Joshua's RV-9A Project

Another warm day (but this time breezy and hazy as well).  Trying to cross things off the list…

First on the agenda: loaded up the empennage and moved it to the hangar, where it will wait with the wings until final assembly.

Next, set up the day’s fiberglass job.  Added a couple plies to the nose flange layup from yesterday, to give it more stiffness.  Closed off the inboard ends of the cooling inlet ramps with a 2-ply layup.  Added flox to a couple spots and deep voids.  Again today, I meant to get two rounds done, so one could cure overnight, but ran out of day.

Spent awhile fussing with canopy seals.  The edge-gripper bulb seal I wanted to use on the front seems a bit too thick, as it’s interfering with the closing of the canopy — the latch requires immense force to actuate.  So, that was removed for now.  I added the same bulb seal to the side rails, and that also cause latch trouble, so I ended up slicing the bulb in half for about 60% of the length of the side rails.  It looks ragged when open, but seals fine when closed.  This is easy to replace later — I’m searching for a smaller bulb, but the 3/8″ is the smallest I’ve found so far.  I may have to explore using foam strips or something.  Also ran into trouble with the rear rollbar seal, again, difficult to close & latch.  Will explore more seals; it seems this is a spot everyone struggles to make work.

On to the “little stuff:”

• Slipped some clear tubing over a couple fluid lines in the tunnel to prevent any possible chafing from wire bundles (clearance is fine, but vibration does things…)
• Installed the fuel selector & torqued all the fluid fittings in the center tunnel.
• Installed the fuel pump and torqued those fittings.
• Installed the metal plug in the hole that provides access to the nose leg bolt.  Sealed up with a good layer of firewall sealant on both sides.
• Installed the bolts on the RH lap belt, having received my order of hardware from Spruce.
• Finished off the firewall wiring passthrus per instructions, since wiring is complete.
• Torqued the forward bearing on the aft elevator pushrod.
• Checked that all bolts on the flight controls were torqued, and torqued them where they were not.
• Swept the shop and put away tools, brake bleeding stuff, and so on.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 17th, 2012 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Cabin & Interior, Canopy & Frame, Cowling & Baffles, Engine, Plumbing, Wing & Tail Joins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.