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F-303 question

Rdwrv4

Well Known Member
Plans show spar thickness at 1.040 plans show F-303 gap to be 1.063, an experienced -3 builder said his spars measured less than 1.040 thick and should make gap less, and experience on the subject, I am setting the gap on the f-303 as we speak and would appreciate input
thx
 
Yes, and the empennage kit, standard wing kit and fuselage kits were all delivered April 2012.

You can read about the building of my RV-3B here if you haven't already.

Right now I've got the bulkheads in place on the upper longerons and am working on the various frame pieces which go in before skinning.

When I made my F-303 spacer, I should have made it in two pieces to match the spar. Instead I left it a straight board all the way through, and that's been a bit awkward. Also I didn't rivet on the F-303F splice strip across the bottom (it goes on before the skins) until quite recently and that was easy to do and awkward in that it would have been better to have in place earlier.

That board in the middle of my F-303 needed a couple thousandths added back in. Clear shipping tape worked very well for that.

Dave
 
Thx for the response

I am making a 3 with a Rocket cowl, I am going to build the 303 bulkhead in situ,and leave out the 303 F all together, I built my own bulkheads out of .040 because the top of the bulk head ended being 1.5 " wider. my spacer is 1.040 right now I will put some .016 sheet to space it out a bit more, thx for your input.
 
That all by itself is probably a bit skinny since the spar needs a slight bit of clearance to slide in and out. Might I recommend using .025 or at least .020 instead?

I'd thought about a Rocket or RV-8 front end but figured that I'd do better sticking to the plans. The great temptation with the Rocket front is that the temptation to Rocketize the whole plane would probably have been irresistible and I didn't want to fall into that. There would have been many complications and one thing I learned over the years is that the KISS approach is not only desirable, if difficult; it's elegant.

So mostly stock it is, at least for me.

How about starting a VAF blog for yours? I'd be interested to see its progress.

Dave
 
blog

I have made some very nice parts the most challenging was the engine mount, I used long RV4 gear 2nd was the firewall weldments ,the firewall shape took quite a while to figure out too, If I can just get past the 303 bulkhead I should be home free
 
The word I got through the grapevine is to double up the F-310 and F-311 bulkheads, with the flanges back to back. Apparently there are sometimes, on some ships in some operations, some loose rivets back there. Don't know that first-hand but I'm taking that advice. On my F-310 pair I'm putting the stabilizer bars in between the two bulkheads.

The tail gear attach bracket is from the RV-4 and is slightly longer than the RV-3 design. Its aft flange is bigger, too. Things to deal with.

Another thing is that the control mixer can be placed almost too low, and to avoid that lest the pushrod interfere with the belly skin.

Don't know if you've checked my blog here on VAF but I described how I used 1 x 1 x 1/8 for the top longerons and narrowed them down to 3/4 x 3/4 in between where I wanted them wider.

Dave
 
My wing and fuselage kit was shipped in 2009, I have built to the plans and spars look like being a fairly close fit.
Full back stick with mine has the mixer clearing the floor by about 3/8 inch.
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