VPX Installation

January 16, 2022January 16, 2022 Georgeairplane, avgeek, aviation, Dynon, homebuilt, pilot, RV-7, vansaircraft, Vertical PowerLeave a comment

Yesterday I spent most of the day at the hangar cleaning up and working on the installation of the VPX mounting brackets.

I started with the rough position of the mounting brackets under the sub panel ribs. This will be the final position of the VPX under the panel.

Each corner needed a nut plate installed, so I match drilled the brackets to the ribs, and then lined up the nuplates and clamped them in place.

I then drilled all the nut plates, deburred, dimpled, and riveted the nut plates to the sub panel ribs.

Here’s the close up of one of the nut plates riveted in place with the angle bracket loosely held in place with a mounting screw.

During the day, a friend of mine visited the hangar to check out the project. He took this awesome picture, thanks for hanging out (and helping) Andrew!

It was fun to chat about the project, and airplanes in general. I always enjoy sharing my love for aviation with other people.

Later in the day, I received a nice shipment from Dynon! My autopilot panel, and my comm radio were delivered! These are some of the final components in my avionics package. The remaining component is the second HDX screen.

These buttons are very satisfying to push! I’m looking forward to installing this in the plane soon!

EMS wiring

November 7, 2021November 7, 2021 Georgeairplane, avgeek, aviation, Firewall Forward, homebuilt, io-360, pilot, RV-7, vansaircraft, Vertical PowerLeave a comment

This weekend I spent time working on the main EMS wiring harness. It includes everything for engine monitoring including oil pressure, temperature, fuel flow, fuel pressure, manifold pressure, rpm, etc. It’s quiet extensive.

I started by reviewing my wiring diagram that I made, and reviewed the pin out of the EMS D37 connector.

I then opened up the main harness that is included in the skyview EMS in order to identify every pin.

I used my multimeter to check each wire and then I used that to label each one according to the function.

Here’s the EMS and the main harness (silver) plugged in. As you can see in this picture, the wires are labeled and then separated out into the appropriate pairings (e.g. oil pressure power, ground and signal). Then I began to wire the engine sensors and measure the wiring runs.

Here you can see the main EMS harness come through for all the firewall forward components. Mounted to the top of the firewall is the sensor manifold, which includes oil pressure, fuel pressure, and manifold pressure.

Here’s the oil and fuel pressure sensors mounted to the firewall. These are wired into the main harness and share their 5v source on the same pin (pin18) of the EMS. It’s a common source for low power components and is shared between several other sensors.

Here’s a close up of the oil temp sensor wired to the harness.

Here’s the manifold pressure sensor. It has a tube that’s connected to a T in order to share a manifold pressure source with the ignition system. E-Mag ignitions also need to know the pressure of the intake in order to adjust timing of the spark.

Continuing the work is a bit slow, but it’s getting there. Lots left to do.

Roll Trim System

June 23, 2021 Georgeailerons, airplane, avgeek, aviation, homebuilt, pilot, RV-7, vansaircraft, WingsLeave a comment

This weekend I spent a few hours working on the roll trim system. I’m using the Ray Allen trim system from Vans, so everything is nicely packaged together into its own subsystem.

I started out by modifying the plastic block that holds the pivot arm. This needed two holes drilled through it foe the AN3 bolts that hold it to the aluminum plate. I also botched the larger counter bored hole to allow access to the cotter pin that holds the pivot arm in place.

I then trimmed and match drilled the mounting plate to the seat pan holes. This allowed for a perfect fit. Once I drilled the two holes on the left, I temporarily installed it to drill the two holes on the right to the floor ribs.

Here you can see the original hole where the nut plate was. I removed the nut plate and then used the center hole to mount the plate in order to drill the bottom hole. This was done on both sides of the center channel.

Cutting the pivot arm to the right length

I then cut the pivot arm tube to the right length so it can sit in the block and then be mounted to the metal plate. I cut off about an inch of tube. Once I did that I drilled a 1/16th hole for the cotter pin.

After drilling the block to the mounting plate, I dimpled, and mounted the nut plates to the mounting plate. I will complete this plate by priming it before final installation.

I then installed the pivot arm into the plastic block, and then installed the washer and cotter pin to hold it all together.

I then test fit the assembly by installing the bottom two screws. The top two are where the floor is held on to the ribs. The pivot arm needed to be adjusted to not rub on the control rod.

In the bottom left is the servo block. I need to drill that to the floor rib for final installation as well.

The final thing to do next time is to finishing the assembly with the control stick springs and cleaning up the assembly with some final adjustments.

Fuselage gussets

December 30, 2020 Georgeairplane, avgeek, aviation, engine, Flying, Fuselage, homebuilt, io-360, pilot, RV-7, vansaircraftLeave a comment

Today I spent a couple hours putting the forward fuselage gussets in place. They are unique to the -7 vs the -7A. The tri-gear plane rear landing gear are mounted just forward of the center section. Since the -7 is a tail trager, there is a gap here that need to be reinforced using these gussets. They are attached to the sides of the fuselage with 5 bolts that need to be match drilled. The gussets also line up with the bottom wing attach bolts.

I lined everything up and then drilled the holes to #40 and then enlarged for the AN3 bolts. I prepped and primed these and then attached them to the fuselage. The whole interior will be painted with my interior paint, but it’s good to prime all the parts especially mating surfaces.

I also sent a bit of time working on the panel attachment brackets. Since I’m using twin Skyview HDC screens, I need to move the Vans panel supports inboard. This requires making some custom brackets to attach the panel to the sub panel. I received a shipment of L stock from vans that worked perfectly for this.

I decided to wrap up the center section bolts that are used for the tricycle gear. In the tail dragged version the bolts need to be put into the center section.

The bottom bolts were difficult to reach but everything is now in place and torqued.

I also placed the remaining two cover supports on the sides of the fuselage, forward of the center section.

Next up is to wrap up the exhaust hangar modification. And to drill the wing fuel attachment bracket to the sides of the fuselage.

Vertical Power PPS

July 21, 2020 Georgeairplane, avgeek, aviation, Firewall Forward, Flying, homebuilt, pilot, RV-7, Vertical Power1 Comment

This weekend I had a few hours to work on the plane. It’s been a couple months since I’ve spent a good chunk of time on it.

I decided to take off the old conventional master and starter contractors. I’ve decided to go with Vertical Power Primary Power System. This is a single unit that replaces the contractors, as well as current shunt and fuses. I’m also using the Vertical Power Pro solid state VPX. These two will work really well together.

For easiest access I mounted this on the edge of the firewall near the battery as far away from the exhaust as possible. Every bolt and post is accessible. I also crimped on the ring terminals for the alternator and for the starter once I had this mounted.

I also wired up the J1 harness that includes all the inputs for the master switch, battery and alternator current sense and fault indicators. This will all feed into my EFIS and be displayed on the engine monitoring page.

Heat Muff, Exhaust, and Fuel Tubes

May 9, 2020May 9, 2020 Georgeairplane, avgeek, aviation, engine, Firewall Forward, Flying, homebuilt, io-360, pilot, RV-7, vansaircraftLeave a comment

Today I spent a few hours working on the exhaust hangars, heater and the fuel lines.

It’s been on my to-do list for a long long time, but I finally marked and drilled the hole in the firewall for the fuel line.

I then test fitted the fuel line between the pump and firewall fitting. I had to fabricate a new tube in order to fit the position I drilled the hole. In hindsight I should have drilled it about one inch to the left of this, in order to provide more room for the heater scat tubing on the other side, however it should be fine.

The forward tunnel cover will go over this portion of the tubing as well as the wiring harness.

I then worked on the hangars for the exhaust as well as heat muff.

Here you can see the hangars before I installed the heat muff. The left hangar here will need to be modified to account for it.

I didn’t get any pictures during the install, but here is the heater installed with the tubing. I will need to add some support to prevent chaffing of the tubes on the engine mount.

I will also need to add some support for the fuel tubing here to prevent rubbing on the tube. It shouldn’t be too difficult to keep these two separated.

I will need to fabricate a support bar to extend the exhaust mount a bit wider in order to attach the hangar in order to avoid the scat tube.

Wing skins

February 26, 2020 Georgeairplane, avgeek, aviation, Flying, homebuilt, pilot, RV-7, vansaircraft, WingsLeave a comment

Tonight my buddy Norio and I spent a couple hours prepping and riveting the final lower wing skin.

Here I was checking the alignment of the ribs

After testing the fit, we bag prepping to river the inboard rivets. We started with the lower corner of the rear spar and worked our way across towards the wingtip.

After riveting the first rivet we checked the shop head with the rivet gauge to calibrate the rivet fun as well as my hand on the bucking bar. We made some adjustments and then we dialed it in.

Once the rear spar was riveted, we worked our way up the inboard section towards the main spar.

Some rivets needed to be driven a touch more, but all of these were perfectly set.

We called it a night after finishing these rivets and now that we’re calibrated the rest of the wing should go much faster.

Lots of work – Canopy and Empenage

December 31, 2019 Georgeairplane, avgeek, aviation, homebuilt, pilot, RV-7, vansaircraft1 Comment

It’s been a while since I’ve made an update…work and life have taken a priority over the last few months, but I’ve made some progress here and there.

Yesterday and today I spent some time working on the elevator and the autopilot servo pushrod installation. These three pushrods are kind of hard to reach and require washers in between the rod end bearings and the bell cranks, my washer wrench helped a lot.

I also installed my ELT antenna in the aft the airplane. It will sit under the vertical stabilizer faring. I like this much better than mounting it on top of the fuselage.

This is looking down onto the horizontal stabilizer. It will be secured under the faring with a clamp so as to not let the antenna rub on the fiberglass.

I also spent some time a few weeks ago working on the canopy frame and springs. I spent a few hours fabricating the attach points.

Here you can see both the canopy frame side and the fuselage side of the attachments. I originally fabricated a backing plate out of some 1/16th aluminum and two nut plates, however after some research online, I came across a CNCd version of this that is a single piece and has a back plate this is awesome. I installed those and I highly recommend them! Buller Enterprises makes a few experimental parts. I purchased the ball stud mounts and the canopy guides. Easy to install and much stronger than the ones I made.

I also finished riveting and test fitting the canopy frame stiffeners.

I still need to fabricate some spacers and then prime/prep all the surfaces. But the canopy frame is getting closer to completion!

The shop is a little messy, but the plane is looking good!

I’m hoping to get more time to work on the plane in the new year. Until then, I hope that everyone has a great holiday season!

Plane Has a New Home

February 11, 2019 Georgeairplane, avgeek, aviation, Flying, Fuselage, homebuilt, pilot, RV-7, vansaircraft, Workshop1 Comment

After three and a half years in the garage. I finally moved the plane to its new home in my hangar!

There was probably a lot more work I could have done before moving it, but there were some circumstances that dictated I needed to move to the airport.

It started by first getting a giant truck with a lift gate. Once I got that to the house I had my friend Mike over to help me out. We removed the canopy and rear window (which I just had sitting on the plane temporarily…need to finish this) and then rolled the plane out into the driveway.

I know it doesn’t look like much, but seeing the plane in the driveway is one of the coolest things.

After doing some measurements and planning over the last couple months, I realized that the wheels were too wide for the lift gate. Luckily Mike had a 4×8 sheet of plywood that we laid on top of the lift gate.

We rolled the plane forward and lined it up. If it wasn’t for the plywood, this would have been a very precarious balancing issue (Thanks Mike!).

We chocked the wheels once we made sure the engine wouldn’t hit the floor of the truck when lifting, and then raised the plane up and pushed it into the truck. My girlfriend Britney did an awesome job holding the whole airplane in the air!

Once the plane was in. we loaded up the rest of the few remaining items and secured everything down. It felt a little nerve wracking having all this in the back of a truck, but it all went off without a hitch.

I managed to drive the truck (slowly) down to the airport in San Martin and we basically did the reverse, and there were no issues. Luckily the rain held off the whole time we were moving.

We rolled the plane in and it felt like a huge accomplishment. I immediately wanted to start mounting the tail and wings and everything on the plane, but the wings will have to wait for another time.

I loosely fit the horizontal and vertical stabilizers using some clamps. This is probably the coolest thing ever (so far)!

All in all, it was a very successful and satisfying day. I couldn’t have done it without the help of Mike and Britney and of course my mom, who brought us all some lunch and helped with the moving of everything! (Garage can now be used for her car again)!

Engine work

October 1, 2017 Georgeairplane, avgeek, aviation, engine, Firewall Forward, Flying, Fuselage, homebuilt, io-360, pilot, RV-7, vansaircraftLeave a comment

Today I spent a few hours cleaning the shop and installing some fittings on the engine. My goal is to hang the engine next weekend.

I started by rotating the prop governor and installed the cable bracket.

I cut the safety wire on the six screws holding the governor so that I could rotate the lever arm. I then installed the cable bracket in white and reinstalled the screws and re-safety wired them.

I needed to install the oil cooler fittings, but that requires removing the right p-mag. Once off I could easily screw the fitting in.

This is the fitting installed and with tape over it to keep moisture out. You can see how tight it is to get a wrench on there.

The other oil fitting is much easier.

The fitting (with tape over it) is right above the left p-mag and just under the oil breather tube (with the red cap).

I also installed the fuel pump outlet and fitting for the fuel pressure.

Fuel will come out the bottom port and go to the fuel servo near the front of the engine.

I also installed the oil pressure fitting

And the manifold pressure fitting from the number 3 cylinder.

You can see it here wrapped in tape just above the oil return line.

I finally installed the fuel overflow fitting to the fuel pump.

There are a few more things to install, but that can be done after the engine is hung. There are a few more holes I need to drill in the firewall for cables and wires, but that’s no more than an hour of work, and I’m hoping to get it done some time this week.

RV-7 N890GF

Build Log for George's RV-7 Project

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