Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

I am still blown away with the amount of time that some stuff takes. I’ve been punching so many holes in the firewall that it is starting to resemble swiss cheese. With the arrival of the firewall forward kit, there are all kinds of simple little firewall tasks that can be done. I match drilled the gascolator doubler to the firewall and support angles. I let it’s placement be determined by the inboard angle flange. I just slid it up the angle until the outboard end holes looked like they were in the center of the angle. While I match drilled to the firewall, I had Tanya hold a wood block on the outside as a backer. This made drilling the holes much easier.

After I got the gascolator doubler squared away I moved on to the battery box. This is a steel powder coated box that needs some lightening holes cut in it with a hole saw. That was not fun. I wrapped the box in masking tape before starting. This helped to preserve the nice finish. I clamped the mounting brackets to the box and match drilled and dimpled all of the attachment holes. Some riveting and nutplates later and it is good to go. I also got the mounting of the master battery and starter contactors taken care of.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

I spent plenty of time tinkering with the canopy latch mechanism fabrication. I made one of the latch angles three (ok, maybe four) times until I was very happy with it. Basically what ends up happening (not per plans) is that you should forget the plans for their pivot hole location and make what works. This means drill the lever pivot hole then drill the forward latch pivot hole wherever it needs to be for things to work right. The little z-bend in the lever spring assembly is kind of a joke. I thought about really cleaning up the mechanics of this with some model airplane parts but decided against it. I’m really starting to get into the mind set that there are many of these things happily flying that are built just like the plans. I received some UHMW tape with one of my recent orders, so I stuck that on the insides of the latch angles and drilled them to the rivet holes in the side skin. I machine countersunk the holes in the latch angles and dimpled the skin holes. I recently ordered a new dimpling tool from Avery that works with the rivet gun instead of using the pop-rivet puller dies. I love the new tool. It produces a much better dimple (by far) as long as you use much care not to get it out of alignment (which I did on my first couple of dimples). In a completely unrelated thing, I found that I needed to trim the forward bottom flange of the spar caps just a bit to clear the landing gear mounts.

Where I’ve really been spending most of my time recently is in electrical and panel planning, ordering, and inventory. I have been working with Fabian at Affordable Panels to have a custom panel cut. You might recognize the general design. I’m not the least bit afraid of stealing ideas that work and I like (thanks Walter). Fabian has been great to work with so far and has been very accommodating to my little revisions. He sent full size PDF output for review and I printed it on the plotter at work to get comfortable with in the airplane. He is also going to cut a removable engine control bracket for me with the holes already punched per my layout. I’m going to use a 7″ bracket with the controls spaced a little closer together than normal (2-1/4″ compared to 3″ centers). I’m doing this primarily to improve leg room below the panel. After many revisions back and forth, I have given the go-ahead to cut the panel. He says it will be cut very soon.

I have also placed and received orders from Vans, Stein, B&C, and Perihelion. I got the firewall forward kit from Vans and a bunch of electrical stuff from the others. I think I have most of the random electrical stuff on hand now that needs hard mounting provisions behind the panel (voltage regulators, fuse blocks, relays, dimmers, etc.). It took me the better part of two evenings to inventory all this stuff. I also had Vans cut some AS3-063 sheet 1-15/16″x48″ for making the firewall flange for the camlocks on the cowl. Not that I’m going to be doing that any time soon :).

Right now, I think I’m going to do a little more work on stuff at the firewall. Drill the holes for mounting the cabin heat selector, install the gascolator doubler bracket, and other little stuff like that. I’m still working on wiring harness lengths for a GRT and avionics order. I have also changed my mind (again) and am planning on ordering custom braided brake lines from Bonaco for connections in the cabin; apparently they don’t respond to email. Then I need to stop procrastinating and blast into canopy construction. After that, hopefully my TruTrak servos and AOA will have arrived and I can close up the wings and fit the wings. By then, the engine and avionics should be here…

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

A little current state info:
As far as I know, the Mattituck engine order is all good. We should see an O-320 engine with all the trimmings in a few months. We still haven’t done anything with the cowl and nose gear leg that either needs to be sold or returned to Vans. We still need to order the O-320 cowl, engine mount, and drilled gear leg from Vans. I’m thinking we’ll order that stuff from Vans, then ship back what we have in the same crate.

I ordered the Firewall Forward kit from Vans this week among other minor stuff. That was a big order ($5K+). My kit deletions included the wiring harness, alternator, and gascolator. I’m doing a B&C alternator (as well as a standby SD-20) with my engine package from Mattituck and an Andair gascolator from Vans.

I have an order placed with Affordable Panels for the TruTrak autopilot servos, AOA, and a custom cut panel. They have recently begun a policy to not do custom panel work unless you buy other stuff from them. Apparently they were having problems with people placing custom panel orders and reselling them with a markup. I also have orders ready for a bunch of electrical stuff from Steinair and B&C. Not to mention the perpetual order list from ACS.

Construction is in a funky state. Technically, fuselage construction is fully complete except for wing fitting and fuel and brake line plumbing. I have recently painted the lower forward fuselage interior parts that need paint, so I can proceed with some of the plumbing. I’m going to need to wait for the cabin fuel plumbing until I get my recent order from Vans containing the Andair fuel valve (I know, I said I was going to use the stock valve, but I couldn’t resist when it came time to spend the money), fuel pump, and firewall stiffener for the gascolator. Wing fitting is, well, a big scary thing in a small two car garage. The wings are currently in storage in the living room (did I mention that we own a hangar _chuckle_, Tanya is super cool about it). They still need the bottom skins to be riveted on before fitting but before that, I want to make sure all of the wiring and AOA tubes are going to fit in the conduit that is installed. Oh, yeah, and there is always that pesky Vans fuel tank pickup service bulletin that I’m going to comply with. Yep, so as soon as I get the AOA and some wire from Stein and get the bottom skins riveted on the wings, well do full wing fitting. Until then, I’m finding little random stuff to do.

Other big stuff that I’m thinking about is avionics. Obviously, since I’m prepared to have a custom panel cut, I know exactly what I want (three display GRT EFIS, EIS, GNS 430, audio panel, SL-40). But, the one rule that should not be violated while building a modern all electric airplane is to not purchase avionics until the very last moment possible. It is all computer stuff that is obsolete before it is even shipped. I figure that I will need the avionics in another three or four months. Which means it is getting very close to time to order this stuff. I’m going to do wiring and systems completion before engine mounting. Right now the fuselage is set super low to the floor which makes it real easy to work on. That will change after the engine is mounted.

Still at it, slowly but surely. I completed fitting the full empennage and the upper and lower fairings. I figured it was finally time to rivet the fiberglass tips on. The failure mode of the bolts holding the elevator counter weights on is not pretty. I decided to pot the nut and bolts with epoxy and flox. That assembly is *never* coming apart. I’ll sleep better. With that cured, I pop riveted all of the tips on. Some of the rivets dropped the steel end into the tip. This resulted in these little suckers rolling around in the sealed tip. I’ll figure out a way to get most of them out at some point.
It was also time to figure out how to run the wires for the tail lights. There sure isn’t a lot of information on exactly where to punch the holes. I decided to put a single hole for a snap bushing just above the tie-down bracket. This will allow me to run the wires almost straight into the rudder pivot area and down into the rudder bottom. We’ll see when it all goes together.
I machine countersunk the lower empennage fairing attach holes then tapped what was left of the longeron for the screws. Once again, not a whole lot of information to be had about how others did this. Also, I stuck on the rudder stops for good. Tanya didn’t feel like helping rivet so I got lazy and used a couple of pop rivets. These could totally be bucked with a little ambition.
I removed and stored (in the spare bedroom) all of the empennage pieces. I decided to fabricate the angle that stiffens the top of the instrument panel. I’m just looking for stuff to do at this point (delaying wing fitting?) and that took a full evening. I had a small epiphany while trying to figure out how I was going to finish all of the notch cuts. It wouldn’t fit in my belt sander and I didn’t feel like spending a full day filing all those notches by hand. I used some roloc sanding disks in the air grinder. I had forgotten I had this magic little tool (the sanding disks). It knocked out finishing all of the notches in no time. I was pretty happy to have found the perfect tool for the job, one of my favorite things. Also of a random nature, I decided to cut the slot for the canopy latch mechanism. I placed the template, drilled the holes and cut down the center of the notch with a dremel cutoff wheel. Then I attacked it with files by hand. That only took an hour or so. I’m sure I’ll have to open the slot up a little more when I get the latch parts cleaned up and fitted.