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RV-7A JCarne

Your work is looking really tidy! I just riveted my ailerons today, those spar rivets were good fun solo.
 
Your work is looking really tidy! I just riveted my ailerons today, those spar rivets were good fun solo.

Thank you for the kind words! The ailerons went off without a hitch but I tried tweaking the trailing edge of my left flap top skin and ended up botching it... $45 roughly in parts and $45 roughly on shipping for that one. You win some and lose some I guess. :)
 
last big one

Somewhat of a big day today. After finishing the flap fabrication it was time for my last major primer session. Almost everything is primed for the wings (just push tubes left) and almost everything for the fuselage (push tubes and a couple of small parts) I will still have some odds and ends here and there but this is the last big one! :D

20190105_164145 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20190106_150921 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
Time to get my rivet on!

I started with the inboard ribs.

20190113_130718 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20190113_130730 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Then it was on to the ribs to "rear spar" rivets. I wonder how many people have forgotten to do these?

20190113_132011 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Too cold to rivet outside so why not make a mess in the dining room! :D

20190117_185454 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20190118_213306 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20190118_213312 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20190118_213319 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Done with the flaps. Now I'm thinking I'll move onto the pushtubes, at least the ones from the bellcrank to ailerons so I can mount them.
 
Well now that the flaps are done I decided to do the aileron and elevator push rods. First I had to take a couple of weeks off for this bundle of joy. Say hello to my new aviator named Avden with his custom RV hat.

20190123_151619 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr


After getting the push tubes cut to length I needed to sand down both ends of the large elevator push tube as it was a tight fit. Chucking it into a drill was the easiest way with a sacrificial bolt.

20190120_155358 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next it was off to the races with the drill press. I started with a #41 and then a 1/8" bit.

20190202_161019 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20190202_171740 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The dining room table has been taken over again for a little deburring. Hopefully tomorrow I will get to prime the inside of the tubes and maybe outside if I find the time.

20190202_223441 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Good to be working on the plane again after about a two week break.
 
Again, congratulations Jereme!

Work still chugging along for the machine! Awesome.
 
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Decided to assembly the FlyLEDs kit I received last year, I have been saving it for cold weather. This was one of the funnest parts of the build so far! I don't solder as much as I would like so this was a treat.

Here are the blank boards before trimming the main boards to fit the wingtip. An oscillating orbital sander made this trimming so easy it wasn't even fair. :D

20190217_160648 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Started by putting the strobe LEDs on the boards.

20190217_170547 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next the small position LEDs were installed.

20190217_174527 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The large resistors were then installed.

20190217_205115 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Finally after bending the correct angle I soldered on the connector, this is different than if you had the full board kit, I'm doing skinny boards so I can install some squadrons as landing lights. (purchased before they came out with landing light option)

20190217_211046 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next it was onto the control board. Started with resistors as per the instructions.

20190218_184532 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Then onto some various parts.

20190218_190230 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The last little pieces were soldered.

20190218_212811 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

You can use a 9V battery to test everything and play around with what strobe pattern you want. I highly recommend this kit to anyone that wants some good lights at a great price and wants some fun in building!
 
I drilled my mounting holes too close to the internal circuit board and shorted out several LED?s. Paul at Flyleds responded almost immediately to my email and helped me troubleshoot the issue. He sent me two new LED?s and a few spares. Customer service is top notch.
 
Jereme,
Are you installing landing lights in the wing tips? Are those short boards for landing light clearance? That reminds me of assembler days at an engineering firm I worked at in Calabasas CA. Watching the crew do surface mount work, tiny tiny.

Great work!
 
I drilled my mounting holes too close to the internal circuit board and shorted out several LED?s. Paul at Flyleds responded almost immediately to my email and helped me troubleshoot the issue. He sent me two new LED?s and a few spares. Customer service is top notch.

Thanks for posting, so many people have good experiences with Paul that it was a no brainer where I decided to spend my money.

Jereme,
Are you installing landing lights in the wing tips? Are those short boards for landing light clearance? That reminds me of assembler days at an engineering firm I worked at in Calabasas CA. Watching the crew do surface mount work, tiny tiny.

Great work!

Yes I'm installing some Squadron Pro lights in the wingtips which is exactly what the short boards are for. FlyLEDs now makes one with the landing light option built in but I had already purchased the lights I have so no biggy.
 
Thanks for posting, so many people have good experiences with Paul that it was a no brainer where I decided to spend my money.



Yes I'm installing some Squadron Pro lights in the wingtips which is exactly what the short boards are for. FlyLEDs now makes one with the landing light option built in but I had already purchased the lights I have so no biggy.

Thanks, Carne! I couldn't find the order tab for what you have. Will spend more time today on it.
 
Well the weather has finally turned into a Wyoming springtime (30s) which means it's time to go full steam again in the garage! I'm looking forward to a productive work year, perhaps so good that I'll be flying at the end of it!

The firewall insulation has been on my mind lately so I decided to just tackle it and get it done. First I went through and drilled a hole mess of holes in the firewall for various things. I ordered in a piece 0.010" titanium from TMS Titanium, this was quite honestly cheaper than the titanium foil some people use and I simply don't like the look of the wrinkly stainless. I'm not done yet but I am glad I went this route, it seems very sturdy and when it gets riveted/bolted down I don't think there is going to be very much wrinkling.

First I cut the sheet on a foot shear. Cutting the sheet is for letting the fibrax below a path for off gassing in the event of an engine fire. Next simply trim them to fit on the firewall.

20190310_130421 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20190310_153150 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

No you start marking the holes on the titanium from the backside. I then took off the sheets and went to town with a drill and this little guy (worth every penny of the $24.95 I spent on it).

20181103_143607 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20190310_160209 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20190310_173907 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I still have a few holes to finish cutting out of the titanium and after that I will start working with the fibrax. That's all for today though.
 
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Been slamming away on the firewall fireproofing. Almost done with all the firewall stuff to do then I'll be moving on to the canopy! :D:eek:(not sure which one is appropriate for the last comment haha)

I took a little side detour and finished the control brackets. I changed the spacing from 3" to 2.75". Also, the little knob on the left is for the oil shutter I'm installing on the oil cooler (it get's ridiculously cold here in Wyoming).

20190318_143824 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

20190318_153702 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

After riveting the forward fuselage structure together I finished transfering all the holes to the upper titanium piece.

20190319_134036 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Then I started working on the recess. It came out quite good.

20190319_145233 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

This one has the fiberfrax underneath already.

20190319_153401 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

At this point all I need to do is a little more deburring and to cut the fiberfrax to size and I'm ready to start riveting/bolting things to the firewall. This has taken a lot of time but I'm pretty happy with how it is turning out so far.
 
Humming along! Where is the fiberfrax? Is it beneath the Ti? Not sure I am on the same page as you regarding the Ti!

Is the stainless firewall with fiberfrax insufficient? What is your line of thought here Jereme.

Looking great all the same.
 
Humming along! Where is the fiberfrax? Is it beneath the Ti? Not sure I am on the same page as you regarding the Ti!

Is the stainless firewall with fiberfrax insufficient? What is your line of thought here Jereme.

Looking great all the same.

Good questions Kent. The fiberfrax is sandwiched between the firewall and the titanium, putting it inside the cockpit is basically the biggest no no as it off gases when heated. The fiberfrax is a paper/fabric type stuff so you have to put something over it to protect it. Many people just use sainless foil but it has a lot of wrinkles and just doesn't look good in my opinion. Dan H has some really good write ups on the topic, he even tested many things on a firewall heated to around 2000 Fahrenheit.
 
Very shiny! Looking at this is an inspiration to keep working Jereme! Thanks for the kick in the rear-end!

Haha no problem Kent glad to help! I'll post pics soon of my canopy frame all bent properly, wow was that a chore.
 
Please look at post 425 here before copying this ANL/shunt setup.

Well after bending the canopy frame to satisfaction I figured I mind as well go back and finish up the firewall. I installed the hinges on the lower half for the cowl. All that is left to do at this point with the firewall modification is to tape the seams with aluminum tape and throw in some of the magic goop (3M Fire Barrier Sealant 2000+) around the perimeter where the hinges are.

Over all I am SUPER pleased with how this came out. There are no noticeable wrinkles, only slight distortion of light (worse in the picture than in real life even). If you want to go with fire protection that looks sweet as well I think this is the way to go.

20190405_194853 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Oh this also happened while drilling the top cowl hinge. Right when I was thinking "man I might actually make it through this build without drilling a finger". Turns out that a #43 bit spinning at 4000 RPM will in fact go underneath and then through a finger nail. Who would of thought... :D Good thing I just got a tetanus shot.

20190405_204619 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
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Jereme, How did that canopy frame go?
Looking really good! What do all those articulated eyeballs to the left do? And to the left upper? I don't have an idea about my setup yet as I am not there yet.

Awesome!
 
Jereme, How did that canopy frame go?
Looking really good! What do all those articulated eyeballs to the left do? And to the left upper? I don't have an idea about my setup yet as I am not there yet.

Awesome!

Kent, the canopy frame bending is a real test of patience but I think I finally got it. I'll try and post pics of it later today. I was getting REALLY frustrated with it at one point because the plans say the rear bow needs to be inset 1/16" from the aft top skin all the way around which now looking at it it seems impossible to do that as it would push the bottom side bows too far out. I settled on close enough and symmetrical (the bubble is going to change the shape to a degree anyways so I'm not stressing over fit until I clamp the plexi on). I think the important part is that the rear bows are inset to some degree (especially since I plan on doing fiberglass skirts).

Here is a pic of what things on the firewall are for you and anyone else that is curious (I know I had a hard time finding something like this when I started working on the firewall).

firewall by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
So I am good I don't use any of the three on the right in the picture, save for maybe alt air. What does that do? Outside of the obvious..

Or the oil shutter, never too hot never too cold in Oregon.
 
So I am good I don't use any of the three on the right in the picture, save for maybe alt air. What does that do? Outside of the obvious..

Or the oil shutter, never too hot never too cold in Oregon.

Just to clarify as well, all of them locations are for the fuel injected horizontal intake engine. The alternate air pass through is for the cable that opens a little door in the intake tube/plenum just past the air filter in case it ever gets blocked. As far as the shutter goes you probably don't need it where you live but I don't know. Where I live I know guys that have to tape their oil cooler completely off in winter. I'd rather be able to control it with a less "gheto" feel. haha This is the shutter. I also came up with what I thought the best area for the pass through was on that one.
 
Just to clarify as well, all of them locations are for the fuel injected horizontal intake engine. The alternate air pass through is for the cable that opens a little door in the intake tube/plenum just past the air filter in case it ever gets blocked. As far as the shutter goes you probably don't need it where you live but I don't know. Where I live I know guys that have to tape their oil cooler completely off in winter. I'd rather be able to control it with a less "gheto" feel. haha This is the shutter. I also came up with what I thought the best area for the pass through was on that one.

I think I like the idea of alt. air! I will add that eyeball. I have an injected SDS setup so no mixture cable.
 
Do all -7's firewalls have cutouts around the engine mount to fuselage bolt locations? How does one seal the firewall to fuselage engine mount brackets? What am I missing?
 
Do all -7's firewalls have cutouts around the engine mount to fuselage bolt locations? How does one seal the firewall to fuselage engine mount brackets? What am I missing?

Jereme added a sheet of Titanium with a substrate of Fiberfrax sandwiched
between for fire protection. The cut out you see is the edge of the Ti sheet revealing the stainless firewall underneath.
 
Do all -7's firewalls have cutouts around the engine mount to fuselage bolt locations? How does one seal the firewall to fuselage engine mount brackets? What am I missing?

Yep, Kent hit it on the head. We expose them areas so the mount isn't changed at all even after adding the fire protection.
 
Well I haven't been sittin here doing nothing since my last post. :D Since I'm waiting for it to warm up before cutting the canopy I decided to mount the tail. Yesterday I finished mounting the horizontal stabilizer, it takes quite a bit of time to get the bolt holes just right but man they came out perfect, couldn't be happier with them.

After careful marking I used 12" drill bits starting with a #40 to get the initial hole. You can see I placed an engineering square next to the bit to make sure it was square with the fuse. This method works well. The final hole was drilled with a 3/16" reamer as it was just long enough to give drill head clearance.

20190414_135405 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here are the finished holes, you can see they are centered really well (as well as how far back the rivets are on the angle, not sure why Van's put them so far back but hey it works!), it also looks perfect underneath but I forgot to get pictures of this.

20190414_150206 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Next I leveled the stab to the center section on the fuselage. This will ensure the stab is level with the wings. I found I needed an additional 0.040" shim on the right side under the bolts. I did expect this somewhat since I new the tail of the fuselage wasn't perfectly level when I built it, I spent many hours back then trying to remove any twist and I got it pretty dang close but not perfect. No big deal, Van's approved an extra shim and said it wouldn't be a problem.

20190414_215044 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Here is the finished product with all the holes drilled. I'm very happy with how this came out. I was worried about drilling them notoriously difficult holes but it went smooth as butter. On to the VS next!

20190417_190330 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
Great work!

I'm in awe at the rate your project is progressing. Doing a nice job too! Keep it up. When I get out of Phase 1 I'll have to stop by and see it.
 
Looking good Mr.
Just a word of advice, once you have the vertical finished and bolted on, do the fitting of the tail fairing (upper and lower) if you have it. That way you don't need to bolt it all back together multiple times like I did.

Travis
 
Sweet dude! I have yet to do this. No room haha.

Haha ya it gets tight for sure, it's not gonna fit through my garage door without it coming off.

Looks great! I assume you?re not planning to leave it on there with the space constraints you?re working with.

Thank you good sir! Ya I'm going to try and do as much as I can while I wait for warmer weather to cut the canopy, just trying to keep the ball rollin. :D

I'm in awe at the rate your project is progressing. Doing a nice job too! Keep it up. When I get out of Phase 1 I'll have to stop by and see it.

Heck ya man anytime! Just drop me a PM or email and I'll come pick you up at the airport and buy you breakfast!

Looking good Mr.
Just a word of advice, once you have the vertical finished and bolted on, do the fitting of the tail fairing (upper and lower) if you have it. That way you don't need to bolt it all back together multiple times like I did.

Travis

Good call on this Travis, I was planning on unbolting and storing everything again as it won't fit through my garage door so mind as well get the fairing done too. I didn't think about the fairing so thanks for mentioning it.
 
On to the VS!

After mounting the HS on the fuselage last time I realized I still hadn't drilled the elevator horn lower hole for the push tube. So I took it off, drilled the holes and remounted with the elevators. I also decided to finish the trim tab hinge pin and safety wire it (not sure why Van's doesn't give you the right length hinge pin until the fuselage?).

20190419_102740 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I tried to fabricated the F-712D up elevator stop a week ago but I just wasn't happy with the edge distance as set by the plans so I fabricated a new one and attached to the fuse. (also weird is that Van's gives you a piece of 1 x 1-1/4 angle for this but the largest dimension is only 13/16) :confused:

20190419_122438 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

After temporarily putting the VS onto the fuse to see how much I needed to trim the front spar it was time to trim. I have heard by some that if you trim the full 5/8" sometimes there is edge distance issues. I trimmed 9/16" and that seemed to work out.

20190419_142913 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

I spent a great deal of time marking and measuring this piece and sighted through the four bolt holes on the HS to place it. I drilled one of the lower corner holes #30 and and clamped it down.

20190419_142927 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Finally it was time to clamp the VS on and do the tedious task of measuring and adjusting to get the VS perfectly square with the HS. After that was done I drill the bolt holes in the back. I still have to drill the rivet holes on the front spar but I had to call it a night. This thing is starting to look like an airplane. :D Also looks like I can't open my garage door until the empennage is totally finished. haha

20190419_164306 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
Oh boy here goes nothing! After playing around with the Van's empennage fairing a bit I decided to toss it in the trash, gaposis everywhere with that thing! My mother would never let me go in public with that on! :D Looks like I will be having fun making my own, more work for sure but I have seen what the end result can look like. Plus, I'll get some more experience with fiberglass before I do the canopy skirt.

I took the tape trick from someone else who did this on an RV-4.

20190422_160332 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

Now instead of using modeling clay or foam (both of which are expensive) I decided to just use some 20 min drywall mud. So far this seems to work well. I mixed the batch rather thick and squeezed it out of a bag in thick large beads. Did some magic with a small drywall knife and then smoothed it out with my hand and some wet rags. This is just the first coat and I will get it much much closer to final shape before I even think about laying fiberglass on it.

20190422_203830 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr

The only downside to using drywall mud is it is way more difficult to sand after the fact than foam (gonna have to use power tools for that one probably haha). However, you can do a tremendous amount of shaping before it sets. The first coat looks decent and will serve as a good base.
 
The only downside to using drywall mud is it is way more difficult to sand after the fact than foam (gonna have to use power tools for that one probably haha). However, you can do a tremendous amount of shaping before it sets. The first coat looks decent and will serve as a good base.

Go for it Jereme! Just remember the Golden Rule: Time spent getting the mold or form perfect now pays a large dividend in weight and time later.
 
The only downside to using drywall mud is it is way more difficult to sand after the fact than foam (gonna have to use power tools for that one probably haha).

I use plaster of paris. It will set up faster, same to sand.

I found the drywall mud can take days to dry if used exclusively, but is great as the topping coats, just use the sanding screens.

Just finished a mold for shrinking my cooling exit!
 
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Oh boy...that stuff is the bane of my existence. Just finished the kitchen remodel.
I hope it works well for you Jereme.

Is that duct tape?
 
Go for it Jereme! Just remember the Golden Rule: Time spent getting the mold or form perfect now pays a large dividend in weight and time later.

Haha that comment from your sticky in the fiber glass section is CONSTANTLY on my mind while I'm working with the mud! Thanks for the reminder and the great tutorial in the fiberglass tips thread!

I use plaster of paris. It will set up faster, same to sand.

I found the drywall mud can take days to dry if used exclusively, but is great as the topping coats, just use the sanding screens.

Just finished a mold for shrinking my cooling exit!

Very interesting Bill, I have never worked with that before, I will definitely give that a try next time.

Oh boy...that stuff is the bane of my existence. Just finished the kitchen remodel.
I hope it works well for you Jereme.

Is that duct tape?

Yep I used black duct tape, although I would highly recommend gorilla tape as some of them pieces span a long ways so the stronger the better.
 
I did wing root fairings on a Midget Mustang. It is not hard to do a good job. I used packing tape and the glass released from it very easy. Duct tape is easier to not acidently sand through though.

I used two part expanding foam. Wicks has some that is inexpensive and works good. Don't even think about using something like Great Stuff foam from a can. It dries rubbery and is almost impossible to sand. The two part stuff dries to a hard crunchy foam that is very east to sand. Scratches the **** out of your eyes if you rub them with the dust on your hands and probably not good to breath so recommend a mask.

The effort you take to make everything perfectly smooth before glassing pays off in not having to do a ton of filling and sanding the glass later which also adds weight.
 
I'm waiting for the next steps. I wouldn't even know where to start on something like this.

Ray

Dan H has a pretty good tutorial here.

I did wing root fairings on a Midget Mustang. It is not hard to do a good job. I used packing tape and the glass released from it very easy. Duct tape is easier to not acidently sand through though.

I used two part expanding foam. Wicks has some that is inexpensive and works good. Don't even think about using something like Great Stuff foam from a can. It dries rubbery and is almost impossible to sand. The two part stuff dries to a hard crunchy foam that is very east to sand. Scratches the **** out of your eyes if you rub them with the dust on your hands and probably not good to breath so recommend a mask.

The effort you take to make everything perfectly smooth before glassing pays off in not having to do a ton of filling and sanding the glass later which also adds weight.

I hear ya, I would like to use the foam stuff but didn't want to wait a week on it, figured I could get results with the mud, we will see. I have worked with fiberglass and carbon fiber before so we will see if I still got it! haha
 
Here we are after a second coat and a third coat to fill low spots. The shape is quite close as compared to the Van's fairing. It is time to sand and shape a little more and then I will see if I have any low spots to fill but overall it is coming out pretty decent. The edges in the picture look a little rough because I shaped quite a bit to get it tangent to the tail feathers. The sanding will take that chipped look out.

20190424_211837 by Jereme Carne, on Flickr
 
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