Milton Bland's RV-7A Builders Log

January 24-27, 2007

I painted the fuel valve pointer ( handle) red and installed the valve. Then I took on the dreaded task of installing the 3/8 inch fuel lines. I ended up scraping the first attempt on the line from valve to right tank. Drove to Airparts and bought new tubing. Second attempt was better. I did find that 1/2″ black vinyl tubing slips over the 3/8″ alum. quite easily and will help keep the scrapes and nicks to a minimum.

18 hours

January 23, 2007

Installed the brake lines today. Not too bad as the brake lines are also 1/4 inch. I do not look forward to the 3/8 inch fuel inel!

8 hours

January 22, 2007
Installed the fuel vent lines. First attempt at bending the aluminum tubing. I thought about installing them the way Team Rocket builders do, in the wing to fuselage gap, but decided to go with Van’s plans. Was not as bad as I had expected.

8 hours

January 10-19

I took a few days off from the RV7A project to help Dick with his Luscombe horizontal stabilizer rebuild. It was a real challenge, to say the least.

January 9, 2007

I had previously constructed the rudder pedal frame and brake pedals. Today I mounted the pedals on the frame along with the master brake cylinders. Had to do a bit of filing to get everything to fit properly. I then set the entire rudder pedal assembly in the fuselage and re-fastened it via the bearing blocks.

10 hours

January 8, 2007

Today I took a couple hours to install the boost fuel pump. One of the easier task on the project!

January1 and 2, 2007

I mounted the Ray Allen servo and hooked it up to the belcrank and to the aileron pushrod using the springs furnished with the trim kit. I thought I had been very careful in folllowing the instructions and mounted the servo accordingly. Unfortunately, after a day’s work, the trim was skewed badly to the right.

So on Tuesday I tried to center the trim by changing the length of the safety wire that attaches the springs to the linkage. I was able to get the controls centered that way, but the left spring was under a lot more tension than the right one. So I removed the entire assembly and started over.

This time I centered the belcrank, set the servo at its midpoint, and then taped the servo temporiarly to the rib. I then marked four new hole locations on the rib for the servo. The new holes were about 1/8 inch back of the original holes so they almost became sloted openings rather than round holes. Very ugly. So I cut a piece of light aluminum to use as a backing plate and covered the screw-up. Now only I am aware of the mistake ( and possible a few readers of this log). With the plate installed it looks good, and the best part is the aileron control now has very light and even spring tension, and it seems to be perfectly centered with the servo at its midpoint! Hope it is that way after the wings are installed.

28 hours

December 26, 27, and 28, 2006

I have been putting off cuting holes in the fuselage for the WD 721 gear attachments. But I had to do it sometime and figured Christmas week would be as good as anytime. Actually it was not too bad. I took a lot of time to mark and cut the openings and made sure I was not removing any more material than necessary. I used a hole saw and high speed cutter to cut the rough opening and then finished it with a rotary file and sandpaper. After the holes were shaped properly I used a 7/16 bolt and also a transfer punch to locate the weldment relative to the spar. I have read that some other builders had problems with these weldments, but mine fit really well. Hopefully the wings will install with the same ease.

22 hours

December 29, 2006

I installed the F747 baggage area floor with LP4-3 blind rivets. All the work this week was made much easier by having the fuselage mounted on the rotating stand. It saves an awful lot of bending over!

8 hours

December 18, 19, and 20, 2006

I had no idea the seatbacks were going to be so much work. I spent three long days laying out the frames and riveting it all together. I probably spent as much time studying the drawings and relating them to the actual parts as I did cutting, drilling and riveting. I also found out there are four ways to install a piano hinge. Three wrong ways and one correct way, in order for everything to fit!

December 11,12,13, 2006

I installed the F669/WD 611 weldment and the WD 612 control sticks along with the F665 pushrod. Lots of deburring to get the fit and finish right. Hooked up the elevator pushrods and the elevator belcrank assembly.

November 27, 2006

Temporiarly installed the rudder pedals including the 6118 brace. Drilled holes to allow for three settings of the pedals. Used middle mounting location for now and will fit cables accordingly.

The side bearing blocks have the holes drilled slightly off 90 degrees. It is not obvious at first, and I noticed the rudder assemblies did not want to align very well. But then I realized the sides of the fulelage are silghtly tapered at the point where the blocks mount, and therefore the holes can not be 90 degrees to the sides. For my airplane, simply turning over the right block solved the problem and bingo, the pedals aligned perfectly and pivoted freely. Dick commented that he had recently flown an RV6 with a very heavy rudder. We could not help but wonder if that airplane had been built with the rudder blocks installed incorrectly creating a binding action.

10 hours

November 28, 2006

Painted and finished the 835 belcrank and 665, 790, and 789 pushrods.