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RV-9A #91894 Bruce Hill

I spent the better part of 2 weeks rolling on UV Smooth Prime then sanding it off. Took 3 iterations, but it is looking really nice and smooth now. It is ready for some real epoxy primer and top coat, but that will have to wait until I have a paint scheme figured out.

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Today was a change of focus to start working on the wheel pants and gear leg fairings. I got the hinges installed in both of the gear leg fairings.

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I also trimmed up the wheel pants and got them ready to drill the flanges together.

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Bruce,
You have that cowl looking great. Your hinge pin covers look very clean. Nice work. My 9A is parked on my trailer in a hangar Caldwell Idaho while I am on a job in Michigan. It has been there since July 1 and I miss it!
 
4 Years down...

Back from my summer vacation. Hit the 4 year mark of building while I was away. Came home and had some seats waiting for me.

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They still need to be upholstered, but they sure are comfortable.
 
Lookin' good, Bruce! I'm especially impressed with your cowl! Those seats do look very comfortable.
 
Wheel pants and gear leg fairings are all done. These are ready to prime.

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Time to move on to the cabin interior and finish the panel and seats, then I should be ready to relocate to the airport for final assembly. And I still need to buy the propellor.
 
I finally got all of the interior wiring done for my heated seats. After everything was in place, I installed the dozens and dozens of screws for the seat pans and attached the seat belts. It took a few iterations to get them cinched down enough to fit me. After that, I got my daughter to give them a try.

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Now I have to decide on a color scheme for the seat upholstery.
 
Hi Bruce,
The pic of your daughter and the control stick made me remember that I had to cut the control stick again after getting things fully assembled. The forward curvature of the grip and the 30 degree twist for left hand comfort caused the stick geometry to interfere with my push-pull throttle. Thats a no-no of course. Not sure if you put in levers or stock cables. Don't forget to check it. :)
 
Motivational ride...

Bruce, your cowl looks great. Are those seats from Oregon Aero? They look just like mine. Abby at Flightline Interiors did a great job of covering my seats.

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Now how about that motivation ride. Are you up for lunch and a ride? I can fly down to Romona on most any Saturday or Sunday. Will give me a good reason to get the plane in the air, and you can get some stick time in a 9A.
 
The control sticks have been cut down and don't interfere with anything (as far as I can tell). I'll find out for sure when the control surfaces are attached.

Pete: Yes, those are Oregon Aero cushions. My wife is going to give it a go on the upholstery. We just haven't decided on the color scheme yet. She wants some purple in there, and I'm not too sure about that! :eek:

I'll PM you about the motivation flight. :D
 
Panel all cut out. I spent the afternoon and last night laying it all out and then got busy with the drilling, cutting and filing.

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Bruce - you are passing me up big time!! Mine is still sitting on a trailer in Caldwell Idaho. We may be moving up that way, but I have been stuck in Michigan since June. UGH! On the bright side, I am making money to buy my panel, so not all bad.

Looking good my friend, keep the updates coming.
 
Yes, the holes all have things that go in them. I waited to start cutting holes until I had everything. The Dynon COM radio was the item holding me up.

I have a couple of business trips over the next couple of weeks, so my progress will again lose momentum. Seems like just when I start gaining speed, it comes back to a halt.

Now I need to figure out how I want this panel painted and labeled.
 
Panel painted and filled with all of the avionics. Final wiring has started and I am working on the labeling.
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Oh yeah, and I have a hangar at the airport! :)

Hope to move the project in this weekend.
 
Bruce, your panel looks great. I have been looking at hundreds of panels and pictures trying to decide how to lay mine out. I love how you did yours. Very task oriented - with what you need. I am not sure what equipment I want, but how nice yours looks may help me make a choice!

Good work Dude!
 
Room for expansion (and future expenditures)

I left the panel very expandable. Room for a portable GPS like a Garmin 796, or an iPad mini next to the radios. Room for another 10" Dynon Skyview EFIS or regular iPad in front of the co-pilot/passenger. I don't need those to get the airplane airworthy and flying.

If I ever decide to get my instrument rating I will probably get some sort of certified Nav/com/GPS on the panel.

I have some time lined up this week with a CFI to get my flight review done. It may take some, since I haven't been piloting anything for 24 years!
 
Leaving it open for a tablet is what I want to do too. It is cheaper to add a tablet than a second display. I am not going to do any IFR or night flying (deal I made with my wife) so I don't need backups to backups. I can just look out the window!

I am working in Michigan and thought about going over the GRT to look at their stuff. If I go Skyview, I know what website I can go to to find out how to hook it up!
 
Nice location for the EICommander Bruce.

Please give me a call, before your first engine start.

You are going to love flying behind the 10" SkyView. With that in place, you really don't need anything else. Truly an amazing EFIS!
 
Panel labeled, tail and wings moved to the hangar!

A very productive weekend. I spent Saturday afternoon with John (jpharrell) learning the intricacies of the Decalpro system. The panel came out fabulous! Not something you can rush, but after 5 hours of laminating, cutting and applying, the panel has some really nice looking labels. This morning I put some flat Krylon clear coat on it.

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Today, with some help from Derek (Dbro172), we got the wings and tail moved from my garage to the hangar. I have an enclosed trailer for my desert toys. The wings and tail fit nicely with plenty of room.

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I had no idea when we left to drive the short distance to the airport that one of the dual tires on the motorhome was flat and shredded. Failure to preflight the RV (motorhome)! :eek:

We had to jack up the motorhome and swap out the tire for the spare. Thankfully the wings and tail got there without damage.

VAF people are the BEST!
 
Cool N Number

Love the choice of registration number, Bruce! However, you ARE aware, are you not, that the RV-9A is not aerobatic? Just checking. :D
 
Nice work, Bruce! Major milestones are in the making. I really like what I'm seeing with the labels. I'm definitely interested in learning more about this system.
 
Love the choice of registration number, Bruce! However, you ARE aware, are you not, that the RV-9A is not aerobatic? Just checking. :D

Ah, you noticed! I thought about putting the "Aerobatic Maneuvers Prohibited" placard on upside down.
 
Love the choice of registration number, Bruce! However, you ARE aware, are you not, that the RV-9A is not aerobatic? Just checking. :D

Wow, I would have never caught that! Very tricky Mr. 771H.

Congrats, that is a big milestone. It took me 8 months from this point to my first flight but I'm not a speed demon. I also took 2 months off from building during the holidays. I found that the hangar was a good place to stash Christmas gifts though!

You'll be joining us in the skies soon!
 
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Nice work, Bruce! Major milestones are in the making. I really like what I'm seeing with the labels. I'm definitely interested in learning more about this system.

DecalPro has some good videos on their website that show the process in detail. I've also had good luck with the system, but it is not for the impatient. Once mastered, it gives beautiful results.
 
I'm getting awfully close now. I finished up the wiring on the panel this long weekend. Everything is on the panel, wires tied up nicely, and ready to be powered up. I updated the VP-X firmware. I had to dig out my old laptop running Windows to get that done. I set my switch configurations and am now ready to start flipping on switches.
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I also decided to take off all of the gear leg fairings and wheel pants in anticipation of moving the fuselage to the airport next weekend. Since I had those off, I shot on some UV Smooth Prime. I didn't do as good of a job on the pinholes, so I'm sure I will be sanding and filling and priming and sanding and filling and priming and sanding a few more times.
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I got the heater cable installed, made sure every nut and screw under the panel was tightened down, and installed the center tunnel covers.

I also made up some arm rest pads for the cabin interior that will be eventually covered with material.
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Bird has left the nest!

Big day today. I got the fuselage moved to the airport with some help from Eddy (EDog). I ended up having to call a flat bed tow truck to do the hauling. The trailer I thought would work was about 5" too narrow for the gear. The tow truck worked out great. Took less than an hour from start to finish and only cost me $100.

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Safely in the hangar. Ready to begin final assembly.

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Got some time in over the weekend to start putting the tail pieces on the fuselage. I fitted and drilled the tail pieces probably 2 years prior, but this time I can start messing around with fitting the empennage fairing.

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HS is on there for good, but the pitch trim servo wires need to be routed. The VS will probably need to come off so I can get the nutplates on for the empennage fairing mounts.

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The initial fairing fit was pretty bad.

After doing some trimming, sanding and massaging with the heat gun, it started to lay down much nicer.

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It still bows out on the other side around the VS, so I will need to do some cutting, filling and fiberglass layups to get this fairing looking nice. Hopefully, it will fit nice enough to eliminate some of the many screws that Van's calls out in the plans.
 
That is not a Vans emp fairing is it? I had so mush fun with mine, I hope yours goes easier!
 
Another step closer

Passed my flight review yesterday! I hadn't flown at all in 22 years, so getting back into flying took a few sessions with my CFI. It took about 4 hours of flight time in a Cessna 172. I had never flown this type of aircraft before, so it took about an hour to get the basic processes down pat, then another hour of doing all of the basic maneuvers and stalls. Finished off with lots of touch and go landings to get my coordination of controls working again. After the holidays I will get in some solo time, then some more work with the CFI to get familiar with the local airspace around San Diego and visit some of the other airports nearby.
The flying club has a Citabria, and I think the next step will be to get checked out in that and start working on my tailwheel endorsement even though I'm building a nose gear model. That should get me up above 150 hours and ready for some RV transition training.
 
Bruce, great news. Makes me feel like there is hope for me too. I haven't flown as PIC in as long as you were out of the left seat. Great you were able to get back in the saddle in only a few hours. The trick now is to not get over confident - at least that is my worry for me!!

Good idea on the tail wheel time. I have flown in a Kitfox several times and I was surprised how easy it landed. I don't know how the RV compares to the Kitfox as far as landing but I think the speed on the RV is quite a bit higher. Getting some tail wheel time can be nothing but good.

Have fun!
 
Bruce,

See if you can rent something with low wings like a Piper Warrior or such. It will help with the sight picture and get you ready for your transition training. I too need to get my flight review done and current and when I did some transition training early in my build found the 9A likes to float in ground effect and hard for me to land being use to the 172. You have twice the hours that I have so you may have better technique.
 
Great thread. I too just finished my flight review after being away from flying for 13 years. Amazing how fast it comes back to me. Joined Plus One Flyers club in San Diego as they have a boatload of planes at 4 San Diego area airports.

Even though most of my prior flying was in 172s, I chose to concentrate all my flying in Piper Archers as I thought they would be more applicable to flying RVs.
 
I was able to get some quality time in over the weekend at the hangar and finished up mounting the tail to the fuselage.

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The elevators are connected, but I still have to fabricate the rudder pedal links. All of the tips are on for good and I took off all of the blue plastic, which came off easily. I tested the rear position/strobe light and it works. I also did a bit of sanding down on the internal rudder stops to get a bit more swing angle.

Mounting the wings is up next!
 
Wings are on!

Another big day. The wings are bolted on for good. Overall the process went smoothly. My socket rachet got a work out. I could only move it one click at a time in the space between the seat rib and side skin. Getting the nuts on the lower bolts was challenging. I used some dry ice to chill the bolts and they slid in with just some light hammering with my nylon hammer.

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I had help and assistance from Bill Lull and Bill Cary (BillC). Thanks guys!

I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow.
 
More work today on getting the wings fully attached. Wing tip electronics are all wired up. I added the control surfaces and got them attached.

Ailerons on.
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Flaps getting attached.
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I finished up by pulling off most of the blue plastic. I only left the little bit where the wing walk area is. I wiped down every surface with some acetone to take off the residual adhesive and ink markings. It is looking very shiny now!
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