Today I was able to install the Vertical Stabilizer and the rudder. Before I started that task, I spent time filing down the elevator horns stops. That is, the deck angle on the aft end and the deck doubler on the forward end.
The filing was tedious as I was carefully working to get the correct amount of elevator travel. I was able to get the prescribed 25 degrees of down travel, but not the full 30 degrees of up. I’m at 27.5 degrees up, and not comfortable removing any more material from the aft deck angle before hearing back from Vans. From what I can tell, I’ll have to remove a significant amount more to gain the addition 2 degrees. All of the dimensions appear to be correct, so I’m not sure why I’m having an issue.
Update: tech support at Vans concur that it’s not worth any further filing to gain a couple more degrees of up travel. I’m going to leave this as-is.
The VS install is easy, and I’ve done it so many times now, I was able to complete the task quickly. I had to torque the bolt heads on the bottom 3 bolts (vs the nuts) due to no real access for a torque wrench, so I added some additional torque to account for the bolt movement.
I did run into an issue with the rudder, there’s some interference between the forward edge of the rudder counterweight arm and the aft edge of the Vertical Stabilizer fairing. Not sure how I didn’t find that earlier, but I’m hoping some light sanding will resolve the issue.
The rudder can pass through it’s full range of motion, but it’s rubbing and binding between the fairings The area of interference that I’ll need to resolveLooking good with the tail installed
With the airplane at the hangar, I took some time today to visit and do the final install of the horizontal stabilizer and elevators. The most time consuming g apart was finding the right hardware, and I found I was short one bolt. I’m installing the tail section with all new hardware, as these prices have been installed and uninstalled a number of times.
Without all of my tools at the hangar, I ran into what will probably become a frequent problem – the tool(s) I need are not there when I need them. I need to file off some aluminum to allow the elevator horns to make their full range of travel. The elevators need to deflect 30 degrees up and 25 down, and right now it’s 25 up and 23 down. I’ll have to tackle this next time.
It was fun to get the pushrods connected and be able to move the elevators with the stick for the first time!
This week I traveled up to Oregon to fly with Mike Seager. Mike only has access to an RV-7 at the moment, not the RV-14 which I am building. Still, the aircraft are very similar, and the transition training was invaluable.
We got lucky with the weather, considering the time of year. Two good days with clear skies and light winds, but the last day was no good: rain, low ceilings and high winds.
I finished with 6 hours of flight time, and around 30 landings. I felt somewhat proficient after that time, but would like some more training closer to my first flight,
Today was a huge milestone on the project: moving the fuselage to the airport!
I like to think it was my careful preparation that made this something of a non-event, and I’m sure that’s partly true. I had built this event up in my mind, and when everything happened simply and easily, I realized I may have spent more time thinking about it that was necessary.
The airport is a 40 mile drive from my house, and the route includes surface streets, freeways, and winding canyon roads. I would have liked to rent a box truck, and transported the fuselage inside, but I couldn’t find one that was wide enough. The distance from the outside of each wheel is 91 inches, but there’s an addition 2 inches of axil protruding from each wheel giving it a total width of 96 inches. The max allowed width of vehicles (in most states) is 102 inches, and with box trucks, there’s at least 3 inches on each side that is unusable. The widest box truck I could find was about 92 inches, so I gave up on that idea.
That left two options, ranting or borrowing a trailer, or renting a tow truck. I decided to trust a tow truck driver, and found someone local who seemed like he would take good care of the project. I scheduled Leo to arrive at 8am on Sunday, and asked a few friends to stop by and give me a hand.
The evenings before the move I made a list of everything I needed to do to secure the fuselage. Using some moving supplies I protected the wing spars, prop, and wrapped the aft fuselage in cling wrap in case of any road debris that might get kicked up. The weight and balance was a consideration too. Without the wings and tail installed, the fuselage is nose heavy, and I’ve had some weight attached to the tail wheel to keep it in balance. I bought some cheap sandbags from Amazon, filled them with sand, and slung them over the tail, after carefully protecting the tail with dense foam blocks, heavy moving blankets, all wrapped in cling wrap. By slinging the weights I was able to take them off for the 40 mile drive.
I was up early preparing, and rolled the fuselage out onto the level portion of the driveway. The driveway has a fairly steep incline, perhaps 30%, dropping about 6 feet over a 20 foot section. At the bottom is a nice flat cul-de-sac where we could maneuver the fuselage and load it with lots of space. To get down the driveway, I realized I could use the brakes to steer and slow the decent, and if I went backwards, I would mitigate any nose-over risk. Not wanting to trust the brakes (they had never been tested before) I rigged up a safety line.
When the truck and the help arrived, I climbed in and had a friend push the plane backwards until gravity took hold and I was able to “drive”. The brakes worked well and were able to completely stop and hold the weight halfway down (I made a point to test them). We were down the driveway in no time, and then Leo used the tow truck winch to pull her up onto the truck bed while I steered from the tail. Friends helped keep an eye on things and we were up and onto the truck in no time. The fuselage fit perfectly, with just a couple of inches to spare fore-and-aft, and about 6 inches on either side of the wheels.
To secure the load, we used straps on the steps, the tail wheel mount, and the main gear. With everything looking good, my friend and I drove behind the truck to the airport.
Unloading was a breeze, and we had the plane tucked into the hangar in just a few minutes.
Preparing the loadThe driveway, having just rolled down backwardsFeeling good after step 1 was completed: get down the driveway.Leo leveling the truck bed after we winched it upFollowing the truck. Was happy to have my friend along to distract me from the otherwise constant worry for 45 minutesUnloaded and safely stored in the hangar. Lots of space now!
When my quick build fuselage arrived, there was some minor abrasions on the ends of the wing spars. I had been delaying a repair, but decided it was time to tackle the problem. Some careful filing of quickly removed all traces of the scratches. I then used an anodizing touch up kit from aircraft spruce to protect the exposed aluminum.
Tonight (and last night), I spent time installing the seatbelts. These are 5-point Hooker harnesses, and they look great! The install was a case of simply bolting each point on, and touring the nuts. Except, the bushings on some of the points needed to be ground down to be able to fit within the various hard points on the aircraft.
An example of where I needed to grind down a bushing. By getting the bushing flush with the edges of the steel seatbelt fitting, it nestled nicely into the aircraft attach point.Finished product
Over the last few evenings I have spent time inspecting the wiring behind the panel. I made a few adjustments to ease bend radii, address some potential chafing, and finally to safety wire the connectors into the various components behind the panel. This required removing a few plugs for access, and then making a best effort to safety wire the connectors screws. Given limited access, it’s not my best safety wiring work, but it’ll get the job done.
Some of the plugs that needed safety wiring. In this case I’ve removed a few plugs to gain access to these.
This weekend I decided it was time to install the firewall passthrough fire-proofing sleeves that secure the wiring bundles. There are two on the RV-14, and on my setup I have the main power cables going through one, and the smaller sensor data cables going through the other.
First I confirmed there was mother else that I’d forgotten to route through the firewall. In an attempt to future-proof the setup, I ran three spare wires through the firewall. Each is long enough to run from any point on the panel to any point in most places in the engine compartment.
I figured out quickly that Vans’ plans could use an update. There’s no way to wrap the bundle of wires with the supplied fire sleeve the way they describe. However, rotating the fire sleeve 90 degrees allows you to cut it to a useful dimension. Once the fire sleeve is pushed through the opening, it’s filled with high temp RTV, then wrapped with a second layer of fire sleeve, and secured with safety wire.
I was happy with how this turned out, especially after reading other reports of a messy and difficult job.
When applying the RTV, I used a flat plastic bag (a cake decorating bag) with a small opening. This helped to get the RTV down into the tight spaces between wires, and allowed me to attack it from both sides of the wire wall.
First layer of fire sleeve in place and filled with RTV. The black protective wiring sleeves terminate right at the edge of the RTV mess, and can be removed if necessary.Second layer in place and secured.
Today I installed new Deutch connectors on the control stick wiring. This is my third attempt to wire the sticks up, the previous two were either too bulky, or too insecure. the deutch connectors have a nice backshell that holds d-sub pins and keeps the pins in perfect alignment. The backshells have a sturdy latch, and can be fairly easily mounted.
I cut off the molex bracket from the control stick bases. This allowed the new connectors to sit close to the control stick, minimizing the potential interference. I installed the deutch d-sub pins, and then mounted the connectors.
I installed the passenger side to check clearances, and then replicated for the pilot side. I won’t install the pilot side sticker just yet as I’m going to be working under the panel next.
The last step was to glue the mount onto the stick base with some epoxy glue. I roughed up the mount’s surface, and the powder coating on the stick base before glueing the mount’s surface on.
One half of the connector. The orange colored insets hold the pins in just the right alignment. I should have used these things for all the aircraft connectors, they are awesome.Mount glued onto the right (passenger side) stickConnectors wired and installed onto the mount. Supported by a padded zip tieSome more padded zip ties secure the wires and prevent any movement
Over the last couple of weeks, Dad and I worked on the elevator and horizontal stabilizer fairings. Dad spent a lot of time getting the fairings to fit just right: trimming, glueing/glassing, sanding, and repeat. These fairings fit very well, and the gap between the HS and Elevator fairing is exactly where it should be. Dad was able to add a little curve to the aft edge of the HS fairing, which allows for a constant gap between the forward edge of the elevator fairing and the HS fairing, throughout the full range of elevator travel.
We also spent time sealing the area around the counterweight on the inside of the elevator tip, leaving one small exit hole on the aft end for draining any water that makes it into the elevator tip. Hopefully the sealant will keep any water penetration to a minimum.
Despite Dad’s near perfect fairing between the aluminum and fiberglass, once I started riveting the fairings, the rivets introduced a little bit of pillowing. It’ll need one more pass to fair it out before it’s final painted.
Test fitting the Horizontal Stabilizer fairingsAdding some curve to the aft edge of the HS fairing. The dowels are temporary to hold pressure on the structure Finalizing the elevator/HS gapPrimed and ready to be rivetedFinished.
