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Yea, I live 85 miles from the airport. All Highway driving but still far. I can now only work on the plane on the weekends. I have a second house 8 miles from the airport. I am now going through build withdrawal. I can not wait for the weekends. Two more years and I can retire to the second house. :)
 
Ordered the fuselage kit today

Finally, I ordered my SB fuselage kit today. I have a few cleanup items left to finish the wings but that will be done by the time the kit arrives. I have one problem though. I bought the wing kit from an individual and didn't know he had ordered a QB fuselage when he bought the wing kit. That meant he didn't get the longerons with the fuselage kit. I am also missing the wing center section that was matched to my wing spars. The previous owner cancelled the fuselage order and Van's sold the center section and longerons to someone else. Now I will have to buy a new center section and longerons. The worst besides the $600.00 is how to ship the longerons. One thing that kind of ticks me off is that Van's got to sell that center section two times. The original owner bought it and then someone else payed for it when he cancelled the order and now I have to buy another one. Oh well Stuff happens. I'm just thrilled to be this far along.
 
rv9aviator said:
Finally, I ordered my SB fuselage kit today. I have a few cleanup items left to finish the wings but that will be done by the time the kit arrives. I have one problem though. I bought the wing kit from an individual and didn't know he had ordered a QB fuselage when he bought the wing kit. That meant he didn't get the longerons with the fuselage kit. I am also missing the wing center section that was matched to my wing spars. The previous owner cancelled the fuselage order and Van's sold the center section and longerons to someone else. Now I will have to buy a new center section and longerons. The worst besides the $600.00 is how to ship the longerons. One thing that kind of ticks me off is that Van's got to sell that center section two times. The original owner bought it and then someone else payed for it when he cancelled the order and now I have to buy another one. Oh well Stuff happens. I'm just thrilled to be this far along.


Jim--Bummer. Those longerons are going to cost a fortune to ship, but I would guess you already know that. You might check around (and with Van's) regarding the suitability of locally sourced aluminum angle. Good luck.
 
I Feel Your Pain

Larry said:
Yea, I live 85 miles from the airport. All Highway driving but still far. I can now only work on the plane on the weekends. I have a second house 8 miles from the airport. I am now going through build withdrawal. I can not wait for the weekends. Two more years and I can retire to the second house. :)

Having your plane at the airport is a mixed blessing because now you can't stroll out to the garage to get a little work in here and there. I live 15 minutes from my hanger but still can only work on it on the weekends. Driving out there to do little things doesn't make sense, but it's the little things that add up to big accomplishments. It is even more frustrating because the end is in sight but progress is significantly slowed. I try to bring things to work on at my job and make the most of my weekends at the hangar.

Bruce
-9 N659DB
 
rv9aviator said:
Finally, I ordered my SB fuselage kit today. I have a few cleanup items left to finish the wings but that will be done by the time the kit arrives. I have one problem though. I bought the wing kit from an individual and didn't know he had ordered a QB fuselage when he bought the wing kit. That meant he didn't get the longerons with the fuselage kit. I am also missing the wing center section that was matched to my wing spars. The previous owner cancelled the fuselage order and Van's sold the center section and longerons to someone else. Now I will have to buy a new center section and longerons. The worst besides the $600.00 is how to ship the longerons. One thing that kind of ticks me off is that Van's got to sell that center section two times. The original owner bought it and then someone else payed for it when he cancelled the order and now I have to buy another one. Oh well Stuff happens. I'm just thrilled to be this far along.
You might check and see if Tony Purtain (spelling ?) is heading your way anytime soon with a load of quickbuilds. He seems to come down here to Texas alot Arkansas ain't too much further. It might be easier to ship with him than try to do UPS or truck shipping
 
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I already sent Partain an E-mail and am waiting for a reply. I was told by Van's yesterday that adding the longerons to the fuselage shipping only added $48.00 so I will have them packaged with the fuselage stuff. Not so bad after all.
Thanks
 
Engine Start

Had a successful first engine start once I pushed in the mixture. I had the tail tied down, helpers manning the fire extinguisher and radio and my wife doing the photos. I had and followed the checklist. Pumped the throttle 3 times, called ?Clear Prop? and cranked her over. It immediately fired than stopped? Did it again and the same thing. Did it again but would only fire when pumping the throttle. Bad fuel system? Bad fuel? Eric Hansen, Lockheed flight test pilot, came over, look in the cockpit, and said ?Push the mixture in!? :confused: Goes to show you what can happen when you are excited. My checklist said ?Mixture Rich?, I called the check out, and what did I do, just left the mixture in the lean position.

Once the mixture was in the engine started and ran perfectly. :) Oil pressure came up, all mechanical and electrical systems working fine. Shut down after five minutes and the post inspection showed no oil or fuel leaks. After a 60 minuet cool down ran the engine again to do more detailed mag and carb heat checks. I saw no significant change in RPM with MAG change or carb heat. I have a Light Speed upper with a Slick lower ignition system. I know the switch works, I checked it statically and can kill the engine with the ignition off. What can one expect for RPM change when doing a test within two minutes of start? Same goes for the carb heat.

Things were working so good that I did a slow taxi on the last and final engine run for the day. Brakes were grabby initially than settled down. First engine run complete and its verified that the plane taxies.

Next stop get the paper work done, clean up some odds and ends, W&B, EAA and FAA inspection then first flight. 95% done 25% to go. :eek:

 
Very nice. Super excited for you. I'll keep pounding rivets in hopes of getting there.
 
Mag Drop

Larry,

I have a 9a with a Lyc./Lightspeed on one side. I get about 10-20 rpm drop when the mag is checked (off) and 60-70 rpm drop when the Lightspeed is checked.

Hope this helps.

db
 
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[/URL][/IMG] Just finished the canopy. Added a 'Targa Strip' to the trailing edge. See my post in 'RV building tips' section.
 
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Right behind Greg

Made "The Big Cut" or Tad S. did for me and I watched like an expentant father.

Now to finish trimming it.

 
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First Run!

Here is a shot from my first engine run! The PennYan Aero O320 ran very smoothly and the I-K Technologies engine monitor indicatated that all temps and pressures were "in the green". The only issue was a fast idle because the throttle linkage was not properly adjusted. Many thanks to Dave and Tony for getting the charger and picking up lunch. Also to my kids for recording the moment, and to Carl for keeping us in line!

firstrun8yj.jpg
 
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Windscreen done - on to gear fairings....

Panel and FWF are complete. Gear fairings and then paint. Getting there.....

 
So far.....

...all I've gotten done is to get the HS prepped for final assembly/riveting and some of the VS drilling - deburring. No elevator or rudder construction yet.
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FUTURE-PANEL

Hi Everyone,

I just received my quick-build kit and it is amazing how quickly the rest of the components, engine, panel, prop, etc are needed. On Tueday, I spoke to Damian at Affordable Panels about a panel, and while listing the items I wanted, he said "Darn, that is almost identical to a panel we are doing for Mr. Jett" I asked the to send me a photos to see if that is what I wanted. After I saw the photos, I said Ditto.

I am posting the photos here in case someone is considering a similar layout and wants some ideas for their own installation. I understand these photos are from a RV-7 with Tip-Up canopy, but my RV-9 with slider canopy should be very similar. My original choice of colors was a Gray tone with white letters, but this beige with black letter looks interesting.

Garry :)

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2 chunks down, lots to go...

Started about a month ago... Horizontal & Vertical Stabs are done :D

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vertstabdone3xt.jpg


A few minor "personality dings" so far, but lots of fun!
 
Dave, your moving right along. Looks like you have a good helper there also!

Let me know if you want to borrow my big back rivet plate.
 
Caps?

Lorin picture/wings look good. Where did you get those fuel caps? Are those Van's?
Thanks.
 
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This was my status about a week ago. I prematurely tipped the canoe b/c I had a EAA chapter project tour at my house and nobody could have seen anything otherwise. It's upside down again and I've since riveted the forward fuselage... now I just need to get a riveting partner to help me aft of the centersection. It should be tipped upright for good within a week It's pretty neat seeing the fuselage at this stage after working on it for 6 months!

 
Cleaning out the garage

So we took some pics....

splane7060185ay9.jpg


The clecos in the spinner create turbulent airflow that keeps rain off the windscreen.......

Fill, sand, repeat, Fill, sand, repeat, Fill, sand, repeat, Fill, sand, repeat,
 
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Moved to airport today

Highway 101 in South San Jose. The smoke is from the braking of all the gawking drivers!
(Seriously though, it was a roadside brush fire, though there were people swerving around the whole way.)

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A few more photos of the move at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96199824@N00/sets/72157594223511874/

PS: Bill's Towing in Mountain View does all the aircraft moving in this area and did a great job.
For those of you not sure how to find your local expert, it occurred to me that you could call the
tower of your local GA airport and ask them who they call when someone does a gear-up landing.
He just yanked a Cardinal off the runway of PAO yesterday...
 
Panel is in the RV9-A plane

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We have finally finished wiring the panel and have it in place. We found two wires reversed out of all the wiring :confused: (low oil pressure warning light and hobbs) and lit her up after correcting our error. The labeling is complete but was too tired to take another picture the next evening. :( This weekend we will rivet the last panel on the fuselage and begin the finish stage on the front windshield. Firewall forward is complete with an O-235 L2C 118 hp lycoming turning a catto two blade prop. This is an all electric panel with Garmin 340 audio panel, Garmin 430 GPS/NAV/COMM, Garmin GTX327 transponder, Garmin G109 CDI, Tru-Trak T&B, Tru-Trak ADI, Tru-Trak Digiflight II VS Autopilot (linked to Garmin 430), PAI vertical card compass, and van's gauges. We will post more as we get closer to flight. :cool:

Patrick N. Garboden/Todd Wiechman (building in Wichita, KS)
RV9-A N942WG (reserved)
Ozark, MO
 
Mattituck O-320 arrived

My Mattituck O-320 red-gold engine arrived today. All I can say is Wow! Talk about motivation to build with this beautiful thing sitting in the corner of the garage.

More pictures
 
Working on the wings

Here's where I'm at if my first attempt at posting pictures worked. If not, I'll try again.






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Pete Howell's 9A

Pete's been busy building and doesn't have a public website, so I've taken the opportunity to post a photo of his finished RV-9A.

It's waiting for clear weather, and Pete hopes to announce the first flight soon.

Vern Little on behalf of Pete

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Thanks Vern

I forgot to post here last night. Many thanks to Vern and a host of others here and in the Minnesota Wing that helped me get to this point.

My DAR will visit soon!
 
On the gear

Yesterday was one of those "milestone" days.

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2 years and 3 months (about 1300 hours),
Steve
 
EFIS alive

Giddyup! I spent the whole weekend pushing buttons and turning knobs after getting all of the avionics fired up. Much fun.
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Looks Good Scott!

Good Lord you're fast.....I just shipped all that stuff to you about a week ago! Do you need a job!?!?!?!

Again, nice panel.

Cheers,
Stein.
 
SteinAir said:
Looks Good Scott!

Good Lord you're fast.....I just shipped all that stuff to you about a week ago! Do you need a job!?!?!?!

Again, nice panel.

Cheers,
Stein.

I told you I was ready for it :). Luckily I have a good job so I could send you that big fat check. Don't be fooled, I put in a few very long days on the panel after receiving the displays. I found that the biggest challenge is that all of the wiring is visible on a tipup, so it has to look good.
I'm now in a race to the finish before the Texas summer heat returns to catch me trying to do final assembly in the (HOT) hangar. We'll see if I make it.
 
Panel Picture N155T

Here's how my panel turned out. Not shown because the canopy is open is the AOA Sport HUD (heads up display) that you can see at a different Forum thread.

RV9-A_Panel.jpg


If I had a do-over I would probably not install the glove box. It is handy but takes up a lot of panel space. I really enjoy using the DJM center throttle quadrant. You can see how the avionics rack was made for this panel in an article on the Matronics Wiki.
 
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Current status report

We continue to make progress. Here is the current status of where we are with the RV9-A, Catto prop, IFR Garmin stack, Tru-Trak Digiflight II auto pilot, etc., etc., etc.
Got the panel labled.

Still lots to do but much closer to preparing for paint.

The pictures are worth a thousand words. Enjoy.

http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rv9aforsale012zv5.jpg

http://img148.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rv9aforsale008bd8.jpg

http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rv9aforsale024bd5.jpg

Pat Garboden Todd Wiechman
Ozark, MO Building in Wichita

RV9-A 942WG (reserved) slider w/O-235 full Garmin IFR stack
RV9-A 942PT (reserved) tip-up w/O-320 Chelton EFIS w/ full Garmin backup
 
Organized mess

We don't spend too much time organizing the caotic mess. If we are going to need it tomorrow then we leave it out. All the hardware is sorted and labled in bins but the big stuff, well, we just leave it under the plane and grab it when we need it. The boat hanging from the ceiling was made while waiting for the fuselage kit to ship. We did dismantle one of the portable wing jigs (on castors to move around) but then Todd ordered his 7 empennage so we left the second one up to hang drying painted parts.
Besides, where do you put things when you are building two RV9-A's in one garage???? Actually, now that I think of it, we put the wings on the wall and moved the fiberglass items and tail to the basement.
Needless to say, Todd is single so not too much opposition to parts in the family room.
We do pledge to clean the workbench every three months. Then we complain that we can't find anything.

My lawn looks as good as Rudi's however.

Pat Garboden
Ozark, MO
RV9-A 942WG (reserved)
RV9-A 942PT (reserved)
 
Over the San Juan Islands, Wa




This is flying in the "Lull of the Storm"...We have 10 winterstorms so far. Lucky my plane is housed in a friends Hangar in Victoria BC. otherwise...very bad. Many planes has been damage at the airport.

Fly safe. ;)
 
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Maintenance



Now is time for checking up how the machine stands up in use. No annual, but in between checking....while it howls and storms snow outside....

Fly safe. ;)
 
Hi Pete:

BTW, I found a fix for a heavy wing... besides slotting the aileron brackets and adjusting both ailerons to be the same height above the wing, you need to differentially raise or lower the tip of the aileron from the root.

In fact, this has much more affect than just raising both the tip and the root together. I found that 1/32" of this differential adjustment fixed my heavy left wing problem. I've gone from full trim (spring system) to neutral trim this way.

Oh yeah... I was trapped at the airport during the snowstorm. I had to call the tower and ask for permission to drive across the runway and find a different exit after our security gate failed.

Vern -9A
 
Great advice

;) Vern,

I will implement that aileron modification in my 9 and will try that.
I would't mind comparing some performance figures with you. I am also thinking about making a plenum. I want to go 10mph faster without making another plane. I am sure I can squeeze a couple more mph from my 9. Any suggestions for easy gain of speed?

Cheers,

Pete
 
Progress

I've done some work on the interior/exterior, rudder pedals, control sticks, seats, steps, etc. I just received a rotating fuse stand. It's going to make working in my little garage a lot easier. Just got to get over seeing the fuse "floating" the way it is. It's solid but I have nightmares of hearing a loud crash in the garage.



 
RV9798 said:
;) Vern,

I will implement that aileron modification in my 9 and will try that.
I would't mind comparing some performance figures with you. I am also thinking about making a plenum. I want to go 10mph faster without making another plane. I am sure I can squeeze a couple more mph from my 9. Any suggestions for easy gain of speed?

Cheers,

Pete

My 75% cruise is 164 knots, 189 mph. That's a few knots faster than Van's numbers, and I need at least 9500 feet p.a. to keep the prop below 2600 RPM.

By comparison, this is about 3-4 knots faster than a friend's RV-6A with a similar engine in side-by-side comparisons. The difference is that my engine is a Superior/ECI cylinders roller lifter engine. I think the Superior sump provides slightly better breathing (higher MAP). This is confirmed by my MAP readings vs. pressure altitude.

Here's some cheap ways to increase trip speed:
1. fix your roll trim problem
2. keep the ball centered
3. Use an autopilot
4. keep the weight down
5. keep the cooling drag to a minimum (reduce inlet size) if CHTs ok.
6. When climbing to cruise altitude, climb at Vy. Vy decreases by about 1 knot per thousand feet.
7. Couple your GPS and EFIS in order to get wind vectors. Change altitudes to benefit from tail wind or reduced headwinds.
8. Slow down in cruise/run best econ mixture to save a fuel stop. Alternatively, install extended range tanks.
9. Cut two feet from each wing to make a 'clipped wing' 9A. See if that helps. This may not be cheap if it doesn't work and you have to install new wings.
10. (My favourite). Cruise high, push the nose down and let 'er rip (watch Vne!) when approaching destination.

Seriously, if you want to go long distances fast, the extended range tanks are probably the way to go. Eliminating a fuel stop saves time and money. They are a pain to install and plumb, though.

If you are just looking for 'bragging rights' speed, though, I think you build an F1 Rocket, or get Norm to build one for you.

Personally, I have more fun with the formation flying than x-country.
 
Progress again

After meeting a great woman, courting and settling into married life I'm finally back to building on more than an occasional basis. Yesterday was a particularly memorable day - when I got home from work DHL had left a small package on my front porch - my dual Grand Rapids EFIS. After checking it out a neighbor came over and helped me finish a few dozen rivets, which were enough for me to finally "flip the canoe"!!! I still need to build some new sawhorses to level it up at a decent working height but here's a photo showing where I stopped last night.

One question for those who have finished - after looking a few websites over it appears that I'm 12-18 months (working evenings and weekends) from completion depending on how much hustle I put in. Does that sound about right?

Fuselage_024.jpg
 
Don said:
One question for those who have finished - after looking a few websites over it appears that I'm 12-18 months (working evenings and weekends) from completion depending on how much hustle I put in. Does that sound about right?
I flipped my fuselage August 11th, 2005 and I've been trying to work on it every day since then. I'm still probably a couple of months until flying it w/o paint.
 
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