[Flying Canuck]

Thought I'd take a moment to introduce myself to the RV-9/9A forum. I'm Claude, from the nearly thawed out middle of Alberta, Canada. I've dreamed of flying and building my own airplane since my teens. Now as I'm closing in on 50, I decided it was time to stop dreaming and start doing. I started lessons back last May, taking my time through the short days and winter weather. Hope to finish the private license before summer.

As I progressed in my flying, the urge to build started up again. In early January I happened across an RV-9A project that someone 2 hours down the road from me was selling for a decent price. I bought the project and brought it home in mid January. It was an empennage, with a lot done on it, and an untouched quickbuild wing. I spent the next couple of months collecting my tools, prepping my garage and learning as much as I could. My son and I traveled down to Axsys Air in Washington and spent a great weekend of hands-on training. I returned and started building in earnest a couple of weeks ago.

In Canada we have the goofy pre-cover inspection, so I can't finish anything completely until I get the inspection. I just finished the empennage as far as I can tonight. Had some early looks at the wings, it looks like there's a lot of work I don't have to do, but still plenty to keep me busy for a little while. I placed an order for my SB fuselage at the beginning of last week, so I'll have that to work on through the second half of the year.

I've spent a lot of time looking at this forum, it certainly looks like any question I run into are going to have been answered here already. I look forward to participating here as I learn my way through this build.

 

[Mike S]

Welcome to VAF!

Thought I'd take a moment to introduce myself to the RV-9/9A forum. I'm Claude,

Claude,

aboard the good ship VAF

 

[Mycool]

Welcome

Hi flying Canuck,

Your in the right place to support your build project. Sounds like you have a great build partner (your son) you'll need a good extra set of hands.

 

[RickWoodall]

cheers

if you needanything just ask!

 

[wirejock]

Welcome

Claude
Welcome. Enjoy every moment. It's fun.

 

[Vlad]

Excellent! It will keep you sane for couple years until you start flying it

 

[terrye]

Pre cover inspection

The goofy pre-cover/closing inspection is not too bad, but MDRA doesn't give you much advice on their website. I had to request this inspection and pay the money before they would tell me:
1. Leave the rudder and horizontal stab aft spar unriveted so they can look inside.
2. Leave the rudder, elevators, ailerons and flap trailing edge and enough rivets unriveted so they can look inside.
3. Leave the bottom wing skins off so they can look inside.
4. The biggest reason I needed their advice/blessing was whether I could close out the fuel tanks (rear bulkhead) before actually getting the inspection done. This seems to be a bit at the discretion of the individual inspector (shouldn't be). My inspector said the tanks were non structural so they could be closed out prior to the inspection.
5. The only areas in the fuselage that are closed are the aft seat floors and the baggage floors. If you pay for a pre-closing inspection for the wings and empennage and don't yet have the fuselage done, they will charge you an additional inspection fee to look under the seats and baggage floors prior to closing. In my case, I had decided to make the aft seat floors and baggage floors removable with screws and platenuts even before I requested the inspection, so I'm going to leave these uninstalled prior to requesting my final inspection. It's a ton of work installing all those platenuts, so think carefully before you make this decision. The pop riveted floors are just fine, but you need to coordinate your inspections and they are a bit more work if you ever have to go inside to run more wires, coax, check your antennas etc.

 

[Flying Canuck]

Thanks for sharing your experience with the pre-cover terrye. I plan to get it all done at once, don't like the idea of paying for the inspection twice, so it will probably be next year.

1. That's exactly what I've done on the VS and HS (the previous builder had already completed that far).
2. I've riveted the top skin on the elevators, the rivets in front of the spar should be visible. Skins are only riveted to the spar on the rudder, so everything is accessible. I didn't rivet the top of the trim tab either. I don't need to worry about my ailerons or flaps as it's a quickbuild wing and exempt from the pre-cover.
3. I don't think I need to wait to close the wings because of the quickbuild.
4. I've heard that the rules seem to be interpreted differently by different inspectors, so I'm going to err on the side of not finishing something. I did contact the MD-RA about the trim tab and they were clear that I couldn't close it.
5. That sounds like something I may consider. The convenience of access sounds good.

Thanks again, it seems to be difficult to get good information on this process.