Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

I have heard others talk about the zen of the BLUE sharpie pen but I never believed it. I have always used black sharpies for all my aluminum parts layout. I have struggled through the frustration of sometimes the pen will make a mark, sometimes it will hit a spot and fail to mark. I told Tanya that I had heard this long ago. The other day she came home with a test pen. The blue sharpie solves all woes! I know it sounds crazy but it is true. I’ll never use a black sharpie to do parts layout again.

 

  

 

Spent some time adjusting the rudder stop. It is ready to rivet. Some people report that the stop fabricated per the plans just doesn’t work. I believe that but mine worked out fine. I also completed the tail light mounting in the rudder tip. This was kind of fun. I went digging through my boxes of old computer parts for the proper hardware. Any self respecting techie will have a healthy stash of 4-40 stand-offs. I drilled a hole, put a stand-off in, put the whelen supplied nut on the back (after a little careful grinding on the back side), and put some l0ctite and a drop of epoxy on the back side to hold the nut. I did remove the mounting ears on the light assembly for things to fit right. All good to go.

Alright, after my initial inspection of the Vans empennage upper fairing, I couldn’t imagine that I would be able to get it to work. I’ll admit that I was prepared to order a new one that fit from bob at fairings-etc but that felt like admitting defeat. Another day later and I decided that I would give this ugly looking fairing a try. After lots of study and just plain looking at it, I realized that it just needed to be trimmed a whole lot and it might be fine. So I attacked it with the cutoff wheel in the pneumatic angle grinder. Oh, yeah, there is a picture of the perfect suite of tools for trimming fiberglass parts. The big 1.5″ drum sander (home depot) in the air grinder with a coarse drum on it is awesome for rough trimming to a line. As always, my fiberglass trimming procedure includes clamping the shop vacuum hose to the bench and directing all trimming dust into the vacuum. This really does well in keeping the dust under control. I’ll buy or build a sanding box when I build the next airplane. For those not aware, ideally when sanding parts on a bench, you could sand on a perforated surface with a powerful vacuum pulled under it so all the particles go down through the surface and into the vacuum. Yep, perfect for fiberglass work.

So I trimmed the empennage fairing extensively and hit it with the heat gun in some strategic spots and it looks pretty good. I put some micro filler on some spots that I’ll finish off, then I’ll drill attachment holes. The important part here is that I win, not the fairing :).

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

I’m now working on the empennage fairings. The upper fiberglass fairing sure doesn’t fit very well. We’ll see how that works out. I also got the rudder stops adjusted and ready to rivet.

With the horizontal stabilizer and elevator pushrod secured and adjusted, I moved on to the vertical stabilizer. The forward bracket is kind of a no brainer. It has holes drilled in it that match holes in the vertical stabilizer forward spar and two at the base that must be match drilled in the aft deck. I installed the forward bracket on the aft side of the vertical spar. The builder has the option on this to make it fit best. Then it is time to fit the stabilizer, measure a million times, and drill the holes. With the stabilizer mounted I got out the rudder. I had already adjusted it mostly long ago but it needed a little more tuning of the rod ends. Next up is to attach the rudder stops. Yes, it really took me five hours just to drill those few bolt holes.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

It looks like building got slowed down a bit. I got home last night to find that the dishwasher had filled up and run all over (actually under) the wood floor in the kitchen and eating area. Tanya and I spent all night ripping up the floor. Looks like I have to go into home repair mode :(.