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138 hrs |
116 hrs |
46 hrs |
4/1/06, 1 hour: Sally helped me with getting the spar pushed in. She held the fuse so I wouldn't push it off the lift as I was wrestling with the wing. Turns out that I had to use two pieces of 3/4" plywood, some carpet padding, two Asterix, and two Tintin under the wing near the tip in order to get the dihedral right. This is critical to getting the holes to line up on the spar. Once I got the holes to line up visually, inserted smoothed and liberally greased 1/4" bolts into the two top holes (on opposing sides). These went in very, very tightly, but IN!! To be continued on Monday
4/3/06, 1.5 hours: leveled everything, removed the 1/4" bolts that were very tight with Sears-sourced 7/16" bolts that fit in easily. Incidence is at 0.2 degrees, but I need a jack to put upward pressure on the underside of the wings to eliminate that. Squaring wings will be more difficult, as I can't snap a line of chalk under the fuse because of the bike lift lying flat on the ground.
4/4/06, 7.5 hours: jacked up the front of the bike stand so that I could run a chalk line. With plumb bob and chalk line, ran straight lines with the leading edge and fuselage centerline, then measured off 9 feet of wing, 12 feet of fuselage, which needed to yield 15 feet of hypotenuse. As you can see in the second picture below, it was off by 1/16th -- good enough and nearly perfect. Proceeded to check level of the fuse in both axes, jacked up the wing root at the rear spar to eliminate 0.1 degree adjustment, and ended up with level wing per instructions. No washout, either. Took a break, had a cup of coffee, re-re-re-read the instructions as well as Van's online FAQ, and went on to drilling. Cut out a 5/8" paper circle to ensure bolt location maintained at least minimum distance from all elements and drilled the attach flange, as shown below. Non-event. Installed the fuel tank mount and drilled the underside skin holes without incident. Fabricated the flap pushrod and began the laborious process of enlarging the hole and adjusting the pushrod so the flap works as required. Had to trim a good 3/8" off the flap's upper skin to eliminate interference with the fuse skin. Ready to move on tomorrow!!!
4/5/06, 8 hours: finished the tedious flap pushrod setup, resulting in an oversized but functional hole. Also, installed the control stick assembly and adjusted the aileron pushrod. Fabricated the fuel vent line from wing to fuse and inside the fuselage.
4/6/06, 8 hours: fabricated the right fuel line. Made the mistake of popping out the plastic bushings to ease moving the fuel line around while making bends; about 45 minutes down the drain messing around to get them back in. Removed the wing, put nut plate on the fuel tank attach bracket, dimpled center bottom skin and installed nut plates on the wing's inboard rib. Accomplished the fuel pickup tube SB on the right side.
4/7/06, 5 hours: short day finishing the fuel tank cover and sender assembly with ProSeal.
4/10/06, 9 hours: started on left wing. Installed fuel sender, aileron bellcrank, and began pitot installation.
4/11/06, 7 hours: continued pitot installation, trimmed rear spar, drilled out bottom rivets on bottom of outer rib, and installed left landing light. Began inventory of wiring needs.
4/12/06, 6.5 hours: began installing the left wing. Trimmed the flap and tomorrow I will move onto the pushrod mechanism and other wing stuff.
4/13/06, 7 hours: set pushrod length, finalized manual aileron trim setup, checked aileron movement within range and that there is no binding of aileron pushrod. Had to grind down the fuselage access hole for the aileron pushrod to eliminate slight binding.
4/14/06, 7 hours: installed fuel vent and wing tank fuel lines, removed the wing. Installed platenuts on the bottom of the wing rib.
4/17/96, 7 hours: installed the pitot tubing and electrics. Ran the conduit through the wing as well as wiring for pitot, landing light, position lites, and Whelen strobes.
4/18/06, 8 hours: sealed up the fuel tank cover plate and sender with ProSeal. Installed the screens on the fuel vents. Trimmed wiring in wing to correct length for installation, and connected and tested the pitot tube. Only the red LED came on and the pitot got so hot that I turned it off. The tip of the tube seemed to swell and now is a little bigger than it was before. The LED lighting pattern does not match the one described in the instructions, so I will be calling Gretz to find out what's going on. Also installed the rudder pedals and brake hoses.
4/19/06, 8 hours: put cotter pins in all brake and rudder hardware (should have done it before installing the whole thing in the plane). Installed the parking brake and listed the hardware needed to complete the system. Spent about 2 hours ordering tools and parts needed to continue assembly in the coming days. Was by told by SteinAir that the Digiflight roll servo and pitch servo hardware are on the way. Drilled the elevator horns for installation of the pushrod. Tomorrow, I will reconfigure the garage for installation of the tail feathers.
4/20/06, 8.5 hours: if you ignore all the shit hanging behind the aluminum, you are looking at a fuselage with the empennage fitted to it. Began the day by reorganizing the garage, turning the fuse around, etc... Horizontal stabilizer went on per the instructions, built the pushrod, fitted it to the elevators, and moved on to the vertical stabilizer. The fourth pic below shows the Wheelmen strobe power unit and Digiflight IIVSGV pitch servo mount -- neither installed, just ready to be. Tomorrow is vertical stab and other stuff.
4/21/06, 7 hours: remeasured the vertical stabilizer's verticalness (verticallity?) using a tape measure as well as the electronic level. Lots of measuring, remeasuring, and other adjustments, and then drilling. Set the twist per Van's instructions. Turned out well. Fit the rudder but could not do the stops, as I messed up one of the pieces of angle yesterday; replacement on the way. Routed the rudder cables. Measured and drilled the pitch servo mount and installed the roll servo just to see what it looks like. Good, huh?! Once the wheels are on the plane I will be able to rivet the mount. Done for the week!!
4/24/06, 8 hours: ran the conduit through the right wing, as well as the Whelen and position light wiring. Realized that the landing light wire was 18AWG and not 16AWG, as required, so pulled that out as well as the wiring run through the left wing for the landing light. Van's is sending the 16AWG wire that I did not realize was missing from the wiring kit. I was confused by the fact that the wiring code ends in 16/and a certain number; I thought I was running 16AWG. Good thing I caught it. Also installed the roll servo as shown in the pics below. The first three show the servo arm neutral, ailerons full up, and full down. Confirmed with TruTrak that all looks good -- to include hardware connection of the pushrod. Finalized the installation as show in the other pictures.
Moved on to the rudder stops and after fabricating the left stop, found that it is too short, needing to be 1.91" long, not the 1.75" listed in the plans. Ordered another length of angle to remake them.
4/25/06, 8.5 hours: made the new left rudder stop at 2" versus the 13/4" called for in the plans. Found that the rudder still did not get to the stop at the 35 degree position, so I screwed in the rod end bearings some until it did. Installed the stop and rudder cable fairings. Connected the rudder cables to the pedals and connected them (used a cardboard block as a temporary right-side rudder stop). The right rudder cable catches on the plastic grommet, so I will have to do something about that.
Crimped on the Whelen strobe connectors. Took out the elevator trim servo and began the process of getting its wires under control using the AeroElectric connection method.
4/26/06, 8.5 hours: fabricated the mount for the Whelen power supply but did not drill it to the fuselage cuz there could be some interference with some future, to-be-discovered device -- and because I can't set the rivets alone anyway. Picture shows where I plan to install it. Next, decided how to run the wiring from the elevator trim servo to the panel. Drilled holes, installed grommets, and screwed in Adel clamps as shown. Ordered WDG2 clamps since the WDG4s are too large for five 22AWG wires. Wires will run from the servo to right behind the 707 bulkhead and terminate in a DB9.
Next, installed the static system, which turns out to be the Slow Builder's revenge on us Quickie-types, especially the 6'3" ones. Still, I prevailed. Note the pull-rivet static port outside and in, and the completed system. Only had red high-temp RTV on hand. 'Course, I plan to paint the elevator pushrod purple, so...
04/27/06, 8 hours: installed soundproofing on the rear bulkhead cover and under baggage compartment floor. Riveted baggage compartment floors and then installed soundproofing under the seats, as shown below. Fabricated and installed the brake hoses.
4/8/06, 7 hours: sort of a miscellaneous day today. Riveted the skin to the rear bulkhead, rudder stops, and forward spar of the horizontal stabilizer. Re-bolted it and the vertical stabilizer, and then drilled a 3/8" hole through the VS rear spar for the tail light wires to pass through; I'll put an SB500-6 bushing on each side of the hole. Installed the seatbelt cables too. Finally, finished up the brake system; I'll order a couple of caps and pressure test it. Don't want to find out there's a leak after the upper deck goes on.
5/1/06, 6 hours: not a very productive day work-wise, but did get an unexpected visit from fellow RV-7(A) and RV-4 builder, Philip Mercier of British Columbia. Philip shared his extensive building experience and gave me some valuable pointers on what is coming up. I'm in trouble... Did get the Limbaugh bottom skins prepped for installation. Tomorrow, I'll attend to the NPR skins and with the arrival of wire and other accessories from SteinAir; should have both wings ready to close up next week. Wednesday I'll get my high performance checkout in a 182 -- appropriate to the fuel price rise, don't you think? -- and then spend the rest of the day and the next getting an electrical sketch and diagram put together. Hope to get Philip's assist in closing the wings next week, followed by a critique of my electrical artistry. Lastly, painted the pitot base a sexy glossy gray.
5/2/06, 7 hours: prepped the left wing skin for riveting. Ran landing light wires in both wings, and attached terminals to landing and position light wires. Ordered the magnetometer, mockups, and harness for dual EFIS package from Grand Rapids!
5/5/06, 2 hours: worked on wiring up the trim servo. Big pain in the ass.
5/8/06, 9 hours: first quarter break's over (BMW Peaks of Otter rally). Prepped the bottom wing skins for riveting tomorrow with Philip Mercier's assistance, then finished up the surprisingly tedious and time consuming trim servo wiring. Decided to run conduit through the fuselage and mercifully it turned out to be much easier than I expected. Laid out the Van's wiring harness and started to attempt to make sense of all this electrical stuff. Decided to install the upper decking in order to be able to measure wiring runs with some degree of accuracy. As soon as I can, I will install the Grand Rapids EFIS mockups, harness, magnetometer, and AHRS mockup.
5/9/06, 7 hours: began by setting everything up to close the wings, but Philip had to reschedule to Thursday. Spent several hours diagramming the locations of systems and associated wire paths. Then, surfed the net to try and get an idea of how people are routing their wires from the wings and rear fuselage to the front of the plane, but basically failed. Looked at many, many pictures but did not get a completely clear idea of paths people have used. Additionally, every site I looked at was for tip-up canopies, so I have to keep searching for depictions that more closely mirror what I need. Did "accomplish" something by building the shelf for the Grand Rapids magnetometer.
5/10/06, 8 hours: installed the pitch servo and accomplished a bunch of electric system-related chores. Settled on the Z-12 system out of Aeroelectric Connection and ordered a bunch of stuff for it. Worked on the panel layout and found that the setup I established on EPanel Builder wouldn't work because of the location of the panel mounts. Set up a "wall panel" for initial layout ideas, so I don' t have to climb in and out of the cockpit, for now.
5/11/06, 8 hours: a little electric work and thinking, but the big even was Philip Mercier who came over and helped me close up both wings. There was more of me helping him, actually, but the point is that the wings are finished. What a chore! Hats off the wing slow builders and a big thank you to a heroic helper.
5/15/06, 9 hours: did mostly wiring. Also spent time figuring out what to order next, and other mental musings. Played with the layout of the panel on Epanelbuilder.
5/16/06, 4 hours: built the connector blocks at the wing roots and drilled the holes in the fuselage for routing wing wires. Installed the NACO vent ducts using LPS-4 rivets and E-6000. Finally, moved the wing rack to the storage locker in preparation for moving the wings tomorrow with Philip Mercier. Oh, and also ordered the Slider XL panel from Affordable Panels. Pretty much settled on the panel layout too. Fuse and ground blocks should arrive tomorrow from B&C, as well as the voltage regulators.
5/17/06, 9 hours: 3 hours building, 2 moving wings to storage, 1 talking with Philip, and 3 panel planning and parts ordering. The only thing I "accomplished" was to fabricate the ring that will hold the aileron pushrod seals. Panel is shaping up: decided to go with a Garmin 396 as a backup -- primary instruments and situational awareness. Ordered a variety of other things, almost all to do with the panel. Decided on controlling the flaps from the stick, flap position display will be horizontal with a plate that shows flap position. Probably will go with the 307 Ray Allen grips.
5/18/06, 8 hours: installed the ground block, main and essential bus fuse blocks, and test mounted the voltage regulators. Measured all the lengths that Stark Avionics needs for their harnesses and ordered the Garmin stack (GMA340, GNS430, SL30, and GTX330).
5/22/06, 7 hours: planned out some wiring, cut a hole through the rear panel for wires to pass through, used split conduit from Ikea to bundle up and protect the wires, ran the static line along the side to the panel, installed the ground block and ran some grounds.
5/23/06, 7 hours: ran more wiring, ordered switches, riveted the rudder pedal brace, made some calls to Stark and Grand Rapids about wiring issues.
5/26/06, 7 hours: only tangible accomplishment was installing the flap position sensor and testing it. Otherwise, some miscellaneous electrical planning.
5/30/06, 8 hours: finalized the flap position sensor installation. Issues regarding lining up the flap weldment and sensor arm thrust lines, so took a lot longer than expected (oh, really?). Ran wiring to the tail strobe and position lights, installed the ebus diode on its heat sink. Expecting arrival of the finishing and firewall forward kits in the evening.
5/31/06, 10 hours: unpacked, inventoried, and put away the contents of the finishing/firewall forward kits. Took the crate and all dunnage to the dump, then took apart the forward deck.
6/1/06, 7 hours: began the reassembly of the forward deck by deburring and fitting the various pieces together. Took delivery of the slider XL modular panel from Affordable Panels and began the process of installing that. Plan to match drill and dimple the forward top skin, and then to move on to the firewall forward stuff. Would love to have the engine mount on for the arrival of the engine in mid-June.
6/2/06, 6 hours: continued with assembling the forward deck and the XL panel. Looks like a quality product. Found a setup on the Affordable Panels site that has very nifty hinged shelves for the buses. I think I'm going to go that way, putting the aluminum sheet from the basic panel to good use.
6/5/06, 9 hours: installed the battery and starter contactors, made the battery box and installed it, and began installing the gascolator unit. In retrospect, I would have waited for the arrival of my Ebay-sourced Greenlee cutters -- especially the 2" one. Cutting the lightening holes in the battery box with the fly cutter was scary and it eventually self-destructed. The fly cutter is without doubt the most potentially dangerous device in my toolbox; I'm glad it's now unusable.
6/7/06, 10 hours: finished installing the gascolator backing plate and the unit itself. Rivets are hard to reach but it's very doable. I did however opt to use screws on the outer edge as I could not seem to get a good set on the rivets. Next, moved on to the transducer manifold and its two hoses, as well as the breather tube. Drilled the holes for the clamps that will hold the oil pressure hose, but did not rivet them as I have yet to finalize the firewall recess. Next, moved on to the engine mount. Used the garage door to hold the mount in place while I drilled the mounting holes. I could have done the job without the help of the rope, but why risk accidentally dropping the mount? All went well, although match-drilling the mounts with the 3/8" bit results in an ugly hole through the firewall, versus doing the first one with the unibit. I eventually used a piece of 3/8" tubing to "aim" a 1/4" bit, drilled the hole all the way through, and then enlarged it with the unibit. Sounds obvious, but it does involve taking the mount off after each hole. Still, it looks much better. After that, cut just enough of the bottom skin and firewall flange to be able to insert the gear legs into each tube, outlined the final relief cut, removed the engine mount, and put it to bed for the night. With snips and my beloved dremel/carbide cutter combination, finalized the relief cuts. Remember that you are dealing with stainless steel and not just aluminum. This operation creates some small but scary looking mini-razor blades.
Finally, started to assemble the wheels but could not understand Van's instructions, so I hung it up for the night.
I will rivet the firewall recess after installing the boost pump, which arrives next week thanks to Van's slow-as-molasses shipping tempo. Meanwhile I will finish the wheels and brakes, mount the engine mount and gears, and I'll be ready for the engine! Until it arrives, back to the panel for switch mounting and other fun electrical stuff.
6/8/06, 7 hours: assembled the wheels and brake assemblies with the gears. Probably will not use the Van's hinge approach to mounting the cowling, so I plan to install the firewall recess, engine mount, and gears tomorrow.
6/9/06, 6 hours: riveted the firewall recess and installed the engine mount and gears. Also reconfigured the garage to allow max space for the engine and prop, hopefully later this month. So, the airplane in "on gear"! Note the chalking arrangement so that there are no long cry-inducing mishaps.
6/20/06, 1 hour: received the engine from Mattituck. Now have in the garage ready for install: engine, firewall forward/finishing kit, alternator/backup alternator/starter from B&C, boost pump, panel switches and breakers, Garmin stack, und so weiter.... Once vacation, daughter visits, and kitchen tiling are done July 1st, I will be back into the building mode. Can't wait.
