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RV-7A JCarne

Man, I have been slacking with my updates here the past week. I have lots to show.

Before installing the exhaust I decided to reverse the intended direction of the throttle bracket. It sounds like this is quite common. There is virtually no clearance with it the other way.

20200716_103323 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

However, you have to bend the bracket a bit so that the flange doesn't hit the bottom of the engine. Just wrap it with some tape and bend away. Seriously, get the bend spot on pointed where you want it! I had to take it alllllll apart again after getting the cable hooked up because there was a little binding. Now that it is lined up perfectly the cable moves smooth as silk.

20200716_102824 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here it is all hooked back up.

20200716_124536 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Then it was on the the Vetterman exhaust. Clint does a stellar job making exhausts as many of you know, it was well worth the wait for it!

20200716_124528 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Another view. Don't worry about the wiring, it will get tidied up in the next post! :D

20200716_124551 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is where things get a little tricky. I have the new nose gear and Van's basically says, hook the exhaust up like in OP-54. Ummmmm, yaaaaah, that's not going to work... I gave Clint a call and we did a bit of brainstorming as it sounds like he hasn't seen a final finished job on the new nose gear yet. He said the horizontal support is no where near as important as the vertical. I came up with this idea and text him a picture. He said it looks good and it will work.

I will probably throw some RTV on the engine mount just to make sure the rubber hose does not rub the tubes.

Also worth mentioning, I had to go down to NAPA and buy some 3/8" fuel line as the blue stuff Clint sent wasn't long enough for this approach.

If anyone has a different method they did on the new nose gear I would love to see it.

20200716_170425 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is the other side.

20200716_170357 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Thanks to some help on VAF I also finalized the routing on the cabin heat scat. For those of you not to this point yet I strongly recommend you get a custom heat muff that will not take the intake outboard. Not that it won't work like this, it's just a pain to install as the clearances are close.

20200718_123553 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here you can see the clearances.

20200718_123246 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
As promised the windscreen trim is bonded on with Sika. I have a little edge cleanup to do inside the canopy but the canopy at this point is done!!!!!!! :D

20200721_120432 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200722_222531 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I relocated the MAP line so that it would drain back properly and most importantly never get anything into the sensor. I don't think much fluid ever gets in this line but that is just a guess.

20200718_123622 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next I installed the CHT and EGT sensors so that I could finally get some of this wire cleaned up. Drives me nuts having wires just laying all over.

20200718_185007 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is the far out view of the right side.

20200719_140416 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The other side for you.

20200719_140429 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Even got my new PC-680 battery installed and hooked up. Everything so far seems to work and there is no smoke being released from the panel so I must have done something right. :D Also notice how I undid the connection to the start relay just in case...

I did have two minor issues to sort out though. The first was I tried to interrupt the ground on pin 2 going to the A/P panel with a switch for emergency cutoff but the motors are still getting ground somehow; I'm betting the network ground is interconnected. I changed the switch to interrupt the power on pin 9 instead, only took about an hour or so to change and it works perfectly now.

The other issue was I had a jumper wire slightly wrong on my E-bus relay and it wasn't switching with the main bus off. A simple move of the jumper and that issue was fixed.

At this point it doesn't appear there are any other problems but we will find out when I have ALL of the avionics plugged in.

20200722_222557 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I live in a rural area, so anyone that comments on issues firewall forward would be GREATLY APPRECIATED as I don't have many opportunities for experienced people to look in person. I know this is where many people make the most blunders and they often can have serious consequences so I would really like to hear your thoughts. Thank you!
 
More firewall forward stuff completed today.

I installed the heat shields that I got from Anti-Splat. These things are awesome! Very easy to install. The only problem I had was that the rivets they included seemed a bit on the short side. I used some larger AN470s, no worries.

I think I will try a flight or two with the clearance between the shield as shown in the pic. If it is too close I will go with Dan H's fiberfrax trick. Who knows, I may change my mind before then and just put some fiberfrax on it.

20200723_103439 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The other heat shield was intended for the outflow scat but I thought what the heck, let's extend that puppy on down and protect the cowl even more. I'm putting fiberfrax on the cowl so this is just a little extra insurance right there.

20200723_103443 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I put the battery retainer in and used an adel clamp to secure the engine ground so it wouldn't flop around and rub on some parts. There is still plenty of room for it to move, I think I just made the cable a little too long in the first place.

20200723_111522 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Now the breather tube... I feel that Van's does a truly good job in manufacturing these airplanes, but there are some things that are less than ideal. The breather tube was one of them. The bends on the breather tube interfered big time with the new nose gear design. I tried my best to bend it but in the end I got seriously mad and folded it in half. I proceeded to get even more mad when I discovered I paid 30 bucks for something that cost me about 96 cents to make.

I went back to my HVAC days and borrowed my dads bender and swaging tools. 20 minutes later and I had a breather tube I could be proud of. If any of you have access to these tools, do yourself a favor and fabricated your own. End rant :)

20200723_133030 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200723_133043 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200723_133047 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I also installed the fuel pump overflow and manifold drain line but forgot to take pics, I'll see if I can post these tomorrow when I finish fiberfraxing the cowl.
 
At this point I am ready to move to the hangar but I'm waiting on signing something with the guy before I move that much money in there. So, I have been doing odds and ends here and there to get as much done as possible before the big move. I was planning on waiting to put the prop on until after the move but at this point I'm running out of things to do.

Here is a pic of the fuel pump overflow as promised, just like the plans.

20200724_092042 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I had to go a little off script on the manifold drain as the gear leg is mostly in the way of the pipe exiting. I had to drill a hole in the firewall flange and make a little S piece that was Prosealed in that the hose attaches to. You can just see in the right of the picture it is dripping a little oil. I also debated putting a shield on the exhaust but Van's doesn't appear to have one on the -14 and the rubber hose on that one is as close if not closer to the exhaust.

20200724_092058 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next up was cowling heat protection. I used Dan H's trick and put some fiberfrax underneath some of the Van's self stick reflecting material. I think it came out pretty respectable. I debated how far back to take this stuff and in the end it seems like no one has problems around the exit area because of the heavily increased airflow. My Vetterman pipes also have very good cowl clearance in this area.

20200724_110316 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I then taped the seams to apply some RTV so the edges don't lift.

20200724_113134 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I wasn't fast enough pulling the tape so some of the RTV isn't perfect but it will do it's job.

20200724_120216 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I installed a couple more heat shields on the exhaust. I'm not sure if the one on the right is really necessary but better safe than sorry I guess.

20200724_130255 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I also toyed around with ideas to get more clearance on the number 1 exhaust to scat. I'm pretty dang sure it would work without doing this but I wanted more clearance. This little tweak not only gave more clearance to the exhaust heat shield but also more clearance to the cowl. I'm pretty pleased with it but I will still be watching this area.

20200724_130746 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I got my autopilot servos shipped in from Spruce and had them installed that day. Installing stuff like this is fun for sure. (p.s. some of that torque seal is just to show me I torqued it, not to see if it loosened)

20200724_172531 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I also installed the comm antennas, radio, and audio panel. Everything powered up nicely and all the switches and functions are working. I was even able to very clearly pick up the local AWOS which is a couple miles away and up hill.

20200726_094951 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next I'll finish my oil cooler lines when my two fittings show up and I think I'll go ahead and install the prop which will also allow me to safety the alternator and set the belt tension.
 
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I am just impressed by the speed and accuracy of construction Jereme.

Truly impressive my friend.

MACHINE!
 
So when you get to the airport, will you be able to run the engine without the EFIS installed? Or would you even want to?

Ya a guy could run the engine without the EFIS but I wouldn't be able to see the RPM. I should have the HDX installed here in a month or so though so no worries there.

I am just impressed by the speed and accuracy of construction Jereme.

Truly impressive my friend.

MACHINE!

Thank you good sir!
 
I've started following along. I'm also building a 7A slider. The speed and precision you are building with is amazing. I'm starting to suspect you have months of blog posts saved up and then you post them so it looks like you did 10 things in a day just to make me feel bad about my progress!! Slow down a little, will ya?

Great work and helpful pics, thanks for all of it.
 
I've started following along. I'm also building a 7A slider. The speed and precision you are building with is amazing. I'm starting to suspect you have months of blog posts saved up and then you post them so it looks like you did 10 things in a day just to make me feel bad about my progress!! Slow down a little, will ya?

Great work and helpful pics, thanks for all of it.

haha I actually stay pretty on top of things here on the build log, only ever a week or so behind. :) I'm a high school teacher so during the summer I can really crank it out! Glad it is helping you out!
 
After bashing the front plug with a screwdriver and hammer it came out. Be prepared for a bit of nasty oil to come out. Here is what the inside looks like all cleaned out.

20200729_170958 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Prop all installed. I even fit the cowl again to see how putting that bottom cowl on is. It's definitely not as easy to install anymore with the baffle seals attached but still doable.

20200730_201248 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I also got my panel lights installed. Bought some green strip lighting off of amazon. They work great. This picture has the lights on full blast. They can get quite dim too.

20200730_214911 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
Been a little bit since I updated but I was somewhat in a waiting game for a hangar. I had a verbal agreement with a guy on a hangar but he was taking a long time getting some paper work to me. I happened to be out at the airport getting oil for a friend out of his hangar when I ran into the owner of said hangar. It is a T-hangar with 2 spots and turns out he just bought another hangar and moved his plane out. I knew this would happen eventually but didn't think it would be that soon. Long story short we talked and I agreed to rent from him instead. He has been a great guy to me for over a year, even came to my house a couple of times to check out the project.

Back to the project now.

I safety wired the prop and managed to slip and really butchered up my hand. Hartzell actually doesn't require you to safety wire it and they recommend at least 0.032 if you do. I went with 0.041 just to avoid a potential argument with the DAR. Although he seems like a really reasonable guy so far when I have had questions.

20200803_124553 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

While I was still playing the waiting game I did a bit of preliminary trimming on the spinner. I used the Hartzell template I found online, it appears to be quite accurate. I will have to touch this up a bit more and finish installing it but I will wait until just before engine start to finish that.

20200803_163958 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

And then it was time... :)

20200811_141745 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
As you can see above I had to modify a trailer to gain a few more inches on the sides.

A few short hours later it was time to make the BIG MOVE. :) While waiting for friends to arrive I felt like I was going on a first date my nerves were so high. Hard to not think of what could go wrong moving down the road. haha

My buddy arrived with trailer number 1 so we could move the wings. Got em loaded up and drove the roughly 2 miles to the airport. We may of had a line of cars behind us due to our slow speed but hey, they made it safe and sound.

20200811_173844 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Shortly after getting back to the house trailer number 2 arrived. We ramped it up on the trailer and all went quite well. We used a four wheeler with a winch to help us out. The winch idea worked slicker than snot!

20200811_183622 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200811_183645 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

My son Avden had to say good bye to the airplane. I don't think he knows he will see it again. lol Going to the garage and looking at the airplane after getting home for the day has been a ritual of ours for quite some time now.

20200811_183705 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

We made it safe and sound up to the airport. On the way up it was fun to see the reactions of other drivers. We once again had a long line of cars behind us, no one even tried to pass. I'm assuming they were just appreciating the very abnormal sight. haha

20200811_190325 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

My buddy had to make one last pose before closing up the doors.

20200811_190345 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The following day I made some progress on getting the tail bolted back up. I'm really glad I fit the tail already, it sure was nice just having to bolt it back up.

20200812_162616 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

All in all the move went really quite successfully and I'm pretty ecstatic about finally having a hangar! I was really worried about getting one for quite some time. I also got my registration in the mail. This thing might be flying even sooner than expected! :D
 
Moving the plane to the hangar has really put me into overdrive! I have been working like crazy on it.

First I mounted the tail feathers. Okay, actually I did this twice. For those of you that haven't done this, make sure you trim the bottom part of the HS rear spar for clearance to the elevator horns. If you forget to trim this you will not have the range of motion you are supposed to. Needless to say I had the entire empennage on before I figured out I forgot to trim that...

Now she is all good to go and everything has the range of motion required. In fact mine fall right smack in the middle of the min/max rotation angles.

20200815_192711 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I wasn't entirely happy with the lower gap covers so I decided to redo them without any rubber trim. I have no idea how you are suppose to use the optional rubber trim since these these are shipped to you flush with the aft top deck towards the center. I elected to do the 1/16" gap all around. I may caulk this with something in the future but for now I think I'll just leave it like this. Anyone with experience on this area I would love to hear it.

20200815_144331 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next I wanted to finish up everything in the aft fuselage so I can stop crawling back there. First up was the ADSB box from Dynon. It is behind the bulkhead where the four screws are.

20200815_192635 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next was the transponder. I like to call it the mighty little box; small box, mighty price!

20200815_192602 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Tomorrow I will be filling those openings on the side of the fuselage. :D

20200815_192730 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

After a hard few days work it was time to relax and take in the view at my new home away from home.

20200815_194549 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200815_194309 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
Big day today, got the wings temporarily installed and the aft spars drilled.

After getting both wings bolted in with the hardware store bolts it was time to do some fuselage leveling. Since this baby is already on gear it took some considerable jacking of the rear part of the fuselage to get the longerons/center section level laterally. I had to jack the tail up about 10-12 inches.

20200816_114036 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200816_113839 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200816_115120 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next up was checking the sweep and triangulating the wings to a center point on the fuse. I couldn't believe it when the tape measure read the exact same measurement when we triangulated, good job Van's on manufacturing these kits.

20200816_120712 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I have a very slight forward sweep of about 3/16 of an inch which is well within the 1/2" Van's wants you to be within. I would have had to remove the wings again to "correct" this but clearly it isn't necessary given the spec Van's gives, I'm happy with only 3/16" sweep.

20200816_121237 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is what one of the rear spar areas looks like all marked up to make sure a guy gets the 5/8" edge distance required.

20200816_121930 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
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After some quality time making sure the wing incidence was just right it was time to drill the rear spar bolt holes. (I forgot to take pics of setting the incidence) Just make sure you follow the drawing (page 38 if I remember right). Many people put the level on the butt joint line which isn't entirely correct. Van's does however say that the angle itself isn't as important as making sure both wings are the same. I found their document on their website found here quite helpful in mounting the wings.

While drilling we started with an 1/8" bit and worked our way through 3/16, 1/4, and finally the 0.311 reamer. The reamer gets you a nice and snug fit on them AN5 bolts. Also, before you drill double check everything again!

Here is the left wing. You can pretty easily tell if you have edge distance met on all your parts. For example, the aft spar was slightly lower than the "hand" on the fuselage so the vertical distance is good, you can also see the line on the aft spar running up and down, it is visibly to the right of the drill hole center. I highly recomend you mark all of the parts ahead of time to make sure you have edge distance met. Then if you do, all you have to do is put the center of the hole in the little window with the cross in it as you can see in the pics above.

20200816_153034 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is the right wing, edge distance appears all good over here too.

20200816_153050 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Finally, I got to put my seats in and sit on them. I scored these a couple of months ago on VAF at a good price from someone in Florida where my parents live. I finally got them up here and couldn't be happier with how they feel and put me right at the perfect height! These cushions are only temporary until I can later afford to buy an interior that better matches my paint scheme.

20200816_172343 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

All in all I'm really quite happy with how the wing mating went and can't wait to finish up some tasks so I can get them on permanently. :D

Here are a couple of victory photos as well.

20200816_130419 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200816_151241 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
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Motivation

Thanks once again for the motivation! Looking good. If you need a copilot for that Afghanistan night mission, just let me know!😎
 
Aileron trim...

Is the aileron trim hardware installed correctly? I don't recall that the WD-756 sticks up through the delrin block.
 

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Thanks guys!

Is the aileron trim hardware installed correctly? I don't recall that the WD-756 sticks up through the delrin block.

Brian you are correct, I initially installed the manual aileron trim but didn't like the friction required to keep it from moving so I installed the electric version. The only difference is the shaft is cut down for the electric version and it is slightly off center. Mine is not off center but still functions fine and I am going to keep the handle on there as an indicator. Nice catch btw!
 
I have been working on getting my wings on for good and finalized. Progress is going good but I'm back to teaching now so it's a little slower than usual. I have a planned final inspection at the end of September, I think I can make it in time but won't hesitate to push it back if needed.

After taking the wings back off and installing way too many nutplates it was time to put them on permanently. Got all the wires and other accessories ready for the mating first.

20200823_141955 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200823_141938 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

After mating them and installing the bolts that I had it was time to start connecting wires (seem to be missing two 1/4" bolts and I nicked a couple of 7/16" ones on accident so I decided to replace them). Hence the two empty holes on each side while I wait for a Van's order.

20200824_203054 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200825_203511 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Tested out my FlyLED wingtip "the works" lighting kit when I finished as a reward. Everything worked beautifully! Sorry, forgot to take pics of this... :(

Somewhat unrelated (but not really since I'm working my way back up in aircraft to get ready for RV performance) I did a 5.7 through marginal VFR with another pilot friend. I have a small amount of actual IFR but flying mVFR was quite a good experience, amazing how little one can see in 4 miles visibility. Workload splitting sure helped out!

20200822_095519 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
Well well, no mention of the difficult to install spar bolts. I am sure it went as well as most all of the rest of your plane. Minus the dings on two of the bolts.

Expect a bunch of phone calls from me when I get this far along Jereme!
 
Well well, no mention of the difficult to install spar bolts. I am sure it went as well as most all of the rest of your plane. Minus the dings on two of the bolts.

Expect a bunch of phone calls from me when I get this far along Jereme!

Well I just torqued the wing bolts last night. Wow what a great time that is... Wait until you have to do the bottom bolts, it's a real treat lol.
 
Man I have really been slacking on taking pics lately.

The wings are permanently on and bolted up. The wing root fairings are finished, the elevator control train is finished. The rudder rigging is finished. Flaps are rigged. I'm currently working on rigging the ailerons. I pretty much have them rigged and just need to install a few nuts and torque em up and they will be done.

The only picture I managed to get this week was after I installed the fire extinguisher. I really quite like this location. It is out of the way but very accessible! I used four nutplates and mounted it to the top of the fuel pump cover. Speaking of fuel, I put fuel in my tanks and they are holding strong. Also tested the fuel pump and it seems to do it's job nicely. I still need to run actual flow calculations though and figure out unusable as well.

20200830_200756 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
I'm slowly trying to remember to take pics. I'm really trying to get this puppy done as quick as I can. I'm definitely wanting the build to be done so I can start enjoying flying this thing. Only flying once a week just isn't cutting it. :)

I have done many odds and ends and am making progress on getting things crossed off my list in order to do a weight and balance and first engine start. At times you cross a couple things off your list only to find three more. It is getting shorter though. :D

Just got done doing some fuel testing. I just did a wide open flow test and may decide to do one with pressure in the days to come just to make sure it is good at pressure as well. I also need to do a tail low test, although I am sincerely not worried about it after reading others reports and seeing my wide open results.

Long story short the backup pump will do about 63 GPH which is well over the 125% max engine requirement. Actually, it's about three times as much. I verified this with four different runs from both tanks and used a weight method as well as a volume method for it. All numbers were very close to eachother. Very happy with the results.

Here is the test in progress. I put that clear piece of plastic tube on there so that I could see if/when air was getting into the line.

20200904_155134 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

After flow testing I ran the tanks down and measured the unusable fuel. There seems to be a bit of controversy on how best to do that but honestly people do you really even come close to getting that low on fuel? I get uncomfortable if I have less than a full hour on board when I land and I prefer more. I digress...

Anyways this is the unusable in the left tank while the plane is about 2 degrees nose up.

20200904_191415 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is the right tank. This tank has the standard pickup instead of the flop tube in my left tank.

20200904_193011 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I also got the seats and seat belts installed as well as various covers. Only a few more covers to go and all she will need before weight and balance is to install the EFIS (should be here Tuesday) and to put on the cowl. Tomorrow I will be working on installing the stick boots.
 
Just a little more fuel testing being done with some friends. By bringing the tail all the way down it put the fuse at 15.3 degrees. Good enough for me especially since the fuel flow didn't change from before, 63 GPH.

20200905_103236 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
Dear Jereme ... just a word of caution:

I did no see a GND cable, but a lot of plastic cans and hoses!

Would not be the first one that burn down before it fly!
 
static charges - danger

Dear Jereme ... just a word of caution:

I did no see a GND cable, but a lot of plastic cans and hoses!

Would not be the first one that burn down before it fly!
I agree - a good article here:
https://cafe.foundation/v2/research_reports.php
https://cafe.foundation/v2/pdf_cafe_reports/Fuel Handling Safety.pdf

I was told that in the shared hangar I use, anyone caught handling fuel inside the hangar would be expelled. And getting hangar space here is not easy, so that's a pretty strong motivator to handle fuel outside, even in bad weather.
 
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Dear Jereme ... just a word of caution:

I did no see a GND cable, but a lot of plastic cans and hoses!

Would not be the first one that burn down before it fly!

I agree - a good article here: https://cafe.foundation/v2/pdf_cafe_reports/Fuel Handling Safety.pdf

I was told that in the shared hangar I use, anyone caught handling fuel inside the hangar would be expelled. And getting hangar space here is not easy, so that's a pretty strong motivator to handle fuel outside, even in bad weather.

You guys are correct, stupid oversight on my part. Fuel testing is done so I'll chock it up as lucky but will certainly use one in the future. As well as pull it outside.

P.S. That link doesn't work for me.
 
Okay, I came home from the hangar tonight and told my wife "I have a new love in my life" named Dynon Skyview. I spent a good hour setting it up and holy smokes it is sweet!!! I was worried that it was going to be difficult to setup but man it is pretty intuitive to use, don't stress too much about how complicated the manual looks. Everything seems to be working nicely so far and I couldn't be happier with going with Dynon. Anyways, a pic says it all...

20200908_193506 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200908_210357 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is a fun interior shot I took too.

20200906_215627 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

On another note, I got transition training scheduled with Chris Droege so I'm pretty pumped about that. If all goes to plan this gal should be flying in less than a month!
 
Here she is ready for weigh in. First I following Lycomings bulletin to remove the preservative oil and went on my merry way to adding 8 qts of mineral oil. I then ran the prop by hand for about 30 seconds. It makes an alarming clicking noise every 180 degrees but then I realized that must be the impulse coupler on the left mag. Would love to hear from others if that's correct. Anyways... I got a bit of oil pressure just from doing that so I went into the cockpit and cranked her with the starter for the first time. Very cool to see! She pumped up very quickly past 20 psi. After that it was time to put it all together for weigh in.

photo of aircraft N187E by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I fabricated some ramps to get it on some blocks first. The mains had to be about 1.5" higher than the nose gear and I also had to let some air out of the nose wheel to get the fuse level. From there I set up three packaging scales and simply rolled it onto them. I rotated the scales and weighed it three times and took the average. The scales were very consistent and always within about .5 lbs of each other.

She is kind of a heavy gal coming in at 1,136.4 lbs but then again I'm sure that new nose gear adds a few as well as the firewall protection I added. The C.G. was a BEAUTIFUL 78.9 inches aft of datum. This is right at the forward end of the range and it basically makes it impossible to get out of the envelop without breaking the 100 lbs baggage limit. My wheel arms were a little different than what Van's uses in the their document but plump bobs and numbers don't lie.

20200912_120635 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next up was starting the spinner installation. The hardest part here is making sure it is centered and drilling the forward plate blind. Getting the spinner centered sounds easy enough but it takes a long time and in the end I'm still not sure if it is perfect. The instructions say to place a mark at the center/tip of the spinner and then clamp a pen/something pointy to a ladder and see how that mark you made tracks. Sounds easy enough but the problem is ensuring you get it in the center in the first place. There isn't a real surefire way of doing that that I could think of. In the end I think I got it pretty dang well centered.

20200912_171933 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is how I marked the spinner to get even hole spacing, works great.

20200912_173856 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20200912_184755 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next I will attach the gap fillers and all the nutplates to finish this guy out.
 
Here she is ready for weigh in. First I following Lycomings bulletin to remove the preservative oil and went on my merry way to adding 8 qts of mineral oil. I then ran the prop by hand for about 30 seconds. It makes an alarming clicking noise every 180 degrees but then I realized that must be the impulse coupler on the left mag. Would love to hear from others if that's correct.

That is correct -- and remember, every time you hear that "Click-Clack" a few billion electrons ionize the air around the anode of the spark plug and ignite whatever fuel/air is in the cylinder...
 
Jereme

I just want to thank you for all the time and effort you put into these posts. They have been incredibly helpful to me (and I’m sure to many others).
 
Help

Jereme

I just want to thank you for all the time and effort you put into these posts. They have been incredibly helpful to me (and I’m sure to many others).

I want to second this post. I have spent many an evening reviewing and gleaning info from these posts. Much appreciated!!
 
Jereme

I just want to thank you for all the time and effort you put into these posts. They have been incredibly helpful to me (and I’m sure to many others).

I want to second this post. I have spent many an evening reviewing and gleaning info from these posts. Much appreciated!!

Seriously glad I could help everyone! I have had a bit of a set back lately involving a spinning propeller contacting a tool (which is why there hasn't been any updates lately) but I'm getting it sorted out and should have her flying by the end of the year. I'll also detail what happened soon so that no one else makes the same mistake I did. Thank goodness for builders insurance. Just playing the waiting game right now for my prop and engine to come back from the shops. Stay tuned for more fun! :)
 
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