Continued Finishing touches

It has been a while since I have posted, but in that time I have been working through and torquing all the control surfaces and control columns etc.   I had an issue with the autopilot servo arm where it started to bind with the Elevator push rod when given full “UP” elevator.  I lengthened the servo push rod arm about 3/16 inch to where it now avoids binding.   With that corrected, I will now validate all my torques and verify secured wiring in the tail cone and under the seats before I put all the covers and seats back in place.   Next steps after that are to finish the panel, rivet on the top forward skin, then prep for the first engine start.  Oh, and then there is that pesky empennage fairing which has been avoiding me for the last few weeks.   Weather might be getting warm enough to do something about that too.   Not much left after that.. 

I got my Transition Training scheduled with Mike Seager down in Oregon in the middle of March.  After that I will hopefully having nothing more to do on this thing except fly it..  J

Oh, I also have been working on final touches with tips and lighting.   Here is a video I shot last time I was at the hangar.

Wing Tips and the last Antenna

The airplane has 8 antennas and the Wing Tip Mounted Nav antenna is the last one I have to deal with.   This is a very unique antenna designed by some rocket scientist, but if you set it up right its supposed to work pretty well.  The benefit is that it is inside the wingtip and functions as both a VOR and LOC antenna.  The external antennas that provide this function are big and ugly so this antenna fits the RV quite nicely.   Plus gives me full IFR ILS Approach capabilities.

(I have been asked, so for those who are interested, my antenna's include: 2 Comms, 1 Nav, 2 GPS, Transponder, ADS-B, and an ELT.)

I am putting the antenna in the right wingtip so my focus was on this wingtip all night.   I riveted the antenna into the nutplates that secure the wingtip to ensure a ground contact with the airframe, also I added the heat protective cover for the HID landing light.

After initial set up I installed the landing light and positioned it as best I knew how at this time.  I will have to do some testing with the tips on the wing to make sure it lines up right.  Also, ran the wires own the leading edge of the antenna as indicated in the instructions..  I used the heat protective tape to secure the Nav/Strobe wires which will secure them as well as protect them from the heat of the landing lamp.  With all wires connected and secured I mounted the wingtip and tested it out.  Everything for this wing tip functioned as planned.  I will secure the antenna with tape initially for test flying, but once it is proven I will run some fiberglass over the tail and some of the antenna mid sections to keep it secure to the bottom of the wing tip.

Wing Tips

Today was a big day on the project.  I spent the entire day up at the hangar and got a majority of the wingtip install complete.  I still have to drill out and install almost 100 nutplates, plus run the wiring for lighting, Nav Antenna, and even do some more fiberglass work, but for now I at least was able to drill, cleco and lock down the position of the tips.  I am really happy how they turned out, almost 100% in line with both the flaps and the ailerons.  I took some photos to try to show how they lined up.  The plane is now looking great and the wingtips really add to the finished look.  I took a couple extra pics because it looks soo cool..

I also drilled and riveted in the wing tip rib per the plans.  I haven’t riveted this yet since I need to prime the rib and also not sure which rivets I should use.  The plans don’t really call out rivets for this rib, but I assume the intention is the pop rivets that vans suggests you use for the tip.  In this case I might use solid rivets, but need to ask around first.

Flaps and Ailerons

As I start working my way out to the wingtips, I decided to get the flaps in place and rigged correctly with the ailerons.  This will help make sure that when the wing tip gets installed I can verify a straight line down the trialing edge of all surfaces.  The only remaining items I had on the ailerons was to ensure they were both straight down the chord of the wing and install aileron stops.  Vans gives you some instructions on using tooling holes to line them up with the wing chord so I made sure they were both perfect.    For the Stops, I went off plans as many others have done.   I used a 5/8 inch nylon bushing around the bolt in the hinge, which hits the aileron support angle and works effectively as a stop.  After drilling out the bushing to fit, I installed and finished torquing the ailerons. 

 Then on went the flaps, making sure they were in alignment with the ailerons at the same time butting up smooth to the fuse.   Everything is now in line and I secured the flap hinge pins in a unique way which I talk about (here) in a prior post.  Also, I torqued the rear spar bolts and installed cotter pins.  Now its time to focus on the wingtips this weekend.

Here is a pic of the nylon bushing that I  used as my aileron stop.  When deflected it hits the aileron support and stops the travel at the correct location.

Continued Wiring and Torquing fuel lines

I have been continuing to wire the wing roots, and started torquing the fuel lines..   Here is a pic of the left wing root..  At this point both wing roots are wired up including Pitot and AOA lines.  I even kicked off the Pitot heat and verified the Pitot tube function.  Working like a charm and with the VP-X I can see how many amps its taking to heat the tube.. The Dynon Tube kicked off at 8 and fluctuated broadly back and forth to about .5 amps.  It has an internal sensor that tells it when to shut off so that it isn't constantly pulling amps.

Also, I took it slow and started torquing the fuel lines.  Making sure  no wires touch the fuel lines and all is torqued per spec.

Wing Root Connections and Lights

I have all my lighting in the tips and tail coming through the left wing root.  I spent a couple hours yesterday hooking it all up and testing it.  Shot a quick video when I got the tail to react appropriately to the switches.   I like the LED lights, they seem to be bright and are definitely easier to install than a standard strobe system.  I chose not to sync the tail with the wings, so it will flash independently, but both wings will be flashing at the same time.

Two wings on !

Mid last week, my brother in-law and his wife met Bekah and I for dinner up by Paine field.  Of course I had to get some work on in the plane, so we quickly ran to the hangar and they helped us pin the wing into place.  Took about 15 minutes, and we were out of there..  That set me up for this weekend to get the NAS bolts in place and torqued down so that I officially have two wings on the plane.  It looks great and finally people really understand what it is I am building.  ;-)   The weather here has been really cold so I haven’t got as much done on it as I would like, but I did finish all the tubing and installed the Pitot tube in the left wing.  Also, did a bit of wiring, but left the rest for a warmer day.  The list of things to do is winding down, but I still have a few hard core months of work ahead of me.  Putting the pressure on myself so I don’t miss any good flying days as spring arrives..   ;-)

One wing on !

Lots of progress this weekend.  Started with a plan to have a friend meet Bekah and I at the hangar to help get the wing on.  I thought through as much as I could ahead of time and with the 3 of us and a 4^th that showed up last minute we got the wing pined on with drift pins really easily.   I then rubbed some Boe Lube all over the NAS bolts and while Bekah lifted the wing tip to unload the bolts, I drove the first (an upper) one in with a rubber mallet and no issues at all.  Then I tried to drive a lower bolt and it was so close to the floor that I hesitated, plus it wasn’t going in so well..  Then I was loaned a short rivet gun.  Bekah again unloaded the wing by lifting the tip and the rivet gun helped slide the bolt right in.  Was crazy how smooth it went in by smacking it with a rivet gun.

Then I spend the rest of the day working the wiring in the wing root and hooking up the fuel lines etc.  At this point, the right wing is pretty well in place now.. Time to move to the left.

Fuel line plumbing, Wing Nutplates, Battery, Starter Relay Bar

I got lots accomplished this weekend and don't know where to start logging it..  First off I finished all misc items needed while the wings were mounted, namely the fuel line tubing is now complete.  I will pull these apart and save them for the next year or so until the wings are finally mounted for good.  These complex bends in 3/8 inch tubing are a pain and I am just really glad they are done.

 After the plumbing was complete I pulled the wings and finished up all the nutplates and misc items to get the wings ready for final assembly.  This piece alone took about 3-4 hours, much longer than I expected..  Drilling all those nutplates is crazy...  Some of them were countersunk, some dimpled, different nutplates were needed for each scenario..  It wasn't trivial, but doable.


After the wings were complete I put them back in the cradle reorganized the entire garage and started do to some minor work on the firewall.   From here forward it is pretty much going to be all firewall, and electrical work.  In fact, pretty soon the plane will be on its own gear..  For now I mounted the battery, and also connected the Battery and Starter relays with the Copper Bar as indicated in the plans..  There are many amps that go through this connection when starting the engine, so it needs to be solid.

Flap Hinge Pin Secure

I am just about wrapping up the wings but wanted to get a few more items out of the way now so I don’t have to worry about them later.  Here you can see how I decided to secure the flap piano hinge pin.  It goes on easy and is very secure.

Wing Root Fairing, Tank Attach, and Vent Tube work

This weekend I put about 6 hours into the RV.  Got lots done and am now almost ready to remove the wings and get them up to the airport.

I started with a test fit of the root fairings, they are pre punched and can cleco into the back part of the wing, but where they wrap over the tank there are no pre-drilled holes.  I measured out a line 3/8 inch from the edge of the tank and after aligning the holes from the fairing I started drilling into the edge of the tank skin.  Once I reached the leading edge of the wing, I wrapped the fairing around and anchored the underneath to the aft most point on the tank and finished drilling.  Took some time, but it came out straight and looks good.

After that I started working on the tank attach points and vent tube.  for the attach point, i bent it per the plans until it mated well with the tank flange.  To drill the hole I just used my 1/4 inch angle drill here and leveraged the steel attach point to help keep the bit centered as I let her rip.   I did find that it was easier with the fuse attach point bolted down..  Made it solid and drilled straight and clean.  I used a sharpie and marked 1/4 seam away from the fuseloge.  Then removed them, cut them along the seam and cleaned them up.   Now ready to dimple and prime.

The vent tube was pretty easy, just some short runs here to connect the vent out from the tank into the fuse vent pick up.  Easy..