Fuselage (Going together for the last time)

	7 Oct 2006	Things are starting to go back together for good. I started riveting some of the fuselage parts into the fuselage for the last time. Here's the bellcrank mount for the canopy latch. Done.
		The sub-panel was also riveted in today. The six rivets on the outboard sides just under the forward canopy sills are a real bear but I did get them installed. The important thing here is to remember to dimple the firewall prior to riveting the ribs to the firewall.
		Starting to look like more than an empty shell. The rudder/ brake pedals are temp fitted just incase I needed to move them for some kind of access. Right now, I can't think of what that would be. I'll wait on the brake lines for now as I think they would get in the way. I'm thinking that the flap and canopy torque tubes are going to stay out for a while although I may need to do the flaps for the wiring.
	14 Oct 2006	I was waiting to borrow a 2" Greelee hole punch but that wasn't panning out very soon so I decided to do teh hole the old fashioned way. Draw a 2" hole on the firewall, which turned out to be about 3/8" lower than the plans called for due to the heat valve, then proceed to dull an new #30 bit by drilling a bunch of holes around the circle. Use a cutoff wheel in a Dremel and cut out the hole. Take a small drum sander and smooth out the hole and finish off with a 3M unitized wheel. Took about 15 minutes to get a nice hole.
		And here's the finished product. I was pondering just buying a Greelee set but for $250, I passed on that.
		Earlier in the week I had started the heat valve assembly. I bought the kit instead of the finished unit as I figured it wouldn't take any more than about an hour to assemble this. I was right. Took about an hour.
		One thing I needed to get out of the way was the doubler and hole for the fuel line bulkhead fitting. Per the plans, I fab'd and installed the doubler, but I need to go buy the fitting. I did have to drill out the left upper rivet and trim the doubler to fit around the relay. For the most part, the next step is to rivet in the firewall recess.
		Here you can see how the relay fits up against the doubler; pretty tight fit.
	21 Oct 2006	Here's the recess ready for install for the last time. All the nutplates and side rivets are done. Just need some RTV Sealant.
		Put some RTV around the recess flange and got this riveted in. Even the rivets around the lower edge weren't too bad. Remember to drill the battery mount hole to 3/16 and don't put a rivet in that one. I tried twice before figuring that the hole in the firewall was for an AN-3 bolt.
		Was this ever a fun job. I thought I needed to re-order the long hoses from the right side to left, but after fitting, I think I'm going to be fine. The major trick here is to locate and secure the hoses in a way that they don't rub on each other or another component while the pedals are moving. Adel clamps are not fun!
	21 Oct 2006	One thing I wanted to do before bolting everything to the firewall for the last time was polish out the firewall. Yea, I know. It's going to get really dirty later on, but hey, why start out that way. I ordered some Nuvite C and S which finally got here. Expensive stuff, but it does a great job on the stainless. On the left is the untouched area and on the right is what's been polished. Very cool.
		I could probably go a little further with this, but I think it's done. I like it.
	28 Oct 2006	I've been trying to tweak the brake line runs to keep the lines from rubbing each other. For the most part I think I'm there but may have to wrap a couple where they slightly rub. I was really having a tough time with the right passenger's lines and ended up using a 45-degree fitting instead of the 90. Seems to bring the supply line out more. I also installed the rest of the rudder/brake assembly mount bolts and got those torqued down.
	17 Nov 2006	Been skipping around a bit from the fuselage work to electrical to panel but here's a shot of the canopy latch installed for good. I think I have the assembly adjusted about right but we'll see. The fuse canopy sill mount for the canopy strut was also installed. I really should have installed that before riveting the angles to the fuselage side because this was a real pain. Took about 1/2 hour to install the two screws and nuts. The opposite side went in about 10 minutes.
	3 Mar 2007	Not too much going on for the fuselage in general except for the electrical and wiring which has been sucking up all the time. I got word from Sue at AeroSport Power that my engine should be ready to ship at the end of next week so hopefully in a week and a half, I'll have an engine. Very cool. Before I start into that effort, there's a couple fuselage items to complete: 1) Install static lines 2) Route rudder cables 3) Finish securing the electrical cables 4) Prime the shoulder harness anchors 5) Prime the upper j-stingers 6) Bond a couple stringers to the floor to negate some oil-canning 7) Rivet the aft and mid-section top skins 8) Install some misc. nuts and bolts 9) Install flap motor 10) Install fuel pump and route lines 11) And the list goes on.... I need to finish the fiberglass on the canopy but I'll wait until late Spring to do that one.
	14 Mar 2007	Slowly but surely I'm making some progress on the fuselage. In the last couple days I've managed to install the aft static lines, run the static line to behind the panel, route the rudder cables, and cleco the aft upper skin. The flap motor is also getting ready for wiring.
	25 Mar 2007	Progress is still moving along. Since I've been working to prep the firewall forward for the engine hang, I haven't done a lot on the generic fuselage. I did get the flap motor installed but had to fight a problem with the operation. After wiring, it wouldn't run. I had thought I confirmed good voltage to the motor, so after disassembling the motor, determined a bad crimp on a molex connector. Glad it wasn't the motor. I also had local Tech Councilor Joe Pearson over for an hour last night which is the third TC visit I've had on the RV. Overall, it went really well and the biggest issue was the security of some of the wire bundles. I figured this was a topic but other than that, no major problems. Next step is to take apart the panel for paint and then final assembly. Can't wait until that goes together!
	31 Mar 2007	Took a break from wiring and got back into riveting. Sure haven't done much of this in a while. I was able to get all be about two rivets for the upper aft skin. Next is the forward upper skin after installing the magnatometer for the last time.
		Also took some time to rearrange the shop and start fitting the horizontal stab. I haven't done this yet so it was a good time to get that done.
	7 Apr 2007	Spent the weekend working on installing, or at least fitting the tail. I hadn't done this so I needed t get this knocked out. After taking measurements from the horizontal stab tips, to the firewall, we got the stab aligned. I drilled the forward spar to fuselage, then noticed that I forgot to fabricate the shims that go between the forward spar and the fuselage deck. Oops.
		Once the horizontal was on, it was time for the vertical. This must have gone on and off a dozen times. I was finally happy with the alignment so it was time to drill. This was the easy part. Just getting it aligned and square took the time. Instructions seem kind of lacking here so you just piece together all teh dimensions and notes to get it done.
		And the vertical stab is temp bolted in place. Couple more holes and we'll be done.
		And this was one of those holes. I was careful to locate the AN4 bolt holes, but the one on the left is a little too close. There's an AN3 bolt in the hole now and the bolt is right up against the flange of the tailwheel mount. I need to send a note to Van's to see how to deal with this one.
	14 Apr 2007	Work has been pretty busy lately so not much on the RV the last couple weeks. I've had to work a couple weekends so it's impacting forward RV progress a but. I did get a note back from Vans and they said go ahead and drill out to the AN4, but use a smaller MS nut, it's in sheer anyway so no big deal. Also drilled out the hole for the wire pass-through, which you can see with the grommet. I believe this is how Vans' did theirs as well. You don't need to remove wires to take off the vertical stab if needed.
		Next step this weekend was to temp install the tailwheel. This was fairly easy to do. This big question was with the tailwheel on the airplane, coule I get the thing out of the shop.  After moving the plane around, it does look like I can get it out the door without removing the tailwheel. This is a good thing.
		It's on it's own gear right now. Very cool to see this.
		I've been trying to wrap up what I can just aft of the baggage bulkhead so I neatened up the magnatometer wiring, installed the magnatometer for good, put in a couple misc. rivets and safety wired the AP servo. What a pain! This was actually the third try. Note the stabs are removed here. It didn't take long to figure out that the horizontal was going to get in the way. It only takes a little time to re-install so I'll do that when I get it up in the garage with the engine on.
	21 Apr 2007	Continuing into the final fuse assembly, there were a couple minor things that I needed to do before getting the forward top skin ready to rivet. For the most part, this is ready for final riveting. I also painted the roll-over bar for about the sixth time.  I just wasn't satisfied with the finish of this so I had to sand and re-paint several times.
	29 Apr 2007	I managed to get the rollover frame bolted to the fuselage and all this seems to fit OK. I'm not sure when I'll do it, but for the most part, I think I can rivet the forward top skin anytime. I'm going to have to crawl back there some time for static hook-ups and the skin needs to go on before that. I suppose I can possibly put in the rear canopy as well.
	27 Jun 2007	Five Years!  I happened to notice the overall status on this thing. I can't believe that it's been just over 5 years in construction so far with somewhere around 1200 actual hours, not including all the daydreaming, researching, analysis and head-scratching that goes into one of these. During those 5 years there's been two job changes, one relocation and the arrival of one very active little boy. I have a picture of Alex in his carrier when I was working the tail, now he's 4 and seems to notice changes on the plane. He says that he wants a ride but wants me to fly it. In the mean time, there's a couple things going on. The engine is currently in work and the cowling is now being fitted. I'd like to have the cowling at least fitted in the next week, then be able to finish off the cowl and canopy glass work by September. I still need to do the baffles (early Fall?) and finish about a hundred small things in the fuselage. If that works, maybe it goes to the airport around December?