RV-9A, SoCal

[rightrudder]

So glad to finally see the faint, translucent light at the end of the fiberglass tunnel! The intersection fairings really are a ton of work, even though I bought the rough pieces from Van's. They're really only a starting point, as you have to apply a couple more layers of 9 oz. cloth and do a ton of trimming, etc. I took the suggestion of a fellow VAFer to bond these fairings to the wheel pant halves and make a split up the gear leg. You can never have enough clamps for this!

Hardest part was making the intersection fairing conform to the underside of the gear leg fairing. I had to wait until the epoxy was about 75 percent set up, and then apply a clamp over the fresh layup. On the first side I clamped it too early into the cure, and the cloth/resin slid a bit during the process. Ti...ming is ev erything.

Made my first panel cut (well, sub panel to be truthful) for the map box. Hope to hang the engine by Christmas. Hanging ornaments is overrated!

[Vlad]

Nice and clean job Doug I am jealous. One suggestion based on experience. If you plan to fly at least once to an unimproved strip or do a bouncy landing elsewhere, add an extra layer or two of fiberglass on the bottom part of rear split intersection fairing. The geometry and direction of pressure exerted by leg fairing may cause lower intersection fairing to detach/break out from wheel pant. It happened on my RV and I've seen on couple more aircrafts with pilots far sharper then me

[rightrudder]

Thanks, Vlad.

Good to know where the weak spots are. I'll certainly heed your suggestion and put a couple of extra plies there. Most likely, all she'll ever see is pavement, but you just never know!

[rightrudder]

Well, I was going to hang the engine, but I contracted a serious case of panel-itis. After four days with a Dremel tool and a file, I finally got to the point of test-fitting most components and getting a feel for what the final panel will look like. Big blank spot above the radio stack is for a surface-mount iFly 520 that i believe I'll get for Christmas.

I'm pleased with it so far. It's simple and straightforward, with lots of space between the switches so hopefully I won't bump anything accidentally. Altimeter knob on both the EFIS and steam gauge are nice and close to each other, so they'll be easy to adjust.

[grubbat]

Doug,
Thanks for the posts. Just the motivation I needed.
CJ

[rightrudder]

Originally Posted by grubbat

Doug,
Thanks for the posts. Just the motivation I needed.
CJ

Glad to help! Putting the plane's "nerve center" together is a really satisfying, enjoyable part of the built, especially after dealing with the F-word...fiberglass.

[rightrudder]

Brrrr...posting is a good way to kill some time until the sun heats the garage to a survivable temperature!

Panel is almost ready for paint. I did the map box door last night. The whole thing is fiddly and time-consuming, but I'm so glad I did it to have a nice cubby for documents, a flashlight, spare fuses, etc. Once it's finished, I'll line the inside with a nice piece of black felt from the local craft store. You can see I kinda banged up the back of the box, setting those rivets with a bucking bar taped to the end of a 2x4. One slip is all it takes! The felt will cover the eyesore.

To make the final door install easy, the hinge will be fastened with pull rivets. The flat stock beneath the hinge is machine countersunk and solid-riveted to the map box floor. I didn't use the piece provided with the kit, because I couldn't figure out what was going on with the hole spacing!

The last thing I have to make is the IP "ears" where I'll mount the headphone jacks. I put the vents higher up on the panel for a little less clutter and ease of adjustment.

[rightrudder]

I had one of those "Oh cr*p" moments when I realized that, on the right side, the map box got in the way of the routing for the fresh air tubing (not a problem with standard Van's location for the air vents). So I made a hole in the sub panel, and fabbed up a reinforcement with some thin-gauge angle and fluting pliers. It feels sturdier than the stock piece now.

[WVM]

Hi,

Quick question: Did you had any trouble to align the WD-605 horn with the spar of the elevator? If you refer to the post that I made in the RV-9 forum, I don't manage to align it properly. VANS responded that I could add an additional plate in between the horn and spar, but this is not really changing a lot. As you must have a empennage kit from the batch, I was wondering that you had the same issue, and maybe got a fix for it?

Thanks!

[rightrudder]

Hi WVM,

I didn't have any issue with alignment of those parts. Sometimes you have to bend and tug and tweak things to bring them into alignment, I hope you find a solution!