S

Steve Sampson

Well Known Member
Still working on the canopy (yes Brian I am in touch with Andy) but starting to plan the hanging of the engine.

My question is this. If I put the engine on the fuse, with the fuse on the main wheels, and the tail on a saw horse to keep it level, will it be nose heavy and tip up without the horizontal stab and fin? I would rather leave the back end off for now. I dont want to find the answer to this half way through the exercise!

Also, am I right in thinking there is only one item, the oil presure sensing point, that needs to be on first? I presume the constant speed unit will fit on easily afterwards.

Thanks,
 
Weight

Hi Steve,
My buddy has his -4 in my hangar without the wings on and his 160 Lyc is mounted and plumbed, no prop, but the tailfeathers are on.They're pretty light anyway but I'd hang twenty or thirty pounds of lead/iron from the tailspring if you're concerned.

Regards,
Pierre
 
Steve,

I have my engine (with alt, starter and pipes) and Hartzell C/S prop on with only the VS & HS mounted (no elevs or rudder). There is absolutely no problem with the fuse tipping tail wheel on the ground or in flight level position!

Bill
 
Benched!

Steve,

When I rebuilt The Bandit firewall forward in 05', I built a workbench with 6 18" 4X4 legs strong enough to support the airplane. I lifted the entire airplane up, set the bench underheath with old tires under the wings at the spar and lowered it onto the bench. I set the tailwheel on a 5 gallon bucket and was able to work easily on the front end without hindrance. Made the job very easy...
By the way Steve, I sold the Bandit to a very enthusiastic F-18 pilot last week who loves it! I still have my HR2 and a very old RV4 kit that is calling me...maybe a Bandit Too is in the works!

cheers!

RR
 
Hold on...

I just went through this several weeks ago so lessons-learned are fairly fresh.

1) You don't need the tail on, but you should probably get a couple sacks of lead shot to hold the tail (maybe 20 lbs) Once the engine is on you can put it back down on the tail wheel. When I hung the engine, the tail was on the ground anyway. No big deal.

2) I had an AeroASport IO-360-M1 with the oil pressure fitting installed on the side tapped hole. I found out that the hose would interfere with the mount, so I had to install the aft facing fitting and cap the side facing fitting. It's a 45-degree AN fitting so it isn't coming out without removing the engine. I wish I had moved this prior to engine hanging.

3) Make sure the oil cooler supply line can be fitted to the supply line port. The constant speed cable bracket interferes and you may need to have new hose with a 45-degree fitting made.

4) Fit the prop govenor and adjust as necessary prior to hanging the engine. I'm glad I did as there's not enough room to deal with this, especially the safety wiring.

5) I had fit the floscan sensor on the upper right horizontal motor mount tube. This looked like a great place and had the hoses made. Then I found that the oil neck was in direct competition for the same space. Back to the drawing board!

Otherwise, everything is going together fairly easily (at least for now and I'm sure there's other gotch-ya's). And watch the teeth on the starter ring, they sure tear up knuckles.

Good luck,

Jim
 
Jim/Smokey/Bill/Pierre, thanks for the inputs. Lead shot it is since I have it to hand.

Smokey, I hope we are not going to loose you from the RV4 world since you make so many useful inputs to us builders. Hopefuly Bandit Too will get your attention!

Cheers
 
Sticking around...

Steve, Thanks for the kind words, I'll always be a -4 guy, besides the data plate on my Harmon Rocket says "Shell RV4"...it really is just a beefed up -4. Gotta like it!

Cheers!

Smokey
 
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