Joshua's RV-9A Project

More time today trying to wrangle the dang selector-filter tube into place.  I put a swivel elbow on the filter — the vertical of the elbow and the outlet of the selector are misaligned by about 3/8″, which means that the tube needs to have a joggle in it…maddeningly difficult to bend, as the short, short bit of tubing (only about 4″) provides very little leverage for bending, and it’s just too short to fit in the lever-type bender.  I had one piece nearly right, just a touch too long…cut it down and it was too short.  Argh!  I almost had another one fitting well, when it was time to leave for the evening’s entertainment.  I’ve probably used up 6-7 feet of tubing for this 5″ distance.  Simply amazing.

Note to future builders installing Andair selectors along with Andair pump/filter assemblies: don’t blindly use the measurements in the Andair drawings!  Set it up and think hard about this tubing run, and you might find it easier to use the tubing run to adjust the fore/aft position of the pump.  If I had set the pump 3/8″ farther forward (which would fit just fine), I could have used the swivel elbow and a nice, easy piece of straight tubing.  Live and learn…

Worked on the fuel pump doubler, bracket, pump install, and selector-pump tubing.  Fabricated a doubler to go under the tunnel cover for support of the pump, out of a piece of .063 stock.  This will be riveted to the tunnel cover, then the pump will attach via screws/nutplates, and the shortened pump doghouse will attach over that.  i think it should work out well.

Much frustration ensued with the seemingly easy tube between selector and filter, but the short distance and radius of the bends actually make it very difficult, because the bottom bend must go nearly 180 degrees, then a 90 back vertical, and the distance between the flare and bend is very short, making flaring a challenge.  I gave up after 4 tries, which usually ended up with flattened, bulging, or kinked tubing.  I think a better option may be to use a swivel elbow on the filter inlet, and a “joggled” vertical tube between the selector and the elbow.  I have the elbow for another task, so I’ll try that–I can always order another if it works.

Lots of little tasks to keep going on today…

Riveted the canopy decks in place!  This may come back to bite me later, but the instructions have this done long ago, and reaching over the fuselage witht he clecoes stabbing me in the gut was getting old.  Bucking these was actually quite easy; the tungsten bucking bar fits in the gap for all but the 4 rivets just aft of the spar upright, and for those, I just inserted the bar into the “channel” farther aft, positioned it horizontally (completely inside the channel), then slid it forward and held it up with my fingertips through the gap.  Method of assembly: completely remove the canopy deck and gusset, set all the rivets on the forward side of the bulkhead that hold the thick angle on the back, then install the gusset and rivet the 4 rivets on the top.  Finally, put the canopy deck back on and set all the rivets along the longeron.

Turned threads off of fuel vent fittings by chucking them up in the drill press; made the angle cut, and deburred.  Still need to find screen and attach it before these can be installed for good.  Installed fuel vent lines from vent fitting, to stub through fuselage side to tank.  Installed rubber grommets through side skin.  I spent quite awhile bending the first one to fit right, then the other side was very easy, just duplicate it in mirror image on the bench, and it dropped right in with only minor tweaking.

Installed rudder cables in the fuselage, and adel clamps at aft end.  (Need to torque and mark those screws.)  The string I had run earlier in the baggage area worked perfectly.  Installed the swivel fittings into the static ports and ran the static line between them, including the tee.  Ran static tubing forward, leaving a coil stored along the side of the fuselage with plenty of length to connect to instruments later.

Installed the flap actuator center bearing block nutplates, followed by the flap actuator, motor, and side covers.  Removed the side covers and set aside for later.  Need to order the Ray Allen POS-12 flap position sensor, which will mount somewhere in this area.

Installed Andair fuel valve to selector plate.  Used AN3 bolts for now, later I will probably replace this with different #10 hardware, some sort of more attractive screw.  Need to order more K1100-3 nutplates, since I stole from the supplied stock to mount the fuel selector.  Removed the elbow fittings from the selector, lubed the o-rings with EZ Turn, reinstalled, and staked the screws.  Like everyone else says, this valve is a work of art, and it’s hard to resist playing with the knob…no wonder it comes with a big red tag attached warning against “excessive dry operation.”

Cut down height of the boost pump “doghouse” cover by 1 1/4 inches, since the Andair pump is not as tall as the stock (AFP) pump and all the tubing/accessories that go with it, and more open cabin space is better.  I could probably have cut another 1/2″ off of it, even.  (By this point, it was getting late and I was working without stopping for many pictures.)  I used the opposite cover to mark a cut line 1 1/4″ down from the top of each, then cut and deburred, then used the cut off piece to re-drill the hole pattern in the top of the shortened side.  This seemed easier than cutting from the bottom and re-bending the flange as I’ve seen others do.

Began work on fuel pump installation, looking at how it will all fit together, and printed off the installation diagrams from Andair’s site for reference.

Vertical Power announced their new VP-X system a few weeks back, which–at least to me–is sort of a hybrid of their existing systems.  It has a boatload of power circuits, 10 assignable switch inputs where you can use whatever type of switch you desires, built in wig-wag control, trim speed adjust, flap positioning system, etc.  There is no dedicated display unit; instead, you can use your own switches, and it connects to your EFIS for display needs and to allow switching of individual circuits (beyond what you have access to with the switch inputs).  I was sold on the VP stuff when it came out a couple years back, but their systems didn’t allow for the switchology I had in mind, so I had resolved to use fuses & such.  This new system is exactly what I needed, so with the fuselage coming together, I called up Marc and Vertical Power and ordered the wiring harness kit, and an empty control unit (CU) shell.  I was also inspired to start fooling around with panel designs in Turbocad, and looking at different switch options.

Anyway, my order with the CU shell and wiring kit arrived today, after a UPS delay:

…of course, there’s still another several hundred dollars worth of wire, connectors, and so on to be bought for antennas, sensors and the like…I have a good part of my electrical design scratched out, and an order list for a bunch of wire from Steinair; hoping to get some wiring in before the tailcone closes and avoid as much belly-crawling as possible.