New toys for the wing! - Torquing Aileron bellcrank - 3 hours

Feeling a renewed urge to get building, I finally opened up some goodies that arrived on Friday.

I had received a shipment from Aircraft Spruce and Vans Airforce.


These pieces are just cool!
I also picked up a drilling jig as well and the cabling for the autopilot.

Wanting to get cracking on the wings, I dug out my proseal and mixed a little so I can install the pitot tube/wiring bushings in the wing ribs. I suppose that the bushings will do just fine without proseal, but for me. I like the idea of "Gluing and Screwing" when building so I figure that this would be extra insurance to keep things where they should be with virtually no weight penalty.

 
When I was done with the proseal. I decided to torque up the bolts on the left wing bellcrank. I'm not positive if I need to torque the AN4-32 bolt in the bellcrank. After a short thinking session, In theory If I have trimmed the bushing correct, then the bellcrank should move freely when torqued. So I torqued it to 60 in-lbs. it wasn't binding, but it was firm. So I backed the nut off. Tried again to 50 in-lbs. Very nice, not sloppy, nice movement. If I move it to the side, gravity does not let it fall to the spar, but I can use a feather to push it. I feel that this is ideal and that over time it will loosen up as the powder coating wears. So a quick adjustment to 55 in-lbs gave a little bit of margin for error. A quick recheck and I will call it good!



Update, I called Van's just to double check on the torquing of the AN4 bolt and they confirm that yes, it is a good idea to torque it, but it should not bind. So I feel good about my decisions after I have run them by the mothership.

A little stick time in the RV7

It was good to see the guys out at Cooking Lake airport. It's been such a busy summer and I had not been able to poke my head around too much at the airport. Lots of things going on out there. Projects and planes at every stage of build. I was invited out for a ride in Eugene's RV7A and I gladly jumped at the opportunity. The weather lately has not been great but today, it was beautiful. Cool and Clear.

After jumping in the plane we made our way to the end of the runway. Eugene kindly offered to let me try taxing and I must admit, it has been a while. Not so smooth, Ahh. Rookie things like keeping it smooth and straight, or not straightening out after turning around for the run-up. We took a short flight out to Killam-Sedgewick for a refuel. The air was as smooth as glass and again Eugene offered up the controls. I felt like I did a better job keeping it smooth compared with last time I flew. But I need to work on my scan more. I find I can focus on one thing and lose focus on another. Just need practice.
I had the controls up to getting into final approach which was new for me. Again. Need to practice. Little things like; applying carb heat before reducing power, Or keeping the nose straight while reducing power and deploying flaps.


Again on the return flight, I had controls for straight and level and felt quite comfortable with it. As we approached, I had controls through crosswind, downwind and base leg. Kept going around into final approach with full flap. Again...Struggled a bit keeping it smooth and straight as my focus was on flaps, speed, power. And just when I had my attention on those things my speed was dropping. Eugene was there to remind...but I think that this was my biggest personal no-no. I had let my speed drop a bit too much onto the final approach. I am annoyed with myself for not being ahead of it as I think that is a pretty critical item. Well...Just have to work on it. (And work on adjusting trim after flap deployment....lol another rookie move).

Starting Assembly of the Aileron Structure - 3 hours

Now that the aileron spar had a day to cure with the primer, I was ready to start riveting pieces together. I opted to backrivet the nutplates onto the spar, and the squeezed the rest of the rivets. 
A win in the riveting dept.

Once the riveting was complete, I began to cleco the aileron assembly together. one item to take care of was to mark the holes needed in the leading edge ribs and make the neccessary flutes.

That's enough for today, I have to prep everything for tomorrow as I am hosting the EAA meeting at my house. Lot's to do.

Re-fabricating the Pitot guide and priming work - 7 hours

Managed a long day on the build. I needed to re-fabricate the guide to route the pitot lines under the bellcrank. The last one I made was nice, but the lines were just too close to the bellcrank. I'm not afraid to say that it took me six whole tries at remaking a bracket that I was happy with. Without going into too much detail, it took some head scratching to figure out how to build the bracket to get the holes close to the spar and still be strong, and have all the holes line up correct and straight.
Perseverance paid off.

The tubes will clear nicely.

Since It was a nice day outside...I decided to get a bunch of priming done on the aileron spars so I can forge forward with those. Since everything was out, I completed the priming on the aileron and flap braces.

Pulling conduit in the wing - 2 hours

I had a busy day with other things and I had an itch to complete a task on the plane. I started out with the intention to complete the right wing bellcrank, but there is something not right with the weldment I have. There is a bit of binding when I slide the bushing in. Tries it a few different ways. Nope. So, I will have to purchase another right bellcrank and hope that it will be better.

Not wanting to stop progress I jumped over to pulling the conduit through the wing. It took no time to realize this wasn't going to be easy. I read a few blogs on it and checked with Van's Airforce and the advice is there....Just jump in and pull it through. Makes an awful noise. I noticed that you basically crush the conduit in your hands by pulling it through. At first I was concerned I was wrecking the conduit, but soon realized that the conduit can be massaged back into shape.

After all was said and done....I really didn't care to do this again. Didn't take long, but just felt like i was using a hammer to work on a fine watch. Unnerving.

New tools have arrived - 1 hour

 I needed some grease to fit the bronze bushings in the aileron bellcranks and I didnt want to use just any grease that I had sitting in the garage. I felt it wise to order some proper grease. So I managed to order a few things from aircraft spruce earlier in the week. Well, when I arrived home today there was a nice package awaiting me from Aircraft Spruce.

In addition to grease, some tite-seal, aircraft handbook, more cleco pliers  clamps, and a selection of screws for the fuel tank hatches as well as other odds and ends.

I was eager to get started on the bellcranks. First thing that needed to be done to ensure a proper fit is to sand down some of the powder coating to ensure a proper fit. I used 600grit sandpaper on a oak block and I carefully worked the piece. I want to remove the excess, but do not want to remove the protective coating. After some careful work, I was happy with the result.


Next, the plans require you to trim down the brass bushings to sit 1/32 to 1/64 proud of the bellcrank. After reading a few construction blogs, I felt hand chucking the brass bushing in the drill press the best way to ensure a even trim. I used the same 600grit sandpaper on oak and went to work.

Moving forward on the Ailerons - 8 hours

So I started the day by finishing backriveting the stiffeners on the aileron skins. Similar to the elevators I used a dab of Dow #3145RTV on the aft edge of the stiffeners before riveting.
 
 

 I was now ready to bend the aileron skins. I had run to home depot and picked out the straightest 2x6's I could find and some 3/16" dowels. I taped the dowels in place and began to bend. The manual says to bend the skins such that when relaxed they touch the aileron spar, but I was having a heck of a time getting it to do that. I was at a point where the ailerons where basically toughing together in the brake and was still about an 1" away.   

So a quick call to vans support confirmed that I was in the ball park. The most important part is that there is no danger of the skin bulging when its cleco'd and its nice and straight. It only take a pound of two of pressure to close the skin the last 1" so there was no worry about too much tension. As for the straight edge....A little squeezing with my homemade trailing edge tool made sure it was nice and straight.

Once that was complete I was ready to begin batch drilling the A-408 reinforcement plates and the aileron hing brackets. Of course I did as much drilling on the drill press!