Wednesday, May 26, 2021

The rush to the finish line (threshold)

 The past few weeks have been a blur of tasks to get the airplane ready for its air worthiness inspection next week.  As with the RV-9A it seems every time I get one task done another one pops up on the list.  So, here are a few of the items that have occupied my time recently.

  • Install and torque the wing bolts.
  • Hook up the wing wiring bundles
  • Hook up the fuel system in the wing roots.
  • Fix a couple of small fuel leaks.
  • do first engine start
  • fix a few wiring issues that cropped up
  • broke both control sticks (trying to bend them to fit properly)
  • engraved, installed, re-engraved with correct info, re-installed aircraft data plate
  • riveted in pitot tube mast
  • installed and wired up pitot tube
  • installed Autopilot roll servo
  • rigged control surfaces
  • configured VPX
  • configured G3X with engine parameters
  • troubleshot ID10T errors (multiple) on SDSEFI system
  • fixed oil leak on oil filter mount to accessory case
  • installed primary alternator
  • installed, torqued, and lock wired the prop
  • calibrated fuel tanks
  • weighed the aircraft and completed the weight and balance calculation.
  • etc etc etc

I'm sure there were a number of other items on that list but that's all that comes to mind right now.

Coming out of the hangar for the run to the fuel pump for tank calibration.  Harry is your chauffeur for this trip.

Long run past Mount Rainier on the way to the fuel pump.

Fuel filter on the co-pilot side...and the source of one small fuel leak.

First incorrect data plate.  The "Make" of this airplane was supposed to be my name.

The correct data plate before I trimmed it to size and installed it.

See those two small gouges beside the two holes in the middle?  Those were the source of my small oil leak.  



Sunday, May 2, 2021

The big move is in the books

 Saturday morning was a big day for N88DA!  The day started very early for me (2AM) when my brain kicked in and starting considering all the things I had to do before the "crew" arrived.  At about 6 AM I was headed out to buy donuts for the crew....and me...and Amy.  :-)

At just before 9AM people started showing up.  First was Harry and Bob followed closely by Jeff, Ben and Randy.  We gathered around the donuts and coffee (not nearly enough donuts were eaten) to strategize for this mornings activities.  "Should the trailer face this way or that way?"  "what about getting out of the neighborhood?"  "Do we have enough blankets and tie downs?"... one by one we figured it all out as you will see from the pictures below.

A really big thanks to Harry, Jeff, Ben, Randy and Bob for what turned out to be a very exciting and successful trip to KPLU (Puyallup airport)!!


Clutter cleared out and the first movement out of the garage.

Down the driveway...

Prepping the trailer.

Waiting in the street for loading

Harry seems to be saying..."Is that thing going to fit???"

Yup, it fit. Now we have to tie it down...and load the various parts that are going with it.

The "Crew"...Amy took the picture...and a video of the process.  Plane tied down and parts loaded in the various 5 vehicles that were part of the parade to the airport.

Guess who!

On the road!

At the airport where it took much less time to undo everything we just did at home.

First "landing" at KPLU!

Parked in the hangar where the rest of the magic happens.

Figured I might as well get the wings hung since we have all these hands around.

Wings on with temporary bolts!

The "wing" crew.....looks a lot like the transfer crew minus the photographer.  :-)

At the end of the day Bob and Harry hung around to help install the tail feathers.  It finally looks like a complete airplane!


Saturday, May 1, 2021

The last garage update...

Well as the title states this will be my last update from the garage.  I have scheduled the move to the airport for Saturday the 1st of May.  That's just over a week away!  Ben has a trailer all ready to go, Jeff and Harry are going to be here to help, and Bob (silver Super 8) is a possibility if he doesn't have to fly.  Its going to be a great day.

Looking at the date of my last post I guess I have lots to catch up on.  Not all are related to N88DA (the tail number of this RV-10 I'm building).  So lets start with the most impactful news...I've decided its time to retire from Senior Living.  I should probably call it semi-retire because I don't think Amy could stand me wandering around the house looking for something to do.  Not 100% sure what I will do next but I do know it will be something I really enjoy.

I also have to add that Harry, Jeff, and I took a last minute trip to Florida for the annual Sun-N-Fun fly in.  It was a whirlwind trip but we got to see a couple of F-22 demo flights, the Blue Angels with their new F18's, and of course a ton of other aircraft.  Vendors were a bit light but better than I expected and RV-10's were scarce.  There was however lots of beer available which went well with the high temps down there.  :-)

So, on with the RV-10 stuff.  In the past month I've knocked out a bunch of smaller tasks and the list is actually getting shorter.   For a while it felt like I added two items to the list for every one I removed.  some of the items that I managed to complete include wiring up the overhead console with lights, switches, and dimmer's to control the cabin heat; installed the SCAT hoses for the heating/ventilation systems; finished the filtered air box; installed most of the baffle seal rubber; installed the temporary N number on the empennage; finished hooking up the SDS controller; finished and tested the pitot/static system; installed all fuses and tested as appropriate; painted the interior of the snorkel with epoxy primer; installed the lower cowling heat shield material; adjusted my backup alternator voltage regulator to about .2 volts lower than primary; installed the lighting controller and wired it up to allow me to adjust the brightness of the switch lights, and I'm sure there was more but that's already quite a list!


Looking outboard from the spinner opening at the inlets to see how much of a gap I have to fill.

This is the #2 cylinder with the slight proud injector assembly.  I think there is just barely enough room in there with the rubber baffle material.

This is the beginning of the wing root control rod air gap seal.  The paper is the pattern for cutting the black rip stop material.  I used Amy's sewing machine to sew the material into a cone shape, then I put the backing ring around it.  This assembly then gets glued/riveted to the fuselage side as you see in the picture below.

Air gap seal is cleco'd on after I glued the ring to the rip stop cone.  Next up is to pop rivet the ring to the fuselage and then seal the small end around the control rod with enough play that it can move back and forth without binding the controls at all.

Overhead panels installed, labeled, and wired up.