Forward Canopy Decks – 1.5 hr

Tuesday Feb 28, 2012

Tonight I fit the two F-721A forward canopy decks to the longerons. I found I had to trim some material off the aft end where they join the F-721B side rails or else they would overlap. I trimmed them flush, bent the side rail tabs out about 15 degrees so they are flush with the inside of the fwd canopy decks and match drilled through the longerons.

Then I clecoed on the instrument panel, placed the F-721C attach angles on the forward canopy decks, match drilled one hole through the instrument panel, then match drilled through the attach angles and the canopy decks.

I think the F-721D attach angles are the last parts to make and fit in the front deck subassembly.

Crate Gone, More Front Deck Fitting – 5 hrs

Sunday Feb 26, 2012

I wanted to get as much done on the project today as possible but I had to do something with the giant crate that came with the finishing kit. I moved it out onto the driveway on Saturday so I had some room to work in the garage, but today I knew I had to do something permanent with it. So after trying unsuccessfully this weekend to give it away on Craig’s List I broke it down into pieces. Part went to make a platform in the attic on the joists for more storage space and the rest was broken into sections that I can store on the side of the house until I can discard it. That effort took at least 2 hours of my day. Then I could go back to fitting the front deck parts.

The F-644 _L and -R channels are awkward to fit because nothing is pre-drilled and I could not find a way to clamp them in place. So I took another approach. I started by drawing lines down the center of the top flanges of the channels. Then I placed each one in position in the front deck by hand, aligning it fore and aft, and then I marked the flange through the forward most hole in the skin. Then I took the channels back out and drilled a hole through the flange on the centerline where I marked it for the front hole. That hole is shown drilled in the photo below.

Then I put each channel back in the front deck and clecoed it to the skin at the front hole which is highlighted below.

Then I held the F-644 firmly against the sub-panel center section flange and drilled the aft most hole through the skin and put another cleco in. That cleco is highlighted below. Then it was easy to drill the rest of the holes through the top skin. The F-644s came out aligned perfectly and all the holes are right on the centerline of the flange. For the last step I drilled the two holes through the sub-panel center section flange and the F-644s using my 90 degree angle drill attachment from inside under the skin (no picture of that).

Next I removed the clecos on the left side of the skin and lifted it up so I could install the F-743B angle. I clamped the angle to the F-643 channel flush against the firewall and I could easily get a 12 inch #30 drill in there to drill the two holes that hold the angle to the F-643 channel. You can see the clamp and the access in the photo below.

Then I clecoed the skin back down and removed the F-768A sub-panel center section. That gave me good access from the aft side to the holes that hold the angle to the firewall as you can see below.

While the sub-panel center section was out I located the holes in the F-746 engine control bracket and drilled those to the sub-panel. The alignment is simply 1 inch of overlap and the bracket is centered left to right.

Finally, I clecoed the front section back together including the instrument panel so I will be ready to fit the F-721A forward canopy decks next.

Fitting Wing Root Fairings, Misc Front Deck – 7 hrs

Saturday Feb 25, 2012

With the wing root fairings in hand from the finishing kit I got the first real work done on the airplane in over a week. Some of the fairing holes line up with existing nutplates in the wing and some have to be match drilled using the fairing as the guide. After an initial fitting I bent the fairings along the leading edge to make them fit a bit better. I found that the edge of the fairings rub the side skin of the fuselage so I trimmed a bit off to make sure the fairings were located properly before match drilling. Then I opened up the holes to #12 for #8 screws. Then I used a piece of scrap .187 thick aluminum to mark a line on the inboard edges of each fairing which I used as a guide for trimming. After that I dimpled the holes in the fairings and put them aside for priming.

But I test fit a piece of the foot fairing seal material to see how it fits. It is snug. You don’t really want less than 3/16 gap between the edge of the fairing and the skin.

With the root fairing done I rechecked the alignment of the ailerons and flaps using the bellcrank tool. I made a couple of small adjustments to try to get the pushrod lengths all set correctly for normal level flight. With that done I can finally take the wings back off the fuselage and free up some room in this garage. But I need some help to do that so maybe tomorrow I can get the help of Jennifer and Denise.

Next I located the F-697 channel (also in the finishing kit), cut it to length and beveled one end. To locate it on the F-768A sub-panel I located and drilled one hole by dimensions on the drawing. I clecoed the channel to the sub-panel in that hole and aligned the channel vertical using centerlines I had drawn on the channel flanges. You can see the parts clecoed together in the picture below. the lower left cleco is holding the channel.

Then I drilled all the other holes in the channel flanges using the pre-drilled holes in the F-768A sub-panel.

Here is the assembly from the back side.

You have to cut a little notch in the channel flange where it overlaps the cut-out in the sub-panel for the canopy release handle.

Then I clecoed the sub-panel back onto the fuselage.

Next up was making the F-768D seal support angles. These little buggers took quite a while to make with all the holes and notches being manually located and cut.

Then I located the F-768Ds on the outboard sub-panels offset by 1/8 inch from the edge of the sub-panel.

With both of those done I clecoed them back onto the fuselage.

It feels good to make some progress again.

Finishing Kit Inventory – 1.5 hr

Thursday Feb 23, 2012

I enlisted the help of one of my daughter’s friends last night to lift the plexiglass canopy out of the shipping crate and move it to my make-shift paint booth for temporary safe storage. Then I was able to empty the rest of the contents from the shipping crate and continue doing the inventory of the finishing kit. No pictures tonight.

Finishing Kit Arrives – 1 hr

Tuesday Feb 21, 2012

It’s been over a week since my last post since I have been out of town again on business. While I was gone the finishing kit arrived from Vans. At 0ver 300 lb and 4 ft x 8 ft x 2 ft this is a big crate. The shipping charge to So Cal was over $400. Ouch! That includes $75 for “liftgate service” to get it off the truck. Or they said my wife could lift it off the truck herself for free. Yeah right. Anyway, it now occupies the last free spot in the garage making things extremely crowded. Here is a view of the crate parked beside the fuselage.

I pried the lid off the crate and checked the interior for damage. So far it looks OK. There is the big plexiglass canopy with the engine mount weldment underneath. The upper and lower cowlings are on the far end. I need to find a safe place to store the canopy and cowling while I finish up on the wing-related stuff. Why do I still have the wings attached? Because I still need to fit the wing root fairings which are at the bottom of this big crate. Why does Vans include those in the finishing kit instead of the fuselage kit where you need them? I don’t know but it would have been way better to have those done and the wings back on the cradle by now.

Anyway, it’s too late to complete the inventory tonight so that will have to wait.

Front Deck Assembly, Part 1 – 4 hrs

Sunday Feb 12, 2012

This morning I got into the shop early and finished making the F-703B angle including smoothing out the v-notches and deburring all edges. Then I began fitting it to the F-703 instrument panel. It fits pretty well but since the F-703b only bends at the notches there are some areas where it does not exactly follow the contour of the panel edge, particularly at the outer ends where the bend radius is the tightest. But that is by design so it is not a problem. I clamped it in place with c-clamps to hold the alignment for back drilling from the pre-drilled holes in the panel.

Here is a shot after all the holes were drilled to #40 and clecoed.

I also fit the F-768C seal support angle to the F-768A center sub-panel. The key here is to offset the angle 1/8 inch down from the edge of the sub-panel according to Detail D on drawing 24A. The angle has 15 pre-drilled holes but the sub-panel has two additional pre-drilled holes that are match drilled to the angle.

I cut the F-643-1 channel to 14 – 5/8 inches. The drawing specifies 14 – 1/2 but I left it 1/8 inch long for now. I can trim it more after I see how it fits in the assembly.

I trimmed the F-644-L and -R channels according to the trim detail on drawing 24A.

Then came the fun part – clecoing the front deck parts together on the fuselage. The only problem I had was an interference between the flange of the F-768B-R and -L sub-panels with the fuel vent tubes where they route up the F-902 bulkheads. I am not the first to have this problem since drawing 36a does not warn you to route the tube on a diagonal large enough at the top of the F-902 bulkheads to miss the F-768B flanges. I routed them on a diagonal, but not large enough to miss the flange. I detached the vent tubes for now. I will consider notching the F-768B flanges or re-bending the vent line tubes, or a combination of the two.

Front Deck Small Parts – 2.5 hrs

Saturday Feb 11, 2012

I was on travel for work all week so I didn’t get anything done since Sunday. That’s life sometimes.

Today I started making small parts for the front deck. That includes the F-721C, F-743B and F-703C angle brackets which are pretty straightforward made from .063 x 3/4 x 3/4 angle. The F-768C stumped me at first. It is made from .025 x 1/2 x 1/2 inch angle and the drawing shows it at 15-3/4 inches long. But when I laid the cut part down on the full scale view it was shorter by about 1/2 inch. I thought I measured it wrong until verified that it is indeed 15-3/4 inches long. It turns out the drawing view is messed up. Be careful on this one and notice that the hole pattern is not consists all the way across. Two holes get drilled in assembly with the F-768A sub-panel.

I also started working on the F-703B angle which is made from .063 x 3/4 x 3/4 angle. It has a bunch of v-shaped notches cut into it to make it bend easily to follow the contour of the panel. I roughed out all the notches but they still need to be finished with the rotary tool using a 1/8 inch cutter.

Cabin Frame, Part 12: Done! – 2 hrs

Sunday Feb 5, 2012

Sometimes sleeping on a problem overnight really helps me find a solution. In this case it was how to match drill the interior holes though the F-631C/D channel and the cabin frame. At some point I finally realized that I might be able to access the interior pilot holes through the holes I drilled yesterday on the outboard surfaces. The interior holes don’t line up exactly with the exterior holes but they are close enough to get a smaller pilot drill through. And that is exactly what I did as you can see in the photo below. After the pilot holes were drilled I drilled to full size from the inboard side of the frame. Problem solved! If I built another cabin frame I would still recommend not drilling the inboard pilot holes in the F-631C/D and just locating and drilling those from the inboard side of the frame at this stage. I hope that helps somebody else out there because I doubt that I will be building another RV-7A after this one is done.

I also riveted the F-732F reinforcement plate onto the F-732A channel (see below). The other row of holes will be riveted with the top skin. I did not get a picture but I also riveted the F-732E angles onto the F-732A channel.

For now I am leaving the cabin frame attached to the fuselage. The plans say to to store the parts for later but for now they are safer here than in my limited storage area.

Cabin Frame, Part 11 – 8 hrs

Saturday Feb 4, 2012

This cabin frame has been a bigger job than I expected, but I am getting close to the end now. This morning I drilled out the holes on the top skin to the upper F-732A channel along with the F-732F spacer. These eight holes are #30 while all the other holes around it are #40.

I also match drilled the channel to the F-706 bulkhead through the two tabs on each side.

I could not find directions or dimensions for the four holes that connect the F-732A channel to the F-732D angle on the forward end so I just laid out a pattern by measuring off the full scale drawing. Then I clamped the F-732E angles on each side and match drilled those to the to the channel and the frame.

Then I decided to go ahead and make a cover to close up the bottom surface of the F-732 channel. I’m thinking that the open section looks kinda unfinished so I found some .025 scrap alclad left over from the wing walks and cut it to fit the channel. I laid out a pattern for four holes on each side and clamped the cover to the channel.

I used the drill press to drill the holes to #40 first.

Then I drilled them out to #19 for clearance for a #8 screw.

I didn’t take a picture but next I drilled holes to rivet K1000-08 nut plates to the flanges of the channel. Instead of dimpling the flange I just countersunk the rivet holes since the flange is .040 thick. On the other end of the channel I countersunk the holes in the spacer.

Next up was finishing the holes on the outboard sides of the F-631C/D channels. To hold the frame in place for drilling I put a clamp on the inboard side through the access hole. Then I drilled the aft holes on the outboard side of the F-631C to .187. I used my counter sink cage to countersink the holes for AN3 flat head screws and I used some #10 plain nuts to put those screws in to temporarily hold the channel in alignment with the F-631C/D. Then I clecoed the skin onto the side and drilled the two forward holes with #29 drill through the pre-drilled holes in the skin. I pulled the skin back again and drilled the skins holes out to #19 and countersank them for #8 flathead screws. Then I countersank the two forward holes in the F-631C/D for the #8 flat head screws. Finally I tapped the #29 holes for an 8-32 thread.

The aft screws go under the skin and the forward screws go through the skin from the outside. The outer skin looks like this.

The holes on the inboard side of the frame are another story altogether. These holes are pre-drilled on the F-631D angles on the inside of the frame!It would have made so much more sense to pre-drill these in the frame and then match drill through the angles. If I could do it again I would not pre-drill those holes in the F-631Ds. Some builders can get inside the frame through the access hole with a 90 degree drill but my Tight-Fit 90 degree drill is too large. That’s a no-go. I’m going to have to research my options on those two holes on each side.

The next couple of hours were taken up by cleaning, preping, priming and painting the canopy frame parts. I won’t bore you with all the details. The finished parts are shown in the photo below.

On Tuesday I decided to order the majority of the firewall forward kit before the annual price increases kick in at Vans. I deleted a few key things including the exhaust and the prop governor which I will order later after my engine selection is firm. I was amazed when the kit arrived on Friday. So I spent an hour or so doing inventory of the parts which all fit in one box. Everything was there. Here is the box after I pulled out all the extra paper.

Cabin Frame, Part 10 – 2 hrs

Friday Feb 3, 2012

Before drilling the F-631C/D channels to the F-705 bulkhead I decided to drill through the pilot holes with a #30 drill. That will give me a thicker guide hole which will help keep the drill perpendicular to the surface. I did that on the drill press to make sure the guide hole is true.

Then I put the entire cabin frame arch back on the bulkhead and rechecked the alignment of my outline markings for the F-631C/D channels. I just had to make sure it was repeatable to confirm that I had the correct position marked. With that looking good I removed the arch and clamped the F-631C/D channels in place on the bulkhead. The drilling was the easy part. I started with a #30 drill (seen below) then opened them up to 1/4 inch.

A quick check of the alignment with the arch showed that the position still looks good. That’s a big relief!