Finishing

Moving to the airport:

Ready to roll...

The birthing process... a breech baby!

   Holy cow! Those things are SHORT!  They barely fill the pickup truck bed!

Geez, I spend several years agonizing over every little detail of these wings.... only to have these guys toss them in the back of a pickup truck!!!!   Can this be right!?  Aw heck.... gotta get 'em to the airport!  We've got flying to do!

A back hoe trailer is THE way to go.  A regular 16' flatbed trailer is marginal at best.

The wings were barely even strapped in.... I cringe at the thought.

It's 17 miles to the airport.  There are 21 turns to make to get there... no kidding.  You'd think I lived in the mountains.

This is what I looked like on the way to the airport.  We had three trucks. The lead truck was carrying the wings.  In the middle was the truck with the trailer that was carrying the fuselage.   I was the tail end truck carrying small parts. We were on a hilly country road with a 40mph speed limit.  We were going about 35mph, slow but quick enough to not cause any trouble for others.  There was oncoming traffic. 

The reason for the enraged expression is that some dumba$$ in a white Ford Ranger decided that passing a 3 truck (and trailer) convoy while going up a hill with oncoming traffic was a good idea.  WTF!?  Everyone motioned for him to stop/slow down... but you just can't communicate with F..ing idiots can you?  Luckily, the oncoming traffic, a young lady in a Jeep, had enough sense to slow down when she saw the lead truck at the crest of the hill motioning to her to slow down.  The brainless $&*% in the Ford Ranger had to slam on the brakes.  The lady in the Jeep and the  moron in the Ranger ended up nose to nose at the top of the hill, but did not collide.

Arriving at the new home on 9-18-2004.

It's easier to unload than to load.

Putting the wings on takes all freaking day.  I wish that there were more bolts to put in... 64 bolts just doesn't seem like enough.  You'll find that putting the bolts in will give you chest pains... from leaning over the cockpit rail!  I'm still sore.  The alternative is to sit inside the cockpit and have the seat belt attach bars sticking you in the butt. No thanks.

Yippee!  The wings are on!

Take every tool you own to the airport.  It still won't be enough.

Words escape me.  She's getting close!

First engine start:

Several sets of eyes look over the engine prior to the first start.

The wife was on hand to monitor her investments.

  Everything looks ready... except the pilot!

  Three blades and VROOM!  I was surprised at how quickly she started!

   Mike adjusts the mixture.  It's too hard to reach the mixture screw from the cockpit so get good help!

As soon as I stomp on a few more bugs, she'll be ready to go.

NACA vents:
My vents are located such that the cowl split line, if extended, would cut through the upper third of the NACA vent. The leading edge of the vent is 3.5 inches from the cowl line, and the vent it self is 4.0 inches long and 2+1/8 high. I angled the vents center line down approximately 2 degrees from level to better align with the local airflow. I ran the cowl hinge pin out the NACA duct, rather than out the front of the cowl as is conventionally done. To do this I had to epoxy in a short length of AL tubing to act as a guide for the pin so that it will hit the hole in the firewall needed for the pin to pass through. I used the vans plastic NACA vents, but cut the opening smaller, and it still flows more than enough. 2 inch SCEET connects to AL eyeball vents in the panel. The only flow control for the vent air is at the eyeball vents, and this is working fine.   Greg Nelson  *end of comment*

To those of you who want better air flow through (hot and cold) the cockpit with smaller systems providing you with greater comfort, you need to stop the battle of inlet air coming from the front of the plane (your design) with that coming from the tail (and to some extent from the wings, rear canopy skirt, flap rod holes, etc.). The RV-4 tail PUMPS!!! and I suspect that the other designs do also. 

After 35 hrs. in the back of an RV-4, X-country, that had a single hole in the fire wall (no hoses in cockpit) providing heat evenly to the cockpit (front and back) I wanted to know how it worked so well. Other RV's didn't work this well, including mine. Sleeping under the wing, I spotted a hole in the center of the belly of the tail cone that turned out to be one of those plastic NACA ducts BACKWARDS (located 49" ahead of the back end of the fuselage). WAS this it? I wasn't about to cut up my bird to find out. The owner had purchased the RV-4 and had no idea why it was there. He thought it was part of the design (no hoses to it).

Here is how I improved cockpit comfort: To stop cold air from coming in and freezing certain body parts:   1) I sewed up some boots for the aileron push tubes from light weight synthetic Swede leather (women's garment from the GoodWill provided the material).   2) Sealed the canopy to canopy rails with "P-Strip" from Van's.   3) Sealed the front of the canopy to the cowl boot with the silicone pressed into plastic wrap.   4) Sealed the front right corner of the canopy to canopy rail with a piece of foam wedge.   5) Covered the flap arms with a shaped aluminum panel (this was for safety also). No problem with rear skirts because I don't have them.  No stick boots either but maybe one day. The lack of stick boots does allow for airflow under the floorboards but I'm not sure that this is an advantage. All of this sealing improved the situation. 

My source of fresh air is a 7/8" hole in the left wing root fairing, plumbed with 1" hose to an instrument panel mounted Wemac(sp) ball. My source of hot air is a standard heat exchanger through a 1.5" valve (Lancair) on the center of the firewall. In the future I will be adding some general purpose cooling air near the rudder pedals with a valve. Right now I am bypassing the heat exchanger in the summer.   Before I made the previously mentioned changes, this is what happened.  I would open my vents and would receive a blast of air that would then diminish as the cockpit would pressurize. The fight was on between the front air and the tail air. The "front lines" (front lines= that point where the two pressure fronts meet) were at the cockpit. Without stick boots I have plenty of openings front to back under the floor boards. With stick boots I would have to open a 2" (min.) hole in the back of the baggage compartment (in a location where baggage would not block it). The RV-4 has enough of an air flow leak around the back seat to the baggage compartment.

Optimizing the ventilation:  1) Remember that I didn't want to cut a reverse NACA Duct in my RV's belly? It so happens that I have an inspection hole forward of the first tail bulkheads (this was to get at the bolts that hold my tail on.  I made up a second cover plate for that hole, cut an 1 1/4" hole in it and made a fiberglass cover for the hole that looks like a rounded over half of a jar lid. Think of it as a reverse scoop. The trailing edge of this device is a 1/2" above the cover plate surface. The rounded over leading edge is a 3/16"radius (from the side it looks like the top half of a wing leading edge) and the purpose is to create a low pressure area over the hole. I haven't sewn a boot for the elevator push tube at that first tail bulkhead yet, but I moved the battle "front lines" back to the tail where the air flow is vented via the device I made up. I now have so much hot air that I can't open the valve but a crack.   2) Seal the tail off with a boot and put a reverse something NACA duct (inset) or low pressure device (outset) forward of the booted bulkhead on the belly or wherever. My proof of concept part is just under the leading edge of the left horizontal stab. (remember that it is also an inspection cover).   *end of comment*

There's much discussion about whether air outlets are needed.  Some have suggested making boots to seal around the aileron pushtubes and sealing other openings under the floorboards.  Who knows?  I plan to fly mine before I do any work to enhance the ventilation.  Vince   *end of comment*

A view of the rear seat shoulder harness attach cables.  Sorta like the RV-6 setup.

Elevator trim cables

THIS DIDN'T WORK!  But I left the info here so you don't do the same thing!  The vernier cable simply has too much springiness built into it.  It would not hold the trim tab firmly... probably firm enough, but I don't want it moving unless I move it!

6-02-04:  I had long ago installed a standard Van's RV-4 manual type elevator trim cable.  The RV-4 cable is exactly the wrong length for what I needed now.  I didn't really have enough room to mount the normal trim lever behind the throttle quadrant.  Hmm, what to do? THIS DIDN'T WORK!

What I did was to mount a vernier throttle control on the bulkhead in front of the throttle quadrant.  You can see the  vernier cable looping back to intercept the Van's cable.  THIS DIDN'T WORK!

Attaching the two 10-32 male cables ends required a properly sized and tapped piece of aluminum rod.  The length of the rod was determined by where the cables ends would conveniently mount.  Installing the rod was problematic since the entire vernier cable had to be turned to screw the end in.  This has to be done with the cable installed,  you can't do it out on the bench.  No huge problem though.  I used Locktite on the threads since a jam nut would interfere with the # 4 bulkhead.  THIS DIDN'T WORK!

You can see the bracket holding the Van's cable, made from an old aileron bracket.  THIS DIDN'T WORK!

The vernier cable is held by a clip that bolts to the bulkhead.  This clip can be spaced forward or aft with washers to adjust the "throw" of the vernier. THIS DIDN'T WORK!

It seems to work well.  The fine adjustment of the vernier knob will hopefully allow easy high speed adjustments, while low speed adjustments can be made by pushing the button and moving the knob.  Yes, I know that Van's takes the button off of his vernier knobs to prevent accidental "bumps".  For now, I'm leaving mine as is. THIS DIDN'T WORK!

8-19-04:  This is much the same as Van's uses. The elevator trim replaces the futile attempt to use a vernier cable that had much too much play in it.  You can see the threaded rod that connects the lever to the much too short RV-4 trim cable.  If you look closely, you can also see the structure that had to be added to support the trim lever.  It had to be shoehorned in behind the throttle quadrant, but it really wasn't too difficult.  

Be sure to set the travel for more nose up trim than nose down. 

9-10-04: Throttle quadrant and elevator trim stuff.  The throttle levers are bent (cut actually) in a banana shape so that I can easily reach them with my arm on the arm rest.  Lazy?  You bet!

5-11-04:  Tom Martin posted to Chip's site a picture of a labor intensive scaffold that he built.  Being rather lazy, I decided to use this shelf unit bought from Home Depot for about $100.  It is fully adjustable for height and can be used as seen, or raised for use when the wings are on.  It really works well, although it squeaks a little when you move around on it, which distracts me from listening to the Bose stereo in the shop.  Wwwaaaaaah!

Flap pushrod seals:

In the lower right corner you can see a hole which I melted through the foam with a soldering iron.  When you install the floorboard, a screw goes through that hole.  The foam scrunches down nearly flat, as you can see, and does not cause any fitting problems even though it is between the floorboard and angle on the fuselage.

You can also see the piano hinges everywhere.  The aft (top) one holds the rear seat back.  The others hold the rear seat pan, a wedge shaped, slightly curved aluminum masterpiece that fits my butt  so well that I barely need a pad.  The crotch strap fitting is hidden by the seat pan when the pan is in place. 

That little blur in the upper left hand corner of the middle photo is where the rear seat heat plugs in.  The seat heat cost next to nothing and now the wife says she's looking forward to flying.  She hates cold weather.... anything less than 75 degrees. 

5-11-08: An RV-8 builder gave me these nylon aileron pushtube booties to keep the drafts out of the cockpit.  Installation was a simple aluminum ring, some RTV, and a few LP4-3 rivets.

Wing installation:

4-21-03:  Here's a way to chock the wheels while putting the wings on.  A wood wedge tapped between the disc and pad will do it. 

While fitting the wings, the tail needs to be up in the air about 3 1/2'.   Tie the dang tail so it won't move around while you're pushing the wings in.  You'll be sorry if you don't.

My inboard skins needed a little trimming which required several wing insertions and retractions to get the trim right.   After trimming and sticking the wings in the holes, you adjust the sweep using a few plumb bobs.  Easy enough.  Then measure to the tailspring and square the wings with the fuselage.  It's easy enough to get everything within 1/16" or so. 

I didn't take a picture of the incidence setting operations.  Dang.  The data I have from Mark tells me to set the rear spar height 2.95" lower than the main spar when the fuselage is level.  Due to edge distance requirements of the rear spar bars, the required distance was about 3.2"  OH NO!!! It's a 1/4" off.  So what? It's no big deal.  Just set the HS accordingly.  Here's one way:  Level the wings using the 2.95" dimension.  Ignore the longerons 'cuz they aren't level anymore.  Set the incidence on the HS using a 1/8" spacer on the front spar and a 13/32" spacer on the rear spar.    I know you guys who measure stuff to the nearest 0.001" are puking right now.  Just remember, we're not going to Mars here.  Just build it.  If needed you can shim the engine thrust line or shim the tail a bit after you fly.  I'll bet you a case of beer that you'll never notice.  Besides, this is how Van himself told me to do it on my RV-4 which went 200 mph on a measly 150 hp.