. I cut back the attachment piece quite a bit so I could move the seat all the way back to the cross beam.

 
So nice to put the interior back in place for good (well, at least until next year's annual). I'm glad I ordered about 100 extra #8 screws for the baggage compartment, seat pans, etc. The best purchase I made recently is this Li-ion power screwdriver (WORX brand, at Lowe's, about $30) which is surprisingly powerful for its size. It made quick work of the wingtips and those dozens of #6 screws, and does a decent job on #8s unless you have an especially tight nut plate. Its main shaft is offset quite a bit and it telescopes out from the housing, so you can really reach a lot of tight spaces. I tried to post a pic of the screwdriver, but for whatever reason it wouldn't upload to Photobucket.

Seat pans were the hardest to install. Some of the holes were misaligned, but careful levering with an awl and a little Dremel work on a couple of holes made it all work.

On the upper piano hinges on the seats, I notched the outboard loop so the end of the pin could be secured on the inside of the seat attach bracket's flange. I hope I never have to use that extinguisher!

The last engine test run will also be a taxi test, to bed in the brakes and get a feel for the ground handling. It helps that I trained in a Diamond Eclipse with a free-castering nose wheel.

Now, waiting for weather to clear for transition training.... [drums fingers impatiently on desk]







 
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Hi Doug,

Sorry I haven't gotten a chance to read your updates and congratulate you sooner...congratulations!!!:D

Wow, your 9A looks great!!! Nice clean panel, too.

I've been busy for the last few months now on that big Acura NSX project (neat car), the last several weeks just brutal...but I did sneak out the past couple of Tuesdays for my EAA group's build night. Hours of deburring still beat real work any day of the week ;)

Our group is working on several projects - a German-designed wooden glider, a Cozy and an RV-9A - so I've naturally been drawn to the sheetmetal plane (plus it helps that the RV project is in a heated and insulated hangar.

Acura project hopefully winding down in February, then I can start putting in time to finish fixing up my Dodge Dart convertible (yep, I still have it; the earth did try to reclaim it while it sat idle for years in the R&T parking lot, but it is still in surprisingly good shape). Nice that the old muscle cars have been appreciating (even lowly Dodge Darts). Should pay for a QB fuse, engine parts for me to build my ECi 340 Stroker engine that I lust after, and the finishing kit once the car is sold :)

Take care...and happy flying!!!
 
Hey Jim,

Thanks for the attaboys and glad to hear the Dart is getting some TLC. Quite the roster of projects at your EAA chapter! (I'm partial to the -9A as well. :) ) I'm gonna finally attend my first EAA meeting at Cable on Feb. 4th; I missed one a while back because I came down with the stomach flu.

First flight is just around the corner. I have a transponder check scheduled for this Friday, and if the weather holds, I'll do my transition training down San Diego-way next Tuesday and Wednesday in a -7A. I did the 4th engine test (the first one with the cowling on) and the CHTs are all nice and even--within 5 degrees of one another. I made about four taxi passes in front of my hangar to scrub in the brakes; they hold nicely now even at 2200 rpm. It's crazy how tight you can spin a 180 with that shopping cart front wheel!

Next time the engine starts, my RV will make the transition from ground vehicle to air vehicle! :D:eek:
 
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