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No wiring done to speak of. Most of that will be done on the bench and will plug into bulkhead connectors. I am small so it shouldn't be too terrible a job to plug stuff in. With the two TruTrak screens all the engine management and avionics are combined in one harness. The only other stuff will be radio and transponder for the most part. I am finally getting excited!
 
Summer Solstice Party in Seattle

Put the wheels on today and rolled her out into the fresh air for the first time, as the long summer day (63F) drifted off into twilight here at 47? 19' N. Engine shows up in a few weeks. As mentioned before, it has been a long road, but it looks like there might be an end out there somewhere! .

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The wind went away and 8LK flys for the first time...

The wind went away and on Sunday 8LK took to the air at 7:07AM for the first time....:D
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Attaboy Dave

Add another digit to the flying 9/9A hobbs meter. We need to see a first flight everyday to get the respect this model deserves. There ought to be 365 of us really close to being able to fly.
 
My Favorite Bucker

I took advantage of the long weekend and my Chief Bucker's holiday to put her to work. Here's a trio of pictures of my progress. All wired aft of the firewall, engine mount on, landing gear ready to put on if I can just find the tube for the nose tire. I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere. Now if I can just work up the courage to fiberglass the fairing on the T/U canopy.

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Get er done !!!!!

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This is just too cool....

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Building an RV - $$$$$
Building an airplane - time , blood, sweat, tears....:eek:
Zipping up to see the kids - PRICELESS!!!
 
Drilled The Rear Spar

I finally had time this weekend to mount the wings and get the all important rear spar drilled.. All measurements and angles came out great, and I maintained the ever important 5/8" to all edges.. Glad that is done.. Here is a photo in the garage

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Moved to Hangar - Tail On!

Moved Caddie to the hangar yesterday- got the tail on today, lot of work left - but we are getting there!

Finally finished painting!!

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First major milestone!!!

It's midnight here in Minnesota. That should tell you my usual building hours. From about 9:30 to midnight. Thats the price you pay when you have three little kids, a wife AND you want to build a plane. The family must not suffer. So I build while they sleep. I started my project at the end of May this year and finally I have something to show for it. The learning curve has been very steep and has taken me a while to adapt to...but I finally know enough to be "dangerous" to those little rivets. I'm in no rush and having a blast building!
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Good job Aaron,

It only gets better from here... my family is very familiar with the rivet gun lullaby too.
 
Looking good

Looking good Aaron. We will need to see you next year at Oshkosh for an update.
 
One year, one month, one week and one day...

after I started the tail kit, I'm at another big milestone.

Rolled the canoe tonight and finished the riveting on the side skins.

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Rolled it out into daylight on the cart.

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No more clecos!

Now when do I pull the trigger on the finish kit? I guess I need to figure out a few things like engine and prop before I can do that.
 
Bruce, I looked at your builder galleries. That's alot of work for one years time. How many hours does that represent?
 
Haven't kept track of the hours. Don't know, don't care! I'm out there working on it 3-5 evenings per week, and lots more time on the weekends. I took at least 2 months off for family/holidays/vacations/graduations, and probably another month for business travel. I would have had the canoe rolled a month ago, but I had to conscript a riveting partner to finish it off (my 15 year old daughter).

IMHO, the key to steady progress is knowing what I'm going to work on every time I go out to the garage. These VAF forums and all of the builder community and web sites are a HUGE help for me to fully understand the upcoming tasks before I start. Searching these forums is a great thing. Mentally prepared and focused, it makes for efficient work time in the shop.

Lots of decisions to make at this point before I can finish the fuselage and order the finish kit. Oh yeah, and lots of money...
 
First Component almost complete - Horizontal Stabilizer

I say almost since the fiberglass is not started and no torque wrench so the VA146 bearing is sitting in a box. But it feels good to be working on the VS and Rudder.:)

I was going to post a picture but it doesn't appear that I'm able. Those who are curious may use the link to my build site.

I am so appreciative of this site and the other builder sites that have helped me so far. Thanks a bunch!
 
Sliding Canopy DONE!!! Now what do I do?

My goal was to finish the slider before it got cold and I made it! Canopy is Sika attached with only the hole for the handle. It could have gone better but I'm happy with the result.






Now what do I do? Options are:

1) Fit the wings (will require waiting till late October for garage space)

2) Rivet on top skin and complete windshield (it's already cut)

3) Start wiring. The panel is already cut and I've fitted radio racks and made provisions for mounting everying in subpanel, etc.
 
Wait 'til the very last....

...to rivet the forward skin. Wire everything you can, under the instrument panel....everything. When the airplane is just about ready to fly, then rivet that panel. Crawling under the dash is such a pain!

We made it the very last bit of our rivetting and were glad we did.

If you have the finishing kit, mount the wheelpants and leg fairings...much easier than crawling under the wings.

Best,
 
SIKA slider completed!

My goal was to finish the slider before it got cold and I made it! Canopy is Sika attached with only the hole for the handle. It could have gone better but I'm happy with the result.
Dave:

So when can you bring your expertise to OK City???!!!

Looking very nice.

Doug Lomheim
RV-9A / Mazda 13B
OK City, OK
Canopy slider bending this weekend...:eek:
 
After reading the "Illustrated Guide" from this site, it took us just under an hour to hang my O-320 on Saturday morning. My wife and I got the top two bolts in and when my friend, who had just hung the O-360 on his 8A, got there, we finished the botom 2. Now on to the cowl!


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A huge small milestone.

Hi everyone,

first time I?m posting after having something to show. Not such a big milestone, considering what?s ahead, but a real personal victory.
A brief story: 32 y/o, pediatric cardiologist, love planes since forever. Could not fly military (the only public and free flight school in Brazil) and parents were afraid to afford flying lessons. Learned about homebuilts during med school and started dreaming. Learned about Van?s Rvs soon after and dreaming almost became an obssession. Finished school, specialization, married, moved to a small town (now we?re getting close), ordered empennage and wing kits. Went to Sun n? Fun this year with my Dad (big boys trip) and he, who is a gifted craftsman, fell in love with the idea of building a RV. Went the forums, met some amazing people, joined EAA. Back home, started building the shop (a tent in my backyard, since the house is a rental). Received empenage kit july this year and just looked at it for almost a month, afraid to damage the thing (never tried anything like it before). After a deep breath...started...it didn?t hurt that much..actualy it didn?t hurt at all!! Dad came (lives 1k miles northeast) and things got faster. Now we have the rudder (no fiber) and the vert stab is pre-assembled for match drilling. Here are some pics of the shop, the parts and us:
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Outside view of the shop
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Daddy priming parts in our paint booth (made from the kit box)
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Me and Dad with the rudder
 
Looking good Rodrigo! Time goes fast couple three more years and you will be ready for the engine :) Keep up good speed! It's good to have right helper even if he is one thousand miles away. See you in Brazilian skies some day.
 
Just Getting Organized

Empennage kit is on the way; getting shop set-up and organized

Completed an EAA table
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Made it the same hight as an existing bench so I have about 12 feet of table top. I may still put the EAA table on casters.
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With some of the left over melamine particle board I made a drawing board to sit at and study plans. It's hinged to the wall so it will fold down when more room is needed
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First trial fitting of instrument panel

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Attached, I hope, is a picture of the first trial fitting of my instrument panel. It has a dual Dynon 10" display. I needed to cut a pass-through hole in the sub panel for the two radios, and the right rib will need some trimming, but other than that I think it is going to be fine.
 
Looks nice. I'm considering a similar panel and haven't seen how 2 10" displays fill the panel.

More Pics Please!
 
Looks nice. I'm considering a similar panel and haven't seen how 2 10" displays fill the panel.

More Pics Please!
May I present russd's panel with dual Dynon's.

I'd like dual 10" outboard of a 7" & GNS430 stacked vertically. Of course, whether or not that happens remains to be seen....
 
Started work

Empennage kit arrived on Monday. Spent all day Monday and Tuesday polishing and deburring parts. Match drilled and clecoed today.

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Fuselage and tail painted

Here they are:

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Many thanks to Troy Coker and Jerry Cochran for the photografies of their wonderful planes.

Camillo
 
Bella, Camillo!

The plane is looking great!

I like picking up a little bit of Italian reading your web page.

Castello motore... Only in Italian does talking about airplane parts sound like an opera.
 
Whew...

I can't believe how much time is spent filing and polishing, deburring and dimpling, but I finally got that all done this weekend, then I cleaned and primed the ribs, spars etc. and fired-up the rivet gun. Completed the left HS and I'm quite pleased with the result. I used my squeezer yolk as a bucking bar for the first few rivets on the center nose rib and that worked great. Rivets are nice and flush and the surface is smooth and ripple free. I will wait until my EAA counselor takes a look before starting the right side
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Canopy Done!

Latest significant progress on my 9A. Glad to have the canopy behind me. Now on to the fun of wiring the panel.
Alan Jackson
Hartselle, AL

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After a long Thanksgiving weekend, I finally got the cowl all trimmed and fitted. Using MilSpec fasteners everywhere. I think I can move on to the baffling baffles now. I may have to open up the gap between the top and bottom halves before painting. I only have about 1/32 between them.





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Panel

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Making good progress lately. Just have to figure out the wiring for a cessna split switch, lightspeed one side, and acs key ingnition. Getting close though... :)
 
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Thanks

It took a long time to plan the panel. I may add a second dynon skyview to the copilot side down the road. To be honest the ipad...with inflight movies, all vfr and a/d charts layouts weather etc and built in moving map gps....just not sure I need to spend the money. Simple day night vfr for me. Pretty light and inexpensive panel really.

Will see how it works this spring. :p
 
How did you do the panel?

The panel looks great, definitely not your standard deal. Can you tell us how you did it?

Thanks
 
Thanks

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Early in my build I saw a panel that Mike Schipper had on his 9a and really liked it. I tried that supplier but no love. Finally a year or so ago, a builder on here had made a modular panel and did a couple extra lay ups that he was willing to sell. Not sure if he is going to make some more (pm me if you want his contact info)...but it was just what I had been looking for. I bought the shell,cut it all out, got some metal inserts, plate nuts etc and got going. It did take a LOT of work, but it came together very well. Thanks for the compliments. The carbon fiber is simply a sticker over the metal, and the decals were just done up by a local sign maker and I put them on (they do have a protective coat on them so they dont scratch off like stickers would. The paint is some fancy new titanium metallic stuff that rustoleum makes in a fancy spray bomb at Home Depot. It was amazing...I could not believe how well it went on and how good the paint looks in person. How many cans would it take to shoot the whole plane? :D
 
Rick, did you use the Rustoleum to also paint the interior panels? I have used their metal primer and have been very impressed with their product... Mark C.
 
Horizontal Stabilizer is done

Finished up the HS today. A small milestone. Feels good to have it done. On to the vertical stab.
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Panel

Hey Dave that looks great. Nice work. Mind if I ask about the defrost? I have heard of people doing that before...just wondered what you went with/plumbed?

Good luck with the spaghetti. :D
 
Defrost

"defrost" is really just 2 small 12V fans in the upper forward skin. The idea is to blow air onto the inside of the windscreen to keep breath from fogging/icing up on there. I'll have 2 heat muffs and I have 2 cabin heat boxes, so if I have to plumb scat tubing up to a fan, I will be able to.
 
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