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RV-7 N117TR

Thanks Vlad, we have the same taste in paint schemes! Here's a photo I took today of the other side.
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Here's the only pics I found while I was making them.
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Basically I cut a construction paper template until it was close, used that to cut out some scrap .063 (it was about the same thickness of the fiberglass). Then I used the back of my vise (about the size of a beer can) and dead blow hammer to beat the curve into it. I basically beat it in two planes, one around the spinner back plate and one towards the pointy part of the spinner. Pretty easy overall, if it didn't fit right I just hit it harder!
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I pulled the cowl today after last nights .6, #3 intake is still leaking. There is a small trail on the intake clamp and oil return line as well as a very fine mist on the lower cowling. Hard to see in pics but...
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Before I pulled the top cowl I looked inside to see how my rubber baffle material had been sealing. Through the inlet pics you can see some excess material that isn't needed for sealing and i suppose could flap in the breeze. On the second pic, pilot side at the rear you can see the rear rubber baffling has a anti-speed bump in it.
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You can sort of see the rub marks on the baffling and I trimmed some of the extra off.
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I trimmed the rubber down and cut a small slit-V in the anti speed bump, we'll see how it lays after another couple of hours. I'll consult with an A&P friend about my still leaking intake tube, I'm guessing I may need a new intake tube.
I also removed the seat pans and tightened up the grip on the aileron trim so it would stay in place and peeked at the control attatchments. Hoping without a fuel imbalance the heavy wing thing may be negligible.
 
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Don't forget the prop blades flex (and rotate for a CS) when setting spinner gaps. I've cleaned up many a gouge on prop shanks from insufficient clearance here.
 
baffles and gearlegs

On our plane all of the baffleing at the intakes is under the fiberglas. You don't want anything that disturbs the airflow over the engine. Our temps are always in the 350 range at cruise speeds at 2400+ engine rpm's. I would advise stiffeners on the gearlegs before you mount fairings.This will really help reduce bouncing on landings and gearleg oscillation (vibration)should it arise.
JMTCW on tailwheel landings. You really aren't going to be a tailwheel pilot until you've done 100 landings. Up until that time there will always be one landing that will jump up and bite you, leaving you scratching your head because everything seemed perfect until you were heading for the grass at the side of the runway. Don't ask how I know.
 
Thanks Walt, I double checked for scratches and found none. I've got a solid 1/4 clearance from any spinner to prop blade.

Not exactly sure how I would get the baffling under the fiberglass, I traced my baffles where they intersected the cowl at 90 degrees and extended my inlet ramps so the baffle material has something to press against once there is some airflow. I do have little ears the sneak behind the sides of the front inlets on the baffles but the baffle material from underneath the inlets wraps around the sides and overlaps the side to top joint. Hard to get a pic of that area though. So far OAT from 18-37 seems the same, airspeed 125 in climb CHT 390-408, 140 IAS and up everything is 360-388 with 3 hours on the new engine.
Pic of my inlet ramps.
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I pulled the cowl and #3 intake again, I found the collar that mounts the tube to the head was warped. The intake tube was not warped. I laid the collar on my back rivet plate and the pic shows its a tad warped.
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I filed it flat and have no more intake leak after today's 1.7! Me and Doug doing our run ups after saying hi to some friends at UKL and trying to catch up after takeoff.
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Stopped for some cheap ($4.99) gas and BBQ.
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I was a little hesitant about flying today, wind 220 @ 15G20. I let myself fly knowing full well I may be leaving my airplane at another airport with a southwest runway. My transition instructors must have done well, Rwy18 at UKL I attempted a 3 pt but a gust made it a wheel landing. K81 and K34 were both nice wheel landings on 21. OWI was a wheel landing on 17, a gust popped me up so I added some power to smooth out the transition. I REALLY like how this thing wheel lands!
 
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I used the excuse I need 10 gallons of gas yesterday to put another .6 on the plane (that and the fact it was 50ish degrees in December). I joined up momentarilary (twice) with a friend enjoying the day in his Aircoupe, I'm going to have to work on slowing this thing down even without wheelpants!
Before I went flying I added some wing walk to the wings ($3.75 a side at B&B) and used the scraps for a spot to step on in between the seats.
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Crappy photo but I forgot how to capture a screen shot on the G3X (hold menu button), 168 knts true down low at 2650 RPM without wheel/leg fairings!
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Another 2.5 today! Tried a little longer flight to 1K1 to help break in the engine and met my parents for breakfast. I also stopped by WLD and K81. Everything went well except from 1K1 to WLD I noticed my carb heat knob was creeping out, I pushed it in twice and then decided to pull it. The bugnut must have come loose at the airbox end, I'll have to investigate this when I pull the cowling to put in the new EGT probe.
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Cowl pulled, carb heat fixed, #2EGT replaced and a basic look and tug firewall forward. Starting to get a few oil drops here and there, could be minor case leaks or just oil from the breather getting swirled around.
I was most interested in why my carb heat cable wasn't attached, I didn't use loctite on the big nut and figures it must have come loose. I was pretty surprised to find the cable broke just aft of the bugnut.
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I'm guessing that the cable was being bent right at the bugnut with the cable retracted. 20 or 30 applications of carb heat was enough to break it. I think running the excess cable through the aluminum angle as well as the torque on the bugnuts castle nut was to rigid. I inverted the angle to line up with the cable housing better, loosened the bugnut's castle nut one lug and had just enough cable after I extended the rod-end bearing to catch the bugnut only and not extend through the angle. I also added loctite to the bugnut's clamping screw just because.
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Baffling is sealing great except 1 spot above the oil cooler and 1 spot over the front center baffling. These puckers are supple enough to conform but won't hold the correct shape. Before replacing them I put a piece of tape on the backside to hold the correct shape and RTV'd a couple horizontal ribs on the baffling. We'll see if this works after the next flight.
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The ribs of RTV on the puckered baffling seems to be working, it took 2 hours flight time but it appears to be conforming well.

Crappy Wx and family items have kept me grounded but I did get a .5 lunch run in to We-B-Smoking today. A little loose formation and a 15 knts direct crosswind kept things fun!
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Hectic morning but flying mission accomplished!! I plugged in my preheater at 9:15, came back to the airport after church/family stuff and pulled it out of the hanger at 1:15. The engine was a solid 100 degrees!
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Doug's 6 and my 7 at K88 getting some >$5.00 100LL. Landed RWY 19 with wind 210@22G32, after 2 attempts of the first landing I went around (tried to force it). Second try was a good wheelie, but I'm still learning when to put the tail down. First time ground speed was about 30 and both mains left the runway as I lowered the tail when a gust hit. The flag in the pic is standing straight!
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At Stearman field.
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Joined the 200knt club on the way home!
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Got back right at sunset.
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10 hours and time for the first oil change tonight. Lower cowl pretty clean, I'll need to put some heat shield where it's starting to get discolored.
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The RTV ribs seemed to have fixed the pucker in the baffling.
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My FAB seal is grinding a little hard on the scoop, I'll have to modify the glass.
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I made a heck of a mess changing the oil, I tried to catch it with a funnel but it overflowed and went everywhere.
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The oil screen looked great, just a couple of very small chunks of metal mush. I clean the screen in some 100LL and it was full of glitter.
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Everything else looked great FWF, several minor oil drips but good for a Lycoming. I didn't have a socket at the hanger to remove the oil filter so I have that and safety wire left. It's going to take way longer to clean up my mess than change the oil.
 
No more beer while changing oil with an undersized pan. Get a quick drain valve and use 3/8" clear tubing. Then you can shut it off if needed.
 
Good to see making a mess is not just in my domain.

I find removing the filter is still a challenge and manage to make a mess every time I change the oil.

Cheers
 
Thanks for the tips, quick drain is definitely on the next spruce order.

Surprisingly the oil was contained to the rags on the filter change. After oil went everywhere I figured I might as well have a beer and bask in the joy of my latest learning experience!
 
Your lucky the fellow that built up my engine required a 1 hour, 4 hour 8 hour 16 hour oil 25 hour change with mineral oil then at 40 assuming the oil temps had dropped and it oil consumption stabilized i changed to aero shell 80 asd oil and added camguard 1.6 oz per qt. everything is humming along great. 65 hous.
 
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While I'm waiting on my oil quick drain and heat shield to show up in the mail I thought I would dig into the heavy left wing.

Using Van's "How to diagnose and correct a Heavy Wing",
-I now have 12 hours on the plane
-Aileron Trim will take out the heavy wing
-Full right tank and left tank down to 4 gallons lessens the heavy wing but still requires aileron trim to fly level
-Rudder is very close, resting 2 feet on the right rudder pedal in cruise centers the ball perfectly
-Wing sweep is correct
-Aileron neutral is correct using tooling hole jig
(Initially I found the ailerons were each 1/16th high or 1 was 1/8 inch high when the other was neutral. I took a break from the project and thankfully remembered that the ailerons move up with forward stick. When I got back to the hanger I found the elevator full up, when I put the elevator in trail the ailerons were set correctly)
-Aileron hinge height is within 1/64 at inboard and outboard hinges on both ailerons. I used a 12 inch straight edge resting on the top wing skin over a rib to the aileron spar rivet line to check this.
-right flap is about 1/8 high on the right wing relative the aileron in the neutral position (I believe lowering this would make the left wing heavier)
-Left flap is aligned with the aileron in the neutral position
-I also measured the flaps trailing edge from the rear spar and all is the same
-I cannot see any twist in any of the control surfaces by sighting down the trailing edge at the wingtip.

I think I'm going to remove the aileron trim springs and go fly, If I still have a heavy left wing I think I'm going to use a plastic coffee stick/straw taped to the bottom of the right aileron as a temporary trim tab. I can then fly with the wheelpants/gearleg fairings and see if I still need to squeeze an aileron.
 
Andy,

Looking through the pics on this thread I did not find an ECU select switch, but did find the two switches, one for each ECU.

Do you have a single and separate switch for selecting which ECU is controlling the injectors?

Do the two ECU switches control power to each ECU?

Can you describe how you operate the switches on a run up etc?

Thanks!

I am working on finding some real estate for the switches I might need for a dual ECU system on my 7A that has been flying for several years...

Randall
 
Randy,
I don't have the fuel injection, I have the carb. I ended up having to buy another carb 2 weeks before flying, at that point I wished go would have went with the fuel injection.
My 2 EFII switches are simple on/on (nothing on 1 on side so it's essentially off) single pole switches from B&C, both on for start and runup and 1 switch off at a time for runup looking for EGT rise (rpm stays the same and smoothness is the same).
I'm not sure how the dual ignition and injection is wired, I assume each ECU has a power input for individual ignitions and a ECU71 or ECU88 to select which ECU runs the injection.
I assume it could also be wired so that 1 ECU runs both ignitions and the fuel injection, a switch determines which ECU is on. I would email Robert.
If I install the fuel injection at a later date I will incorporate some double pole switches for the existing single pole switches to carry out the functions of the EFII.
 
Well heck I knew about your carb and all since I have read the entire thread, but I forgot... Thanks for the response though..
 
I finally got my oil quick drain from Van's, Installed and wired.

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In the beginning I tried really hard to keep the heat shield neatly laid out and free of wrinkles, then I gave up. I did seal all of the edges with Ultra Black. 5 feet of the 30 inch stuff from Van's was more than enough.

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She's all buttoned up and ready to take me flying in the morning!
 
Flew to PPF for some last Sat of the month biscuits and gravy with Doug. I helped Doug finish up his fairings, I'm going to have to get my fairings on so I can keep up with him.
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My aileron trim was contributing to the heavy left wing, without it the left wing is just a tad heavy. I cut a coffee straw in half and taped it to the bottom of the right aileron as a temporary trim tab. It took most of the heavy wing away, probably try a full straw and see what happens.
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I climed up to 6500 for the power off stall tests as the AC90-89A spells them out. No surprises, 0 flaps stalled at 48 knts IAS and full flaps was 45-46 knts IAS.
I also progressively explored the aileron travel and inputs. Finally I felt she was ready for her first aileron roll! 6500 MSL, 60% power 125 knts, clearing turns, lined up on a westerly road, pitch down to 135 knts, pitch up to 20 degrees, unload the elevator and full left aileron, YEHAW! I had a ball for 20 minutes rolling around the sky. The grin is just getting bigger!
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I put the wheel pants on while the airplane was preheating. She looks faster already! I still have to upload the data but initially looks like I gained 5-6 knots in cruise, probably my imagination but seemed to accelerate and climb better too. Some more LOP stuff, again waiting to download the data so I don't confuse stuff.
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I'm not comfortable with the wheel pant to tire gap, I'm going to enlarge it some more.
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My radio didn't charge via my 12 volt outlet on yesterday's flight. My hinged fuse panel made it easy to find the blown fuse. I'm guessing I shorted the leads when I removed the aileron trim the other day.
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All tucked in after flying (I did so many rolls I got a tad woozy), I grabbed a beer and started visualizing the leg/intersection fairings.
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I forgot about removing the half straw on the a bottom of the right aileron and replacing it with a full length straw. Surprised but I couldn't tell any difference after adding the full length straw. I believe my aileron trim contributed to half my heavy wing, I'm waiting to install and fly the gear leg fairings before any aileron tweaking.
 
On The right Track

You should find that the gear leg and intersection fairings will give you a bigger performance boost than the wheel fairings.
You can do it gradually, but opening up the wheel fairing gap to about the thickness of your thumb will have little or no impact on performance but will save a lot of wear and tear on both fiberglass and rubber.
Looking Good!
Terry, CFI
RV9A N323TP
 
I borrowed some wing jacks that were built as others have posted on VAF, I used a 1 inch socket on some 2 inch carriage bolts screwed into the wing tie downs. I had originally tightened the bolt tight to the socket, but had to loosen them so the socket could wobble and fit on the jack with the wing incidence.
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I used a sawhorse and blocks to raise the tail and added an anchor in the concrete to hold the tail. The plumb bob hangs on one side of the tail spring and I just measured over 1/2 the tail spring diameter to chalk the centerline.
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I used a little cleco clamp to hold the front plumbob on the center rivet.
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I felt much better after I loosely attached my hoist to the engine hook as insurance that it won't tip.
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Off to work for now, can't wait to get back double check the centerline and start aligning the leg fairings.
 
The Wx hasn't been cooperating at all for fiberglass so I decided to put it off for a month or two.

I finally got to put another hour on today (17.1 total), supposed to be nice and melt the snow soon. I did a few climbs at Vx/Vy for the first time, nose is really high!
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Gas only, We-B-Smoking was closed.
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The high cloud cover ruined my planned sunrise flight (woke up at 5:30 for a 7 am takeoff and 7:11 sunrise), I got a couple pics of red but missed the sunrise.
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I did a negative transponder, primary return only check with ZKC today. I was well within radar coverage, but only got about 15 seconds worth of a primary return.

I made a pit stop at KPTS for coffee and airport talk.
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In person was much cooler, late morning sun poking through the clouds.
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I'm still trying to learn the airplane, I've got the faster wheel landings (73 knts IAS) nailed with or without crosswinds. Three points still elude me, I've done a couple of mediocre ones and recovered from lots of bad ones. I'm still learning the pressures and input differences between Citabria/Champ and an RV. 21.1 hours to go!!
 
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20 hours down, 20 hours to go!
I hit my head on the canopy today for the first time, I'm going to have to really cinch the belts down. RWY 01 was interesting today, wind 320@21G29 1 landing became 2! I have a ratio of 60% 91 mogas to 100LL in 1 tank, no differences noted yet.
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Finally posting pics from Sat morning, I met up with a local couple RV'ers and flew to PPF.
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Doug and I took a tour of southeastern Ks visiting airports we've never landed at.
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First stop (overflight) was 16KS, Harmony Valley (no pic). K67 (Oswego) was next, there was a C-150, aircoupe and ultralight tucked away.
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2K7 (Neodesha) with a pic and 1K7 (Fredonia) was a flyby.
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Doug and I stopped at K88 (Iola) for some cheap gas, sunny 58 and less than 10 knts from the sw made for a great flight!
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My fist bug smashing flight so far, I cleaned the windscreen but I'm going to have to get a spray bottle of something.
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It's hard to go from flying status back to project status, but I've got some time off and the Wx is going to cooperate. I leveled the airplane and chalked a centerline, I made parallel lines at 22 & 32 inches. I used a level to project these lines on the leg fairings and the piece of plywood at the back of the plane.
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I used a line level for the string and tuning the string through a short piece of tubing worked great.
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All in all it took me half a day to align the gear fairings.
 
I drew a grid on the wheelpant, I have yet to use it...
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I wanted to try some pour foam, I made a **** so to speak and poured away.
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Ended up with this.
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It would have worked great (I think) except I covered everything with clear packing tape prior to pouring the foam. It sanded really easy but when it got down to 1/4 inch thick it just chucked off because of the slick tape.
I went with plan B, modeling clay for Hobby Lobby which was way cheaper than the pour foam (2 packs was just enough).
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It took me a while but I finally figured out what I was doing. I formed the lower fairings mostly with a couple on pice of 3/4 PVC. I tried to extend the leg fairings into the wheelpant and than radius it onto the wheelpant. I also tried to keep a blunt forward face with an extended trailing edge in parallel with the leg fairing trailing edge. It was in the 40's and I used my heat gun to help mold the clay.
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I made a pattern for the trailing edge of the upper intersection fairing.
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I made 2 metal trailing edges out if .032.
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I taped the trailing edges in place and jammed some clay around them.
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Not a quick process, I sent roughly 7 hours on the hanger floor forming these transition fairings.
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My daughters joined me after school, I'm told I need to bring their bikes and buy more taxi-way chalk!
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I finally got all 4 glassed, the first one is actually much prettier in person...
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I was able to find all the radius's I needed from the beer bottle to 1/4 pitot static tubing. It helped to cover the larger "tools" with packing tape and wet the clay so it didn't stick.
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I flew with the lower fairings temporarily screwed on and the uppers glassed/taped on. I guess it's not exactly 200 mph tape.
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Pic of the lower transition fairings, I split them just aft of the gear leg. Playing around with the joint on the underneath side instead of the trailing edge, I'm not sure if I'm going to keep them like this or not.
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Test flight was a little disappointing, I needed a Lot more right rudder to keep the ball centered. It also felt like the airplane was pushing itself left and right in front of the CG depending on power setting. I borrowed a pair of upper intersection fairings from a friend's RV6 to double check the leg fairing alignment. My right leg fairing was set with the trailing edge about 1/4-3/8 inch high towards the right side. I readjusted the right leg fairing and test flew without the intersection fairings. 2nd time was a charm, flew great with just a smidge of right rudder (same rudder input as no fairings). No to re-fit my right intersection fairings to the repositioned gear leg. Good thing the Wx is starting to cooperate.
 
Andy,
Why not separate the lower fairings at the pant joint and bond the halves to the pants once you get everything positioned correctly? 'Bout the only time you'll want to take the lowers off, the pants will need to come off anyway, so why not make it easy on yourself?

Once you get everything set up and bonded in place, you can glass a lip on the rear half of the lowers to go under the front half and help lock them in place.
 
Leg fairing alignment

Always seemed to me there was more to this process than just alignment with the fuselage. These fairings are largely in the spiraling slipstream, the vectors of which will vary with rpm, forward speed, AoA and prop pitch. The inboard portions will feel the slipstream while the outboard portions hardly at all.

Seems to me the ideal fairing actually needs a twist to accommodate that. And that the setting that best feathers to the passing air is not determinable with only a level and string.

Has anyone made the fairing movable in flight via Bowden cable and tufted/ captured video at various incidence settings? If even one RV of each model was properly optimized, the rest of the VAF could copy their incidence data and hit their rigging pretty much dead-on.

Hoping someone else will volunteer, of course :rolleyes:

-Stormy
 
Micheal, I've seen both ways but after reading reviews on VAF that bonding to the pant and splitting seemed less durable than 1 piece with a slit screwed to the wheelpant. I'm sure both ways work if done correctly, as you can tell from my glasswork I'm still in the "rough" stage!
 
I needed to redo my intersection fairings for the right side since the right gear leg fairing was mis-aligned. I cut the fairings close to the gear leg and fuse/wheelpant transition and taped them in place. I used little strips of fiberglass to hold the new shape.
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I pulled them off today, ran a bead of flox followed be a layer of glass from the inside of the cut.
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Psyching myself up for the sand-fill-repeat...
 
Finally warm enough to bring the girls out to the hangar with me to work on the intersection fairings.
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I have the uppers layered in filler and roughly cut to the final shape.
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The lower fairings are looking good, but the underneath split is going to be more trouble than its worth. I'm thinking about re-glassing the current cut and split it at the trailing edge.
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Beautiful girls

Now I know why you have the time for all that fiberglass. You are a baby sitter! Change your profile occupation :D
 
Hahahahaha, done! I prefer the title HouseDad!
I've found my vacation time has been reallocated to working on the airplane!

I've got the transition fairings mostly shaped, enough work time to fly! I gathered some cruise speed numbers on my way to Kstate's open house (pancakes&sausage). I graduated here over 10 years ago, great to see some of my ol' teachers!
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Cruise speeds right on with what Van advertises, also 55-60% power yields 150 knts TAS 80ish degrees lean of peak burning >7 GPH. Density altitudes varied the TAS numbers several knts either side.

Lots of range burning going on in the flint hills, 3-5 miles of visibility in places.
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I made a pit stop at the Beaumont Hotel, taxing the 1/4 mile from the 2400 steeply sloped (for Kansas) strip along a road was kinda fun! Careful on the taxing technique lots of FOD along the way.
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Pic doesn't do it justice but back-taxing RWY18 up the hill.
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Departure end of RWY18, the runway disappears down the hill and if you zoom in you can see the windmill farm several miles past the runway.
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3.9 hours of flying around my test area and 22 gallons of fuel, not to shabby. 9.3 hours to go in phase 1!
 
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After today 7 hours left in phase 1, gross weight and aerobatic testing to go.

I had made a heck of a mess in th hangar the past several days so the girls and I cleaned it up. It took several Popsicles but we got the job done.
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I had worked my way through Van's how to diagnose and fix a heavy left wing up to the squishing the aileron part (right before a trim tab). Finger pressure squeezing showed no results previously so as I was preheating this morning I used my hand seamers with Popsicle sticks taped in the jaws to lightly squeeze my right (right) aileron. 20 min in the air showed no change in the heavy wing, I stopped at KPTS for coffee and some squeezn'. I used a little firmer pressure this time, still no visible change in the aileron trailing edge. By the time I was airborne and picking up speed on a left downwind departure I had forgot about squeezing the aileron. At midfield I noticed a heavy right wing, "ding ding" I neutralized the aileron trim and no more heavy wing.

As a reference here is a 50 lb 5 year old.
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Same 5 year old in a car seat strapped in the baggage area. Earlier post in my build log show my anchors, surprisingly easy for her to crawl back there and roomy. I need to modify the rear slider rail and add some padding just in case and i will be satisfied.
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My girls are more than ready for their first RV7 ride!
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I modified the rear slider rail but forgot to get a pic.

I did some higher gross weight test and aft CG flights, 200 lbs in the right seat and 50 lbs in the baggage compartment. Everything felt heavier but performed fine. I was within 3/4 inch of the aft CG and it would hold alt while trim but was dynamically unstable when I bumped the stick. Stall testing was normal with the extra weight except for lighter stick forces. The air was smooth so I also took it 3 knts past Vne.
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Thanks to my friend John who picked up where I left off and took my plane to the edge of the envelope. Double check handling characteristics, +6/-1 G (no inverted systems), spins and a whole list of primary and sportsman aerobatic maneuvers. Thanks to Ray for flying chase in his awesome 10!
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I was utterly amazed at the amount of oil on the belly, I've got quite the mess to clean up. It's worse than my first oil change.
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Everything went well except the engine did quit during a hammerhead, and my Tosten grip started swiveling on the stick. Engine fired right back up and the grip I've still got to trouble shoot.
Just over 30 hours and the aerobatic testing made for a good time to change the oil. Everything looked good under the cowling except for oil everywhere.
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The quick drain is worth every penny, not a drop spilled during the oil change.
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A little routine maintenance, a sign-off, less than 2 hours and I'm out of phase 1!
 
The Easter Bunny happened to make it to the hangar today!
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All that sugar sure primed them for some scrubbing, I got the belly and they got the rest. FWF was cleaned up first, I'm sure I'll have some oil seeping out of some cracks but she looks pretty good overall. Fresh oil change and she fired right up for a quick taxi back and leak check.
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Of course I forgot several things back at the hanger, the girls thought it was funny I wanted to use their bikes to ride the 200 yards back to the hanger. I was going pretty fast for a princess fairy bike!
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Pics of the shortened canopy rail and he new brace I made from scrap .063. Future maintenance will be nicer as well, nothing but screws to remove the baggage bulkhead covers. I cut the bulkhead cover around the tie down too. It's short enough to be behind the car seat now, I added some high density foam just in case.
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I discovered several leaky areas in my baffling I'm hoping to plug tonight, CHT's aren't terrible but could be better. I typically climb at 125 knts IAS and see 360-380 and the same for cruise, if the engine is heat soaked or if I climb at 96 I start seeing 410 until cruise and they drop back to 360-380.
 
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FWF inspection and oil change went well, I did find one spot where the left exhaust elbow poked the lower cowl. I'm waiting on a new air filter, mine shrank considerably in 31 hours (tach time).

I installed my new DJM tailwheel and JD Accessories tail link. The link saved 3.5 oz. and I'm told the tailwheel saves 1 lb (larger scale not handy). Just a couple hours flying it but I think I'll like the new setup. I should get my heavier crush plate soon and see how much my CG moves. While I was back there I noticed oil got into my tail strobe.
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The DJM wheel is not nearly as bouncy, my Van's tailwheel used to bounce 2-3 inches high going over the hanger door tracks and the DJM just rolls over it. The DJM tailwheel has more rolling noise and thunking on cracks in the runway. I definitely like the sealed bearings.
The link does provide a tighter more responsive feel while taxiing on pavement, much less wandering down the taxiway especially with a tailwind. Takeoff/landing ops seem to be touchier requiring a lighter touch on the pedals to not over control. Don't install it incorrectly as I did, the tail link should be underneath of the rudder control horn.
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I was showing off my new setup to another RV'er who said "looks like you'd have more clearance if you mounted it underneath the rudder contr horn." A quick check online proved I obviously don't follow directions very well.
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Guess who finished their 40 hour phase 1??? This Guy!!!

The wife said she owned the rights to the first ride since she had to put up with me building for 9 years. My youngest joined us in the back.
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It was hard to get a decent shot in the air, but my youngest seems to be saying "I thought this was going to be exciting, is that all you got Dad?"
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The other girls couldn't wait for their turn. On crosswind of the first takeoff my 6 year old says "Dad I want to go upside down!" Do they make kiddie parachutes?
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My wife drove with the youngest and met me and the girls for some BBQ at K81.
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My oldest was energized with all the excitement, my 6 year old caught a nap!
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I'm really looking forward to some trips!
 
CONGRATS, ANDY!

I need to get up there to check out your plane. Hoping to take my first x/c this weekend if the wind lets up.
 
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