Final Assembly Part II

	16 Feb 2008	Today was the big day for the airport move. Joe Hull, local Cozy builder, provided the truck, and John Adams, who owns Monroe Motorsports, provided the trailer for the move. The trailer is designed for ATVs, but works perfect for tailwheel RVs' The wheel well humps won't let the nose draggers fit, but for tailwheels, this is great.
		Alex was pretty excited to see the airplane in the trailer. It's getting closer.
	2-9 Feb 2008	No progress this week as it was family vacation time in Maui once again. Weather was overcast and rainy the first couple days but cleared up nicely the remaining part of the week. On my birthday, I did rent a 172SP from Maui Aviators and took a flight around Maui, Molokai, and Lanai for a 1.7. Details from that can be read on my Spaces.Live blog at http://rv7builder.spaces.live.com/.  The next day we did the whale watching tourist thing and had a great time. The boat was a 30' semi-rigid inflatable with twin 100hp outboards, designed for rougher water. We had a humpback stick it's nose 4 feet in the air, about a foot from the boat which made the trip well worth it!.
	1 Feb 2008	The cowl finally went on for the first time after installing the baffle seals, and it wasn't trivial. I understand that the seals will eventually set, but I did need to do some trimming around the center and outboard baffles. Overall, things seem to fit OK. I need to post a picture, but the spinner has been fitted and that worked out OK as well, and I did keep the spacing around the prop fairly conservative as I don't want to worry about that spinner digging into this prop.
		I was also a bit concerned that the prop spinner back plate would be off by a bit. I had used the Standoff method when fitting the cowl and it looks like the clearance is just about right. There's a little difference between the top and bottom, but not enough to worry about it.
	27 Jan 2008	I had over trimmed the spinner so a repair was on order. A little glass and we're back in business. I used a small piece of aluminum, waxed with release agent, to server as a mold over the outter mold line, then used polyester release tape on the interior. Turned out well. Now for some trimming again.
		After the prop went on I needed to check the tracking of the blades. This is generally how I do it with the Boredom Fighter, but with that aircraft, which has a wood prop, a little bit of torque can move each blade about 1/8".
		I checked the tracking after torquing the prop bolts, and both blades are right on. That's a relief, as I wasn't quite sure how to fix a blade tracking issue without a huge pain in the rear.
		It's really easy to safety wire a fixed pitch prop and about half way through this exercise, I was thinking about that. The arrow points out a little marking I left on the prop hub, courtesy the teeth on the flywheel. That's not the first time I've dragged a knuckle cross the flywheel. Ouch!
	26 Jan 2008	I'm still tackling the small stuff this week but getting closer. The empennage fairing seemed to fit pretty good after the stories I've heard. I need to do some fill, sanding, and open up the holes for a #8 screws and tinnermans.
		The heat muff finally got fixed this week. Even when tightened down, it was sliding around on the pipe so I had to elongate the holes for the long rods to the band clamps would tighten down enough. It seemed like that did the trick. I also connected the supply air hose as well as the outlet to the heat valve, but still need to secure the hose to the manifold pipe.
		Also on the list was securing the ELT antenna. Most folks pull it in very close to the roll bar, but I made a couple stand-offs to keep it about an inch away from the rollbar.
		The rudder lower fairing gets some fiberglassing. The fairing is about .25 too low and impacts the tailwheel rod. The plan is to beef up the interior, then sand down the exterior. I could order a new fairing but thought I'd give this a shot.
		Finally, the fresh air inlet ducts go in. I've been putting this off and finally got around to it. These are Pro-sealed in place, and I'll probably use some flush blind rivets to fill the holes.
	19 Jan 2008	Today's pics are all over the place. There's about a hundred things to do to wrap this up so I'm kind of moving around a little. Here's the spinner back plate and doubler getting some paint. Plan was to get this installed today.
		I wasn't sure how the crotch straps were going to go in so I messed with them a bit. The open through the floor needed to be slightly larger and the bushing in the anchor had to be ground down to fit the aircraft anchor point, but  other than that, no problem. I'm waiting a bit until these get installed for good. I also attached the hinge to the bottom of the CAD seats (way cool!) so they now fit right. I needed to get the seats in, so I can adjust how I want to sit, then pull in the rudder pedals so I could determine how long to make the connecting link for the rudder cable.
		On the other end of the rudder cables, I assembled the tail lynx for steering. These are really nice and went together without any problem.
		And while I was dinking around on the tail, I decided to see how the fairing fit. After trimming along the scribe lines, the fit is actually pretty good. I was anticipating some major fit issues with this but it seems to fit well. That's a relief.
		We had some friends over for dinner, but before we indulged, I talked my friend Jason into helping me hang the prop. We managed to get the bolts almost tight, and I thought I had it clocked right, then found that there's recesses on the back of the prop that fit the crank. Darn. Had to pull this off and re-clock the prop one position to the left. Well, after about an hour, we got the prop snugged down, but I need to do the final torque.
	12 Jan 2008	Sunday was a really nice day around here, right at 50 degrees, sunny, and no wind. We get about two of those days here in Seattle and today was one of them. Can't waste this day around the house, so we loaded up and headed for the airport. The main goal was to get the Boredom Fighter up for a bit and do some landings for currency. Here's Alex doing his best to wave me in. I managed to get 4 nice landings in before Dave Parsons landed with his RV-7A. Carolina has never had an RV ride, so I asked Dave if he could give her a quick flight. So.....
		Here's the infamous RV Grin before the flight. Good thing she was still smiling after the flight! She was really impressed with the takeoff and visibility of the tipper so at least those decisions are confirmed. Overall, Carolina really liked the flight and had a good time.
	11 Jan 2008	Still trying to knock out the small stuff. My canopy was really dirty from an accumulation of dust so I ordered a can of Plexus from ACS as well as some microfiber cloths. Man, that is good stuff! It really cleaned the canopy.
		Most of the focus today was on the aft fuselage areas. I did finish up the ELT connections but found that, for some reason, the ELT battery has logged more than an hour. I'm wondering if it was activated some how. Hummm, no one paid a visit.
		Transponder antenna in place and wired. No big deal.
		Finally, I drilled the elevator horn holes. Really a fairly easy task.
	10 Jan 2008	And I'm finally getting the ELT installed. I know, a lot of folks bury these in the tailcone or some other place that's hard to reach. I wanted somewhere that I can easily get to the thing and the antenna will be mounted vertically, just aft of the rollbar. This provides a fairly short run to from ELT to the antenna.
	9 Jan 2008	I ordered some brake lines from Pegusus Racing and they arrived in a couple days. I didn't like the way that tube was supposed to wrap around the gear and attach to the calipers. There's still relative movement and the tube is going to move. For about $19 a hose, you can get these 12" lines which are about perfect. No worries about aluminum tubing work hardening and cracking.
	8Jan 2008	One thing I did was substitute the fiber lock nuts for castle nuts and cotter pins. I know in theory, that these bolts sandwich the bearings and the bearing rotates, keeping the bolt static. All it takes is the bearing freezing up and now you have a bolt rotating. Anyway, my call, and this works.
	7 Jan 2008	Next was the continuation and final fitting of the sticks and roll trim. All these things just talk a little time, but not too hard.
	6 Jan 2008	I've been trying to get a bunch done each night so I'm making progress on the little stuff. The arrow in the pic shows the fuel supply bulkhead fitting through the firewall. With a straight fitting, it was really too close to the starter contactor so I sub'd out for a  45 deg. bulkhead fitting and it seemed to work fine, and gave me a little more room here.
	5 Jan 2008	This was a marathon day indeed! Roughly 10 hours on my feet under, over and around the plane. I'm beat! On of  the funner things I did was install Stein's blue disco lighting for the panel floods. I used some double-sided tape and put this just forward of the edge roll, the disco is now open!
	5 Jan 2008	I really like the blue lighting. My red/green color vision is a bit defective so this works for me!
		This is one of about three or four night panel shots that actually turned out. In addition to the panel flood, I installed the side upright covers with the pilot's and co-pilot's flood eyeball lights. It's all dim-able and seems to work really well. I like it.
		For the most part, almost everything forward of the spar is generally done. I have a couple minor things to do, one of which is installing the ELT control head, but generally most of this is done. I managed to secure the main left and right wire bundles and install a thin foam sheet down the center.
		The fuel pump was also wired up. I haven't done the final tightening of the fuel lines from the wings to the selector, but the pump does work. Since I've had this thing for years, that's a big relief.
	31 Dec 2007	Made it to the last day of the year! I'm in the process of working from the front to aft and hitting all the small stuff. I needed to neaten up some wiring and add a couple wires for the aux power and ELT indicator. I still need to do some final securing of coax.
	10 Dec 2007	I'm batchin' it for the next three days with Carolina on a mini-vacation with Alex, the neighbor, and their 4 year-old. Good time to make a bit of progress. I took the opportunity to complete the riveting on the top forward skin. I think it came out OK. Every once in a while I pull off a little of the blue vinyl jsut to double check how things are looking. So far, so good. In the aft fuse, I just need to hook up the static line and secure that, install the aft elevator push-rod, some minor wiring, then I'm about at the point where I can install the rear canopy window.
	8 Dec 2007	Saturday was one of those really clear days here in the Pacific Northwest. Dave Parsons was going to go warm up the oil in his -7A so I tagged along. Renton ATIS was calling ceiling- unlimited and visibility - a million (that's what it said), but the downside was that it was 32*F that morning. Yea, that's not real cold for you folks in the upper mid-west or Northeast, but for us, that's cold. With very little wind, it was a nice smooth ride. Way cool. I really needed a good motivational ride. This was the view looking towards the Snoqualmie River Valley towards the falls.
		This was the view just west of Lake Sammamish, with Bellevue on the the left, looking north. Not much wind and severe clear. I was pleasantly surprised that the heat set-up in Dave's RV kept the cockpit pretty toasty with no major drafts.
		After flying a bit, Dave agreed to come over and assist with the last of the two-person riveting tasks. We completed most of the upper forward skin, at least to a point where I can hit the remaining my myself.
	1 Dec 2007	It's starting to get close to a trip to the airport. Dave Parsons is coming over next week to assist with the forward upper fuse skin so I had a couple things to deal with prior to that exercise. I installed the harness anchors and cables, it was a reach but I got that done. Mark another thing off the list.
		Also on the list was the brace for the rollover structure. It really wasn't difficult, but I haven't done a lot of riveting lately either. At this time, the top forward skin is ready for final riveting.
	14 Nov 2007	I thought I'd take a break from baffles and apply the "EXPERIMENTAL" letters. I really tried to get these right but I'm not sure. The "T" might need to be replaced. I didn't want to go with a straight sign since the rollbar curves, but if I don't like this, I may just go that route.
	14 Sept 2007	The avionics access covers were finally fitted, drilled and had nutplates installed. They seem to fit well.
	7 Sept 2007	CAD sent the interior on time and I was really pleased with how they turned out. Very nice. I basically ordered the full Aviators package but did leave out the side panels, subbing those for the simple elbow rests.
		Another view, but I need to install the bottom seat hinges. Overall the seats are really comfortable, a little on the heavy side, but I think they are going to very nice for trips.
		Just like everyone else, we needed to try out the new seats. Alex was good enough to help out so he wanted to try them too.
		Avionics access almost ready.