This page picks up where the last page left off. Now I'm starting to work on the interior systems, including flaps, seats, control sticks, fuel and brake lines, etc.
Total Construction Time: 102 hours
October 1, 2007 (1 hour)
I had the boys help me rearrange my garage to allow me to get my car back in as it gets colder. Then I took out the two steps and roughened up the steel surface, cleaned them up and sprayed them with some Rustoleum primer.
October 2, 2007 (1 hour)
Spent a little time in the morning and evening drilling the rivet holes for the nutplates in the baggage wall bulkhead.
Also mailed my finish kit order in to Van's. I had to finalize my engine and prop decision to make sure I got the right cowl. I've gone back and forth many times whether I want to go with a IO-320 and Hartzell CS prop, or a IO-340S or IO-360 with a 3-blade Catto prop. I've talked with many people and got a lot of great info. I finally decided to go with the IO-360 and the Catto. The benefits include really good weight savings, much lower cost, smoother operation and less noise, with the last two big factors for my wife on long cross countries. I will get the constant speed version of the engine so if I ever want to change to the Hartzell it will be relatively easy.
October 3, 2007 (3 hours)
Riveted the nutplates in the baggage wall bulkhead. Then I deburred the edges and holes in the baggage wall sections and drilled for the four nutplates at the top of the lower section. Starting to think when is a good time to shoot interior paint.
October 4, 2007 (1 hour)
Bolted the two blocks that hold the tubes for the steps to the floor rib. Also enlarged tbe hole in the adjacent ribs to make sure they pass through without interfering and touched up with primer. Also trimmed one of the step tubes a little so it doesn't rub against the rib. Also mailing a deposit to Craig Catto for my prop, pretty early, but he has an 8-10 month waiting list.
October 6, 2007 (2 hours)
Even though the garage had been pretty much overtaken for Tracy's craft sale, I still managed to get a couple of hours in deburring the floor panels.
October 7, 2007 (1 hour)
Sale is done and I got most of my garage space back. Finished up deburring the rest of the floor panels.
October 8, 2007 (2 hours)
Came out in the evening and deburred the baggage side wall panels. Next I put the steps in place so I could mark around the outside and roughen the sidewall skins. I plan to add proseal between the skin and the step side plates, and it will stick better with the scuffed up surface. Next I realized that the nutplates I had riveted to the baggage wall bulkhead are supposed to be riveted through the bent up flange of the baggage floor as well, so I drilled those eight nutplates off. I then dimpled the holes in the baggage floor panels.
October 9, 2007 (3 hour)
Once I found where I had put the two hinge sections for the bottom of the seats, I measured and cut the six hinge sections that attach to the seat pans. In the evening I measured and drilled the holes in the hinge sections, then drilled them to the seat pans. I'm getting a pretty good stack of parts that are ready for priming. I think I know what my weekend plans are.
October 11, 2007 (1 hour)
Seeing as I have a bunch of priming coming up, I realized I never primed my four brake pedals. I still needed to do some trimming to the angles that mount to the back for a little bit of weight reductions, so I measured and cut these in the morning.
October 12, 2007 (1 hour)
This morning I countersunk the rivet holes in the brake pedal parts.
October 13, 2007 (5 hours)
Had a few parts that still needed holes deburred and a few dimples, so I finished up these. Then I cleaned and prepped my stack of parts and then primed half of them. Unfortunately I ran out of primer so I'll need to run to the Sherwin Williams store on Monday.
October 14, 2007 (3 hours)
I prosealed the skins behind where the steps mount, then Tracy helped me shoot the step rivets. Once it had set up a little I cleaned up the edges a little. Then I went ahead and riveted the baggage side skins and floor panels in place, including the nutplates along the tunnel and the rear wall.
I haven't had a lot of pictures to add lately, mostly working on prepping parts for what seems like forever. I'll get some pictures with the baggage skins and floor panels in shortly.
October 15, 2007 (3 hours)
I primed the rest of the parts I had ready. Then I got to work riveting the seat hinges to the seat panels. I had never used my C-frame for riveting, in fact I didn't even realize that the other rod that came with it was for riveting. This sure made riveting the hinges a lot easier. After that I went ahead and riveted the seat panels to the ribs, then also riveted the nutplates on each side of the tunnel. Of course, once I was done I had to climb into the plane to check it out. I even got Tracy to join me. I forgot to make airplane noises though.
October 17, 2007 (1 hour)
Tonight I cut the eight lengths of angle for the seat backs, including making the notches and cuts at the top and bottom of the long ones. Spoke with a few other RV'ers and also Don Riviera at Airflow Performance about fuel injection systems. I decided I'll go with the Airflow system, meaning I need to plumb a return line for the purge valve. Don recommended I just tee it into one of the feed lines just before the selector valve. I also decided to go with the Andair fuel valve so I ordered both the valve and the fuel boost pump and filter kit from Van's today.
October 18, 2007 (3 hours)
Spent some time in the morning marking rivet holes in the seat back parts. In the evening I started drilling and assembling the parts, mostly finishing the pilot seat back.
October 19, 2007 (5 hours)
Finished drilling the parts for both seat back assemblies, including the two seat back braces. Aaron helped me drill the 2 1/4" lightening holes in them. A bit later he helped my rivet the wear blocks for the harness cables and some nutplates to the rear baggage walls. I then added the nutplates to the two removable side wall panels and then screwed the baggage rear and side walls, baggage tunnel cover and forward seat panels in place mostly to make sure everything fit okay. I did need to rebend the tunnel cover rear flange a little to get all the screw holes to line up right.
October 20, 2007 (1 hour)
Cut and drilled the holes in the Z-brackets and cover plate for the tunnel cover that goes between the seats. I couldn't sleep so while I was browsing around on the VAF site, I discovered that you can buy slightly oversized bolts from Genuine Aircraft Hardware. I ordered two NAS 6603-10X bolts, which are stronger than the typical AN bolts, and are slightly larger in diameter than the standard. Van's didn't want me to drill the two horizontal stabilizer bolts up to AN4's, saying the oversized bolts holes would be just fine, although they had no problem using this oversized bolt. These should fit my holes about perfect, giving me a good fit. The only think I didn't like was spending $7.50 each for these little 3/16" bolts. As a note, an oversized bolt designated with an "X" is 0.0156" larger and an oversized bolt designated with a "Y" is 0.0312" larger than the standard bolt diameters.
October 21, 2007 (1 hour)
Positioned the tunnel cover parts then drilled them. Next I started trying to find all the flap parts, ending up having to call fellow RV-9A builder Bret Smith to find out about a few of them.
October 22, 2007 (2 hours)
This morning I drilled and cut the F-680 center block for the flap actuator weldment. I also drilled the little tiny safety wire hole in the flap motor tube, which wasn't real easy to do with such a tiny drill bit and at such a steep angle. I then took out the two removeable baggage sidewall panels. I put the flap weldment in place and finally got the two end blocks on, then bolted them to the F-705 bulkhead. Then I realized that I had assumed the center bearing blocck was cut to final size, but realized that wasn't the case. Because I need to shorten it right through where the forward bolt hole is, I decided I'd just order a new one. It won't hold me up from completing the rest of the flap housing assembly. I know I didn't need it this early, but my prop extension, crush plate and prop bolts arrived from Saber Manufacturing today.
October 23, 2007 (1 hour)
Started fabricating the parts for the flap mount / housing area.
October 26, 2007 (1 hour)
Finished fabricating the parts for the flap mount / housing area.
October 27, 2007 (2 hours)
This morning I positioned the flap motor mid-way along it's travel length, then attached it to the channel. After bolting the bottom end to the flap actuator weldment, I drilled the upper angle to the channel, completing the motor mount. It was fun running the motor up and down, having parts that move are fun to work with and makes it seem like I'm a whole lot closer to finishing this thing!
October 28, 2007 (2 hours)
This morning I drilled the rear support channel and side covers for the flap housing. Then I took the parts out for deburring and primer.
October 29, 2007 (3 hours)
In the morning before work I drilled all the nutplate rivet holes, then got a start on edge deburring. In the evening I finished deburring all the flap housing parts and got mostly done with the seat backs as well.
October 30, 2007 (3 hours)
In the evening I scrubbed all the parts I had ready using a scotchbrite pad and dawn dish soap, then as a small pile of parts were ready I took them outside and primed them. In the course of about three hours I had all the parts done.
October 31, 2007 (1 hour)
Riveted the brake pedals together, and got a little start on the flap housing.
November 1, 2007 (1 hour)
Dimpled some of the parts for the nutplates and did a little riveting.
November 2, 2007 (1 hour)
Finished riveting the flap housing parts and cleco'ed together the seats.
November 3, 2007 (2 hours)
Finished riveting the seat backs.
November 4, 2007 (4 hours)
Made a new F-680 flap bearing block. I had to remove the two end blocks so I could move the flap actuator weldment to get this block in place. Then I was able to drill the holes through the bearing block where it attaches to the floor ribs, remove it again to drill, dimple and rivet the the nutplates. Finally I was able to bolt the weldment and bearing blocks back in place and notch the tunnel cover around the block. Then I bolted and safety wired the flap motor arm to the weldment arm, followed by bolting the upper end of the flap motor in place. Then I screwed the flap housing channels and covers into place. Later in the evening I made the four hinge pins that attach the seat backs to the floor and put them in place. Finally I remounted the rudder pedals back in place.
November 5, 2007 (1 hour)
Spend time reviewing how the fuel boost pump housing goes together, match drilled a few of the holes, and cut the aft end off the forward cover for the boost mounting base.
November 6, 2007 (1 hour)
Because I'm using electric trim I don't need the triangular section of the fuel selector valve mounting plate. I also don't need the couple of screw holes for mounting Van's fuel valve because I'm using the Andair fuel selector. Normally when you cut the triangular section off, it leave a gap in front of the valve housing. Instead I flipped the valve mounting plate over, bent the flange from 45 degrees to 90 degrees, then trimmed. This covers the gap nicely as you can see in the picture. I then positioned the parts and center punched where holes need to be drilled through the floor stiffeners. Decided to call it a night, I'll drill the holes in the morning.
November 7, 2007 (1 hour)
Drilled the center covers to the floor stiffeners, holes for most of the nutplates and match drilled the rest of the pump housing holes.
November 9, 2007 (1 hour)
Finished drilling the nutplates, then bent the air vent tabs in the center cover and then took some of the blue plastic film off various parts.
November 10, 2007 (5 hours)
Deburred, dimpled and primed all the center cover parts, then started riveting a few of them together.
November 11, 2007 (2 hours)
Finished riveting the center cover parts and test fit them in place. Realized I missed a couple of nutplates on the fuel selector valve housing, but I'll need to pull it off anyways. Left it for now and removed the seat pans so I could remove the bolts and take out the two wood spacer blocks from where the wing spar slides in. Test fit the left gear mount weldment and realized I needed to open up the hole in the floor a little more. Before I got it fully fitted, I figured I'd best drill out the hole for the AN5 bolt that holds the leg inside the mount. Found the first one a really tight fit, so I took it back apart and lightly filed a little paint away from the edges, cleaned it up with a scotchbrite pad, then put a light coat of oil on the parts. Now I was able to slide them in place with a little encouragement from my big rubber mallet. Stopped for the night once I had both legs in their mounts.
November 12, 2007 (1 hour)
Picked up a 19/64" bit from Sears and spent time trying to get the holes in the gear leg to align perfectly with the holes in the weldment. Stopped for the night without getting much of anything done.
November 13, 2007 (2 hours)
Went ahead and drilled the gear leg hole to 19/64", then used my 0.3115" reamer to final size the hole. I'd never used a reamer before; found they work great. Next I used my large cutting wheel in my die grinder to bevel the ends of the floor stiffeners, being careful not to hit the main spar. I was still struggling to test fit the weldment when I realized that the bolts holding the spar spacer was in the way, as well as the electical grommets. Took those out and got the weldments to fit closer, but still have about an 1/8" gap between the weldment and the spar at the corner. Decided I'll check out some other builders sites to see what they've found. Went ahead and opened up the hole on the right side, then test fit that side and found the same gap.
November 16, 2007 (2 hours)
Spent some time grinding the weldment where a few rivets were interfering with the weldment. Still have a small, unexplained gap behind the bottom of the weldment even when I bolt it up.
November 17, 2007 (3 hours)
Finally realized that gap is supposed to be behind that part of the weldment, it's because the front of the spar section isn't flat. They even show using a washer as a spacer behind the one bolt. Finally got a fit I'm happy with. It didn't take long to repeat the same steps on the right gear mount and get it fit right. Aaron helped me fit the fuel selector valve to the mounting plate. Then I worked on getting the left fuel tube run from outside the fuselage, through the gear mount and to the fuel valve. Bret Smith's suggestion of leaving the gear mount loose until you have the fuel line in place worked great.
November 18, 2007 (3 hours)
This morning I got the right fuel line run, the right gear mount in place, then got all the bolts to the spar section installed and torqued. I'm glad like most builders I upsized all the bolts to -13A's instead of the -12a's the plans call for.
November 19, 2007 (2 hours)
Spent about an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening drilling the screw and bolt holes through the side of the fuselage for the gear mount. There was a little gap between the weldments where the five bolts go, but once I installed and tighted the bolts it closed right up.
November 23, 2007 (7 hours)
I decided to run the fuel vent lines. I used my grinder to take the threads off the two fittings that stick thru the bottom of the fuselage and then cut them off at 45 degrees. Then I put all the fitting in place. It seems lots of builders end up ordering more tubing, so I took my time carefully measuring and bending all the lines. After quite a while I finally got them in and they look and fit nicely. Later I attached the brake line fittings and then decided to mount my AFP fuel pump and filter to the bracket so I can try and see how to ensure the fuel, vent, pump and brake lines need to run so they don't interfere. Unless I can get creative, the right fuel line where it goes into the selector valve looks like it's going to interfere with the fuel pump. I may need to switch to a different fitting on the selector valve.
November 24, 2007 (1 hour)
This morning Paul Winkels, who's building a RV-7, stopped by to see my project after he went flying with Pete Howell. He's about at the same point as me. It was fun comparing the similarities and differences between the -7 and the -9 as well as the nose vs. tail dragger.
Afterwards I messed around, not really sure what I want to work on. I ordered a few fittings to hopefully make the fuel pump plumbing job a little easier. I went ahead and torqued the rudder pedal mounting blocks in place and marked them with torque seal. Then I decided to pull out the static tube kit. I'm using Van's standard kit which uses a couple of blind rivets with the mandrel popped out as the static ports. I then put in the tubing the runs from the ports to the tee. I stopped there because it doesn't make sense to run the static line towards the front yet.
November 25, 2007 (3 hours)
Decided I'd go ahead and work on getting the control sticks, elevator pushrods and pitch servo brackets assembled next. Filed the brass bushings to fit right, then began putting it together. I adjusted the rod end bearings for the hex rod that goes between the two sticks. Before I put it all together I decided it made sense to prime it. Seeing as it was around 50 degrees today, I cranked the heater on to get the garage temp closer to 65 degrees so I could prime all the pushrods using the AFS primer.
November 26, 2007 (3 hours)
Now that the pushrods were primed, I decided to install the control sticks. I had to do a little more filing to get it all to fit just right. Getting some of the washers in the right places was a bit of a challenge, but eventually got it all to fit. Then I torqued all the fittings. Once I finished, I noticed a little friction in the left to right movement of the sticks. I think this is due to a little bit of flare of the two clevis ends on the left side where the bolts go through the brass bushings. I think when I fully torqued the bolts it caused uneven force to be applied to the brass fitting, maybe slightly distorting it. Left it alone for the night.
November 27, 2007 (1 hour)
This evening I pulled the left bolt out, cleaned it up good, added a little bit of grease to the bolt and then put it back together. I got the nut a little under-torqued and there's no more friction, but if I tighten it just a little more the stick binds slightly. I may leave it a bit under-torqued as the nut has a cotter pin keeping it from loosening. Next I starting marking where the holes for the autopilot pitch servo bracket and the elevator bellcrank go. The temps really dropped today with the evening temp around 20 degrees and the garage around 34 degrees.
November 28, 2007 (2 hours)
Drilled out the four rivets that were in the way of installing the pitch autopilot servo bracket and then drilled matching holes in the bracket. Rather than drill holes in the bottom skin for riveting the bottom flange of the bracket, I instead drilled four additional rivet holes through the side of the bracket near the bottom and through the center rib. Next I decided to install the short pushrod through the tunnel. I added the rod end bearings at each end and then bolted them to the control stick assembly and the bellcrank.