RV-7 VH-JWC Jon Clements

[RV10inOz]

It really is a piece of art!

I had the pleasure of a sneek preview in April, not quite fininshed but you could see a lovely result in the making.

Hey John, LRV did not have that black stuff on the ground 6 months back.....

Hope to see it again soon!

DB

[Jon Clements]

Hi Dave

I'm a bit slow on the reply - lots of flying in the past week!

It has ventured well beyond YLRV in recent weeks and yes it has had a few licks of the blacktop!

I'll leave to you to try and recognise the airfield.....???

Hope to catch up with you soon.

Cheers

Jon

[LuisR]

Originally Posted by Jon Clements

Thanks all for the kind words. Genuinely appreciated.

Pierre -

I modified the outboard leading edges to become Long Range Tanks with the assistance of a mate of mine who is an AME (structures). The middle bay between the main tank and the outboard tank is open and provides access to the plumbing (via the opening for the landing light in the leading edge). To improve the structure we installed skin doublers to the underside and the outboard tanks are stiffened with lateral angles in the same way as the main tanks. The outer tanks have their own filler caps and all four tanks are plumbed separately to a four way Andair fuel selector. The vent lines are split via a "T" to provide direct venting to both the inboard and outboard tanks. We made a sacrificial test tank as part of the process, filled it with water and tested it to 7.5G's before it showed signs of deflection.
Main tanks hold 80 Litres per side (approx 20 gallons) and the outboard tanks hold 70 Litres (approx 18 gallons) per side.
Stating the obvious - I have included operating limitations in my POH for the aux fuel tanks.....no landings with fuel in outboard tanks (except in emergency) and no aerobatics with fuel in outboard tanks.

I elected to rivet the outboard tanks in place rather than install plate nuts/screws essentially because I did not want to modify the spar design. If they ever leak and I have to remove them it will be a case of drilling out the rivets and I suspect my paint job won't like that much !

The CoG is relatively unaffected by the additional fuel in the leading edge so my C of A has a higher Max weight (2020lbs) than Vans recommends to accommodate long range operations when necessary. On a day to day basis the aircraft is operated to the standard weight limits recommended by Vans and it is ALWAYS operated within the C of G range recommended by Vans (including Long Range Operations).

Cheers

Jon

Jon,

Great finish! As everyone has said, the styling and coordination is spectacular. You must be on a never ending honeymoon with JWC!!

I'm interested in your extended range fuel tanks. I've read the notes above but was hoping to see related pics as well. This is something I may consider when building my -10.

[Jon Clements]

Hi Manny

Thanks

Shoot me an email - jon.clements@jcba.com.au and I'll send you some pics and info.

Cheers

Jon