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.
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.
I’d been delaying installing the rear window as long as possible, because access to the baggage area is much easier without it in place. But with Dad here, and with the list of tasks shortening up, it was time to get it done.
We started by carefully masking the window per the Vans plans. We also added some tape to the window to allow us to paint a thin stripe of dark grey on the canopy to obscure the tank sealant.
For paint, I used Stuart Systems Ecopoxy, and brushed it on. It took a couple of coats of paint, but the result was good. With the paint dry, we proceeded to mix up the tank sealant, find all the required hardware, and then start the process.
Rather than following the Vans plans exactly, I took the advice from Ken’s blog (https://vansrv14project.uk), which worked out well. Using a cake decorating plastic bag I was able to easily place the sealant exactly where it was needed. Once the sealant had been squeezed into the gap, we installed the screws and nuts. Dad worked on the outside while I sat I. The baggage area and torqued up the nuts.
Once the task was complete, we let the window sit for an hour, then carefully inspected it, and then removed all the tape. some of the sealant had squeezed out, but it was a tidy job overall.
Rather than just using silicone on the screws along the leading edge, I took the time to seal the leading edge with silicone. I really don’t want the window to leak, and without any kind of sealant, I’m sure water would easily make its way into the baggage compartment.
Painting the edge of the windowWindow paintWindow in positionDad worked on the outside while I sat in the baggage compartmentWith the tape removed, the finish looked greatThe grey paint hides the tank sealantThe finished product
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on installing the interior. This is a kit from Classic Aero, and everything is well designed and manufactured.
There are a number of holes to be drilled, fittings to install, and a few minor adjustments. The kit comes with a set of templates which make locating the holes a non-issue. Once the fittings are installed, the various components can be fitted into position. Most attach with simple studs and bolts, and some pop rivets here and there.
This wasn’t weeks worth of work, but chipping away in the evenings, I spent around 8-10 hours in total.
With everything installed, the interior looks amazing. Unfortunately I have to uninstall most of it so I can complete the wing attach, so after verifying I had all the right parts, and that the fit correctly, a lot of the components came right back out again.
I’m glad I tackled this now, because I found that the seatbelts were not in the kit. A quick email exchange with Classic Aero, and they confirmed they had forgotten to order the seatbelts. The placed the order, and they should be here in 3-4 weeks.
Drilling holesOne of the fittingsOne of the fittingsSome of the fittingsTwo studs, with VHB tape holding them in placeThe aft baggage bulkhead cover needs modification to allow carpet to be installed on the bottom section of the bulkhead. Here I am riveting the Classic Aero section to the cover, The JD Air latch fits, but needs a modification to flip the spring to the top of the mechanism. I forgot why I circled the holes in red…I had to replace the Vans 12V adapter plate with a custom one that comes in the kit. There is a plastic ring that covers the edges of the carpet here.Seats look great!Baggage compartmentSeats and baggage compartmentNote the forward pockets visible in this picture.
Tonight I assembled the bellcrank and pitch servo bracket. Everything was straightforward except the mounting of the two angles onto the bell crank plate. The alignment of the bolts took some negotiating, but after a few attempts, I was able to get it installed and torqued.
Nutplates installedBellcrank riveted Bellcrank installed and connected to the pushrod, ready for installationPushrod installed and final torqued
