Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

I finished up attaching the air seal fabric at the cowl air inlets. Then I jumped back to a little wiring task that I’ve been thinking about. I decided to add a small dimmer switch with some resistors to my annunciator lamps. Those lights are very bright in the dark. This involved a little rework of the wiring and much tinkering with resistors in the dark. I removed the GRT EFIS annunciator lamp since all of that info is now done on the displays. The lamp is just annoying. I used the open hole to place the switch.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

With the cardboard templates made for the cowl air inlets, I started cutting the air seal fabric. I got the top (to seal the plenum top) and sides cut and drilled to the baffles.
While I was doing that, Tanya came out to the garage and did some serious work bench cleanup. I had accumulated some major “bench clutter” on all of the benches that was beginning to get frustrating. She did a full bench reset (put away all the tools and parts) and life is much better.

 

  

  

  

 

I got the air seal fabric installed on the nose of the filtered air box. I’m perfectly happy with how it turned out and the fit is perfect to the bottom cowl. Installation isn’t a problem without the prop and spinner back plate. I’ll make adjustments later if I find the need when trying to get the bottom cowl on with the spinner back plate in place.
Then I moved on to making some cardboard templates for the air seal around the air inlets. I’ll include a few more pictures of the cowl to baffle/plenum inlet alignment.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Trimming of the plenum continued with the use of a new cheap sander. I think this is the first of many “duplicate” tools that will be going to the hangar. Once I had enough of sanding for now, I decided to go ahead an do the glass layup to reconstruct the outboard ears on the inlets that I had to chop off. Once that had setup enough (next day), I popped the plenum back off and began the task of drilling for about 35-40 nutplates around the top flange. Whoever said that building an RV was perfectly enjoyable without a #8 nutplate jig must have been crazy. I wouldn’t want to build without one.
Finally, I took all of the baffles off for final adjustments and installation of the plenum nutplates. Before they went back on, I filled most of the part fit gaps with high temp RTV. I used the small head NAS?? rivets for all of the nutplates. Just a little tiny machine countersink on each hole with a deburring bit and you’re ready to squeeze.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

I started trimming the plenum top. This is definitely not like working with any other glass on this build. It doesn’t cut very well with a cutoff wheel like everything else. I ended up having to trim the edges with some metal shears which tends to delaminate the layup. So I tried to cut just outside the line so I could sand to the line and hopefully end up with a reasonable edge. I also drilled the rest of the holes in the top to #30 with a plexi bit. I’ll open these up further for screws when I am done fitting. The cleco holes are just a lot easier to work with when doing a lot of off and on fitting.